Other miscellaneous articles included three bottles of liquid which turned out to be nitroglycerin. A leather pouch contained flashlights, dynamite caps, fuses, a ball of soap mixed with oil and cotton bandages. There was a large black rubber curtain with loops and rings to hang and shield the robbers’ work lights.
Chief Moeller found a brand-new oxygen and acetylene torch with two extra tanks, a large sledge hammer, a pinch bar, and a sack of smaller tools that included keyhole saws and wrenches of all sizes.
The robbers had left an enormous amount of gear in their hasty retreat. Ironically, the robbers thought they were breaking into the back of the bank without realizing that the Faust building wrapped around it. Large bolt cutters lay on the ground alongside the heavy steel shutters, window and window frame that had once filled the opening before them. The other men went to the back of the store and stared at a gaping hole in the wall. Faust immediately unlocked the store and checked his office. Chief of Police Moeller, storeowner John Faust and neighbor Paul Jahn arrived on the scene. Meredith had used up all his ammunition, but by now many in the city were awake. A “touch of blood” found in the campground was thought proof that at least one of Meredith’s shots had found its mark. Making their way to a parked car, the foursome slipped into the dark. Two more men, obvious friends of the others, joined in the melee firing from Mill Street to create cover for their buddies. For years, the walls of the depot bore the signs of the gunfight. Marshal Meredith fired again in the direction of the would-be robbers which only encouraged them to answer with a barrage of 20 to 40 shots back in his direction. Meredith, now also in the dark, had a fighting chance. The two men had been in darkness since they had broken the lights in the campground.
Felix Conrads, the station night manager, heard the gunshots and reached over to shut off the depot light. Meredith let a few shots fly in their direction and made fast time toward the depot. He could just make out the figures of two men - one held a shotgun and the other looked like a rifle. Meredith was startled but he quickly reacted by jumping back around the corner. “Stick ‘em up! Stick ‘em up!” a low voice hissed, making its point known by the touch of the muzzle end of a shotgun in Meredith’s belly. Marshal Meredith made his way around the corner. The time clock was at the back in the campground that ran behind all the way to Mill Street. An “L” shaped building, it wrapped around the back of its neighbor the smaller First National Bank.
store was on West San Antonio Street next to the IGN depot, where the Brauntex theatre now sits. It would get really warm soon, hot in fact. The 65-year-old night watchman was ready to be out of the weather and warm up. Nance Meredith had walked his section and was heading back to the Faust & Co. It was uncomfortably cold and wet that midnight hour of January 20, 1922. The story that goes with it, however, is a humdinger and you’re gonna love it. It’s just a little snapshot of three old guys in a back yard. The Newton Boys were from Uvalde and robbed banks and express cars in the 1920s. Photo caption: The last three Newton Boys taken in 1972.
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