Law and order under fire

For The Madera Tribune

Chowchilla bank robber Earl McCrory (left) sits with Sheriff John Barnett at the site where he buried the cash he stole from the 1st National Bank in Chowchilla.

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Occasionally something from outside Madera grabbed the attention of its citizens. On Feb. 19, 1926, it was a masked robber who got away with $3,448 of the Chowchilla National Bank’s funds that made Maderans sit up and take notice.

The thief was described as a young man about 35 years of age and about five feet, 10 inches in height. He made his escape in a Dodge touring car on Robertson Boulevard. 

Sheriff John Barnett was immediately notified and a posse was quickly formed. The thief was thought to have made his entrance through the back door of the bank about 8 o’clock Friday morning before it opened. Hiding in a closet till the cashier arrived, the robber then covered him with a gun and forced him to open the bank’s vault.