Mob FilesPublic-domain archive of American organized crime
Page 783 of volume 48 of the Statutes at Large, dated May 18, 1934, printing the opening of Chapter 304 on offenses against banks.
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Bank Robbery Act: 48 Stat. 783 (Chapter 304, Public, No. 235), 18 May 1934

One of the May 1934 crime bills: "An Act To provide punishment for certain offenses committed against banks organized or operating under laws of the United States or any member of the Federal Reserve System."

Date
1934-05-18
Kind
case-file
Source
Library of Congress, United States Statutes at Large, vol. 48
Retrieved
2026-10-12
Docket
48 Stat. 783 (73d Cong., 2d Sess., ch. 304; S. 2841; Public No. 235)
Rights
An Act of Congress, a federal work in the public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105. The text was read from the Library of Congress's digitised United States Statutes at Large; the page image stored here is the Library of Congress scan of that page.

Page 783 of volume 48 prints Chapter 304, with the margin “May 18, 1934. [S. 2841.] [Public, No. 235.]”: “An Act To provide punishment for certain offenses committed against banks organized or operating under laws of the United States or any member of the Federal Reserve System.”

Section 2(a) reads: “Whoever, by force and violence, or by putting in fear, […] feloniously takes, or feloniously attempts to take, from the person or presence of another any property or money or any other thing of value belonging to, or in the care, custody, control, management, or possession of, any bank shall be fined not more than $5,000 or […] imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both” (48 Stat. 783, sec. 2(a)). Heavier penalties apply where the offender assaults a person or puts a life in jeopardy with a dangerous weapon; killing a person, or forcing a person to go along, in the course of the offense carries imprisonment of not less than ten years or death if the jury so directs. The Act does not make federal jurisdiction exclusive.

The name “Bank Robbery Act” is the research request’s label; the printed title is quoted above. Bank robbery is not itself an organized-crime offense; the Act is filed with the other May 1934 bills, which the FBI’s history timeline speaks of together without naming this one.

itemKidnapping Act amendment: 48 Stat. 781-782 (Chapter 301, Public, No. 232), 18 May 1934One of the May 1934 crime bills. It amended the 1932 kidnapping Act to allow a death sentence on the jury's recommendation, unless the victim was liberated unharmed, and made failure to release a victim within seven days a presumption of interstate transport.itemFugitive Felon Act: 48 Stat. 782 (Chapter 302, Public, No. 233), 18 May 1934One of the May 1934 crime bills: "An Act Making it unlawful for any person to flee from one State to another for the purpose of avoiding prosecution or the giving of testimony in certain cases."itemStatement by President Roosevelt on signing the crime bills, 18 May 1934 (Franklin D. Roosevelt Library)The President's statement on signing the May 1934 federal crime bills, which he calls "a renewed challenge on the part of the Federal government to interstate crime." The marked-up draft includes the line "Federal men are constantly facing machine-gun fire in the pursuit of gangsters."