The Golden Age Of Bank Robbers 1920s 1930s True Stories Of How They Lived And Died

"The Golden Age Of Bank Robbers" describes what occurred during this nation's darkest days. Bank robberies during the 1920's and 1930's were at an all time high. Many banks closed their doors after robbers cleared out their vaults. A new breed of folk hero was created: spiritual descendants of Jesse James and Billy The Kid. This book describes how outlaws such as John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd and other gangsters, lived and died. Lawmen that were under-paid and out-gunned were no match for the machinegun welding gangsters during the Great Depression. Many men died trying to capture these notorious outlaws. Details of bank robberies, shoot-outs with police, and daring get-a-ways are described with vivid details. This book describes eight different notorious bank robbers. Read about stories of their lives, crimes, and deaths. This fascinating book details the research of how these robbers were able to steal thousands of dollars from banks. Until now, many of these bank robbers have long been forgotten by history. By reading this book, you'll go back in time and ride with each gangster as he daringly robs bank after bank. "The Golden Age of Bank Robbers" is a colorful collection of historical anecdotes and descriptive accounts - including some great photographs - of the rambunctious crime spree that occurred mainly in the Midwest during the first half of the twentieth century. This book serves as both an opportunity for academic learning as well as a thorough resource for those personally interested in or passionate about a significant (and fast-changing) time in US history. Readers interested in American history and the unique drama of the 1920s and 1930s will appreciate the material covered in this book.

King of Heists is a spellbinding and unprecedented account of the greatest bank robbery in American history, which took place on October 27, 1878, when thieves broke into the Manhattan Savings Institution and stole nearly $3 million in cash and securities—around $50 million in today's terms. Bringing the notorious Gilded Age to life in a thrilling narrative, J. North Conway tells the story of those who plotted and carried out this infamous robbery, how they did it, and how they were tracked down and captured. The robbery was planned to the minutest detail by criminal mastermind George Leonidas Leslie—a society architect and ladies' man whose double life as the nation's most prolific bank robber led him to be dubbed the “King of the Bank Robbers.” The New York Times proclaimed the 1878 heist “the most sensational in the history of bank robberies in this country.” An absorbing tale of greed, sex, crime, betrayal, and murder, King of Heists blends all the richness of history with the thrills of the best fiction.

Paddy Mitchell grew up on Ottawa's Preston Street to become the leader of the Stopwatch Gang, earning a place on the FBI's most-wanted list by working with fellow Canadians Stephen Reid and Lionel Wright to steal about $15 million, mainly in the 1970s and 1980s, from more 140 banks and other sites across Canada and the U.S. The gang, which was famous for its speedy heists -- including the 1974 robbery of $700,000 in gold bars from the Ottawa airport -- took its name from the stopwatch worn by Reid. Incarcerated several times, he was a prison escape artist. Paddy Mitchell wrote about his life and adventures while serving his sentence in a maximum security prison in Leavenworth, Kansas. He died January 14, 2007.].

Desperate, Hermann Beier of Alliston, Ontario, turned to bank robbery in the early 1990s to pay his mounting bills and ended up being pursued in what became at the time the longest police chase in Canadian history. Gunned down in a hail of bullets, Beier lived to tell the tale and gain a chance to restart his life.

"Electrifying." --Booklist (starred) Willie Sutton was born in the Irish slums of Brooklyn in 1901, and he came of age at a time when banks were out of control. Sutton saw only one way out and only one way to win the girl of his dreams. So began the career of America's most successful bank robber. During three decades Sutton became so good at breaking into banks, the FBI put him on its first-ever Most Wanted List. But the public rooted for the criminal who never fired a shot, and when Sutton was finally caught for good, crowds at the jail chanted his name. In J.R. Moehringer's retelling, it was more than need or rage that drove Sutton. It was his first love. And when he finally walked free--a surprise pardon on Christmas Eve, 1969--he immediately set out to find her. "What Hilary Mantel did for Thomas Cromwell and Paula McLain for Hadley Hemingway . . . J.R. Moehringer now does for bank robber Willie Sutton." --Newsday "Thoroughly absorbing. . . . Filled with vibrant and colorful re-creations of not one but several times in the American past." --Kevin Baker, author of Strivers Row "[J.R. Moehringer] has found an historical subject equal to his vivid imagination, gimlet journalistic eye, and pitch-perfect ear for dialogue. By turns suspenseful, funny, romantic, and sad--in short, a book you won't be able to put down." --John Burnham Schwartz, author of Reservation Road and The Commoner

Drawing on media reports, interviews and court records, this book recounts the stories of women bank robbers in the United States, from the time of the Revolutionary War to the present. Ranging from sensational to poignant to comical, the heists of frontier outlaws, gun molls, insurrectionists, housewives, grandmas and young mothers "literally robbing for Pampers" are narrated as part of the social history of women in America.

The sensational true story of how a bank robber killed a man in a wild shootout, sparking a national debate around gun control and the death penalty. WINNER of the 2022 Brass Knuckles Award for Best Nonfiction Crime Book On July 24, 1964, twenty-four-year-old Matthew Kerry Smith disguised himself with a mask and a Beatle wig, hoisted a semi-automatic rifle, then held up a bank in North York, Ontario. The intelligent but troubled son of a businessman and mentally ill mother, Smith was a navy veteran with a young Indigenous wife and a hazy plan for violent revolution. Outside the bank, Smith was confronted by Jack Blanc, a former member of the Canadian and Israeli armies, who brandished a revolver. During a wild shootout, Blanc was killed, and Smith escaped — only to become the object of the largest manhunt in the history of the Metropolitan Toronto Police Force. Dubbed “The Beatle Bandit,” Smith was eventually captured, tried, and sentenced to hang. His murderous rampage had tragic consequences for multiple families and fuelled a national debate about the death penalty, gun control, and the insanity defence.

St. Louis, Missouri, is gripped by a rapid series of twelve bank robberies that leave local and federal authorities completely baffled. Dubbed the 'Boonie Hat Bandit' by the fascinated public, this infamous criminal methodically robs banks in broad daylight leaving no clues, causing everyone to wonder, Who is this man? Law enforcement is scrambling, and the robberies make national news. In September 2008, the gentleman bandit is apprehended and the stunned world finds out his shocking identity: Donald Keith Giammanco, a quiet, middle-class, single father of twin daughters. The big mystery remains: How and why would he enter a life of crime? In spite of repeated requests to tell his story, Keith Giammanco refuses to give any insight into his motivations for years...not, that is, until now. Written by the woman he falls in love with while in prison, Bank Notes delves into the thoughts and motivations of a notorious bank robber who is anything but the typical criminal, and the disastrous results of his robbery spree.