On this date, authorities continue hunting a police impersonator, and a snapping turtle the size of a 6-year-old is hauled from the Black River.
100 years ago
June 26, 1924
• Two checks stolen at gunpoint were cashed at local stores before the robbery was even reported.
George Roark, a local factory employee, was tied to a tree and robbed of his paychecks on June 23 by a man impersonating a police officer. He eventually freed himself and went to the real police, who immediately put the local bank on alert. Today, they learned it was already too late — the culprit used local stores to cash the checks immediately after the hold-up.
One store owner, J.R. Wood, compared the time frame Roark gave for the robbery with the time he cashed Roark’s check for an unknown man, and found only an hour’s difference.
“Of course, I had not heard of the robbery and presume the owner of the check had not liberated himself yet when the bandit appeared and asked me to cash the check,” he said.
Wood said cashing checks for local factory employees was commonplace and he thought little of it, but the man seemed skittish as he left with the money.
Police suspect the culprit’s identity but have yet to find him.
75 years ago
June 26, 1949 — No issues available.
50 years ago
June 26, 1974
• A massive alligator snapping turtle was caught in Butler County. Weighing in at 53 lbs., the turtle was dredged up on a Black River trot line by Gary Romine, age 18, and Bob Little, both of Poplar Bluff. Romine said he would like to give the turtle to the St. Louis Zoo if he can figure out a way to transport it, or find someone else willing to do it.
• A motorcycle stunt man has vowed to jump the Current River to earn thousands of dollars or free funeral flowers.
Putt Mossman, age 68, bills himself as the “World’s Champion Stunt Motorcyclist,” which he may well be after 50 years in the business. He’s the eldest member of the Mossman family’s three-generation stunt show. On July 6, he plans to jump his bike 50 yards from one shore of the Current River to the other at the Ran-Cha-Ra boat dock. The river depth is around 20 feet there.
Mossman’s Honda, Toyota and Datsun sponsors have guaranteed him the following: “$5,000 if he clears the river, $500 if he goes into the water and flowers if he goes under the water.” McNabb Funeral Home has offered to provide the flowers.