Nogales, Arizona Territory — August 1896

At about noon, five armed men rode into Nogales and attempted to rob the International Bank. It should have been a quick job. Instead, the nerve of cashier Fred Herrera and the confusion inside the bank sent the robbers fleeing for their lives.

The Hold-Up

According to the period newspaper account, three of the five men entered the bank. Two carried a pair of Colt revolvers each, while the third was armed with a Winchester. One robber covered cashier Fred Herrera with his revolvers. Another held bank president Dessart at gunpoint with the Winchester. The third tried to reach the vault.

The robbery began to unravel almost immediately. One of the gunmen went into a rear room where several men were holding a meeting and ordered them to put up their hands. In doing so, he turned his attention away from Herrera.

The Cashier Draws

Herrera seized the opportunity. He drew his own revolver. The newspaper reported that the sudden move caused the robbers to abandon the attempt and retreat, firing as they went.

The men reached their horses and rode off. Herrera followed them into the street and emptied his revolver in their direction. The report stated that one of the fleeing men was believed to have been wounded.

Gunfire in the Street

The shooting was not confined to the bank. President Dessart suffered a slight scalp wound, and a horse in the street was killed during the exchange.

Despite entering the bank heavily armed and in broad daylight, the robbers left without completing the job. What had begun as an organized hold-up collapsed when Herrera chose to fight back.

The Pursuit

A posse quickly took up the chase. The newspaper said the fugitives headed toward Calabasas and that, if overtaken, there was “little likelihood of the necessity of a trial.” The line was typical of frontier newspaper reporting: brief, blunt, and carrying an unmistakable suggestion of what a posse might do if it caught the men.

What the Newspaper Tells Us

The surviving account captures the robbery as readers first encountered it: five men appearing at noon, three entering the bank with Colts and a Winchester, a cashier refusing to remain helpless, shots fired during the escape, and a posse riding after the fugitives.

Later histories would attach names and a larger outlaw story to the attempted robbery. But the contemporary report is valuable precisely because it does not need the legend. On that August day in territorial Nogales, an armed bank robbery failed because the men inside did not behave as the robbers expected.

Source Note

Based on the period newspaper clipping supplied with this article, headlined “NOGALES BANK ROBBERS” and carrying a Nogales, Arizona, Aug. 7 dateline. The clipping identifies cashier Fred Herrera and bank president Dessart. The article itself reports that the attempted robbery occurred “about noon yesterday.” The wording above has been modernized and condensed for readability without adding details to the newspaper’s account.