Mt. Zion Bank Robbery

The notorious gangster Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd and his accomplice, Bill (The Killer) Miller robbed the Mt. Zion Bank and Trust on April 13, 1931. The day before the robbery, Bill Miller called on Charles M. Flege who owned a farm on U.S. Route 25 between Crittenden and Sherman. Miller talked to him about buying the farm. On the morning of the robbery, Floyd and Miller dropped off their two girlfriends in Sherman and went to the Mt. Zion Bank a few miles away. They took $2,262 from the teller, Carl Smith, and left him bound and gagged. Then they picked up the women and drove to the Flege farm where they had lunch and spent the rest of the day looking over the farm and enjoying Mr. Flege's hospitality. He, of course, had no idea he was entertaining bank robbers.

After Mr. Smith freed himself and sounded the alarm, road blocks were set up in the county and throughout northern Kentucky. By night fall it was concluded the bank robbers had escaped and the hunt was called off. The gangsters then made their getaway to Bowling Green, Ohio where they went on a spending spree. One day as Miller and the women entered a store, they were accosted by the police. Miller was killed and the women were wounded. Pretty Boy Floyd, who was stationed across the street, shot and killed two officers and escaped. Grant County Sheriff, Walter L. Conrad, went to Ohio, identified Miller and brought the women back to the county for trial. In 1934 Floyd was shot and killed as he ran through an Ohio cornfield. In 1976 the Mt. Zion Bank was closed. A few years ago the building was torn down.

Grant County Historical Society Newsletter
Fall 2002 - Issue #74
Used with permission of Barbara Brown, Newsletter editor

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