Faked Bank Robbery

Originally Aired: March 28, 1938 The Lone Ranger #806, "Faked Bank Robbery," opens with the despised moneylender Jed Kramer working late in his bank when a masked thief holds him up at gunpoint and steals ten thousand dollars. The robber reveals he's one of the many men Kramer has swindled through predatory lending practices, but his identity remains a mystery. When the alarm is raised, a townsman named Abe Turner claims to have seen someone running toward the livery stable carrying a box. The Lone Ranger and Tonto, suspecting Abe himself may be the culprit, secretly follow him home. Their suspicions prove correct when they watch Abe return with the stolen cash box. However, the situation becomes more complicated when they discover Abe's wife and sick baby living in desperate poverty. Confronting Abe inside his home, the Lone Ranger learns that the desperate father stole the money to save his starving family from Kramer's cruel lending practices. When the masked man insists the money must be returned, the desperate Abe refuses to give up what he sees as rightfully his, setting up a tense confrontation between justice and desperation.