The Prodigal Son: Whiting’s Great Train Robbery

Anthony Borgo September 2020

In the Gospel of Luke (Luke 15:11-32), there is a story known as the Prodigal Son.  In this parable a father gives his two sons their inheritance before he dies. The younger son, after foolishly wasting his fortune returns home and his father throws him a banquet stating that, “he was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”  Carl Stieler, Jr. made a similar trip home to see his father after an absence of two years.  However, instead of Carl’s father slaughtering the fattened calf, a call was made to the local police department to turn in his son.

For two years Carl Stieler, Jr., was wanted in connection with a $234,000 mail robbery in Whiting, Indiana.  He traveled throughout the West much of this time under his own name.  He gave out Chicago, Illinois as his address. And, he spent his share of the loot $45,000, which amounts to $640,396 when adjusted to today’s dollars.  All the while he never once was questioned by any of the authorities.

Carl Stieler, Jr. was born in Germany on March 29, 1898 to Carl and Mathilda Stieler.  He and his family immigrated to the United States approximately 9 years later.  The Stielers arrived in New York City aboard the Kaiser Wilhelm II on October 23, 1907.  The family eventually settled in Chicago after a stay in Tennessee.  During World War I, Carl Stieler, Jr.  served in the U.S. Army enlisting on June 23, 1918.  He was released from service to his country on January 27, 1919.  Nine months later Carl was involved in the $234,000 heist along with John S. Wejda and brothers Leo and Walter Filipkowski.

Traditionally, on payday Standard Oil workers received their week’s pay via a pay wagon, which brought hard cash into the refinery.  The pay wagon in turn would get the cash from the federal reserve bank in Chicago.  The payroll would be shipped via the Illinois Central Railroad to the Bank of Whiting through the registry division of the post office.  John Wejda, an employee of the registry division knew all too well of this arrangement and began to plan the snatch and grab.

On September 18, 1919, Wejda prepared two dummy mail sacks filled with waste paper, which could then be exchanged with the ones containing cash.  He then gave the sacks to Stieler and the Fillpkowski brothers who waited for the train to arrive.  Once the payroll sacks were unloaded at the Pennsylvania depot our would be crooks were waiting to make the switch-a-roo.  Without incident the trio confiscated the cash and made the way back to Chicago.

The mail bandits then divvied up the cash: Wejda received $50,505, the Fillpkowskis $113,130, and Car Stieler, Jr. $45,000.  The money must have been burning a hole in the robbers’ pockets because Carl and Leo immediately bought rings for their gals.  Carl bought a $1,300 engagement ring for a neighbor girl by the name of Bessie Jasiak.  Leo conservatively spent $265 on the ring he gave to Clara Szymkowski, daughter of former Chicago alderman John Szymkowski.

On Saturday, September 18, 1919 Clara met Leo at a dance in Schoenhofen Hall.  He mentioned his devotion to Clara and bragged about how he had come into some money insisting that she marry him.  Two days later, two Chicago policemen stopped Leo, who matched the description of a suspect in a Saloon robbery.  In his pockets they found a $20,000 wrapper that had been wrapped around the stolen bills.  He promptly admitted he had $90,000 more at home and offered it to the policemen if they would let him go.  They didn’t.

Once Clara discovered the truth behind her tainted ring, she turned it into the police. After cajoling from her mother, Clara told police that Leo confided in her that his brother Walter and Carl hid $70,000 of the stolen currency in a package hidden under a staircase at Stieler’s parents’ house located at 4710 North Troy Street.  When detectives went to recover the package both Carl and the money was gone.  According to a Chicago Daily Tribune article dated October 3, 1919, Mathilda Stieler, who claimed Carl to be of a nervous and timid nature, stated, “Why, I saw him take it out and put it in his bag. I even asked him what it was and he said ‘O army papers.’ He didn’t appear the least excited.”

Days after the heist $169,635 of the stolen payroll was recovered, leaving $20,000 mysteriously unaccounted for.  Onufery Wejda, John’s father, was booked as an accomplice after $46,480 was found in a mail can buried on his farm. An addition $5,000 was recovered from Wejda’s bank account and another $5,000 was hidden under his mattress.  The police found $92,530 at the Fillpkowskis’ house, $8,000 from one bank deposit, $10,600 from another bank deposit, and $2,000 was taken from the boy’s mother, which they claimed was her life savings. As well as, the $45,000 that Carl squirreled away.

Walter Fillpkowski contended that the remaining money was taken by the police.  According to the September 30, 1919 Chicago Daily Tribune, “There is $20,000 of the sum we had that hasn’t been announced as found. Did the police get it? Who took it? I am not permitted to say.”  He goes on to state the Inspector General James E. Stuart was nice to them and they promised not to say.  “But the statement that only $112,130 was found isn’t true.  We gave up $20,000 more than that. I divided the $234,000 myself, and you can figure where the rest went, can’t you?”

After Carl’s disappearance Acting Capt. Willard Malone, Detectives Adamowski and Beehan, and Postal Inspector Robert B. Mundelle questioned several of Carl’s female associates including Bessie Jasiak.  The postal authorities were dismayed by how the police handled the ongoing investigation.  The claimed that Bessie deceived her interrogators by giving the name Anna Olen.  Shortly after being released by the investigators she skipped town with Carl.

Bessie stated in an October 9, 1921 New York Times article after the robbery Carl purchased an automobile and went to the Pacific Coast.  The couple married in Los Angeles on October 12, 1919.  “Two weeks after the robbery we returned to Chicago a took a train to Los Angeles.  We were married there under the name Rahn.”  There is some discrepancy whether the two were married under Stieler’s name or Rahn’s.  I discovered that the Cook County Marriage Index has a marriage certificate for Bessie Jasiak and William Rahn dated September 10, 1918. 

After the ceremony, Carl and Bessie honeymooned in a rented bungalow at Big Bear Lake.  While on holiday Bessie became ill, at which time Carl rushed her back to L.A. for an operation.  The couple returned to Big Bear where Bessie recuperated from her procedure.  Once back in Los Angeles the couple stayed at the best hotels, dined at the best eateries, and hobnobbed with lavish spenders.  At one point Carl bought Bessie $5,000 worth of diamonds and enough fine apparel for several walk-in closets.

Carl, then, enrolled in Sidney “Sid” Chaplin’s, the brother of Charlie Chaplin, aviation school.  According to local historian Archibald McKinlay, “On one of his first flights he fell 200 feet and was slightly injured,” an event that was covered in Los Angeles newspapers.  When Carl eventually graduated from flight school, he bought an airplane valued at $6,000.  Two weeks later he crashed it in his need for speed.  He squandered $17,000 on an additional two airplanes and a race car eventually wrecking all three.

Bessie reported in the New York Times article, “We then went to the races at Tia Juana. Carl didn’t play the horses though.  He isn’t that sort.  When we came back to Los Angeles, Carl bought a $6,000 glider, put a $7,000 engine in it and then went touring through the West doing stunts at fairs and expositions.”  According to the 1920 U.S. Census William Rahn resided in L.A. with Bessie where he worked as a machinist in an aeroplane shop.

During this time, the couple travelled through, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, where they money finally ran out.  To survive Carl sold his beloved airplane for one-fourth of their initial value.  Carl and Bessie returned home for the holidays in December 1920, hitching a ride on freight trains.  Bessie stated, “Last Christmas we came back to Chicago.  We were here during the holidays and then went to Louisville.  We had only $1,000 when we arrived there.  That went fast and we went to Jackson, Tennessee.” 

The Stielers found themselves in Memphis where Carl did whatever odd jobs he could find.  He even took a job as a stunt pilot for $40 just so that the two love birds could continue eating.  Even Bessie took jobs washing and scrubbing floors just so that they could survive, but the struggle soon became too much for them to bear. 

After saving enough money to get to Chicago, Carl and Bessie arrived at Carl’s parents’ house on October 4, 1921.  According to McKinlay’s account, Carl confessed, “I’m tired of dodging police and I want to give myself up, father.  It was all right while the money lasted, but with it gone it has been hell and I want to take my sentence and get it over with.” Carl Stieler, Sr. responded by calling the police, who quickly came and arrested his son.  Bessie pleaded to be locked up with her beloved.

Carl Stieler, Jr. was sentence to hard time at the Leavenworth United States Penitentiary.  His prison number was 16714.  I could not locate how long Carl’s sentence lasted.  However, according to the 1930 and 1940 U.S. Census Carl was living with Bessie in Chicago.  The 1930 Census states that Carl was employed as a chauffeur and the 1940 Census claims that he worked as a mechanic.  After some time Carl and Bessie moved to Palo Alto, California, where Carl worked as a delivery man. 

Bessie Stieler passed away in Santa Clara, California on June 2, 1946.  Not one to take things slow, Carl remarried on November 20, 1946 to a woman named Theresa DePaul.  Theresa was born October 2, 1913 in Columbus, Kansas.  The couple moved back to the Midwest, residing at one time in Gary and eventually settling down in Porter County.  Carl Stieler, Jr., a Westville, Indiana resident, passed away on December 8, 1981 at the LaPorte Hospital.  Eight years later his wife Theresa died on February 12, 1989.

Carl Stieler, Jr. kept an itemized account of how he spent his share of the take in a diary.  He spent $19,600 on three airplanes, $8,850 for a glider and a motor to go with it, $1,700 on a race car, $1,250 to finance the International Aircraft Company, and $13,600 in living and traveling expenses.  McKinlay stated that Carl announced at the police station, “I’ve kept track of every dime I’ve spent.  I did that because I wanted the government to know what became of the money.  I knew they’d get me sometime and I’ve got the figures here in this little book.”