Jean LaBanta

Jean LaBanta
Jean LaBanta
Born	c. 1879; United States
Other names	Clyde Kaufman
Occupation	Forger, train robber
Criminal penalty	2 years imprisonment; 25 years imprisonment
Criminal status	Paroled in 1913; Paroled in 1926
Conviction(s)	Grand larceny (1911); Armed robbery (1914)

Last updated April 11, 2019

Jean LaBanta (born c. 1879) was an American criminal, forger and train robber. He was a notorious conman and check forger in California during the early 20th century. Between 1913 and 1914, he passed out an estimated $40,000 in rubber checks and was also responsible for a series of train robberies against the Southern Pacific Railroad. It was partly due to his robberies that the railroad company first began arming its guards.

Cheque fraud (en-GB), or Check fraud (en-US), refers to a category of criminal acts that involve making the unlawful use of cheques in order to illegally acquire or borrow funds that do not exist within the account balance or account-holder's legal ownership. Most methods involve taking advantage of the float to draw out these funds. Specific kinds of cheque fraud include cheque kiting, where funds are deposited before the end of the float period to cover the fraud, and paper hanging, where the float offers the opportunity to write fraudulent cheques but the account is never replenished.

Train robbery is a type of robbery, in which the goal is to steal money or other valuables being carried aboard trains.

Biography

Born around 1879, little is known about Jean LaBanta's early life. In April 1911, he was convicted of grand larceny in San Benito County, California, and sentenced to 2 years imprisonment at San Quentin. He received an early parole in 1913 and was soon being investigated by authorities in several California counties for writing rubber checks. Placer County was the first to issue a warrant on LaBanta, then under his alias Clyde Kaufman, for forging $65 checks. Investigators would discover that LaBanta had passed out an estimated $40,000 in fraudulent checks.^[1]

San Benito County, officially the County of San Benito, is a county located in the Coast Range Mountains of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 55,269. The county seat is Hollister.

A warrant is generally an order that serves as a specific type of authorization, that is, a writ issued by a competent officer, usually a judge or magistrate, which permits an otherwise illegal act that would violate individual rights and affords the person executing the writ protection from damages if the act is performed.

During this time, LaBanta also robbed several express trains belonging to the Southern Pacific Railroad. His first attempt occurred on October 14, 1913, when he donned a mask and boarded Southern Pacific Train No. 23 during a mail exchange at Burlingame. Reaching the express car, he put sacks on the heads of two guards at gunpoint and forced them to sit in a corner while the train continued on to San Francisco. LaBanta jumped off the train at some point, though the guards did not see him, and escaped with $100. Despite the small reward for a high-risk venture, LaBanta tried again a month later. On November 17, he snuck on board Southern Pacific Train No. 77 and again forced hoods on the clerks at gunpoint while he searched through the mail. After gathering another small score, he jumped off the train before pulling into Burlingame. As a result of the robberies, the Southern Pacific Railroad ordered that all express guards on the northern California runs would be armed.^[1]

Burlingame, California City in California, United States

Burlingame is a city in San Mateo County, California. It is located on the San Francisco Peninsula and has a significant shoreline on San Francisco Bay. The city is named after diplomat Anson Burlingame and is often referred to as the City of Trees due to its numerous eucalyptus groves. Burlingame is known for its high residential quality of life with a walkable downtown area and excellent public school system. In September 2018, the median home value in Burlingame was $2.3M. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Burlingame had a population of 28,806.

San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the cultural, commercial, and financial center of Northern California. San Francisco is the 13th-most populous city in the United States, and the fourth-most populous in California, with 884,363 residents as of 2017. It covers an area of about 46.89 square miles (121.4 km²), mostly at the north end of the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area, making it the second-most densely populated large US city, and the fifth-most densely populated U.S. county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs. San Francisco is also part of the fifth-most populous primary statistical area in the United States, the San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland, CA Combined Statistical Area.

Northern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties its main population centers include the San Francisco Bay Area, the Greater Sacramento area, and the Metropolitan Fresno area. Northern California also contains redwood forests, along with the Sierra Nevada, including Yosemite Valley and part of Lake Tahoe, Mount Shasta, and most of the Central Valley, one of the world's most productive agricultural regions.

LaBanta moved to Los Angeles following Southern Pacific's announcement. He soon found an accomplice, Jean Dolly (aka "Jim Barry"), who had been recently paroled from San Quentin after serving 18 months for forgery. On January 10, 1914, the two men jumped on Southern Pacific Train No. 9, two minutes before its scheduled departure from Los Angeles at 10:15 am. They held up the mail car, unmasked this time, and stole $600 before jumping out shortly before the train's arrival in Burbank.^[1]

Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L.A., is the most populous city in California, the second most populous city in the United States, after New York City, and the third most populous city in North America. With an estimated population of four million, Los Angeles is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. The city is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, Hollywood and the entertainment industry, and its sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles is the largest city on the West Coast of North America.

Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of Southern California, United States, 12 miles (19 km) northwest of downtown Los Angeles. The population at the 2010 census was 103,340.

The law eventually caught up to LaBanta and took him into custody at a San Francisco hotel on January 20, 1914. After a lengthy interrogation, LaBanta also confessed to the train robberies as well quietly bragging to investigators that he was the perpetrator of "much more classier crimes" than bouncing checks. Dolly was quickly arrested after being identified by mail clerks and was indicted with LaBanta by a federal grand jury on February 10. His accomplice pleaded guilty on March 6 and was sentenced to San Quintin for 5 years while LaBanta, who pleaded guilty the day after his indictment, was sentenced to 54 years. This was reduced to 25 when the judge made the sentences concurrent. LaBanta was paroled on September 24, 1926, and disappeared from public record thereafter.^[1]

Related Research Articles

Southern Pacific Transportation Company United States Class I railroad (1865–1996)

The Southern Pacific was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1998 that operated in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the names Southern Pacific Railroad, Southern Pacific Company and Southern Pacific Transportation Company.

San Quentin State Prison (SQ) is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men, located north of San Francisco in the unincorporated town of San Quentin in Marin County.

The California State Railroad Museum is a museum in the state park system of California, USA, interpreting the role of the "iron horse" in connecting California to the rest of the nation. It is located in Old Sacramento at 111 I Street.

Roy G. Gardner was an American criminal active during the 1920s. He stole a total of more than $350,000 in cash and securities and several times escaped from custody. He is said to have been the most hunted man in Pacific Coast history, having had a $5,000 reward for his head three times in less than a year, and newspapers in the West referred to him as the "Smiling Bandit", the "Mail Train Bandit", and the "King of the Escape Artists".

The Peninsula Commute, also known as the Southern Pacific Peninsula or just Peninsula, was the common name for commuter rail service between San Jose, California and San Francisco, California on the San Francisco Peninsula. This service ran as a private, for-profit enterprise beginning in 1863. Due to operating losses, the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) petitioned to discontinue the service in 1977. Subsidies were provided through the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) in 1980 to continue service, and it was renamed Caltrain.

Ezra Allen Miner, more popularly known as Bill Miner, was a noted American bandito, originally from Bowling Green, Kentucky, who served several prison terms for stagecoach robbery. Known for his unusual politeness while committing robberies, he was widely nicknamed the Grey Fox, Gentleman Robber or the Gentleman Bandit. He is reputed to have been the originator of the phrase "Hands up!" an original song titled "The Ballad of Bill Miner" was written by singer/songwriter Phillip Mills and recorded by the San Francisco bay area band "The Blackout Cowboys". Legend has it that Bill Miner admonished his cohorts to fire their guns when in danger of capture but "do not kill a man".

Christopher "Chris" Evans, a native of Bells Corners near Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, was an American farmer and teamster turned outlaw. He was the leader of the Evans-Sontag Gang.

Broadway is a Caltrain station in Burlingame, California. Caltrain only serves the stop on weekends and holidays; weekday service is provided by a bus shuttle to Millbrae.

Reuben Houston Burrow, better known as Rube Burrow, was a nationally infamous train-robber and outlaw in the Southern and Southwestern United States. During the final years of the American frontier, he became one of the most hunted in the Old West since Jesse James. From 1886 to 1890, he and his gang robbed express trains in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, the Indian Territory and Texas while pursued by hundreds of lawmen throughout the southern half of the United States, including the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.

The San Quentin Six were six inmates at San Quentin State Prison in the U.S. state of California, who were accused of participating in an August 21, 1971 escape attempt that left six people dead, including George Jackson, a co-founder of the Black Guerrilla Family.

Ed Davis was an American burglar, bank robber and Depression-era outlaw. He was especially active in Oklahoma, referred to by authorities as "The Fox", and frequently teamed with Jim Clark and Frank Sawyer during the early 1930s. Eventually captured in 1934, he was involved in a failed escape attempt from Folsom State Prison, resulting in the deaths of one guard and two inmates, and was executed at San Quentin.

The DeAutremont Brothers, Roy, Ray and Hugh DeAutremont, were a criminal gang based in the Pacific Northwest during the 1920s. Their unsuccessful robbery of Southern Pacific Railroad express train and the murder of four crew members, known as the Siskiyou massacre, was subject to one of the largest and most extensive investigations in the region.

Charles Frederick Crocker was vice president of the Southern Pacific Transportation Company.

Jamie and Gladys Scott, often referred to as the Scott sisters, are African-American women who when young were convicted of orchestrating a 1993 armed robbery in Forest, Mississippi, after accomplices made a plea deal. Each sister received double life sentences, This sentence has been criticized as too severe by a number of civil rights activists and prominent commentators on the grounds that the sisters had no previous criminal record and the robbery netted no more than eleven dollars.

Edward H. "Ed" Morrell was an accomplice to the Evans and Sontag gang that robbed the Southern Pacific Railroad in California's San Joaquin Valley in the 1890s. According to his memoir, "The 25th Man", the robberies were after revenge for the large railroad corporation's mistreatment of local ranchers of the San Joaquin Valley. Morrell was sentenced to life imprisonment in Folsom State Prison in 1894. He was eventually transferred to San Quentin, and pardoned in 1908. Five of his years were spent in solitary confinement; he was known as the Dungeon Man of San Quentin. Author Jack London championed his pardon and Morrell became a frequent guest at London's Beauty Ranch in Glen Ellen, California. London used Morrell as a character in his 1915 novel The Star Rover.

The Baxter's Curve Train Robbery, also known as the Sanderson Train Robbery, occurred in 1912 near the town of Sanderson, Texas. Ben Kilpatrick and his partner, Ole Hobek, attempted to rob a Southern Pacific express car, but they were stopped by one of their hostages, David A. Trousdale, who managed to kill both of the bandits.

The Third and Townsend Depot was the main train station in the city of San Francisco for much of the first three quarters of the 20th century. The station at Third Street and Townsend Street served as the terminus for Southern Pacific trains serving the commuter rail market between San Francisco and San Jose and long-distance trains between San Francisco and Los Angeles via the Southern Pacific's Coast Line. For passenger service for destinations to the north, such as Seattle, and destinations to the east, such as Chicago, passengers needed to travel to Oakland, initially on ferries to Oakland Long Wharf, and later on buses to 16th Street Station.

She's Out was a British primetime television crime drama. The six-part series was produced by Cinema Verity for Carlton Television and screened on ITV in 1995. Written by Lynda La Plante as a sequel to her 1980's series, Widows, She's Out takes up the story of the central character, Dolly Rawlins, ten years after the events of the previous series. Ann Mitchell, who played Dolly, and Kate Williams, who played Audrey Withey, were the only cast members from the original series to appear in She's Out. The executive producer for the series was Verity Lambert, and the series was directed by Ian Toynton, both of whom had worked on the original series.

The Pacific Limited was an American named passenger train which from 1913 to 1947 was jointly operated by three railroads on the Overland Route between San Francisco and Chicago. The Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) handled the train west of Ogden, Utah, the Union Pacific Railroad (UP) between Ogden and Omaha, Nebraska, and east of the Missouri River to Chicago it was operated at different times by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (MILW) or the Chicago and North Western Railway (CNW).

References

1 2 3 4 Newton, Michael. The Encyclopedia of Robberies, Heists, and Capers. New York: Facts On File Inc., 2002. (pg. 173-174) ISBN 0-8160-4488-0

Jean LaBanta

Contents

Biography

Related Research Articles

References

Further reading

Jean LaBanta
Born	c. 1879 United States
Other names	Clyde Kaufman
Occupation	Forger, train robber
Criminal penalty	2 years imprisonment 25 years imprisonment
Criminal status	Paroled in 1913 Paroled in 1926

Conviction(s)	Grand larceny (1911) Armed robbery (1914)