Two Boys, Two Gangsters, and a Tale of Intrigue - Part 2

It was about 8 o'clock, Saturday morning and with shovels in hand, Brian and Todd began digging. They were determined to dig up, whatever this was, by the end of the day. In their minds, they were hoping that it really was the Maddox brothers' Model A, but were trying not to get their hopes up, though that was a very difficult thing not to do.. after all, they were 11 year old boys with stories of gangsters and intrigue flying through their heads. As they continued to dig, they soon saw a grill, then a door, then a hood, and finally, there it was... they had discovered the elusive and legendary, Maddox getaway car! When the brothers had originally buried the car, they did so with it on it's side. I suppose that meant a shallower hole and less of a likelihood that the car would be found. The boys couldn't have been more thrilled! This was the most exciting moment of their lives; better than Christmas morning or even their Birthdays! It didn't even seem real, though it was... very real.

Brian and Todd were ecstatic over their find! For a moment, they discussed what they should do next, and came to the conclusion that they would continue to keep this under raps, at least for the time being. So, now that they had the getaway car, what of the supposed briefcase full of stolen money? 

Brian and Todd threw their shovels aside, jumped down into the hole and began to feverishly search the car. They knew it had to be there. After all, according to the story, the briefcase was never found.  As they rummaged through the entire car, they found nothing. Needless to say, they were very disappointed. However, there was one area of the car that they didn't search because it was was still surrounded by a bit too much dirt. So, on the outside chance that the engine might hold the briefcase, they grabbed their shovels, once again, and began digging all around the edges of the hood. They finally got enough mud out to be able to open the hood, and as they did, they couldn't believe their 11 year old eyes! Their it was, the briefcase that once belonged to the infamous Maddox brothers. Of course, they immediately tried to open it, but because it was so old and had been buried for so long, the lock was sealed shut. They were going to have to sneak it home and try to open it there, because they certainly couldn't chance leaving it in the woods. They also didn't feel that they should leave the car exposed. So, they gathered branches and debris and disguised it as best they could. They took the back way home, so as not to be seen buy anyone and made it back to Todd's house. They borrowed his dad's screwdriver and after trying for a good while, they finally pried the lock open. At that point, the boys looked at each other with much anticipation. They couldn't believe this moment had actually arrived! They were about to see, with their own eyes, the stolen money from the famous Cornville Bank and Trust heist! Wow, this was the most exciting day of their lives! 

As Brian and Todd slowly began to open the briefcase, the look of excitement, on their faces, quickly turned to disbelief. There was no money inside, only a small piece of paper with something written on it. It read, "Southwest terminal 357 A." When they read this, they were not only disappointed but confused. What did this note mean and where was the money? They sat for hours behind the garage, trying to come up with some explanation, but couldn't. They finally decided to move on to some other adventure. Sure they had found the Maddox brothers getaway car and briefcase, but what good was it, if there was no heist money. They decided to keep this their secret, never to tell anyone. They made a blood pact, without the blood of course. 

Fast forward, many years later, in 1969, Todd was working in a nearby town as a welder for a ship building company and Brian was an apprentice at an architectural firm in a neighboring state. The two had lost touch to some degree, just because of life, but did speak occasionally, always mentioning how they have to get together soon, but never do. They hadn't spoken of the Maddox adventure in many years.

One, hot, sunny, summer morning, Brian arrived at the demolition of an old railway station. This particular station had been abandoned for many decades and was to be removed to make way for a new, modern, shopping center. As Brian was walking through the old, crumbling, building, he was taken back to his and Todd's many adventures, as kids. He walked every room and hallway of this station, feeling like a kid again, exploring old ruins. The last room was a locker room. He thought, possibly, it had been used by the employees of the train line. As he was perusing the lockers, he saw one locker with the number "357 A" on the door; the "A" barely hanging on, by a small nail. He immediately remembered that same number being written on the note inside the briefcase. He thought for a moment and realized that this particular station had been known as the southwest terminal, for this particular line. He thought, could it be? It can't possibly... but, what if? The locker still had a padlock on it, but when Brian touched it, because of it's age and state of dilapidation, it fell right off. With his heart pounding and a knot in his stomach, Brian slowly opened the locker door and suddenly, a look of complete shock came over his face.. He couldn't believe his eyes... and immediately ran back to the company trailer to call Todd...

Two Boys, Two Gangsters, and A Tale of Intrigue - Part 1

Brian and Todd were best friends. Their sixth grade school year had just come to a close, and the summer of 1955 was beginning. They couldn't be more excited to have 3 months off of school. The adventurous possibilities were endless.

Their first day of summer vacation happened to be a Saturday. Todd showed up at Brian's house around 8:30 am. They hung around on the front porch for a while, trying to figure out what to do, but they had no idea what this particular Saturday actually held for them.

They decided to hop on their bicycles, start riding, and see where they would wind up. They soon found themselves near the old paper mill, which had been closed down for the past 15 years. They lived in a small town where there were not many big businesses, and the few that once thrived, had fallen by the wayside over the years. They parked their bikes and began exploring. Even though they had been inside many times before, somehow the intrigue of an abandoned building never got old. After roaming around the ruins of the paper mill for about an hour, they decided to continue their Saturday morning adventure. Back on their bikes, they headed towards Johnson's Woods.

Johnson's woods was a massive piece of heavily wooded property which had once been owned by Albert Johnson. Albert had passed away many years before the boys were born and the property was inherited by Albert's children, who lived out of state and payed little to no attention to the property. They had bigger fish to fry, with their city living lifestyles. So the woods were basically a playground for the kids around town.

When they reached the woods, they dropped their bikes and started on their way. As Brian and Todd roamed the thick brush, imagining themselves as cowboy and Indians, cops and robbers, and Robin Hood and his Merry Men, they stumbled across something peculiar. The sun happened to hit what looked like a very small, shiny, piece of metal, submerged firmly in the ground. The boys tried to pull it out but it was packed too tightly for them. They grabbed a couple of small tree branches and began to try to dig around it and quickly discovered that the more they dug, the bigger and deeper this thing got. They decided to ride home and sneak a couple of their dad's shovels out, rode back and continued their digging. As they dug deeper and deeper, what had caught their eye a little while earlier, seemed to be the headlight of a car, an old car. They thought that was pretty neat, but decided they should head home. It was getting near dinner time and didn't want their parents asking any questions. This was a pretty cool discovery the two sleuths wanted to keep under raps.

The following day, their two families were getting together for a backyard BBQ at Brian's house. Brian and Todd's dad's were standing around the grill, cooking up burgers and hot dogs, discussing the current baseball season and their dreams of being business owners, out from under the thumbs of their bosses. Maybe someday. Their wives were getting the table, baked beans, and potato salad ready, and discussing the latest town gossip and the new beauty parlor, in town, while Brian, Todd, and their siblings played badminton in the yard. Everyone was having a wonderful time and for a moment or two, Brian and Todd weren't giving their discovery much thought. However, when they all sat down to lunch, their dad's happened to bring up an old story they had heard many times from older town residents. As the two men tried to remember the details, the tale emerged for the first time, for Brian and Todd.

As the story goes, there were two gangsters back in the late 1920's. They were brothers who had taken the wrong path in life, obviously, because of their chosen profession. Their names were Jack and Jimmy Maddox. They had a fairly normal childhood, according to lore, but dropped out of school at any early age and in order to help support their parents measly incomes, they began to pull small robbery jobs. Soon, they realized that they were quite good at this new found money making scheme and began promoting themselves to bigger and bigger jobs. To make a long story short, in 1928 they pulled their biggest heist yet, the Cornville First Bank and Trust. This was a long time savings and loan and very respected institution. I suppose their confidence level must have been very high in going for such a prestigious establishment for their first bank job... and as it turned out, it would be their last.

The robbery, itself, went off just fine. Just as planned, without a hitch.  However, they didn't expect their getaway to fail as it did. Oh, they got away, alright, but they didn't get far enough. They made it as far as old Johnson's woods and were able to bury their Model A, yes, the entire car, which was quite a feat in and of itself, and supposedly, the briefcase of stolen loot went in the ground with it. Though their seems to be no one living who ever actually saw that briefcase. As of this year, 1955, it's a theory, a myth, hopefully to be proven or disproven by these two, 11 year old gumshoes, if in fact, what they have discovered is the actual car that their dad's were speaking about. And what of the Maddox boys? Well, after successfully burying their getaway car, the two were still on the lamb and had no choice but to continue their getaway on foot. They evaded cops for two days, but when discovered, they made their last stand in a subsequent and historical shoot out, and lost. No one was ever able to get any information on the car or the money.

As you can imagine, the boys were fixated as their dad's were spinning this exciting tale. They would look at each other every few minutes, and with a sort of mental communication, they were letting each other know that they would speak of their discovery to no one. It wasn't until the following Saturday that they were able to get back to the woods and their excavation. That was the longest week of their life!

Saturday morning, bright and early, they were back at it... and what they found was stunning!

To be continued...