Elliott Phillips Jr. A man wearing a motorcycle helmet and sunglasses enters the Grist Mill Plaza branch of Woronoco Savings Bank in Southwick, Massachusetts, at 10:15 a.m. on Thursday, July 13, 1989. Seeing the two female bank employees assisting customers, he takes his place in the queue, standing directly behind Paul Jensen and an elderly female customer waiting for the next available teller. (The man's attire raises no suspicions, as it was common practice for motorcyclists and dirtbike riders to keep their riding gear on when briefly entering stores or businesses, especially in Southwick, thanks partly to its famed motocross track.) As Paul and the woman approach the counter, the man pulls out a handgun and demands cash from the tellers. He holds the gun close to Paul's face, so close that Paul can read its serial number. The man stuffs the money in his jacket as quickly as the tellers can hand it over. With a total of $2,700, he says, "I've got enough money for t...

At about 3:15 p.m., on January 29, 1988, a teller at the Bank of New England - West branch in the Village Green Shopping Center on College Highway in Southwick, Massachusetts, tripped the bank's silent alarm. Moments earlier, a light-colored Pontiac Bonneville pulled up to the back of the bank. Two Caucasian men got out and walked along the side of the building to the front. With their faces covered, they entered the bank through the front door, surveillance cameras capturing their every move. One of the men is carrying a sawed-off shotgun, the other a revolver. The men order the five or so bank employees to freeze. The man with the handgun leaps over the counter. Waving his gun around, he orders the frightened tellers to empty their drawers into his bag; forgoing the vault, the bandits exit as quickly as they came. The armed robbers flee northbound on Route 202 into neighboring Westfield, Massachusetts, with an undisclosed amount of money - later determined to be $31,732. When the...

 Matthew Laflin, Successful Businessman and Philanthropist Matthew Laflin Matthew Laflin was born in Southwick, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1803. He worked with his brothers on his family's farm and attended school whenever possible. The Laflin family had deep roots in gunpowder; Matthew's grandfather manufactured saltpeter (sodium/potassium nitrate) for the Massachusetts militia during the Revolutionary War, and he built a gunpowder mill in Southwick. Matthew's father also owned a gunpowder mill. When his father purchased a woolen textile mill, Matthew learned that business, too. (Following his grandfather's death in 1810, the Laflin Powder Company was greatly expanded, eventually becoming the Laflin & Rand Powder Company, later acquired by DuPont.) Matthew took a strong interest in the family's gunpowder business, becoming a traveling salesman and earning a good amount of money, despite his first year in business ending with $800 in debt after his cargo exp...

Charles Raymond Goddard was born in Southwick, Massachusetts, on March 25, 1888. In 1909, at age 21, he was attending Yale. To pay for law school, he sold women's hosiery door-to-door. When he knocked on the Widow Treat's door in Hartford, Connecticut, the seventy-year-old did not buy any of his products. Instead, she presented him with a surprising proposition he could not easily refuse. Charles obtained a marriage license on August 24, and he and the Widow Treat wed on September 1, with the bride wearing a thick veil. Edwin A. Treat, the widow's son, was old enough to be Charles' father. Having read about the marriage in his local newspaper, he went to court on September 9 in an attempt to have a conservator appointed to his mother's vast estate, claiming that Charles was after his mother's money. Charles and his new bride received a summons to appear in court regarding the conservatorship. Meanwhile, a prosecutor who wanted Charles to answer perjury charges h...

Arthur Dean was born in Southwick, Massachusetts, in 1878. He attended Harvard, and two years after graduating, he took his degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Yale, eventually joining the faculty. Dr. Arthur Dean When Dr. Dean transferred to the then College of Hawaii as its second president in 1914, it was a small, struggling college with only 21 students. Before resigning in 1927, he transformed the college into the University of Hawai'i® with 874 students. (He left his position to give his full attention as the director of the Hawaii Pineapple Canners' Experiment Station, the Pineapple Producers Cooperative Association.) The school held its twentieth annual commencement on June 2, 1931, honoring Dr. Dean by renaming its biological building Arthur Lyman Dean Hall and installing a plaque for its former president. Recently, Dr. Dean's work came under fire from Black Lives Matter, who says that he took credit for African-American chemist Alice Augusta Ball's discovery sur...

Shirley Hippert Arrest Photo On December 8, 1947, twenty-one-year-old Shirley Hippert of Congamond Lake, Southwick, Massachusetts, traveled to New York City and checked into the Hotel Taft as Kathleen Hippert. On the 9th, she went to Lord & Taylor, where police arrested her for grand larceny of goods valued at $2,500. Police accused Hippert of stealing merchandise from high-end department stores, including Saks Fifth Avenue, and returning the stolen items for cash and credit. Authorities said she committed the thefts over 18 months, signing the slips in her sister Ruth Raschilla's name, which brought an additional charge of forgery. Detectives found another $300 worth of stolen goods, reportedly from Macy's, in her hotel room. They contacted authorities in Southwick, asking them to search her home for more stolen articles. Hippert had no criminal record. She initially told police that she was a housewife but later added that she was a divorcee who committed the crimes to su...

Della Artin John and Della Artin lived in Granville, Massachusetts, with their five children. The small Artin farm served as a lodging house for the workmen of the new Springfield waterworks at nearby Borden Brook. John started displaying symptoms of insanity in 1908. In June, he attempted to kill himself by drinking carbolic acid; this led to a short stint in the Northampton State Hospital. Authorities deemed his condition improved, and they released him from the asylum sometime around October; gross overcrowding may have played a part in their decision as the hospital was a dumping ground for the poor, elderly, and homeless. John had a bit of a jealous streak, something the workers said was without reason. But John saw otherwise, having found some letters he thought more than justified his suspicions. On the evening of December 3, he complained bitterly about Della's conduct to Officer Maloney, sharing his supposed evidence with the lawman who said he was powerless to act.  Della...