The Great Inverness Bank Robbery
By: Ken Marotte, Citrus County Historical Society
Reacting to a past article on “The Pioneer Banks of Citrus County”, a reader asked for more information about an Inverness bank robbery that occurred in 1962. Buckle up, because this is going to be a wild ride.
Florida’s Only Female Sheriff
Marguerite Prigden and Moses Baldree met while working in the Inverness Clerk’s office. After falling in love and getting married, the couple moved to Sumter County and Moses was eventually elected Sheriff. He was tragically killed in a hunting accident in 1945 after only 11 months on the job, leaving Marguerite to raise three children. He also left a vacancy in the Sheriff’s office, and she was appointed by the Governor to fill that role until an election could be held.
Mrs. Baldree acclimated so well to her new role that she stood for re-election in 1946 and easily beat her three male opponents. She was the only elected female Sheriff in Florida. At the time, her Chief Deputy was a lanky widower from Georgia named Clinton Warren (Bud) Taylor. Taylor had become a widower when he was the driver of an automobile that plunged off the old SR30 (near Vero Beach) into a canal in 1941. His wife died in the water and was not recovered for several days.
Reports indicate that Taylor did not get along with his fellow Deputy, M.H. (Popie) Bowman.
Marguerite Baldree ran again for Sumter Sheriff but narrowly lost the 1948 election to Deputy Bowman. She accepted her defeat and eventually returned to her hometown of Inverness. She served as the Inverness City Clerk and passed away in 1957 at the age of 55.
Explosive Charges
Her former Chief Deputy Bud Taylor, however, did not accept her loss as graciously. His rival Popie Bowman had been elected Sheriff and that signaled an end of Taylor’s tenure as Chief Deputy. On February 24, 1949, Sheriff Bowman found three sticks of dynamite in his car. The explosives did not ignite because they were improperly wired. Based on court records, Clinton (Bud) Taylor had sought the help of a former Bushnell policeman in obtaining a hitman to blow up Bowman’s car. He reportedly offered $1,000 and the protected bolita operation in Sumter County to anyone who could “get an S.O.B. knocked off”. When the former policeman decided not to help Taylor, the disgruntled former Deputy allegedly swore to “do the job myself”. Taylor was reportedly seen lurking around the garage where Bowman’s car was kept on the day that the dynamite was discovered. When the State failed to produce critical key witnesses, Attorney George W. Scofield was able to convince the judge that the State’s case had some legal and procedural flaws, and the charges against Bud Taylor were dropped based on the judge’s directed verdict.
Bolita Balls
Bolita was a Florida variant of the “numbers” lottery. Numbered balls would be placed in a bag and small bets would be placed on which numbers would be picked that day. Bolita was outlawed in Florida but a large underground network of bettors kept the game operational for many years after its prohibition. It was a source of income for organized crime and some lawmen were induced to look the other way through monetary incentives.
Bud Taylor moved to Lecanto in 1952. Two years later, Citrus County Deputy Robert Edson found Bud Taylor’s car in the middle of the road between Lecanto and Inverness one night. The car was parked in the highway with the lights on and Taylor was found asleep in the driver’s seat. After searching the car, Deputy Edson found 100 bolita balls in the trunk of the car and a check for $300 under the visor. It took a jury 15 minutes to convict Taylor at trial. The Florida Statutes required a mandatory sentence of between three and twelve months for this crime, but Taylor had once again hired Atty. George W. Scofield to defend him. Scofield was able to convince the judge (a close relative) to issue a deferred sentence based on some of the evidence that he felt should have been excluded. Clinton W. Taylor had effectively escaped punishment by the legal system for a second time.
The Georgia Bank Caper
On April 18, 1960, a man disguised in blackface paint walked into the Toney Brothers Bank in Doerun GA and walked out with over $25,000 in a holdup. Since robbing a bank is a federal crime, the Atlanta office of the FBI was called in to lead the chase. Several witnesses were able to provide identification that the perpetrator was Clinton Warren (Bud) Taylor. He had grown up in that area and they recognized him from past associations. Taylor, described as a wandering watermelon grower at the time, was arrested in Punta Gorda FL and brought back to Georgia to stand trial. An old school and hunting companion aided in the investigation.
Taylor’s court-appointed defender produced four witnesses who testified that the accused was over 20 miles away at the time of the robbery. Based on the alibis of Taylor’s friends, the jury returned a “not guilty” verdict after deliberating seven hours.
The Inverness Bank Caper
A former customer of the Bank of Inverness returned on August 21, 1962. He wasn’t there to make a deposit or apply for a loan. Clinton Warren (Bud) Taylor had returned to Citrus County to rob the local bank. A few minutes before closing time, George Brannen was talking on the phone when a teller rushed into his office and exclaimed “We’re being held up!” A man entered Brannen’s office and hung up the phone. He led the Bank President to the teller’s area and displayed a sack and told Vice President Robert Mulliniks to fill it with cash. He waved a gun to encourage a speedy response.
George Brannen was famous for knowing all of his customers by name and felt that he knew the robber from the past. The holdup man wore a flimsy mask and tried to disguise his voice by holding his nose when he spoke (perhaps hoping to imitate a telephone operator). After the bag was filled with over $22,000, the gunman motioned to all of the bank employees and customers (including a child) that they should move toward the vault. He told them that he intended to lock them up behind the safe’s heavy doors. One customer, Mrs. Rahn, entered the bank while the robbery was in progress. She tried to leave but Taylor ordered her back into the building at gunpoint. When Taylor wanted to also load Mrs. Rahn into the vault, she evidently talked him out of the idea. Brannen offered to lock the group behind the gate leading to the vault so the people would have some fresh air. As soon as the robber left the building, he was able to unlock the gate since all bank employees had keys
Police credit a quick-thinking teller and a customer at the Drive-Through window for helping to capture the thief. Opal Gavin was working at the window when customer Mrs. Homer “Bobbie” Martin drove up. Martin noticed that the teller was acting strangely and her suspicions were verified when Gavin whispered into the microphone “Bobbie, will you please call the police?” Martin drove to the Chamber of Commerce office next door and asked the staff to call Sheriff B.R. Quinn and have him immediately come to the bank. She then heroically went back to the bank Drive-Through window to see if Mrs. Gavin was all right. Gavin whispered that it was a bank holdup and asked Mrs. Martin make sure help was on the way. “Bobbie” Martin drove to the back of the building and saw a parked car that she surmised belonged to the robber. She saw a man come out of the bank with a sack and quickly drive away, She made sure to record the license plate to help the Sheriff track the criminal. The Sheriff later recalled that they were able to find the car withing 45 minutes thanks to Mrs. Martin’s tip. He also chuckled that the license plate had been stolen from another car earlier and was clipped to the car with clothes pins. The Master of Disguise had chosen pink clothes pins to attach the tag to his automobile.
The chase led down Apopka Avenue, through Gospel Island, then Route 44 east toward Sumter County. With the assistance of Florida Trooper E.L. Herring, Taylor was captured and brought (ironically) to the Sumter County jail, where he once patrolled as a Deputy. All of the stolen money was found in the car as well as the pistol Taylor used in the robbery. On the way to the jail, Trooper Herring reported that Taylor said he felt faint and asked if they could sit under a shade tree until he felt better.
Taylor was transferred to the Marion County jail in Ocala where he was held on federal bank robbery charges. His bond was set at $50,000. After initially pleading Not Guilty, Taylor agreed to change his response to Guilty. He was sentenced to twenty years in the Penitentiary. After release, he returned to Georgia and passed away in 2001 at the age of 87.
Her Just Rewards
In recognition of her heroic actions to thwart the robber’s escape, Mrs. Homer “Bobbie” Martin was awarded a substantial check by the bank’s insurers, the American Surety Company of Jacksonville. They applauded her courage in the face of an armed gunman. Sheriff Quinn credited her quick thinking with the capture of Clinton Taylor in record time.