Dog Day Afternoons

May 30, 2011 7:16 PM

“I have to admit, I admired her style,” . . . “the most awesome robbery ever.” . . . “twisted, intellectually bright, dysfunctional individuals who outsmarted themselves” . . . "from threats to farce to violence" . . . "He smelled really good." . . . Slate and Longform.org team up to being you the tales of five remarkable bank heists.
posted by chaff (21 comments total)

One of these, previously
posted by Blasdelb at 7:18 PM on May 30, 2011 [2 favorites]

Cherry paused. “And there’s another thing that was going on with her,” she finally said. “This is hard to explain, but I think Peg was starting to feel, well, like her life was slipping away. Do you know what I mean? It’s the way women get sometimes. You get to a place in your life and you start looking back and you say to yourself that it’s not working out the way you hoped. You think everything is slipping away and you feel—I don’t know—crazy. You want to scream or something.”

Cherry paused again. “I think Peg missed being wild at heart.”

Man, that's like a movie, only better.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:27 PM on May 30, 2011 [5 favorites]

Sad to read how Peggy Jo Tallas's story ended.
posted by Songdog at 7:35 PM on May 30, 2011 [1 favorite]

Only able to read the first one, about Peggy Jo, but that was just fantastic. Thank's for posting this.
posted by CancerStick at 7:46 PM on May 30, 2011

"So one day, after waiting for Emily and his daughter to leave home, he went out back with a huge can of bear mace and a bowl of milk. He sprayed a cloud and stepped into it, like he had seen women walk into a cloud of perfume. “The fucking instant it hits, it hurts like hell,” Curcio says. “I'm like, Okay, this works.” To neutralize the acid, he splashed his eyes with milk, just as he read to do online."

This is not what tear gas or pepper spray is.
posted by Blasdelb at 7:51 PM on May 30, 2011

David Grann, "The Old Man and the Gun" (abstract unfortunately). Being made into a film, about Forrest Tucker.
posted by stbalbach at 7:52 PM on May 30, 2011

There is no good explanation for the Collar Bomber story. It's a Cohen Brothers film made manifest.
posted by SPrintF at 7:55 PM on May 30, 2011 [2 favorites]

"Man, that's like a movie, only better."

Seems all to realistic,

"The truth was that no one was exactly sure who was in the RV. The police dispatcher had reported that the bank robber was possibly a white female, but the officers could not rule out that the robber was one of their black suspects who had disguised himself as a woman. Nor could they rule out the possibility that other members of the bank-robbing gang were inside the RV, all of them wielding guns."

Way to stay classy Texas.
posted by Blasdelb at 8:20 PM on May 30, 2011

"team up to being you"

except, you know, not
posted by mwhybark at 8:21 PM on May 30, 2011

It would be nice if it (the Peggy Jo one) was a movie. As it is, it's just not cute. All those law enforcement hours spent trying to figure out her crimes, increased worry among bank employees and their families, and here this woman is just wandering around playing with her privilege for years. On the one hand it's intriguing, on the other, man that lady can go to hell.
posted by cashman at 8:26 PM on May 30, 2011

"team up to being you"

Shit.
posted by chaff at 9:12 PM on May 30, 2011

"The team of federal agents investigating the collar bomb mystery hadn’t been paying much attention to the Roden murder. It was a local matter and seemed to have nothing to do with their case."

Right … and a note connected with the Roden case started off "this has nothing to do with the Wells case"? Surely it doesn't take a genius to think that maybe that might not be 100% true?
posted by kenko at 9:26 PM on May 30, 2011

I highly recommend the book, Ballad of the Whiskey Robber. It's a great read on the life of Attila Ambrus. He was one of the worst pro hockey goaltenders ever (once gave up 23 goals in a game), a bank robber and folkesque hero in Hungry.
posted by zephyr_words at 9:55 PM on May 30, 2011 [1 favorite]

I think my favorite bank robbery story is the Australian guys who tried to rob a bank and escape via snowboard to a waiting limo. They got caught because the tellers recognized their accents. Derp.

The craigslist robber was pretty epic too. But he left tons of evidence that would probably have been riddled with DNA. Pretty dumb
posted by delmoi at 10:21 PM on May 30, 2011

Read them all! Thanks for posting this. Great stories.
posted by vidur at 12:11 AM on May 31, 2011

Collarbomb robbery is the scariest, the idiot behind those Saw movies must have read this in the paper. Moral of the story: never agree to let anyone who is clearly bipolar attach anything to your person.
posted by Mooseli at 2:21 AM on May 31, 2011

A dude busts into a bank, whips out his gun and yells "Give me all your money, or you're all science."

"Don't you mean 'history'?", says a customer.

"Don't change the subject!", says the irate robber.
posted by hal_c_on at 2:36 AM on May 31, 2011 [5 favorites]

One of my favorite bank robber stories is the "Hollywood Bandit". He built and lived in a complex of treehouses.

"The treehouse, which took several months to construct, was built around seven cedars. It was three stories high, and reached 75 feet above the ground. There was a fireplace, electricity, hot and cold running water, and a working bathroom. "You’re like on this awesome sailboat, tucked into serenity," says Meyers."

posted by futz at 6:43 AM on May 31, 2011

"It would be nice if it (the Peggy Jo one) was a movie. As it is, it's just not cute. All those law enforcement hours spent trying to figure out her crimes, increased worry among bank employees and their families, and here this woman is just wandering around playing with her privilege for years. On the one hand it's intriguing, on the other, man that lady can go to hell.
posted by cashman at 8:26 PM on May 30 [+] [!] "

Eh, this seems a bit harsh. Peggy Jo seems to have made very certain that she wouldn't hurt anyone during her robberies, with the possible exception of her reckless getaway drive on the last one.
posted by Mr. Excellent at 1:28 PM on May 31, 2011

futz: "One of my favorite bank robber stories is the "Hollywood Bandit". He built and lived in a complex of treehouses."

Futz, I knew a woman who lived down the street from Hollywood. She was totally gobsmacked at the way things turned out.
posted by mwhybark at 5:29 PM on June 1, 2011

mwhybark, did she actually know him or has she seen the treehouse?
posted by futz at 8:46 AM on June 5, 2011