A couple weeks ago we excerpted the New York and VA bank robbery articles from The E-Sylum. A gentleman named Jerry Kuntz left comments that I thought I'd pass along.

"The 1852 Portsmouth robbery was the work of the Rand brothers, Abram, Richard, and most of all, John W. (Jack) Rand. In a nation that celebrates infamous criminals, the Rands have been sorely neglected. They were born in New Hampshire, but were longtime residents of Massachusetts–but ranged far and wide to commit robberies. Jack Rand voluntarily appeared and testified at the Portsmouth robbery trial of his brothers, knowing full well that doing so would incriminate himself. He even was grudgingly complimented in newspapers for giving himself up.

Jack Rand, it should be said, wasn’t very fearful of jail. He was convicted in October, 1852 and escaped from jail a couple of weeks later. It was a trick he repeated several times."

"I did make one error--brother Richard Rand had been implicated in a Quincy, Mass bank robbery in 1843 that John was convicted for; however, Richard was already dead by the time the Portsmouth bank robbery occurred. It was another brother, Oliver H. Rand, that was tried along with Abram Rand and John Rand.

"One other footnote: Oliver H. Rand, one of the brothers implicated in the Portsmouth bank robbery, was, at the time, the superintendent of construction of the Washington Monument. No surprise: he had to resign."

Yes, I'm annoyed every time I see references to American bank robberies originating with Western outlaws. There were many bank robberies before the 1860s--and many professional bank thieves."