Death of Herman Lamm

Date: December 16, 1930 • Location: Clinton, United States

German-American gangster Herman Lamm killed himself during a botched robbery attempt in Clinton, Indiana, to avoid being captured by police.

Herman Karl Lamm, known as Baron Lamm, was a German-American bank robber. A former Prussian Army soldier who emigrated to the United States, Lamm believed a heist required all the planning of a military operation. He pioneered the concepts of "casing" a bank and developing escape routes before conducting the robbery. Using a meticulous planning system called "The Lamm Technique", he conducted dozens of successful bank robberies from the end of World War I.