The Great Bahamian Gold Heist

The Great Bahamian gold heist of 1926 was one of the biggest robberies in the modern history of The Bahamas “ Robbery of a treasury” was the headline that was made in an Australian newspaper . The story even made front page in the New York Times . On March 17th of 1926 thieves broke into the office of the commissioners of currency in downtown Nassau blew open the safe and got away with about a ton of gold and silver. The stolen gold and silver was used to guarantee the value of Bahamian money. In 1926 anyone that was holding Bahamian notes could exchange them on demand for gold and silver. With the gold and silver missing this left the colony’s money technically worthless. Another interesting fact was that the robbery took place in Rawson Square, many wondered why the police in the central police station (which was 100 yards away) didn’t hear the explosion .Bahamians were starting to think that it was an inside job. in 1927 Spencer Williams a taxi driver , Orlando Ingraham and Ernest Hilliard Bowen who were both clerks in the audit office were sentenced to prison by the Supreme Court. They were from well known Bahamian families, one of their fathers was a member of The House of Assembly. Sir Etienne Dupuch wrote “ no one ever found out what became of the missing gold and silver. It was thought that someone else must have stolen it because the three men certainly didn’t have it when they came out of prison .“