19

ROBBERY!

Olin J. Cochran was a popular man in Windham, noted for many “firsts” in town as Windham began to emerge into the modern era in the first half of the twentieth century. First, he is recorded as having been one of the first farmers in town to purchase a motorized tractor. He was also one of the first poultry breeders in Windham in the early 1920s. When electricity arrived in town, there was not a single electrician, so Cochran, feeling he could fulfill a public need, became the town’s first resident electrician. Cochran also served as town clerk in the 1950s, operating his office out of his home.

It was an ordinary day as Cochran followed his usual routine on the night of Thursday, March 10, 1955. As it was not unusual for people to drop in looking for a license or permit of some kind, Cochran thought nothing of it when two men entered looking to register an automobile. Upon entering the office, one of the men quickly drew a pistol, holding Cochran and his wife at gunpoint. Looking for anything of value they could find in the office, the pair discovered a cashbox containing approximately $112 in cash. The two had clearly taken time to carefully plan the robbery, ripping out the phone line and warning the couple to not attempt alerting anyone.

Being satisfied that they had left nothing of value behind, the pair rushed to an awaiting car driven by an accomplice. However, Cochran did not heed their warning to stay in the office; instead, he grabbed his own .32-caliber pistol and ran after the men. He shot at the fleeing men several times, his shots being answered by a volley of bullets from the robbers. As the exchange of gunfire took place outside the Lowell Road home, Mrs. Cochran ran upstairs where a telephone was located to alert the police. The local and state police were alerted, and roadblocks were quickly set up along all main roads around the scene of the crime.

Although Cochran was physically unscathed from the incident, it was later noticed that a bullet had struck the door jamb of his home—a very close call for the courageous Cochran. The robbers were not so lucky. One was struck twice by Cochran’s gunfire. As the Cochrans awaited the arrival of the police to question them about the incident, they tried to recall the details of the men as accurately as they could. When the police began their investigation, it was discovered that the Cochrans had previously had an encounter with one of the robbers. Mrs. Cochran, who was a justice of the peace, performed a marriage ceremony between one of the gun-toting duo and a woman from Windham about six years before.

As the men were armed and very willing to use deadly force, every possible precaution was taken in an attempt to apprehend the men and their getaway driver. Police officials all over New England were alerted to the particulars of the holdup, as well as a description of the getaway car and the two fugitives, as described by the Cochrans. With the Massachusetts border being so close to the scene of the robbery, police from the nearby Massachusetts towns were on especially high alert.

The next day, the men were found by Lawrence, Massachusetts police in a hotel in that city, having checked in under the name of Roy Blake, the same alias that was used when pretending to register an automobile with Cochran. The Lawrence police brought the men to Windham for questioning by Chief Willis Low. When they were questioned separately, the men each declared they were innocent and denied any knowledge of the robbery. However, when they were brought in together for questioning, the three men confessed to the hold up and gave police an accurate account of the roles each had played.

As one of the men, identified as Robert G. Scully, was suffering from two bullet wounds, he was brought to Lawrence General Hospital, where he remained under police guard. At the hospital, doctors removed a bullet from just beneath his left shoulder blade, as well as another one lodged in his upper left arm. Scully was further identified as being twenty-eight years old and from Salem, New Hampshire. J. Casey, a twenty-six-year-old man also from Salem, and Frederick M. Cole, twenty-five years old, of Derry, were also taken into custody during the hotel room raid; Cole was the suspected getaway driver.

As it came time for Scully to be released from the hospital and sent to the Hillsborough County Jail, there was some suspicion that he may also have perpetrated the recent robbery of the Civic Theatre in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The theater cashier, Alberta Maddix, was called on by the police to make a preliminary identification of Scully. If she answered affirmatively that he matched the description of the man who held her up, then she was to be brought to Manchester, New Hampshire, to aid in establishing proof of his guilt.

However, Maddix was unable to positively identify Scully as the man who held up her theater at gunpoint, getting away with seventy dollars. In fact, Maddix found no resemblance between Scully and the real bandit. Unfortunately for the local police, they were not given the quick resolution to the case they had hoped for.

When the trio appeared in court on March 22, they all pleaded innocent and wanted their cases to be heard by a jury. Scully and Casey were charged with armed robbery, while Cole was charged with accessory to armed robbery. Judge Dennis E. Sullivan ordered each man held on $5,000 bail; otherwise, they would await trial in the Hillsborough County Jail.

On March 30, Frederick Cole was sentenced to four to seven years in the New Hampshire State Prison after being convicted of being an accessory to armed robbery. Even though he had previously pleaded not guilty, when he realized the evidence was overwhelmingly against him, he entered a guilty plea in the Hillsborough County Superior Court. It would be another four weeks before Scully and Jones were tried and sentenced on April 28. On that day, Scully and Jones both also decided against making a case for their innocence, entering guilty pleas before Judge John H. Leahy. Both were sentenced to six to ten years in the New Hampshire State Prison after being convicted of armed robbery.

It did not take long after the incident for the Cochrans to return to their usual routines at their home office, which also served as the center of their real estate and insurance business. Twenty-one years after the robbery, Cochran died at the age of eighty at the Alexander Eastman Hospital in Derry following an illness.