The chill of autumn had barely dissipated as the Christmas season descended upon downtown Washington, but in nearby Tappahannock, a brazen daylight robbery shook the small town. On November 25, 1961, a lone gunman stormed the Southside Bank, leaving a trail of stunned witnesses in his wake. The thief, a 20-year-old South Carolina native named James Lee Huggins, had a calculated air about him as he entered the bank at 11:10 am. Calmly, he waited while a woman conducted business with a teller, before stepping up to the counter and flashing his gun. The teller, Mrs. Frederick Scott, was frozen in terror, but Huggins moved on to the next cage, where he commanded Mrs. Rue Eubank to fill a paper bag with ‘big money.’ Unbeknownst to the gunman, a pair of sharp-eyed officers were closing in. After a six-hour manhunt, Huggins was apprehended at a local bus station by an FBI agent and a Virginia State policeman. The investigation revealed that Huggins had netted a staggering $813.1 from the robbery. As the police closed in, the Christmas season’s festive glow seemed a distant memory in the face of this cold, calculated crime.
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Key Facts
- State: VA
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Era: Historical
- Source: Library of Congress — Chronicling America ↗
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