On the night of the robbery, they got the safe combination from the bank's cashier, Mr. Whittlesey, whom they tortured at his house until he gave it up.

[3] George Leonidas Leslie, was an architect, art patron, socialite, and bank robber who moved to New York City in 1869.

[6] Law enforcement claimed he was involved in 80% of all bank robberies in the United States between 1869 and 1879, including the theft of $800,000 from Ocean National Bank in New York City in 1869, and the theft of $2.7 million from the Manhattan Savings Institution in New York City in 1878.

[13] Those were involved were Leslie, Dunlap, Robert Scott, "Billy" Connors, Billy Porter, Gilbert Yost, James Burns, Johnny Irving, "Red" Leary, and Thomas "Shang" Draper,[3][4] though the ones who ultimately robbed the bank were Dunlap, Scott, Connors, Irving, Porter, Draper, and Yost.

Edson visited Dunlap and Scott at the Wyoming Valley Hotel in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on August 5, 1875.

[19] Starting in September,[20] the group, including Leslie,[11] travelled between Brooklyn and Northampton, to plan and watch the bank employees and deputy sheriff.

[3] They knew that the bank's night watchman leaves at 4 a.m. Leslie planned for the money to be hid in the Bridge Street Cemetery, which was just off the main thoroughfare of Northampton, and was close to the train station, which would be used as the getaway, and Bridge Street School; at some point, a base of operations was set up in the school's attic.

[11] The gang decided to find a bank employee who might offer his involvement for a cut of the resulting money, so they spent several days observing Whittlesey.

[17] They found Whittlesey left work at 4 p.m., and then the night watchman, Deputy Sheriff Henry Potter stayed overnight.

[17] Edson told the bank manager, Thomas Warriner, that he was on there on Herring & Co. business, and that he had to examine the vault as part of "routine maintenance" on the safe.

Edson went back to the bank, returned the keys, and suggested that a new vault combination should be made, but only one person, John Whittlesey, should know it.

[5] A few weeks prior, the gang met at a livery yard, and they told someone there that they had planned to do a surprise party in Holyoke.

[25] On the morning of January 25, 1876, Dunlap and Scott were witnessed in Springfield, Massachusetts, by Albert Holt, paymaster of the Boston and Albany railroad company.

Also in the house was his wife, her niece, Mattie White, a girl named Annie Beaton, a married couple, Mr. and Mrs. T.B.

They woke everyone in the house up, made them dress, handcuffed them, and brought them into Whittlesey's room, making them "as comfortable as possible."

Police quickly found that burglars rode from Springfield to Northampton on the 25th, and that they had visited the livery stable.

[31] Leslie also told Mandelbaum to stop associating with the two; she initially disagreed, as she worried they would starting working for her rival, John "Traveling Mike" Grady.

[15] Leslie was worried that he would be linked to the robbery, considering everyone else in the gang were already known to detectives, and that he wouldn't be able to rob the Manhattan Savings Institution.

Leslie warned them Edson would probably be captured and give up their names as part of a plea bargain, so they should keep a low profile; they didn't listen to him.

Robert Scott would communicate with him after placing a classified ad in the New York Herald with instructions on how to meet.

[34] Dunlap, Scott, Connors, and Edson returned to Northampton, and decided not to retrieve the securities from the school as police were everywhere in the town.

[3][28][36] Back in New York City, Edson met Dunlap, Scott, and Connors, and said the bank had offered the $60,000 ransom.

Scott and Dunlap sent a ransom note to the bank regarding the non-negotiable securities, authenticated by two stock certificates owned by private depositors.

[38] Scott, Dunlap, and Connors gave up on negotiations and left New York for Philadelphia[15] on January 13, 1877.

Leary, Draper, Irving, Porter, and Yost were arrested, but the charges were dropped due to a lack of evidence.

[14] In June,[44] when Connors' extradition from New York to Northampton was being prepared, he got a key to his cell, unlocked the door, and let himself out.

[46] On the third day, Edson took the stand again and Sweetser told Wilson that if the evidence of the Springfield trip was to stay in the minds of the jury, and the defense was unable to give any instructions to the jury or contradict the testimony with evidence, then "I shall retire from this courthouse, for I can no longer benefit these defendants, if such a course is pursued."

Bond then cross-examined Edson, who talked about a background and said he had nothing to do with the Sixth Avenue robbery, and said that Dunlap and Scott told him they robbed it by themselves.

Charles Schuler, clerk of the Wyoming Valley Hotel, says he likely witnessed Dunlap and Scott, and that one of them wrote the R.C.

His cellmate was William Sydney Porter, convicted for bank embezzlement, who would eventually become a writer under the name O. Henry, and wrote some of his stories based on Connors.