Drama exploded across America's front pages on October 29, 1926, with bank robbers meeting deadly force in Detroit and scandal brewing in Los Angeles. In Detroit, four bandits attempting to hold up a branch of the Bank of Detroit were caught in brutal crossfire when a hidden guard opened fire from his concealed cage, killing one robber instantly and wounding another. The dead bandit was identified as Carl Porter, a former Detroit policeman, while his wounded brother Arnold, just 19, was also shot twice in the leg. Meanwhile, prosecutors in Los Angeles believed they'd found the smoking gun in the Aimee Semple McPherson kidnapping scandal: a trunk shipped from New York containing women's lingerie, an evangelist's robe, evening gowns, and most damning of all, a lock of auburn hair found in a boudoir cap. District Attorney Keyes confidently declared this evidence would "clinch his case" against the famous evangelist accused of faking her own kidnapping. The trunk allegedly belonged to fugitive radio operator Kenneth G. Ormiston, McPherson's rumored lover.

These stories capture the collision between America's criminal underworld and its moral authority during the Roaring Twenties. Banks were increasingly targets as organized crime flourished during Prohibition, leading to more sophisticated security measures like hidden guard cages. The McPherson scandal represented something even more explosive: the fall of a religious celebrity in an era when radio evangelists wielded unprecedented influence and America grappled with changing moral standards. The juxtaposition is perfect for 1926 America – a nation simultaneously embracing modern celebrity culture while clinging to traditional values, watching both bank robbers and evangelists make headlines for all the wrong reasons.

• A Chinese porcelain god, at least 250 years old, sitting in an F Street shop window was described as 'doing the Charleston' instead of killing the fish under his foot – even ancient artifacts couldn't escape the dance craze
• Eugene V. Brewster divorced his New York wife and married movie star Corliss Palmer within 21 hours in Mexico, with the mayor of Ensenada personally waiving the required 14-day waiting period
• Seventeen-year-old Elizabeth Hardesty stole dress patterns and customer names from her job at Louis Goff, Inc. to forge over $250 in checks – all because of an 'irresistible desire for beautiful clothes'
• Elinor Dorrance, daughter of the Campbell Soup magnate worth up to $50 million, punched a time clock at 31 cents an hour in her father's plant, explaining 'I'm not making cocktails, smoking and other pastimes of so many modern girls'

• The McPherson scandal mentioned here would drag on for months before charges were mysteriously dropped in 1927 – she went on to build the massive Angelus Temple and founded the Foursquare Church, still active today with 8 million members worldwide
• That Campbell Soup heiress earning 31 cents an hour? Her father's company had just introduced condensed tomato soup in 1897, and by 1926 was selling 16 million cans annually – today Campbell's sells over 2 billion cans of soup yearly
• The Teapot Dome scandal trial date being set involved Albert Fall, who would become the first former Cabinet member ever imprisoned for crimes committed in office, serving just nine months of his sentence
• Bank robberies like the Detroit incident were becoming so common that by 1934, the FBI would declare them a federal crime – this was still eight years away from Bonnie and Clyde's famous spree
• That steamer Everett burning off California with flames 50 feet high was part of the McCormick Steamship line, which dominated West Coast shipping until containerization killed the passenger steamship industry in the 1960s