Clair Ralph Gibson confessed to perpetrating the 1933 robbery of the Kaylor bank.
A RECORD OF VIOLENCE One gang was led by a St. Cloud hoodlum named Cyril Wooldridge. The Wooldridge crew drove to Milbank (Strains’ hometown), stole a car, robbed the bank in Russell, Minn., then returned the stolen car to Milbank. By design or not, the Milbank connection helped point a finger at the Strain family. Wooldridge robbed a total of eight banks in 1933. The second gang was led by professional gambler Ralph “Cap” Simpson of Omaha. This group hit at least six banks in 1933, Chisholm says in his article.
Referencing a Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension file, Chisholm states: “Finally, the third gang was led by a Rochester, Minn., house painter named Clair Ralph Gibson. He was caught in 1937 after a five-year robbery career that involved 21 banks. Among these were the remaining banks to which the Strains had been linked: Vermillion, Huron, Canova, Ihlen, and Kaylor.”
the same way. “Modern criminologists know that eyewitnesses are wrong a shocking amount of the time; a substantial body of literature bears this out.” Chisholm’s case in point: “For example, at Floyd Strain’s 1933 trial for the Kaylor robbery and murder, one eyewitness maintained that Tony Strain was also one of the gunmen, even after it was pointed out to him that this crime occurred while Tony was sitting in a Sioux City jail cell.”
So who killed Freddie Voll in Kaylor in 1933? Pure speculation: Even if there wasn’t a “Strain gang,” was the murderer still Floyd Strain? Could this two-bit bootleg runner have had a bank robbery sideline with Gibson’s group and that’s why he was identified by Kaylor residents as a gunman in the robbery? In a different case, Gibson was found guilty of murder and ended up serving life in prison, so his gang did have a record of violence.
In the 1930s, some line-ups didn’t include a suspect standing next to others of similar complexion and build. “Quite often, they paraded the accused, alone, before a group of witnesses concealed behind a screen.” The eyewitnesses and law enforcement officials of the 1930s are gone now; and the records and news accounts are all as dusty as the roads back in the dirty ‘30s. The whole truth on the 1933 Kaylor bank robbery and many others may be dust in the wind, too.
DUST IN THE WIND In his Minnesota History Journal article, Chisholm concludes that reliance solely upon eyewitness testimony is why the Strains were found guilty in the Okabena robbery even though it was really committed by Bonnie and Clyde. Many other cases reached erroneous verdicts
SOURCES • Local oral and written history compiled by Gary Jerke, www.experiencethefarm.com. • “Okabena: A Bank Robbery Revisited,” By Brad Chisholm, St. Cloud State University as published in Minnesota History Journal, Winter 2010-2011. • State of South Dakota vs. Strain File 7772. • FBI Bulletin Law Enforcement Bulletin Vol. 6 No. 10, Oct. 1, 1937.
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