It was supposed to be an easy bank job. Instead, the bandits faced a 'murderous hail of lead'

SHAKOPEE, Minn. — It was all supposed to be so easy.

It was 10 a.m. on Dec. 9, 1929, amid the start of what would become the Great Depression. The three men were young, heavily armed, and only there for the loot — stacks of cash inside the First National Bank in Shakopee, Minnesota.

But nearby and out of sight, a posse of armed men lay in wait. They were led by Charles Brown, head of the Minnesota Bankers' Protective Association, and Scott County Sheriff Joseph C. Weckman. They had been tipped off about the potential robbery.

Brown sat in a parked car, armed with a Thompson submachine gun — a "Tommy gun." Weckman, armed with a shotgun and a rifle, and several heavily armed deputies, the police chief and several local businessmen had set up watch in the building across the street, keye