Northampton Bank Robbery Mural

In downtown Northampton, on the edge of Main and Central Streets, a distinctive mural memorializes a historical crime. The mural goes to the website of the previous Northampton National Bank, where on January 26, 1876, robbers swiped $1.6 million. At the time, it was the biggest financial institution break-in in American background.

That’s since the 135 Key Street structure was also when had by Kevin Eastman, among the creators of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Mirage Studios, the manufacturing business of TMNT, was formerly headquartered in Northampton, and the city keeps a fondness for the vigilante turtles.

The mural, nevertheless, shows a somewhat different variation of occasions– one where the masked burglars don’t get away with their criminal activity. Instead, they run with their fat bags of cash money into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, gold-toothed and smiling with justice regarding to be offered. The mural was completed in 2019 by Brooklyn musician Ramiro Davaro-Comas, and it’s a wayward merger of historical occasions.

The heist was managed by the Rufus Gang, an infamous team of financial institution robbers from New York. The ringleaders were Thomas Dunlap, Robert Scott, and George Leslie. It took almost a year after the Northampton Financial Institution Break-in for Dunlap and Scott to be jailed. Leslie was never ever caught or founded guilty, and the money was never recouped.