Northern was associated with a group of Jeffersonville ex-cons, led by Harry Pierpont, who were staying at a Kokomo, Indiana boarding house run by Pearl Elliott.
[6] According to newspaper accounts, the gang had evidently studied the situation, knew the surroundings, and carried out their job with clockwork precision and uncanny accuracy.
Sixteen towns in a fifty-mile radius of Marion were notified of the robbery, and to be on the lookout for a Nash car with yellow license plates.
[7] Grant County Sheriff Bert Renbarger and his deputies stopped a Nash car matching the description at Sweetser, Indiana but the occupants were found to be out of town businessmen.
[7] Initial reports indicated that based on the description of the bandits, they were believed to be the same gang who had robbed the Farmers National Bank at Converse, Indiana the week before.
[7] Just before closing time on December 16, 1924, seven unmasked bandits made an unsuccessful attempt to rob the Citizens State Bank.
The bandit's car drove up to the side of the bank and six men leaped to the sidewalk and ran into the building, brandishing revolvers.
[8] While three robbers rushed to the rear of the bank to cover officials, the other three ordered several customers and the cashier to hold up their hands.
[10] Boone County, Indiana Sheriff Joe C. Cain notified Grant County, Indiana Sheriff Renbarger of the list of items stolen from the Lebanon store and stated that the robbers were driving a Moon sedan, with the license 443-554, which was stolen from Indianapolis the night of the Lebanon robbery.
[11] After getting all the money in sight, they quickly left the bank and hoped into a waiting automobile, in which the sixth bandit sat, and departed north out of Upland, where it was reported they turned west.
[11] The automobile used by the bandits of the Upland State Bank and the Lebanon hardware store was found abandoned in the mud at Kempton, Indiana on December 27, 1924.
Carrying shotguns, rifles, revolvers and satchels, the men changed their minds and asked to be dropped off at the edge of town at Lebanon, Indiana.
Late Saturday evening, December 27, 1924, James Robbins, 22, of Lebanon, Indiana, was arrested by local police after being seen flashing a large amount of cash.
Robbins confessed that on December 22, they robbed the Shelby hardware store in Lebanon, then proceeded to Upland in a Moon car that had been stolen from Indianapolis the evening before.
[12] Behrens was identified by Deputy Sheriff Schell as being one of the men in the Moon car when it was stopped in Marion two hours before the Upland robbery.
[12] Behrens later confessed to Sheriff Renbarger of Grant County to his involvement in the Upland robbery, and told where he had hidden part of the money in Monticello.
[13] Robbins and Behrens were arraigned December 30, 1924 in Grant County Circuit Court after 5 o'clock, where they entered guilty pleas, and were sentenced to ten to twenty years in the Indiana State Reformatory.
[14] Marion "Red" Smith pleaded guilty in Grant County Circuit Court on December 31, 1924 and was sentenced to ten to twenty-five years for automobile banditry.
[15] On January 4, 1925, James Robbins, William Behrens, and Marion "Red" Smith were taken to the Indiana Reformatory to begin serving their sentences.
[17] On the morning of November 26, four men, whom he knew from prison, picked him up in Kokomo and told him they were looking for some place to "stick up", but hadn't decided on a city.
[17] Frazer was taken to the courthouse, a warrant was sworn out, he pleaded guilty to auto banditry, and was given a sentence of between ten and twenty-five years at the Indiana Reformatory.
[18] When the bank treasurer, Frank Steelman, failed to open the safe, he was hit with the butt of a pistol and suffered a severe scalp injury.
Brown, along with Dewey Elliott and Pearl Mullendore after midnight on March 22, 1925 to explain that two of his friends had been detained at the police station and needed representation.
Pierpont, alias Mason, refused to give the names of his friends who were detained, but gave him a gold certificate worth $100.00.
At 1:30 in the afternoon of March 27, 1925, five armed bandits entered the South Side Bank at Kokomo, Indiana in a bold daylight holdup.
[23] Three local young men, who witnessed the robbery, reported that they did not raise the alarm because an apparent lookout eyed them closely while they were at the store across from the bank.
[31] Jurors were questioned whether they had read accounts of the trials of Harry Pierpont and Thaddeus Skeer, charged as principals in the South Kokomo bank robbery.
[31] Judge Marshall sustained the motion of the defense filed requiring the state to proceed to trial on the charge of robbery, instead of being a habitual criminal.
[32] Northern's sister Mary, along with her mother, discovered her father's body at their Indianapolis home after hearing a retort from a shotgun blast in the early morning of November 12, 1925.
[35] Suffering from the effects of tuberculosis, his sister, Mary Kinder, made repeated efforts to have him released or transferred to a sanitarium.