Tony Chebatoris

Chebatoris was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, and lived in Detroit at the time of the bank robbery.[1] His first criminal conviction was in 1920 for armed robbery of a Packard cashier in Detroit,[3] and in 1927, he was arrested for violating the Dyer Act in Louisville, Kentucky.

In 1928, Chebatoris went to prison at Marquette Branch Prison in Marquette, Michigan, for armed robbery. By 1937, he had spent fifteen of his previous 17 years' incarcerated, and was wanted in Pennsylvania on suspicion of armed robbery.[4] At the time of his death, he was divorced from his wife Catherine and had a married daughter, Vera Jackson.[5]

On September 29, 1937, Chebatoris and his accomplice, 29-year-old paroled convict John "Jack" Gracey of Hamtramck,[6][lower-alpha 1] planned to rob the Chemical State Savings Bank on Main Street in downtown Midland, Michigan; the bi-weekly Dow Chemical payroll of $75,000 ensured the bank would be flush with cash. Gracey entered the bank at 11:30 a.m. with a sawed-off shotgun; Chebatoris followed with a revolver.[8] Gracey approached bank president Clarence H. Macomber and shoved the shotgun into his ribs. Macomber and Gracey grappled for the weapon until Chebatoris shot Macomber in the shoulder. Paul D. Bywater, the bank's cashier, approached the counter after hearing the commotion, and Chebatoris shot him in the abdomen above the hip. Both men would survive their injuries.[8]

Aborting the robbery, the gunmen fled the bank, got in their black two-door Ford with Chebatoris behind the wheel, and began to drive away. Dr. Frank L. Hardy, whose second-floor dental practice was adjacent to the bank building, heard the gunshots and used a hunting rifle to fire at the getaway car from his office window as it sped towards the Benson Street bridge.[lower-alpha 2] One of Hardy's shots hit Chebatoris's left arm; another hit Gracey's right leg. After the Ford careened into a parked car, Chebatoris and Gracey exited the vehicle, looking for the source of the shots. Truck driver Henry J. Porter of Bay City, a bystander whose cap and uniform were mistaken for those of a police officer, was shot and mortally wounded by Chebatoris. Hardy fired again, hitting Gracey in the elbow, and when Gracey tried to commandeer a truck, Hardy fatally shot him in the head from a distance of 150 yards (140 m).[9] Chebatoris fled along nearby railroad tracks and attempted to hijack an automobile, but was apprehended by road repairman Richard Van Orden and Midland County Sheriff Ira M. Smith.[9][8]

The Federal Bank Robbery Act of 1934 made it a federal crime to rob a federally-organized or federally-insured bank.[10] It also made it a federal crime to cause the death of a person during the commission of such a crime.[11][lower-alpha 3] Chebatoris was initially charged only with bank robbery and the assaults on Macomber, Bywater, and Porter, but when Porter died from his gunshot wound twelve days after the robbery, prosecutors also charged Chebatoris with murder. Chebatoris was the first person to be tried for murder under the newly-passed bank robbery law.[12] The trial was held in federal court in Bay City, with Judge Arthur J. Tuttle presiding. On October 29, 1937, Chebatoris was found guilty of murder under section 588c of the Federal Bank Robbery Act, and the jury, which had the option to bestow a death sentence, did so.[13]

Because capital punishment for murder in Michigan had been abolished in 1847—the first English-speaking government in the world to do so—Governor Frank Murphy sought to prevent Chebatoris's execution, despite considerable public opposition.[14][15] "Everyone knows [Chebatoris] is guilty," Murphy said. "I'm trying to prevent the federal government from erecting a scaffold and hanging a man in my state, where it hasn't been done in 108 years."[16] Murphy appealed to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, requesting Chebatoris's sentence be commuted to life imprisonment. Sympathetic to the situation, Roosevelt consulted Assistant Attorney General Joseph B. Keenan, who saw no justification for commutation, but said the Justice Department would not object if Judge Tuttle found legal means to move the execution to another state.[17] However, a federal law passed in June 1937 required that executions take place in the state where the offense occurred for all states that allowed capital punishment,[18][lower-alpha 4] and at the time, Michigan formally retained a death penalty statute for treason against the state.[19][20][lower-alpha 5] Tuttle, therefore, said he had "neither the power nor the inclination to change the sentence."[17] His legal avenues exhausted, Murphy stated that the execution was "a blot on Michigan's civilized record."[21]

Chebatoris was subsequently hanged at the Federal Detention Farm, Milan, outside York Township, Michigan, on July 8, 1938. He left his cell at 5:04 a.m. and began the walk to the purpose-built gallows accompanied by Rev. Fr. Lee Laige, who recited prayers. Chebatoris plunged through the trap door at 5:08 a.m. and was pronounced dead 13 minutes later.[22] Chebatoris was interred at Marble Park Cemetery in York Township after a Catholic ceremony attended by two brothers and a sister.[23]

• Capital punishment in Michigan
• List of people executed in Michigan
• Marvin Gabrion, sentenced to death in 2002 by a federal court in Michigan, a non-death penalty state

• Tony Chebatoris at Find a Grave