The Historic Maggie Valley Bank Robberies

I am taking a bit of a different track on the blog for mid-December.  When I first moved here in the 1970’s, everyone was still talking about the Maggie Valley bank robberies.  There was only one bank in Maggie Valley and it was flush with cash around the first of every month in order to cash the checks for all the Ghost Town Amusement Park employees.  Coincidentally, this was also the time for District Court to convene in Waynesville, the county seat.  We didn’t have too many policemen, sheriff deputies, and highway patrol back then.  Since district court was in session, most of the law officers had to be in court for all the citations and arrests they had made that were coming before the court.

Sure enough, one or more enterprising bank robbers had figured out the surplus of money in this bank, coupled with a lack of law enforcement close by.  They robbed the bank in Maggie Valley and headed up Soco Road in a get-away car toward Soco Gap.  As memory serves, one policeman gave pursuit.  The bank robbers turned off on Black Camp Gap Road.  Surely the policeman had them now, as this was a dead-end road.  The car continued up Black Camp Gap Road until the road became gravel, and onward until the road became a dirt track.  Finally reaching the end of the road, the robbers abandoned their get-away vehicle and ran on foot through the woods.  It just so happened that it is a very short distance from the end of the road to Black Camp Gap, where there is a Masonic Monument,  just off Heintooga Ridge Road, which leads to the Blue Ridge Parkway.  As you might guess, there was another vehicle waiting at the parking lot of the monument.  The robbers left down the Parkway, with no one even having a description of their vehicle.   The get-away vehicle they left behind turned out to be a stolen car.  So, no evidence of their identity was ever found.

This would be a great story on its own merits.  However, as they say on the infomercials, “But Wait! There’s More!”

Move forward in time one full year.  The bank in Maggie Valley was flush with cash again, district court was convening, and most law officers were again occupied at the Haywood County Courthouse in Waynesville.  Yep!  You guessed it.  The bank robbers hit again.  They left the bank with a policeman in distant pursuit.  They again turned onto Black Camp Gap Road, and headed for the Masonic Marker.  They ran through the woods to a waiting vehicle, and were gone again, leaving no evidence for the law officers to find.

The above is true to the best of my recollection.  I may have a detail or two in error, but I am close.

I was reading a newspaper a few years after these robberies occurred.  I was drawn to an article about 2 bank robbers who were being sentenced for bank robberies in Maggie Valley.  The bank robbers were from Soddy Daisy, Tennessee.  As I recall the article, they were charged by the FBI for conspiracy to commit bank robbery.  It seems the Feds had suspected these people of bank robberies, but had no proof.  The Feds obtained a wire-tap warrant, and recorded them talking about the Maggie Valley robberies over the phone.

I guess sometimes it’s not what one does but what one says that gets one into trouble.