Police officer Theodore Harkcom emerging from tunnel beneath the Farmers and Merchants Bank, Watts, 1935

Item Overview

Title

Police officer Theodore Harkcom emerging from tunnel beneath the Farmers and Merchants Bank, Watts, 1935

Date Created

September 1, 1935

Date

1935-09-01

Publisher

Los Angeles Times

Language

No linguistic content

Collection

Los Angeles Times Photographic Collection

Notes

Description

View of Theodore Harkcom, police officer, crawling out of tunnel in police hat and uniform. Workers discovered a tunnel beneath the Farmers and Merchants Bank in Watts when replacing the flooring in the bank. Unused acetylene torches, tanks, and hose were found in the tunnels. Indications show the diggings had been abandoned along with the vault equipment, two or three years ago. The Farmers and Merchants Bank of Watts has no connection with the Farmers and Merchants National Bank of Los Angeles.
This photograph appears with the article "Where 'Gopher Bandits' Burrowed in Vain: Old Tunnel Under Bank Reveals Robbery Plot," Los Angeles Times, 2 Sep. 1935: A1.

Caption

Text from newspaper caption: Policeman T. C. Harkom is shown creeping from the tunnel bored by human moles beneath the floor of a Watts bank. Tunnel entrance was barred by an iron grating which bank robbers had loosened to begin arduous labors that came to naught. Tons of earth had been moved beneath the bank but no effort was made to drill through the floor of the vault.
Handwritten on negative: T C Harkom
Text from negative sleeve: 2205, Officer T.C Harkom, Bank job, [stamped:] Sep 26 1935

Physical Description

Extent

1 photograph

Medium

b&w nitrate negative

Keywords

Genre

cellulose nitrate film
news photographs

Names

Harkcom, Theodore Charles, b. 1901

Location

Watts (Los Angeles, Calif.)

Resource type

still image

Subjects

Banks--California--Los Angeles
Police--California--Los Angeles