Jingle Bells, Gunfire Spells: A Christmas Heist to Remember!
Part 2 of The Santa Claus Bank Robbery: A Five-Part Tale of Naughty, Nice, and a Whole Lot of Trouble...
On December 23, 1927, in Cisco, Texas, a man donning a moth-eaten Santa suit walked into the First National Bank intending to rob it. What he didn't anticipate was everything that happened next. This incident set off a chain of events that would span for two more years, leaving death in its wake. This is a five-part series titled The Santa Claus Bank Robbery: A Five-Part Tale of Naughty, Nice, and a Whole Lot of Trouble.
Part 2: Jingle Bells, Gunfire Spells: A Christmas Heist to Remember
While the Ratliff brothers were both pardoned by Governor “Ma” Ferguson for their 19251 bank robbery attempt in Valera, Texas in early 1927, Lee Jefferson Ratliff wouldn’t remain out of jail too long. By November of that year, Lee had fled to Corpus Christi to avoid arrest in Cisco for alleged burglaries in Eastland and Cisco.
But that didn’t stop Marshall Ratliff from attempting to rob the First National Bank in Cisco, Texas.
Actually, there is a list of things that didn’t stop Marshall from this attempted bank robbery, two days before Christmas in 1927, yet all of them should have:
First - His big brother, Lee Jefferson, was already locked up. So, he was going to pull this job without his life long right hand man.
Second - The man who he trusted as his safecracker, got the flu. Prompting him to add Louis Davis to his team, at the last minute. Davis was a relative of Henry Helms, a long time associate of Marshall's but a first time crook.
Third (this is a big one) - The “Dead Bank Robber Reward Program” established by the Texas Bankers Association went into effect in 1926. This was a program that was adopted due to the VAST number of Bank Robberies taking place around Texas at this time, and it was one that lived up to its name. DEAD Bank Robber Reward Program.
During this time period in Texas, bank robberies were at an ALL TIME high, which was probably the reason Marshall and Lee had robbed the bank in Valera in 1925. From 1912 to the mid-1920s, bank robberies rose from roughly 17 a year to nearly 1000. That’s around 3 bank robberies in a single day – every day.
And the bankers? Well, they were sick of it. So they got together and came up with a plan – offer a $5,000 reward for dead bank robbers. It solved two problems: No more bank robber, and the reward money would be MUCH less than what was taken in a robbery.
While the Ratliff Boys were partly to blame for this new, and rather brutal, program, that doesn’t mean twenty-four-year-old Marshall had any idea it even existed. Even if he had, well, his actions on December 23, 1927 showed he really didn’t care one bit.
So, in the early morning hours of December 23, 1927, knowing his brother was in jail, that the Texas Bankers approved a kill order on any person attempting to rob a bank, and the fact that his trusted safecracker had the flu, so, down-on-his-luck Louis Davis, Marshall Ratliff, Henry Helms, and baby face Robert Hill decided to rob a bank.
The Robbers:
Marshall Ratliff: 24-year-old Texan who was later determined the “mastermind” of the Santa Claus Bank Robbery (or Heist, as it’s sometimes called). Previously arrested with his older brother, Lee, for robbing a bank in Texas in 1925. He was married to Mattie Bell Minica, but they divorced, probably when he was sent away for his first bank robbery.
Henry Helms: 31-year-old also from Texas. He was around 5’10” tall with brown hair and eyes, who weighed around 165. He was married to Nettie M. Davis – the sister of Louis E. Davis. He was sent to jail in 1926, where he met Marshall Ratliff, for robbery. And just like Marshall Rattliff, Helms was pardoned in January of 1927
Robert Hill: He was a 21-year-old ex-con by the time of the robbery in 1927. He was around the same height as Helms, but with blue-gray eyes and a few pounds lighter. Marshall picked him because Hill enjoyed the thrill of robbing. Hill was raised as an orphan in rural Texas, and went by the name “Hill” as an alias for his criminal activity. He was born Robert Foster.
Louis E. Davis: Brother-in-law of Henry Helm. No prior criminal records. Took Helms’ offer to help them out because he was down on his luck. He was 43-years-old, married and the father of three children. He was described as tall, with sandy hair, and grey eyes. 2
The Day Before: Marshall Ratliff, Henry Helms, Robert Hill, and Louis E. Davis planned the heist in Wichita Falls, Texas. Louis brought Ratliff and Helms to his sister’s place located on a “oil lease” asking if he, and a couple friends, could spend the night there. When his sister realized that Henry Helms was one of the two, she refused to let them on her land. Louis stayed the night in a tent on the lease, but Marshall and Henry stayed in town, presumably with Hill.
The next morning, Louis ate breakfast with his sister and her family, the Fox Family, before joining Ratliff, Helms, and Hill. Then they drove to Cisco, Texas.
The Santa Claus Bank Robber
December 27, 1927: Marshall Ratliff, Henry Helms, Robert Hill and Louis E. Davis arrived in Cisco.
Marshall Ratliff was a familiar face in Cisco. He lived there with his brother, Lee, for a short time, and his mother also had worked in Cisco at one point. Between the minor fame he gained from robbing a bank in 1925, and his familial connection, Marshall knew that residents would recognize him on sight, which wasn’t ideal when robbing a bank. Taking this into consideration, he gravitated towards the simplest solution – embracing Christmas.
It being two days before Christmas meant two things: first, no one would think twice if Santa Claus was seen walking the streets of Cisco, Texas, and second, since it was only two days before Christmas, it would be easy to get his hands on a Santa suit.
Ratliff wasn’t alone when it came to wanting a disguise. Louis E. Davis also hoped to remain unrecognizable. This way, after the bank robbery, he could go back to his wife, family, and the life he had in Wichita Falls, Texas, but, you know, with a few more dollars in his pocket to help relieve the early year of the Great Depression some Texans, like Davis, were feeling.
So dress up they did!
Marshall donned a Santa suit he took from a nearby boarding house and the rest of the men dressed Christmas shoppers to blend in with the other pedestrians mulling along Avenue D, finishing up their errands before the holiday weekend.
No one was the wiser.
That’s when Ratliff first encountered the children of Cisco, Texas. In their last minute effort to tell Santa what they wanted on Christmas day, the kids approached Santa, but were quickly brushed aside. Ratliff, Helms, Hills, and Davis crossed the street, walked right up to the bank’s front door with the sounds of, “Santa! Santa!” chanted as they went.
One of these children was Frances Blasengame, the 6-year-old daughter of Mrs. B.P. Blasengame (Maybell). They were unable to catch up to Santa on the street, so little Frances begged her mother to take her inside the bank, which she did.
Marshall Ratliff, Henry Helms, Robert Hill, and Louis E. Davis entered the First National Bank. Ratliff, in threadbare Santa Suit, with cotton attached to the hem, brushed past Miss Ella Andress of Burnet, who was exiting the bank after cashing a check before the holiday. She greeted him, but Marshall ignored her, mind on the job. Helm, Hill, and Davis followed him inside.
Once outside, Ella noticed bits of cotton attached to her coat. She brushed it off and kept walking. At the same time, Francis and her mother, Maybell, entered – hoping Santa would grant little Frances a moment of his time.
Inside the bank were Alexa Spears, a cashier, Marion Olson, a Harvard student who was in town for the holiday and at the bank, “chatting,” with Alex Spears. Mr. Jewel Poe, an assistant cashier, was also working that day, and at the time of the robbery, he was assisting Oscar Cliett, a grocer in Cisco, to deposit money before the long weekend. In the back of the bank were Freda Storebel and Vance Littleton, working on bookkeeping, and the last two people to enter the First National Bank right after Frances and Maybell Blasengame were Emma May Robinson, 10, and Laverne Comer, 12 – there to either deposit money or withdrawal it, reports of both were made.
That is when Henry Helms pointed a gun at Alex Spears and said, “Reach for some sky!” But then again, it really depends on which version of the robbery you read. Helms also was quoted saying, “Get ‘em up!” and “Stick’em up!”, but Ratliff is also credited as the one who pointed a pistol at Spears and announced the bank was being robbed. Regardless, in the end, a gun was pointed at Alex Spear and it was made clear that Santa wasn’t Santa and his friend’s surely were not elves – they were bank robbers.
Upon the realization that Santa wasn’t about to grant little Frances Blasengame any Christmas wishes, but rob a bank instead, Mrs. B. P. (Maybell) Blasengame grabbed her daughter and rushed into the back room of the bank, encountering Freda Storebel and Vance Littleton before pushing her way out a back door, into the alley. In the same alley was a Buick parked, waiting for the robbers' as their get-away-car, but Mrs. Blasengame didn’t notice it, focused on getting to the police station, yelling, “The bank is being robbed!” as she went.
Marshall Ratliff and the other men, hearing Blasengam go, knew their time was running out. Helms and Hill went to the back of the bank, while Ratliff trained a gun on Spear, and Davis covered the front door. Santa demanded Poe go with Helms and Hill to empty out the vault, and handed him a potato sack to fill. According to the plaque located in the alley next to the building that once was the First National Bank of Cisco Texas, the potato sack was filled with $12,200 in cash and $150,000 in security bonds.
As Poe left the vault, Ratliff fired a shot into the air and Helms shot one out the window, allegedly at a passerby who was spying inside to see what was happening. Between the gunshots and the Police being alerted – the people of Cisco knew that the bank was being robbed.
Police Chief G. E. “Bit” Bedford, a founding Cisco resident and the chief of Police was said to have alerted his men, including Officer Carmichael, grabbed his “riot gun,” (a 1897 Winchester 12 or 16 gauge shotgun) and made his way to the bank setting up a perimeter.
The robbers may have gotten in, but there was no way they were getting out – at least, that’s what Bit Bedford intended.
Inside the bank, sack of money in hand, Ratliff and his men gathered up all the hostages with the intent to use them as human shields, allowing his crew to make their escape. But while Ratliff was away the jig was up, he didn’t know Bedford, the Cisco Police and a handful of Cisco Citizens (like Mr. W. T. Caldwell with his .45 Colt and another unnamed man with a shotgun) were waiting outside, guns drawn.
Bullet began to fly and the hostages dispersed – all except for 10-year-old Emma May Robinson and 12-year-old Laverne Comer, who Ratliff and Helms grabbed using them to avoid getting shot.
While the police and the robber volleyed bullets at each other, the bank robbers rushed to the Buick. W.T. Caldwell aimed his gun at the car's tire and took a shot and hit the rubber wheel, at the same time, a bullet lodged itself in the chest of Louis E. Davis. Five bullets tore through Police Chief Bedford and went down just outside the alley, on Avenue D, and Officer Carmichael was shot in the head, dying immediately at Bedford’s side.
Other wounds included Spears, who was shot in the jaw, Olson (from Harvard) who was wounded in his right side, Cliett – who had been depositing money at the time of the robbery, was shot in the heel. Two other men were shot, one in the thigh and the other in his leg – Spears, Olson, Cliett and the other two men all survived.
Ratliff, Helm, and Hill loaded up the money along with wounded Davis, Emma May and Laverne into the Buick and made a run for it, but they wouldn’t get far. Not with a flat tire and an empty gas tank.
Ratliff, still in his Santa suit, and his men — including a wounded Davis, and young Emma May Robinson and Laverne Comer — where now on the run.
Come back next week for the third installment of The Santa Clause Bank Robbery: A Five-Part Tale of Naught, Nice, and a Whole Lot of Trouble — The Coming in 2025.
To learn more about about Genealogy by Aryn - head over to GenealogybyAryn.com, stop by and say hi on BlueSky - TikTok - Instagram - Facebook
Searching for Genealogy or Family History Gifts? Check out my Etsy Shop and stop by my Genealogy Shop.
Note: In part 1, the date was listed as 1926, but the actual bank robbery took place in 1925. The capture and trial of the Ratliff Brothers took place in 1926.
I’ve seen Davis’s age also listed as 33 in newspapers and also according to his WWI draft card and his birth name was Lewis, not Louis.