George Leonidas Leslie

George Leonidas Leslie (1842 – 1878), who sometimes used the names George Howard and George Herbert, was an American bank robber and architect. He was involved in 80% of the bank robberies in the United States from 1869 to 1878, and was known as "The King of Bank Robbers".

Leslie grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, and graduated with an architectural degree from the University of Cincinnati. He created his own successful architectural firm, but Leslie closed the firm and left for New York City in 1869, due to ostracism over paying to get out of serving the Union Army in the Civil War. In New York, he met Fredericka "Marm" Mandelbaum, who organized a gang to rob the Ocean National Bank, and Leslie was put in charge. Almost $800,000 was stolen from the bank in June 1869, the largest robbery in New York City history at the time. Later, he was involved in the Northampton Bank robbery of January 1876 with Thomas Dunlap and Robert Scott, who stole $1.6 million. Dunlap and Scott were caught in 1877, and each were sentenced to twenty years in prison.

In February 1878, his gang attempted to rob the Dexter National Bank in Maine, which lead to the death of a cashier. The gang became paranoid that Leslie would talk to the police, and threatened him. In response, Leslie delayed the upcoming Manhattan Savings Institution robbery he had been planning with them, hoping to do it with another gang. Leslie was killed before the robbery could be pulled off. Police theorized someone in the gang murdered him over the Maine incident. The gang did the Institution robbery by themselves in October. Its investigation lead authorities to finding out about Leslie's criminal career. Both the Northampton and Institution robberies were the largest-paying robberies in history at the time.