Case Summary
On May 25, 1920, John H. Rogers and H.S. Scott, also known as Sherry Scott, were arrested outside the Castle Hotel Omaha, Nebraska on suspicion of their being involved in two Des Moines robberies. Immediately after the arrest, Scott and Rogers tried to bribe the officers arresting them to let them go. They were accused of not only having robbed the Des Moines State bank, but having stolen over $800 and a diamond ring from Ralph Erickson, a theater manager in Des Moines. According to the Omaha Daily Bee, $1,272.68 in small change was found wrapped in Des Moines State coin rolls in a candy box hidden in the men's suitcases. Both were farmers from Tulsa, Oklahoma. The 29-year-old Scott claimed that Rogers, who was only 19, had had nothing to do with the robbery, and confessed to having escaped from the Oklahoma state penitentiary four months ago. He claimed that he had stolen the money from a bank in Oklahoma, not Iowa. Their attorney, C.W. Britt, filed a writ of habeas corpus for their release on June 1, 1920 against chief of police Marshall Eberstein. Not only had the men been arrested without a warrant, having committed no crime in the state of Nebraska, he said, they weren't even in Des Moines on the day the robbery was committed. Apparently, there was also an attempt to extradite the men—perhaps the writ of habeas corpus was a way to combat the possibility of being sent back to Iowa. A writ and return was filed on June 10, 1920, but we know no else about the results of the case. Perhaps the men were, in fact, extradited to Iowa and the legal proceedings continued there.
Case Information
Petition type(s)
Petition subtype(s)
Sites of significance
Outcome
Unknown
Fate of bound party
Unknown
Case Citation
Douglas County District Court, Omaha, NE, RG230: Douglas County Records, Subgroup 10: District Court, 1855-1972, Series: Criminal Appearance Docket Books, Vol. 22: ca. 1919 - 1920, p. 464; Douglas County District Court, Omaha, NE, RG230: Douglas County Records, Subgroup 10: District Court, 1855-1972, Series 7: Criminal Case Files, 1897-1920, Reel 91: Doc. 22-359 to 22-505, Apr. 16, 1920 - Jun. 25, 1920, No. 22-464
Source material(s)
Docket |
Case File
Length of case file
Between 11 and 20 pages
Repository(s)
State
Tag(s)
