Four members of the "Rice gang" committed "the first bank robbery in the history of Dade County" when they robbed the Bank of Homestead on Sept. 15, 1916. The bandits fled south into the Everglades, and 31 hours after the bank robbery, shot and killed three deputized members of Dade County Sheriff Dan Hardie's posse that pursued them. The three became the second, third and fourth posse members to be killed in Dade history following Rhett McGregor in 1895. Two weeks later, two of the four members of the Rice gang were killed on the west coast of Florida near Chokoloskee Island and two were returned to Miami for trial on charges of robbery and murder.
The Homestead bank robbery and murder of three members of the posse generated more newspaper coverage than perhaps any of the murders of law enforcement officers before or since this 1916 multiple-murder. The extensive coverage was due to the sensational aspects of the bank robbery and murder of three posse members and to the fact that scores of men from throughout the southern half of Florida were involved as members of various posses who gave chase to the fleeing bandits over a period of two weeks. Law Enforcement officials from DeSoto, Monroe, Volusia, Lee and Dade counties were involved at times in the manhunt. The robbery and manhunt were front page news for two weeks in newspapers from Palm Beach to Miami to Key West.
On Friday, Sept. 16, 1916, around 10:00AM four men hired a Miami man, R.D. Niles, 69, to drive them to Homestead in his new Overland automobile. Niles had come to Miami a year earlier from Ohio and lived with his aged and infirm wife. The men agreed to pay Niles $8 for the trip and claimed that they needed to go to Homestead to do some surveying work. The four had on Khaki clothes and were dressed as surveyors. But when the men reached Homestead they told the driver to go beyond town for a few miles. The four then pulled guns on the driver telling him they needed his auto for two hours. They tied Niles to a tree with a clothes line and drove back to Homestead.
The four men drove up to the Bank of Homestead around 2:00PM and two of them got out of the car and walked into the bank. The two men in the car were evidently not too nervous as one took time to speak ("Hello, Mamie!) to a young woman who passed by. However, he held his hand over his face as he spoke to conceal his identity.
One of the bandits who went inside the bank went to a desk to write a check while the other waited near the teller's window. The teller hesitated to pay the check presented to him since it was made out on the Bank of Palm Beach and was signed by someone else. Cashier and supervisor H.R. Pridgen walked over to see what made the teller hesitate to pay and as he appeared by the teller one of the two bandits said, "Throw up your hands" and added that "we have been in the Everglades long enough."
The bandits took all the cash in the bank or about $6,500. The two robbers than "made a dash for the waiting automobile, the driver of which already had the engine started." As soon as the two robbers left the bank, cashier Pridgen grabbed his revolver, ran into the street, and fired six shots at the fleeing Overland automobile. Two shots found their mark as one bullet became embedded in the rear seat of the auto while another "went through the back curtain." One shot was fired by the robbers at Pridgen. Neither Pridgen nor the robbers was hit by gunfire. The auto sped "westward, toward the Royal Palm hammock."
The bank deposits were insured for $7,500 by the Fidelity and Casualty Company of New York which sent an agent to Miami to aid in the search for the robbers. Depositors and stockholders thus lost nothing due to the insurance. The Bank of Homestead had been organized in 1912 with a capital stock of $15,000.
Several automobiles "filled with armed men soon gave chase and the waterway was immediately patrolled." One of the searchers was Thomas Brewer, president of the Bank of Homestead. Around 4:00PM the get-away-car was found abandoned near Royal Palm hammock. The four had returned to where they had tied Niles to the tree and untied him throwing two twenty dollar bills at him as they drove off in his auto. They abandoned it a few miles down the road from where Niles was released. It appeared that the four bandits had fled on foot into the woods and Everglades. The robbers evidently anticipated that bloodhounds would be brought in to track them and thus "scattered pepper along their path...to prevent pursuit by dogs." The Rice gang had a great deal of experience and success in eluding posses by hiding in the Everglades.
Niles claimed that he walked up the road "a piece" and met several members of the posse who were pursuing the four robbers. The authorities asked Niles if he had seen some men "dressed in soldier uniforms like surveyors wear" and he told them he had and that the men they sought had stolen his car and tied him to a tree. He also reported that the four were heavily armed with one repeating rifle, two shotguns, several revolvers and a large amount of ammunition.
Newspaper reports indicated that Niles told conflicting stories to police so that he was suspected as being a possible accomplice in the robbery. Also, several people in Homestead claimed that an elderly man was driving the car sitting in front of the bank. Niles was forced to drive the recovered Overland automobile back to Miami with two policemen and was detained in jail as a material witness. He was released on bond on Sept. 23 by Judge H. Pierre Branning. The disposition of his case is unknown.
The manhunt began in earnest shortly after the robbers fled town. Deputy Sheriffs Harry Morris and C.R. Ferguson and "about one hundred men from the Homestead section" searched the Everglades and points south of Homestead. The identity of the four men was suspected from the day of the robbery as the members of the "Rice gang" were the most likely suspects for any serious crime in Dade County at that time.
The Sheriff's office had a warrant for and were looking for Leland and Frank Rice as the two brothers had stolen a boat (the Leola B) at Lake Okeechobee and were known to be in the vicinity of Dade County. The description of the Rice brothers and of two members of their gang, Hugh Alderman and Jim Tucker, fit that of four men who were seen getting into the Overland automobile in downtown Miami around 10:30AM the day of the robbery and also fit the description of the four men involved in the robbery of the Bank of Homestead.
All four of the gang members had arrest records in Dade County as "where the Rice gang went, there was robbing, killing, and terror." The Rice gang was also known to be wanted in areas to the north of Dade County.
Sheriff's deputies had found the stolen boat at the south fork of the Miami river but discovered after the bank robbery that the boat had disappeared. Deputies surmised that the boat had been taken south to Jewfish Creek or Marathon to aid in the escape of the bank robbers. Authorities even speculated that the robbers chose Homestead as the site of their robbery so that they could quickly flee into the Everglades and eventually work their way to The Thousand Islands, a notorious refuge for criminals and fugitives off the southern tip of Florida.
Early newspaper reports indicated that law enforcement officials recognized the potential danger and difficulty in tracking the Rice gang through the swamps and thick underbrush below Homestead. The gang was known to be thoroughly familiar with the Everglades and the waters and terrain in the southern tip of Florida and they were known to be heavily armed and "desperate" given the robbery charges on top of other outstanding warrants.
More than one posse was sent after the bandits. It appears that the 100 volunteers from Homestead under the direction of deputy sheriffs Morris and Ferguson began their search shortly after the bank robbery while a posse under the direction of Sheriff Dan Hardie arrived in Homestead at 2:00PM on Saturday, Sept. 16. The lines of authority for the search groups are never made clear by the newspapers but it would appear that Sheriff Hardie was under overall control of the operation though there are hints that the Homestead posse (or at least many of its members) was not well disciplined and that the overall plan for the manhunt was flawed. In fact, the Palm Beach Post openly ridiculed the search effort as poorly planned and executed.
The coverage in the Miami Herald was very pro-Hardie as the Herald assigned three reporters to the story and one, R.O. Duff, traveled with the Hardie posse for a week and wired his stories back to the Herald. The Miami Daily Metropolis (later the Miami News) was not as pro-Hardie as the Herald in that its coverage did not include as much praise for Hardie and his volunteers and printed more criticisms of the search effort from locals and from other newspapers. For example, the Metropolis (but not the Herald) reported that many of the members of the posse were more in fear of being shot by other members of the posse than by the bandits.
Sheriff Hardie expected the bandits to head for the Cape Sable area and the Ten Thousand Islands as that area was well known as a hiding place for outlaws. It was rumored that "a number of desperadoes" were hiding among the Ten Thousand Islands "who have been wanted for many years but who have never been apprehended."
An effort was made to cut the four bandits off near Jewfish Creek (where U.S. 1 now links the mainland with Key Largo). Sheriff Hardie and his men attempted to flank the bandits (who were still in the Everglades supposedly heading for Jewfish Creek) by lying in wait for them at "Everglades water station" which was 3 miles south of Florida City and 6 miles north of Jewfish Creek. The location is now marked by a marina on the east side of U.S. 1 at mile marker 115. The location today is easily visible from U.S. 1 as a large sign advertising the "Holiday Isle" resort rises above the marina. Beams from the old water station can still be found near the marina.
The water station was along the tracks of the Florida East Coast Railroad and occupied a narrow strip of land surrounded on both sides by swamp. Hardie's men made camp in a "section house" near the water tower hoping to surprise the four bandits as they made their way south on the narrow landstrip to Jewfish Creek.
Hardie sent some of his men to search for the stolen boat which was likely hidden in the vicinity and would serve as means of escape to the Ten Thousand Islands. The sheriff had learned that four men in khaki uniforms had been observed in the vicinity of the water tower on Thursday and had taken the northbound train to Miami. Thus is appeared that the escape route had been well scouted and that the four had likely hidden a boat and provisions for their flight south. The extent of the planning involved in robbing the bank and escaping was indicated in that the boat was stolen in Okeechobee and outfitted in Miami before being taken to its hiding place south of Homestead.
The "sub-posse" sent to find the boat was under the direction of deputy Sheriff C.R. Ferguson and quickly found the stolen boat, the "Leola B" (24 feet long and equipped with a "Fairbanks engine"), about a mile and a half south of the railroad water tower. Letters in the clothing on the boat confirmed the view that the four men being sought were the Rice brothers, Hugh Alderman and Jim Tucker.
The men disabled the motor of the boat but did not sink it or remove the clothing and 30-day provisions of food on board. They decided to "stake out" the boat and wait for the bandits to come to them. However, the mosquitoes were so bad that the stake-out team abandoned its post and returned to the main body of the posse. This decision turned out to be a poor one as the bandits eventually did return to the boat, obtained their provisions and used the boat to "pole" to safety (since the motor would not work).
Hardie's men were waiting at the Everglades water tower for the bandits at just before midnight on Saturday, Sept. 16 (31 hours after the bank robbery). The plan to lie silently in wait for the bandits was working until the sub-posse came up from the south after having abandoned its post at the stolen boat. Then followed much conversation and the men walked up and down the tracks, and paid no heed to remonstrances from their more experienced fellows. Some struck matches and smoked cigarettes, and others went out to investigate the trains passing. (Miami Herald, 93016) The bandits did approach as anticipated and were spotted by members of the posse "who had been posted in one of the houses north of the section house." Unfortunately, the posse lookouts were not certain whether the men they saw approaching were the bandits or other members of the posse and "were afraid to fire for fear of shooting innocent men." The noise, lights and activity around the section house and the railroad tracks alerted the robbers and they apparently decided to check out the situation.
At 11:30PM one of the four (Jim Tucker) approached a member of the posse who was standing on the railroad track with several others and asked for a cigarette. After a short conversation between the two, the bandit began walking away in the direction of the water tower. Others in the posse became suspicious of the man walking away as he was soaking wet and Sheriff Hardie started toward the water tower to investigate along with Allen Henderson, 51, Will Z. Henderson, 39, Will Anderson, 38, Charles R. Williams, 46, and "Hobo" Stephens. They were within 50 feet of the water tank when a voice out of the darkness called out, "Back up, back up." As the voice rang out Stephens "quickly rolled down the embankment and so escaped injury."
Suddenly the bandits opened fire on the Sheriff and the five other members of the posse. Allen Henderson fell with nine buckshot in his body. Within a few seconds, Williams and Will Henderson pitched forward, fatally wounded, and Will Anderson received a bullet in his leg. Sheriff Hardie returned the bandits fire, and apparently was the only member of his posse who fired immediately. The others were taken by surprise. As the bandit called out "back up!" both of the Henderson brothers turned and crouched, this position accounting for the fact that they were shot in the back.
Others of the posse ran to cover and began firing in the direction of the water tank, but were unable to see the bandits. Within three minutes the shooting ended and within five minutes the bandits were gone." (Miami Herald, 93091) The four bank robbers had apparently fired "automatic shotguns" and Winchester rifles at the approaching posse. Of the six members of the posse approaching the water tower only Sheriff Hardie and Stephens were not wounded. Allen Henderson and Will Henderson died at the scene within an hour of being shot while Charles R. Williams was rushed by a special train early Sunday morning to Homestead for "surgical aid. A doctor met the train to administer what aid he could." Williams was then taken to his home where he died at 7:00PM on Monday, Sept. 18 (44 hours after being shot). Williams had been hit with five bullets, two in his left forearm and three more in his side.