Isaac Davis Deposited Stolen Money

On the night of August 31, 1798, two thieves carried out America's first major bank robbery by stealing $162,821 from the Bank of Pennsylvania at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia. Officials instead jailed a man named Patrick Lyon, the blacksmith who had fitted the vault locks, even though he had left the city before the crime. A man named Isaac Davis exposed himself as one of the real robbers when he deposited the stolen money into several banks, including the one he had robbed. Davis confessed and received a pardon after returning the money, while Lyon spent three months in jail, contracted yellow fever, nearly died, and was later cleared.

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