reasure Island Supper Club is one of Dayton’s favorite restaurants. Located on Chief Woods Lane in Moraine, it opened in 1961. However, the actual building was built in the 1940’s and prior to Treasure Island, it was a popular local restaurant called Husti’s Bar & Grill.
Husti’s Grill was the site of a sensational robbery way back in 1954 that made the Dayton Daily News headlines for quite some time. Husti’s building is only a short block from Silas Tavern, where eight years earlier the tavern bar manager was robbed of $10,000 at gunpoint by famous gangster Bugs Moran. If you recall, we had a previous Moraine Historical Minute Show about Bugs and that robbery. Bugs is famous because seven of his Chicago North Side Gang were rubbed out back in 1929 by infamous Al Capone in what is called “The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre”.
Back to Husti’s. Husti’s Grill had many patrons from the Frigidaire plant located next door. On September 17, 1954, two armed bandits escaped with $35,000, big money in those days, around midnight after holding six persons at gunpoint and looting the cash-laden safe.
The two robbers entered, took a seat, and ordered drinks. Back in his office, owner of the grill Michael Touhy opened the safe five minutes later. Touhy had a large amount of money on hand to cash Frigidaire workers’ paychecks plus two days of receipts.
The bandits then made their move. They pulled guns and pointed them at the two bartenders. The older bandit went to cover the front entrance door. The younger bandit held a gun in each hand and ordered the bartenders and a patron to lay on the floor behind the bar. A young attractive waitress was forced, with a gun at her back, to open three cash registers while an older waitress was told to go to the safe and scoop out the bulk of the money.
As they left the building, the older crook pistol whipped a Frigidaire employee entering the front door. The bandits’ red convertible escaped the numerous roadblocks set up in the area and in several adjoining counties.
After diligent police work, a month later the FBI arrested Charles Ison, 24, in Paducah, Kentucky. Eventually, police arrested Ben Lett, 66, considered the criminal mastermind who fingered the robbery. Lett was sentenced in 1958 to 10 to 25 years in prison.
Seven years after the heist, the building was sold and converted to Treasure Island Supper Club.
That was a nostalgic look back at the Great Husti’s Bar & Grill Robbery.
