Book tells story of Robbery and Murder at the Cabinet Supreme Savings and Loan".
by Alan March
Even after fifty years, the words "Cabinet Supreme" generate a visceral response from residents of Delhi and its surrounding area.
It was the Summer of 1969. The Cincinnati Reds, America's first professional baseball team, were celebrating their centennial. Ohioan Neil Armstrong was the first human being to walk upon a celestial body other than the Earth. Thousands of Americans were fighting a determined enemy in Vietnam. Half a million people attended a "music and arts" festival in Woodstock, New York. A Massachusetts senator crashed his car off a bridge and swam to safety leaving his female passenger to drown at Chappaquiddick. In California, Cincinnati-born Charles Manson convinced a group he called his "family" to go on a murder spree leaving seven dead including movie star Sharon Tate.
Three petty criminals were looking for ways to make money in Delhi Township that summer. They ended up becoming mass murderers.
On Wednesday September 24, 1969, the three men arrived at the Cabinet Supreme Savings and Loan on Delhi Pike. An O'Reilly's Auto Parts store stands there now. The men sat in their car in the parking lot, waiting for the Cabinet Supreme manager Jerry Grueter to leave as he always had. When Grueter left, the men went into action.
Raymond Kassow was the driver of the borrowed convertible Chevy Malibu. His friends, Watterson "Red" Johnson and John Leigh were passengers. As they sat in the Cabinet Supreme parking lot, Kassow provided guns to his accomplices and said, "There's only one person in there, the teller. And we can't have any witnesses, you understand? No witnesses." Leigh agreed, and with Johnson, entered the building.
Moments after Leigh and Johnson went inside, Helen Huebner and her husband, Joe, arrived and parked in the lot. Joe noticed a dirty convertible with a man waiting in the driver's seat. He also saw two ladies arrive together in another car. The women were sisters-in-law Henrietta and Luella Stitzel. The Stitzels and Helen entered the bank lobby together just as Leigh announced the hold-up.
What happened inside and what led up to the crime is told in the true crime book, "No Witnesses, the story of Robbery and Murder at the Cabinet Supreme Savings and Loan." "No Witnesses" was written by veteran journalist Kate March, who covered the story when it happened, and retired Delhi Police Chief Howard Makin. "No Witnesses," has been praised by journalists, police, politicians, and the publishing industry for its detailed research and excellent story telling.
Copies are available at the Delhi Historical Society's Farmhouse museum or online at www.DelhiHistoricalSociety.org/shop.
Front page of the Cincinnati Enquirer Sept. 25, 1969.
Cabinet Supreme at 5162 Delhi Pike in 1969.
The building was razed many years ago.
O’Reilly’s Auto Parts at 5162 Delhi Pike today.