This is the fourth article in a seven-part series of stories surrounding the mystery of who robbed the Oak Saloon in 1910, running from June 18 through July 30.
“Take a good look at me,” said one of the bandits as he forced an uplift of hands. “I am ‘Kid Parker’ and I’ll be back in six months,” the Park Record re-counted. The two unmasked men escaped without a trace and were thought never to be captured.
The Oak built a “lookout” cage and suspended it from their ceiling in preparation for Kid Parker’s promised return. The cage was bulletproof and fitted with loopholes through which a man with a double-barreled shot gun would wreak havoc with any misguided bad men who attempted to rob the Oak Saloon in the future.
In an overlooked article on June 4, 1910, the Park Record stated: “It looks as if the officers of Ogden have captured the gentlemanly hold up of the Oak Saloon.” No follow-up information was reported as to the identity of the man detained and the question remained: Did Robert LeRoy Parker rob the Oak saloon on April 22, 1910?
A bank robbery in Layton would serve as a clue to the answer to the question.
Shortly after 1 a.m. on May 20, 1910, two men claiming to be repairmen for the Rocky Mountain Bell Telephone Company approached the First National Bank of Layton’s night watchman and in an instant pulled their guns and commanded him to hold up his hands. Intuitively the watchman placed one hand on his pistol and held the other one up. The gunmen grabbed his hand and pulled it away from his side arm and took possession of the weapon.
Credit: Courtesy of the Utah State Historical Society
The pair made the watchman show them to the home of the bank’s cashier who they forced out without his shoes. The banker and watchman were then rushed to the vault with continual harassment by the thieves punching them in the back with their pistols. The cashier told the robbers that the lock on the safe was a time-lock and could not be opened until 10 o’clock in the morning.
When the two became convinced that nothing short of an explosive could open the safe, they locked the bank’s employees in the vault and left. All the thieves got was $3.00 in cash and the night watchman’s watch and pistol. They stole two horses and were last seen headed south.
Two Salt Lake County Deputy Sheriffs were enjoying a beefsteak supper at the Falstaff café in Ogden on June 1 when they learned that a man they suspected of the Clift House robbery and of the Layton National Bank holdup had just arrived at the Broom Hotel. Dropping their knives and forks, the officers rushed to the hotel and caught the man as he was going upstairs. The three men fought and rolled all over the hotel lobby in a desperate struggle before the suspect was arrested. Stay tuned for part five to learn his identity.