More on the Attempted Holdup of the Steadfast Rubber Payroll

​Another piece of the story: There was a hero. It was Ernest Houde, the paymaster’s assistant, who cleverly foiled the attempted robbery. It was Houde who was driving Paymaster Myron L. Williams from the First National Bank at 27 Main Street to the Steadfast Rubber Company on Oliver Street. Imagine the two men driving in Houde’s car. From the bank they turn right onto Elm Street. Here they notice a strange looking man on the sidewalk. From there it was no distance at all to Pleasant Street where they see another strange man standing. Suddenly a black sedan shot out from Pleasant Street, almost hitting the rear of Houde’s car. By the time the car had passed over the railroad tracks Williams and Houde knew something was seriously wrong. Their car was being forced to the curb. Mr. Williams said, “It’s a holdup, Ernest.”
Houde immediately reversed the car and swerved around the aggressive car, driving to the side entrance of the Stedfast plant, and rushing into the building with the money where the police were soon called. Two company employees had seen two masked men jump in the black sedan and speed away. They were unable to see the license plate number.
Another witness saw the sedan turn onto Washington Street at the end of Elm. The witness saw the plate number and soon the information flashed on the short-wave radio of the State Police barracks in West Bridgewater. In less than twelve hours the three men were in custody. 

Approximate route of car chase. Steadfast Company in yellow.

Steadfast Rubber Co. The parcel of land on which the company was originally located belonged to the Ames family, later General Electric, and after GE moved to Lynn, ca 1926, Steadfast. Today the property is a professional building and is occupied by Shovel Town Brewery, ECAT (Easton Community Access Television), and other businesses.
 
Anne Wooster Drury
 
Sources: March 20, 1937 Brockton Enterprise (as published in Reminiscences Vol. 3, 2012), EHS&M