A postal inspector oversees a Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul mail car damaged in the Rondout train robbery of 1924.
Courtesy of Jim Moran

The recent tunnel break-in at a jewelry store in Woodfield Mall adds another chapter to a history of serious and memorable thefts, break-ins, robberies and assaults in the suburbs that stretches back more than 100 years.

Some of the most memorable include the 1924 Rondout train robbery in Lake County, the Bonnie-and-Clyde-style life and death of Hanover Park bank robbers Jeffrey and Jill Erickson in the early 1990s, the legend of the still-unidentified Wheaton Bandit, and the death of notorious gangster Baby Face Nelson after a shootout in Barrington.

But the theft of at least $1.5 million worth of merchandise from Marquise Jewelers in Schaumburg’s Woodfield Mall on August 1 is still a story whose ending is uncertain.

According to Schaumburg police, at least six people were involved in the crime, which was committed by first cutting into the drywall of another active tenant and then into a vacant apartment to gain access to the jewelry store.

“It happened after the mall’s opening hours,” said Asma Anwar, co-owner of Marquise Jewelers, who called the loss devastating. “We can handle normal robberies.”

The audacity of the break-in distinguishes it from more modern shoplifting, in which gangs of robbers descend on the store en masse and overpower the store employees.

Still, there is no shortage of brazen robberies in the suburbs; one of the oldest and most historic robberies celebrated its centenary this year.

Ronout train robbery

Countless books and films describe the legendary Rondout train robbery of June 12, 1924, which is generally considered the largest train robbery in US history.

On this day, Milwaukee & St. Paul Train No. 57 left Chicago’s Union Station with a load of cash, securities, and jewels destined for the Federal Reserve Banks. Postal Inspector William Fahy told a band of robbers which of the eight cars contained registered mail and which numbered mail bags to take.

That night, Willis Newton and his accomplice Brent Glasscock hid on the train before it departed. In Rondout – an unincorporated enclave in Lake County – the two forced the engineer at gunpoint to stop the train in a remote spot at the railroad crossing on Route 137. Four accomplices, with the coerced help of train conductors, loaded 63 mailbags into four waiting stolen Cadillacs.

Postal workers pose with bags of mail seized during the infamous Rondout train robbery, the largest robbery of its kind in American history.
Courtesy of Jim Moran

While the mailbags were being loaded, Newton appeared under the coupling of two railroad cars and was shot five times by Glasscock, who allegedly mistook him for a postal worker. When the robbery was over, the others noticed that Newton had been shot and placed him on top of mailbags in one of the cars.

A blood trail showed that someone had been injured, and authorities learned that a doctor at a Chicago home was treating someone for gunshot wounds. This led to the suspects being questioned, confessed, and arrested.

The bearded bandit

Almost 70 years later, the couple Jeffrey and Jill Erickson from Hanover Park are said to have robbed eight banks in Chicago and the suburbs in the early 1990s, stealing an estimated $180,000.

Jeff Erickson initially began robbing banks alone, disguising himself with a fake beard and baseball cap and escaping in stolen Japanese cars. Eventually, his wife Jill became an accomplice in the robberies and acted as a driver.

The pair were eventually caught after police and FBI agents searched the suburbs for stolen Japanese cars. Federal agents spotted and arrested Jeff Erickson attempting to enter a stolen Mazda in Schaumburg in December 1991.

Jeffrey Erickson, a notorious suburban bank robber known as the “Bearded Bandit,” was shot and killed while attempting to escape from federal custody in Chicago in 1992 and subsequently committed suicide.
Daily Herald file

While they were arresting him, Jill sped off in another vehicle, leading officers on a chase through the suburbs that ended in a shootout on a dead-end street in Hanover Park. Although she was shot multiple times by police, an autopsy determined that she had inflicted the fatal gunshot wound on herself.

Jeff Erickson died a year later while attempting to escape in the middle of his trial. He escaped from his handcuffs, overpowered one of the two bailiffs who were accompanying him, stole a gun and used it to kill one of them. As Jeff Erickson attempted to flee the courthouse in downtown Chicago, he was attacked by a court security guard, sparking a gunfight that ultimately left the guard dead and Erickson seriously injured. According to reports from the time, Erickson shot himself a few minutes later.

The Wheaton Bandit

However, not everyone finds justice.

The Wheaton Bandit was never identified and is believed to have committed no fewer than 16 suburban bank robberies between January 2002 and December 2006. And he will never face any consequences, as the statute of limitations on his crimes expired in December 2011, five years after the last robbery he was blamed for.

Bank surveillance footage reveals the Wheaton Bandit, a suburban serial bank robber who can no longer be prosecuted for his crimes.
Daily Herald file

Ross Rice, then spokesman for the Chicago FBI office, commented at the time that the statute of limitations rarely applies to serial bank robbers. By then, authorities had offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the Wheaton bandit.

“It’s unusual for a serial robber of this magnitude to commit so many crimes and not be caught,” Rice said. “There is at least one person out there who knows who committed these crimes.”

This drawing of the suspected Wheaton Bandit was released by the FBI on December 11, 2006. He was blamed for the robbery or attempted robbery of 16 suburban banks, but was never caught.
Courtesy of Cook County Sheriff

Although seven of his first eight robberies took place in Wheaton, he then expanded his operations to Carol Stream, Geneva, Naperville, Winfield and Glen Ellyn, stealing a total of about $150,000.

When authorities released a sketch after a witness reported a man acting suspiciously outside a bank, the crime spree ended.

The Battle of Barrington

In the 1930s, Chicago was essentially ground zero for notorious gangsters due to the many bootleggers and bank robbers who operated in the area.

A memorial in Langendorf Park in Barrington honors the federal agents killed in a shootout with Baby Face Nelson in 1934.
Daily Herald file

Lester Joseph Gillis, better known as Baby Face Nelson and once the FBI’s Public Enemy No. 1, committed what is believed to be his second bank robbery ever in Itasca in 1930.

“Baby Face Nelson” was born Lester M. Gillis in Chicago on December 6, 1908. He died in 1934 after a shootout with FBI agents at the Battle of Barrington.
Courtesy of the Ministry of Justice

His most notorious legacy in the suburbs, however, was his death after an incredible shootout with federal agents in a Barrington park.

In late November 1934, Nelson was traveling back from Wisconsin with his wife Helen and fellow mobster John Paul Chase when they were discovered by federal agents searching for them near what is now Langendorf Park.

A chase ended in the park after Nelson’s vehicle was disabled by gunfire from federal agents.

During the firefight, Nelson shot and killed Agent Ed Hollis and fatally wounded Agent Samuel Cowley, but was also fatally wounded in the abdomen by a bullet from Cowley’s machine gun.

The trio of gangsters escaped in the agents’ car, but Nelson died later that night in a safe house in Wilmette.

Barrington officials, including former Mayor David Nelson, staged an elaborate reenactment of the chase and gun battle as part of the village’s 150th anniversary celebrations in 2015.

“We had no idea if anyone would come to see it,” Nelson recalled. “It was so cold that day, that’s what I remember most, but several hundred people came. And by the end there were some who had tears in their eyes.”

∙ Daily Herald writer Jake Griffin contributed to this report.