Camdenton Bank Robbery

On Tuesday, May 5, 1931, three men held up the Bank of Camden County at Camdenton, escaping with an estimated $6,000-$7,000. At this time Camdenton was a new town that had recently replaced Linn Creek as the county seat after construction of Lake of the Ozarks had inundated Linn Creek, and the bank robbery, according to one newspaper report, gave the new town its "first taste of excitement." 

Two of the men who pulled off the robbery were white, and one was black. Two of the men entered the bank while the third stayed outside in the getaway car, but it's not clear whether the black man was one of those who entered the bank or the one who stayed outside. 

The two men who entered the bank held the cashier and assistant cashier at gunpoint, forced the assistant to open the vault, scooped up all the cash they could lay their hands on, and locked the two bank officers in the vault, along with a customer who wandered into the bank during the holdup. The bandits then took off, heading north in a small coupe. 

The Camdenton heist was just one of a whole rash of bank robberies that had recently occurred in the Ozarks. A Springfield newspaper reported that it was the sixteenth such robbery within the past six months. 

In mid-May, three men and a young woman were arrested in Bristow, Oklahoma, in connection with the Camdenton bank robbery. Buell Webb was one of the men arrested, and he was later identified as the ringleader of the gang. 

Webb was brought back to Missouri in late May, and he was lodged int he Laclede County Jail at Lebanon, because Camdenton did not yet have a jail. In late June, however, Webb and two companions escaped from the Lebanon jail by overpowering the sheriff and taking him with them as they made their getaway in his vehicle. The sheriff was released about eight miles east of Lebanon.

In mid-September Buell was recaptured near Sapulpa, Oklahoma. At the time, he was suspected of participating in a bank robbery in Oklahoma since his escape, but he was nonetheless returned to Missouri to face charges in the Camdenton job. 

At the October term of Camden County court, Buell's case was continued. In January 1932, he was brought to Camdenton for trial from the state prison where he had been held for safe keeping since his recapture. He pleaded not guilty, but he was convicted and sentenced to a 25-year term in the state prison. 

I have not tried to research what happened to Buell's two sidekicks in the Camdenton holdup.