Demorest Frances Hatch01

Waupaca County Post

January 26, 1928

WAUPACA GIRL IS HEROINE IN BANK ROBBERY

MRS. A.J. DEMOREST GIVES SIGNAL AS ROBBERS ENTER

HUSBAND KILLS TWO OF BANDITS

Mrs. A.J. Demorest, formerly Miss Frances hatch of this city, was the heroine in a Portland, Ore., bank robbery, in which her husband shot and killed two of the robbers.

Husband Kills Two

As the two robbers attempted to hold up Mr. Harris, teller in the Mount Scott State bank, on the outskirts of Portland, Mr. Demorest, cashier of the bank, took a rifle from the wall and killed both of them.

Mrs. Demorest entered the bank just ahead of the first robber. While she was walking to the door leading behind the cage, the robber pulled an automatic pistol and, approaching Harris, ordered all in the bank to hold up their hands.

Mrs. Demorest rushed to a back room, where, by prearranged plan, to attract attention in case of robbery, she crashed an ink bottle through a window. A third member of the gang, outside, leaped to the window and ordered her to keep quiet.

Fires >From Behind Vault

Demorest, armed with the rifle, fired from the rear of the bank when the first robber approached Harris. Protected by an angle of the vault, he took aim and dropped the man just as a second robber, carrying a gun, neared the vault.

Turning quickly, Demorest, while still protected by the vault, fired just as the second robber was raising his gun.

Mrs. Demorest is the sister of Charles hatch, graduate of the class of 1904, Waupaca High School, now cashier of a bank at Rosendale.