HELD AT GUNPOINT

Among the "defining moments" in the bottling company's history was the Aug. 12, 1938 robbery. During a crime spree from Chicago to Dallas, Floyd Hamilton, former driver and gunman for the legendary Bonnie and Clyde gang, and Ted Walters made their way to Main Street in Nashville. When their plans to rob First National Bank were unsuccessful, the pair then decided to hit the local bottling plant. Water superintendent H.B. Carruth and bottling company founder Forrest Wilson were in the plant's office discussing a scout project when the two criminals pulled guns.

"We want your money and we mean business," recalls Forrest of the legendary August event.  Hamilton held a gun to Wilson's head and ordered him to open up the safe. Delivery trucks had not returned to the plant yet so the robbers were only able to get $64 in cash - minus the checks that the bottler had convinced the pair to allow him to remove.

They were calm and deliberate in their movements. None of the other employees knew what was going on during the whole episode. 

Luckily no one was hurt and they only made out with less than $100 in cash but it was certainly one event in the Bottling company's history that would forever live on. 

Interesting to note, this hold up was reputed to be the last robbery to have been committed by former Barrow gang member Floyd Hamilton. His accomplice Ted Walters, was to be killed 33 years later by a Texas Ranger near Dallas, Texas. Hamilton was incarnated at Alcatraz. In April of 1943, He attempted to escape but never got off island. A couple of days after his attempted escape, he was found by authorities starving and suffering from hypothermia in a local cave. He served 22 years before his final release. 

Read more about the story in a 2012 article published in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, "Quenching Nashville's Thirst," featuring an interview with Ramon Wilson.