Next week marks 55 years since the Bangs bank was robbed, leading to the eventual conviction of a group of local country music performers who may have taken the outlaw country concept a little too far. Billy Nelson of Brownwood was kind enough to send me some details about this incident. It does sound a bit like a sad country song. Things went from bad to worse, in this case ending in a train wreck of disaster, but not without a thread of hope through it all.
At approximately 10:30 am, on Thursday, June 11, 1970, according to an article in the Brownwood Bulletin from that date, three armed men held bank staff and one customer at gunpoint at the First State Bank in Bangs. The robbers were dressed in all black suits, wearing sunglasses and gloves. Mrs. Billie Williams, a member of the bank staff, said that she and another employee were forced at gunpoint to move to the back of the bank. A second gunman held the bank president Byron Levisay and customer Worth Thomason at gunpoint, while a third man scooped up the money from the teller windows and the bank’s vault. Witnesses stated that the gunmen spoke very little, but warned the victims to stay quiet as they made their escape aided by a 4th robber assigned to drive the getaway car. The gang fled in what was, according to one witness, a white 1962 Pontiac which had been hidden in a nearby shed. The thieves made off with $22,000.
My friend Billy Nelson remembers the robbery well, as he was banking at the First State Bank when it happened, and had a premonition something bad was going to take place. “I had just graduated high school on May 14, 1970. I then went to work with my dad near Gail Texas in a rock quarry. We worked away for two weeks then traveled back home every other weekend. Once home on Saturdays, I would deposit my paycheck in the Bangs bank. In early June of 1970 while I was inside the Bangs bank I received a “knowing”. I just knew the bank would soon be robbed. If I told the bank personnel they wouldn’t believe me anyway. Then after it was robbed I’m sure the FBI would be very interested in how I just somehow knew about a future bank robbery,” Billy said.
Four members of the up-and-coming country band Rick Sikes and the Rhythm Rebels were charged with the Bangs robbery, along with holding up several other banks, including one in Rising Star. Strangely, the band was an early vanguard for what became the outlaw country genre. Rick Sikes might well have become a household name if not for some regrettable mistakes. Sikes’ career is described on the Texas State Historical website and reads in part: “Rick Sikes and the Rhythm Rebels—which included his brother Bobby Sikes on keyboard, bassist Tommy “Red Hoss” Jenkins, drummer Johnny “Preacher” Williams, Clyde Graham on steel guitar, and lead guitarists J. C. Griffin and Gary Marquis. In 1964 he had a weekly music show broadcast on KPAR- TV in Abilene. The highlight of his career came in 1968 when he was asked to back Bob Wills on tour.”
The Rhythm Rebels were found guilty of the robberies. Sikes was sentenced to a whopping 75 years in federal prison. One of the accused had taken his own life in a jail cell in San Angelo while awaiting trial. Sikes served time in the notorious Leavenworth Penitentiary. Despite the hard sentence and tough conditions at the prison, he continued to play and write music while incarcerated, forming another band and even recording some music. Sikes was released from prison in August 1985, and subsequently lived a peaceful and productive life in Coleman with his wife Jan. He owned a business called Sikes Signs, and was a well liked member of the community up until his death in 2009. Rick’s wife, Jan, has written several books on the events surrounding Rick’s life and the love they had for each other through the dark times surrounding the bank robbery and conviction.
The First State Bank in Bangs is no longer in operation, but the building that housed the bank is still standing, and appears to be in use. Bad decisions robbed more than a bank on that fateful June morning, more than half a century ago. Who knows? Part of the history of country music itself might have been quite different if that robbery had not taken place.
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Diane Adams is a local journalist whose columns appear Thursdays on BrownwoodNews.com. Comments regarding her columns can be emailed to [email protected].
