Cholla Tank bank robbery money.

Matthew Roberts

Bronze Member
Apr 27, 2013
1,130
4,947
Paradise Valley, Arizona
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
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.
 

markmar

Silver Member
Oct 17, 2012
4,113
6,241
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Hi Matthew

From what I know, a person who is on a run, keep all the time the money as close is possible to his body, more if that sum fit in a pocket, so to speak, and don't attract much attention. If the robber would hide the money, then where were the other items he would carried with him, like a map, a can, a blanchet and other stuff which would helped him to survive? He hid them all with the money? Little difficult to believe.
Like you wrote, the Cholla Tank is not a summer attraction. On the other hand , the Second Water spring is a mile away and has some spots with shade to keep himself protected from the sun. Also game would be more in ambundance close to a spring. The two days in Apache Junction would been enough to prepare himself for a short quest of a good place to hide. And how he would cach the game, by shoting? How many rounds had and how many spent?
My opinion is he never has a chance to hide. He was guided there by someone and killed for the sum. Because he was unable to survive by his own knowledge in the wilds, he would need assistance from someone else, to bring him supplies and to tell him the news from the outside. Who would been the person who would take that big risk to be accused as an accomplice for a so small sum? Not a cellmate I suppose.
 

Last edited:

Barber..

Full Member
Jan 15, 2012
111
255
Kentucky
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
You know, that does make sense. If his cellmate was from there he could have possibly told him to get a hold of somebody he knew to help him, and that friend took him up in the mountains and killed him for the money.. I mean criminals do have criminal ways.
 

azdave35

Silver Member
Dec 19, 2008
3,606
8,097
You know, that does make sense. If his cellmate was from there he could have possibly told him to get a hold of somebody he knew to help him, and that friend took him up in the mountains and killed him for the money.. I mean criminals do have criminal ways.
maybe the cops got it and pocketed it:laughing7:
 

Al D

Bronze Member
Jul 23, 2011
2,066
3,521
Gold canyon AZ
Detector(s) used
DJI Air 2S
Primary Interest:
Cache Hunting
Perhaps the horseman who found him also found the money and kept that part a secret, $10,000 is a lot of cash
 

OP
OP
Matthew Roberts

Matthew Roberts

Bronze Member
Apr 27, 2013
1,130
4,947
Paradise Valley, Arizona
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
1792-299x___.jpg
Cholla Tank

Markar may well be right. I was there two weeks after the discovery of Pietras remains. A small monument of rocks marked the place they found him. I went to look for the missing money but found nothing. It was told at the time the money was recovered but later, according to Forest Service and at least one local person, the FBI and Sheriff continued to search the area for months after Pietras was found. I was told the FBI reported the money was recovered so people wouldn't go out and look for it before the FBI could locate it. About 6 months to a year later pieces of money began to be found by hikers in the area.
The possibility Pietras had help from someone in Mesa or Apache Junction is not unreasonable. It remains to this day a mystery to me. Only Pietras knows what happened and he isn't talking. Has anyone here found pieces of money in that area or know of others who might have ? I'm sure if someone did find the $10,000 its long gone and no one is talking.
 

OP
OP
Matthew Roberts

Matthew Roberts

Bronze Member
Apr 27, 2013
1,130
4,947
Paradise Valley, Arizona
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I was told by a friend who helped Jerry Sherwood with his pack mules about the pieces of money being found. Sherwood was an unlicensed packer in the Superstitions for many years. I never saw any of this money so don't know if the story was 100 percent true or not. I do know the FBI continued to search for months before giving up. I dont know what else they would have been searching for if not the money.

The way I saw it, Pietras must have cached the money in a hiding place either in some rocks or a crevice or buried it. Wherever he stashed it he would have had some kind of a landmark nearby to identify his hiding place. That's what I looked for, something that stood out that would have been a useful landmark.

Of course if as markmar said, he had someone with him who took the money and left him to die, it is long since gone. I should add that nothing in the bones found showed any foul play and the coroner guessed Pietras must have died of heat or thirst. Even that part is a mystery.
 

markmar

Silver Member
Oct 17, 2012
4,113
6,241
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I believe the FBI was searching for evidences like trash, campsite and belongings , to estimate the time Pietras was living in the mountains and if he had an accomplice. By finding nothing, seems Pietras died in the day one and had only what was found with him. It's not the FBI job to search for the money, but the insurance agents who would pay back the sum if it would not be find.
 

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Top