Matthew Roberts
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Has anyone here ever found any of the bank robbery money from the Richard Pietras robbery in 1998 ?
Cholla Tank, where a Chicago bank robber met a terrible end and left another mystery of the Superstition Mountains.
One of the strangest deaths to ever occur in the Superstitions was a bank robber who knew absolutely nothing about those mountains and chose to enter them in the hottest and driest time of the year.
Richard Otto Pietras was born and grew up in Chicago in the 1950’s and 60’s. By the time he was 15, Chicago police were well acquainted with him. On November 27, 1965 Richard and two friends drove from Chicago to Marathon, Wisconsin and robbed the Marathon National Bank of $12,904 dollars and attempted their getaway. They chose the final day of the Wisconsin deer hunting season to rob the bank and wore red clothing to blend in with the hundreds - thousands of other hunters that day. Their plan almost worked but an alert citizen saw the trio speeding down a back country road and alerted police. Richard and one other robber, Michael Cox, were caught while the third robber ran into the woods, avoided detection and was never captured.
Richard Pietras was tried and found guilty of bank robbery and due to his checkered past was sentenced to 30 years behind bars at the Waupun State Prison near Fond du Lac Wisconsin. Richard, not a model prisoner, received few years off for good behavior. Following his release, he again turned to a life of crime and spent another 5 years behind bars, this time for attempted bank robbery.
In August of 1998 Richard Pietras, newly released from prison, straight away robbed a Chicago Savings and Loan of about $10,000 dollars. This time however, Pietras didn’t stick around for Chicago police to pick him up again. He made his way straight to Mesa, Arizona where he hoped Chicago police and FBI agents would lose his trail. While in prison a cellmate from Arizona told Pietras about his home in Mesa and the remote and wild Superstition Mountains where a man could hide out forever without being found. Pietras took his cellmate at his word and planned to lose himself and the money in those mountains until the heat was off and the FBI turned their efforts to other matters.
Sometime in August or September of 1998, shortly after arriving in Mesa, Richard Pietras entered the Superstition Mountains with a .32 caliber pistol, a canvas bag containing $10,000 dollars and little else.
It is not clear what Pietras plan may have been. He knew nothing about the Superstitions other than what his cellmate may have told him. It is doubtful he took adequate food and water with him for even a short stay. Perhaps he planned to hide out in one of the many caves in the Superstition back country and live off the land using his pistol to kill small game and take water from tanks and water holes. Pietras whole life had been spent on the streets of Chicago or in prisons, nothing that would prepare him for spending even a day in the wild and unforgiving Superstitions.
Cholla Tank is a lovely spot in the Superstition Mountains located on the eastern edge of Hackberry Mesa. Cholla Tank is only about half a mile or so to the west of Boulder Canyon and is surrounded by Mesquite trees and a forest of chain-fruit Cholla cactus which gives the tank its name. During the early spring season a low rock dam backs up good water in the tank. But over the summer the tank dries up and will not see good water again until late winter. There is no other reliable water source in the area.
About a year and a half later, in early December of 1999 a horseman was out for a ride in the Superstitions and stopped at Cholla Tank to see if it held any water. He dismounted and was walking around about 75 yards from the tank in some scrub and mesquite when he came upon a pile of bones and a human skull. Authorities were soon on the scene and gathered the bones, some scraps of clothing, a belt and a .32 caliber pistol. Richard Otto Pietras had been found.
Over the next few months FBI agents and police tried to piece together Pietras movements upon arriving in Mesa. There was little to go on. They learned he arrived in Mesa and spent a few days there and then a day or two at an Apache Junction motel before entering the Superstitions sometime on or about August 30, 1998. There was no way to tell how long Pietras may have lasted in the mountains with temperatures at that time pushing 110 degrees and no good water to be had. One thing was known however, sixteen months after entering those mountains Richard Pietras had came back out.
The story doesn’t end with the finding of Richard Pietras, his sad tragic life and undoubtedly his terrible end. There is the $10,000 he took with him into those mountains. No money was recovered at the time his remains and other belongings were removed from the mountains. What became of the money from his final robbery? Did Pietras plan all along to simply stash the money in a secure hiding place and leave the mountains until he was sure he was in the clear, to return for it later? That he never really intended to hide out himself in those mountains and died in the terrible heat that he had no way of anticipating?
Stories have been told the robbery money was somehow later found and still other stories have been told of hikers and riders finding torn scraps of money, pieces of $50 or $100 bills in the desert around Cholla Tank and all the way to Hackberry Mesa. Are they the pieces of money from Pietras robbery? Or are they just stories being passed around Mesa and Apache Junction?
I have been to Cholla Tank and the spot where Pietras bones were discovered that December day in 1999. I searched for the possible robbery money hiding place and scraps of bills but never with any success. It’s been twenty years since Pietras death and if he indeed hid his loot somewhere out there in those rugged mountains, he probably hid it good and the secret and place of hiding died along with him leaving another mystery of the Superstition Mountains.
Cholla Tank, where a Chicago bank robber met a terrible end and left another mystery of the Superstition Mountains.
One of the strangest deaths to ever occur in the Superstitions was a bank robber who knew absolutely nothing about those mountains and chose to enter them in the hottest and driest time of the year.
Richard Otto Pietras was born and grew up in Chicago in the 1950’s and 60’s. By the time he was 15, Chicago police were well acquainted with him. On November 27, 1965 Richard and two friends drove from Chicago to Marathon, Wisconsin and robbed the Marathon National Bank of $12,904 dollars and attempted their getaway. They chose the final day of the Wisconsin deer hunting season to rob the bank and wore red clothing to blend in with the hundreds - thousands of other hunters that day. Their plan almost worked but an alert citizen saw the trio speeding down a back country road and alerted police. Richard and one other robber, Michael Cox, were caught while the third robber ran into the woods, avoided detection and was never captured.
Richard Pietras was tried and found guilty of bank robbery and due to his checkered past was sentenced to 30 years behind bars at the Waupun State Prison near Fond du Lac Wisconsin. Richard, not a model prisoner, received few years off for good behavior. Following his release, he again turned to a life of crime and spent another 5 years behind bars, this time for attempted bank robbery.
In August of 1998 Richard Pietras, newly released from prison, straight away robbed a Chicago Savings and Loan of about $10,000 dollars. This time however, Pietras didn’t stick around for Chicago police to pick him up again. He made his way straight to Mesa, Arizona where he hoped Chicago police and FBI agents would lose his trail. While in prison a cellmate from Arizona told Pietras about his home in Mesa and the remote and wild Superstition Mountains where a man could hide out forever without being found. Pietras took his cellmate at his word and planned to lose himself and the money in those mountains until the heat was off and the FBI turned their efforts to other matters.
Sometime in August or September of 1998, shortly after arriving in Mesa, Richard Pietras entered the Superstition Mountains with a .32 caliber pistol, a canvas bag containing $10,000 dollars and little else.
It is not clear what Pietras plan may have been. He knew nothing about the Superstitions other than what his cellmate may have told him. It is doubtful he took adequate food and water with him for even a short stay. Perhaps he planned to hide out in one of the many caves in the Superstition back country and live off the land using his pistol to kill small game and take water from tanks and water holes. Pietras whole life had been spent on the streets of Chicago or in prisons, nothing that would prepare him for spending even a day in the wild and unforgiving Superstitions.
Cholla Tank is a lovely spot in the Superstition Mountains located on the eastern edge of Hackberry Mesa. Cholla Tank is only about half a mile or so to the west of Boulder Canyon and is surrounded by Mesquite trees and a forest of chain-fruit Cholla cactus which gives the tank its name. During the early spring season a low rock dam backs up good water in the tank. But over the summer the tank dries up and will not see good water again until late winter. There is no other reliable water source in the area.
About a year and a half later, in early December of 1999 a horseman was out for a ride in the Superstitions and stopped at Cholla Tank to see if it held any water. He dismounted and was walking around about 75 yards from the tank in some scrub and mesquite when he came upon a pile of bones and a human skull. Authorities were soon on the scene and gathered the bones, some scraps of clothing, a belt and a .32 caliber pistol. Richard Otto Pietras had been found.
Over the next few months FBI agents and police tried to piece together Pietras movements upon arriving in Mesa. There was little to go on. They learned he arrived in Mesa and spent a few days there and then a day or two at an Apache Junction motel before entering the Superstitions sometime on or about August 30, 1998. There was no way to tell how long Pietras may have lasted in the mountains with temperatures at that time pushing 110 degrees and no good water to be had. One thing was known however, sixteen months after entering those mountains Richard Pietras had came back out.
The story doesn’t end with the finding of Richard Pietras, his sad tragic life and undoubtedly his terrible end. There is the $10,000 he took with him into those mountains. No money was recovered at the time his remains and other belongings were removed from the mountains. What became of the money from his final robbery? Did Pietras plan all along to simply stash the money in a secure hiding place and leave the mountains until he was sure he was in the clear, to return for it later? That he never really intended to hide out himself in those mountains and died in the terrible heat that he had no way of anticipating?
Stories have been told the robbery money was somehow later found and still other stories have been told of hikers and riders finding torn scraps of money, pieces of $50 or $100 bills in the desert around Cholla Tank and all the way to Hackberry Mesa. Are they the pieces of money from Pietras robbery? Or are they just stories being passed around Mesa and Apache Junction?
I have been to Cholla Tank and the spot where Pietras bones were discovered that December day in 1999. I searched for the possible robbery money hiding place and scraps of bills but never with any success. It’s been twenty years since Pietras death and if he indeed hid his loot somewhere out there in those rugged mountains, he probably hid it good and the secret and place of hiding died along with him leaving another mystery of the Superstition Mountains.
