We usually think of banks as safe places to store our money. In the US, the government insures the money you put into a bank, so that if the bank does have to close, you still get your money. But people haven’t always seen banks as trustworthy, especially in the wake of financial panic like the Great Depression. And that insecurity has led some people to keep their money hidden at home. Of course, the minute anyone knows about a large quantity of hidden money in a home, the homeowner becomes vulnerable.
For example, in Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Adventure of the Retired Colourman, Sherlock Holmes gets a new client, Josaiah Amberley. Amberley says that his much-younger wife has run off with a lover, Dr. Ray Ernst. According to Amberley, they’ve stolen a large amount of cash and some securities that he had stowed away in a fortified strong room in his home. Holmes himself is busy with another case, so he asks Dr. Watson to do the ‘legwork’ for this case. Watson makes his own observations, and when he reports back, Holmes makes the deductions he needs to find out what has happened to Amberley’s wife, her lover, and the money. It seems that Amberley’s strong room didn’t prevent the money from being spirited away.
In Edgar Wallace’s The Clue of the New Pin, we are introduced to a shady businessman called Jesse Trasmere. He is well known for not trusting banks, so he stores all of his money in a seemingly impregnable room in his basement. One day, a drunken old man called Wellington Brown, who’s an associate of Trasmere’s, comes to the house, demanding that Trasmere hand over a large amount of cash. Not very long after, journalist Somers ‘Tab’ Holland and Inspector Carver find that Trasmere has been shot, and his body found in his locked basement. The key to the room is inside the body, and the room is so well fortified that it’s impossible to see how anyone could have got in and killed the victim. The gun is missing, too, so there’s no easy evidence such as fingerprints. It’s not going to be an easy case, and it shows that even a carefully secured room can be vulnerable.
Agatha Christie’s Mrs. McGinty’s Dead is the story of a charwoman who is found murdered in her home. The most likely suspect is her lodger, James Bentley. And the motive seems straightforward. Mrs. McGinty was known to distrust banks and kept her money under a floorboard in her home. The money’s gone, and Bentley’s assumed to be guilty. In fact, he is arrested, tried, and scheduled for execution. However, Superintendent Spence believes Bentley may be innocent, so he asks Hercule Poirot to investigate. Poirot travels to the village of Broadhinny, where the murder took place, and begins to look into the matter. He finds that more than one person had a very good motive for murder.
Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood is the fictional retelling of the 1959 murders of Herb and Bonnie Clutter and two of their children, Nancy and Kenyon. The murderers, ex-convicts Richard ‘Dick’ Hickock and Perry Smith, were caught, arrested, convicted, and imprisoned, and the novel tells their stories as well as the stories of the Clutter family members. A former cellmate of Hickock’s once worked on Clutter’s farm. He told Hickock that the Clutters had a safe in their home where they stored US$10,000. Hickock made plans to find the family and steal the money. Smith joined Hickock, and the two set out for Kansas. When they got to the Clutter home, they murdered all four Clutters after finding that there was no safe and no money. In this case, just the possibility that there might be a home safe with a lot of cash was enough to seal the Clutters’ death warrants.
There’s also Stephen King’s Finders Keepers. In that novel, we meet famous writer John Rothstein. A recluse, he stores a great deal of cash, plus a number of notebooks, in a safe in his home. As you can imagine, the notebooks themselves are worth a fortune, so there’s a lot at stake. Petty criminal Morris Bellamy and two other people break into Rothstein’s home, find the safe, and force Rothstein to give them the combination. Rothstein is killed during the robbery, and the criminals get away. Years later, Pete Saubers discovers the money and notebooks that Bellamy hid. Thinking he can help his financially struggling family, Pete starts sending them money anonymously. It’s a risky choice, though, and Pete soon finds himself in far more danger than he could have imagined.
There are, of course, risks when your money is in a bank. And there are all sorts of crime novels (and real-life examples) in which money is stolen from people’s accounts. But as crime fiction shows us, keeping your money stored away at home is not always a safe alternative.
*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from Pink Floyd’s Money.
I’ve read enough GA crime to know that banks aren’t always the safest place to keep your money, Margot! But stashing it around your house can be so dangerous – the temptation is just going to be too much for some dodgy types…!
That’s very well put, KBR! On the one hand, we know that banks are not impregnable. They may be more secure these days than they were, but that’s no guarantee. But honestly, you’re right that keeping money about your home is almost always a very big mistake. The minute it gets out that you have some money in your home, you risk so much!
I’d be a rubbish safe-cracker. I used to work for Chubb and we had one of their old safes in the office – the kind where you turn the dial and listen for it to click. Even though I knew the combination, I could never get it to open! So my advice to people who want to keep their money at home is – get the oldest-fashioned Chubb safe you can! 😉
I didn’t know you’d worked for Chubb, FictionFan! I’d always heard they were ultra-reliable, and now I have evidence of it! I don’t think I’d be much of a safe-cracker, either, but especially not with a truly properly made safe. If I ever have millions lying around my home, I’ll be sure to look up Chubb!