“Bank Burglars’ Outfit,” from, George Washington Walling. Recollections of a New York Chief of Police. New York: Caxton Book Concern, 1887.
As with other trades, successful bank robbery required precision tools, great skill, and deft coordination among an organized group of people. And the payoffs could be great – the robbers detailed in George Washington Walling’s Recollections netted hundreds of thousands of dollars for each job. The typical bank burglar’s “outfit” included a lamp for night illumination; jimmies, drills, wedges, and gunpowder for cracking safes; and brass knuckles and gags to subdue any unfortunate who might interrupt the proceedings. Despite many improvements to safe technology – including, by the late-19th century, sophisticated alarm systems, combination and time locks, and thick, stair-stepped walls and doors – ingenious bank robbers always found ways to circumvent them.
