WEBVTT - Fix Up, Look Sharp: Willie Sutton 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:04.320 Ridiculous Crime is a production of My Heart Radio. Hey Saron, 0:00:04.640 --> 0:00:07.160 it's up, Elizabeth Dotton that so much. How you doing 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:10.039 these days? It's been pretty good. How are your holiday 0:00:10.080 --> 0:00:14.160 is looking awesome? I guess nice. You're looking forward to. Sure, 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:18.160 I'm glad you got that. You have to look forward to, Dude, 0:00:18.200 --> 0:00:21.840 I just had a wicked black Friday. Not really, I 0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:24.000 just just listened to a lot of soul music and 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:28.280 I called it black Friday. Well you know it's ridiculous. 0:00:28.280 --> 0:00:30.760 Oh girl, I got one for you. Yes. I was 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:32.080 thinking about this the other day and I went and 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:34.400 looked up because I wanted to be certain, and it 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:37.239 was worse than I remembered. There are a bunch of 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:42.000 names in New Zealand that are considered illegal, like illegal 0:00:42.120 --> 0:00:45.600 names like people have been denied the right to have 0:00:45.720 --> 0:00:50.280 the name Stallion or Yeah Detroit as a as a 0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:53.760 first name for a child. Another one fish and Chips. 0:00:54.440 --> 0:00:58.520 Then there was Keenan, Got Lucky and my one of 0:00:58.520 --> 0:01:02.960 my favorites, sex Fruite. But the reason why is because 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:05.840 I remembered. Originally there was a nine year old girl 0:01:06.040 --> 0:01:10.040 who asked the court to emancipate her, and the court said, 0:01:10.200 --> 0:01:12.120 girl we got your back. Do you know why the 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:15.000 court was so eager because her parents had named her 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:20.520 Telula does the Hula from Hawaii. That was her that's 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:23.360 her name, her first name, like Telula does the Hula 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:26.520 from Hawaii. What's going on down there? Yeah? Now, interestingly, 0:01:26.760 --> 0:01:29.360 the ones I told you that we're made illegal were 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:32.880 all those ones you know, sex fruit and yeah Detroit, Yeah, 0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:36.000 Detroit is fantastic. There were a couple of others that 0:01:36.040 --> 0:01:38.160 they allowed through the New Zealand legal system because you 0:01:38.200 --> 0:01:40.640 have to appeal to apply and say can I have 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:42.360 this name if you get some strange name, and so 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:45.520 some of the names that they permitted were twins named 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:50.640 Benson and Hedges. There was a girl named Midnight Shardonnay 0:01:52.280 --> 0:01:57.760 and finally, my favorite number sixteen bus shelter and permitted name. 0:01:58.280 --> 0:02:01.200 I think that I might new job needs to be 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:07.080 the one who approves names because yeah, yeah, it's popping 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:09.720 off down. But you know, our celebrities are pretty much 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:12.320 like New Zealand offenders. I mean, what did Jason Lay 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:17.800 the skateboarder name is kid Pilot inspector That's right, exactly. Yeah, 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:22.120 who had a middle name They named the kid Treehouse 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:26.200 so like I can't talk. Oh so you know that 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:28.320 I don't want to judge, but I love to judge, 0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:32.680 So go with your Those are ridiculous, thank you. You 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:35.120 know what else is ridiculous if you got some laid 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:37.720 on me. I do getting caught for your crimes because 0:02:37.760 --> 0:03:01.200 you just look to fly. Oh word, this is ridiculous 0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:06.600 crime A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heist cons. 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:14.160 It's always murder free and one ridiculous Zarin, Elizabeth, are 0:03:14.160 --> 0:03:17.679 you familiar with Sutton's law? Yeah? Wait, is that the 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:21.240 one about the banks? No? That was that the Horton principle. 0:03:21.800 --> 0:03:23.320 I don't know. You robbed the banks success where the 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:27.720 money is? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, Sutton's law, Well, it comes 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:30.200 from it's taught in medical school. Sutton's law is that 0:03:30.240 --> 0:03:33.880 when you're making a diagnosis, the first thing, first things first, 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:37.360 you always consider the obvious. So, um, it's like the 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:40.680 anti doctor House. I've heard that's a TV show. I 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:44.119 don't I wouldn't know, I don't. So anyway, Sutton's law. 0:03:44.640 --> 0:03:47.400 They want to like, you look at the obvious. Um, 0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:50.880 and the best way to diagnose and treat things as 0:03:50.920 --> 0:03:54.160 quickly as possible is to like elimitate, because this is 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:57.680 essentially a medical albums. When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, 0:03:57.720 --> 0:04:00.400 not zebras, it's like the one of the things they saying, 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:02.640 it's a good one. The law, though, is named after 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:05.560 a bank robber, a man by the name of Willie Sutton. Okay, 0:04:06.120 --> 0:04:08.080 And so it was said that he was asked by 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:10.480 a reporter why he had done the things he done 0:04:10.520 --> 0:04:14.000 did and why did he rob the banks, and he said, 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:16.160 because that's where the money is. Exactly. He was really 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:19.360 brazen about it. It's basically the no doi theory, and 0:04:19.560 --> 0:04:22.919 so it makes sense. So Sutton, though he would later 0:04:22.960 --> 0:04:26.680 deny having ever said that. Yeah, but then he commented, quote, 0:04:26.720 --> 0:04:29.279 if anybody had asked me, I probably would have said it. 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:32.880 That's what almost anybody would say. It couldn't be more obvious. 0:04:33.600 --> 0:04:35.920 So they love that expression in Washington. You always hear 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:38.160 them say that. It's like a it's a political philosophy 0:04:38.200 --> 0:04:41.120 as well. Yeah, yeah, so exactly what is it the 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:48.359 it's keep uh, keep it simple, stupid? Oh yeah, we kiss. Yeah. Anyway, So, um, 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:50.480 now we have these medical students who were being taught 0:04:50.560 --> 0:04:54.080 Sutton's law, learning to take things plainly confront the obvious, 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:56.680 all thanks to a legendary bank robber like that. Yeah, 0:04:56.920 --> 0:04:59.520 I love him. Bank robbery influences, you know, medical science 0:04:59.640 --> 0:05:01.960 is as it should be contin you think about it, 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:05.320 medical science started with grave robbery. So you know, I'm 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:07.719 just saying they're getting back to the very true full circle. 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:17.520 Leonardo da Vinci and Dicapriod Leonardo's let's scratch our chins 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:21.200 and say who was Willie Sutton? Okay, do it three 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:28.719 to who was was Suton? William Francis Sutton Jr. Born 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:32.680 June thirtieth, nineteen o one, So be ready to celebrate 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:38.000 his birthday, Brooklyn, New York, third or five kids. He 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:41.599 came from a really like hard scrabble tough family of 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:45.120 Irish immigrants, and they lived in a really hard scrabble 0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:49.480 tough Irish neighborhood Brooklyn. Uh. He was taught really early 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:52.719 on the importance of a code of silence, and he 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:57.039 said that influenced his entire life. So he said later 0:05:57.080 --> 0:05:58.760 when he was talking about his life that if someone 0:05:58.800 --> 0:06:01.279 was picked up by the cops, quote, all they ever 0:06:01.320 --> 0:06:05.560 got out of him was the exercise, meaning that the 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:08.440 cops could beat a person senseless, but they would never talk. 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:12.720 Get that workout. That's how it worked in his neighborhood. 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:15.360 He was arrested once and the police beat him for 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:19.320 five days straight trying to get him to name his accomplices. 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:25.839 This is I think before some of the reforms, yea, Miranda. 0:06:25.960 --> 0:06:29.080 So certainly he never talked five days getting whipped on, 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:32.279 tell me who you're working with? Silence. So he got 0:06:32.279 --> 0:06:35.880 his irish up the other way, and then he had 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:38.160 it at home, right, so that his family once gave 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:43.960 him the literal silent treatment. Um he uh. He stole 0:06:44.040 --> 0:06:47.120 his teacher's lunch money when he was twelve, and they 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:49.960 were His family was so appalled that he would steal 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:52.839 a teacher's lunch money that no one in the family 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:55.200 spoke a word to him for an entire week. He 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:57.600 was just like a blank space to them. He said 0:06:57.600 --> 0:06:59.920 it was the worst punishment he'd ever had. He'd rather 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:04.800 take a beating. Yeah, I've been given not for that long. 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:07.160 That's a week. So he's this tough little kid, right, 0:07:07.200 --> 0:07:10.200 and he swam in the East River with his friends 0:07:10.200 --> 0:07:15.320 like you know, amongst untreated sewage trash, Like yeah, he's 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:18.800 just George Carlin medical advice exactly. So he gets out 0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:21.679 of high school when he's fifteen, and no one else 0:07:21.800 --> 0:07:24.240 in his family had ever completed their schooling, and you know, 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:26.040 which is common at the time, but there was a 0:07:26.040 --> 0:07:28.440 big deal for him to graduate from high school. He 0:07:28.440 --> 0:07:31.240 gets a job at a bank as an office errand boy, 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:36.240 and like he's super chill, nice guy, personable. He becomes 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:39.400 pals with all the cashiers, the tellers, and it was 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:41.520 from them that he learned like the inner workings of 0:07:41.560 --> 0:07:45.000 a bank, all like the various processes and the vault 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:48.560 protocols and such like that. So he becomes this insider. 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:51.480 And then World War One approaches and he gets a 0:07:51.560 --> 0:07:55.720 job at a munitions factory in West Virginia, so he relocates. 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:58.560 So one day he's there, he gets a telegram from 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:02.600 his mom telling him that the draft board had ordered 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:07.640 him to report for induction. He's been drafted. He right, 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:10.560 and he's actually, you know, pretty excited about this. So 0:08:10.640 --> 0:08:13.560 he leaves the munitions factory job heads back to New York. 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:16.320 As he's getting off the train there, he keeps hearing 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:18.480 people say this word that he had never heard, and 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:23.200 he didn't know the meaning of it. Armistice, So he 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:25.720 asked around and they're like, um, it meets the wars 0:08:25.760 --> 0:08:28.880 over So yeah, he finds out. Um he's thrilled, but 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:32.360 he's a little disappointed that Europe. Yeah exactly, he didn't 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:35.840 get to go over there. Three months later, he gets 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:38.240 arrested for the first time. He's like, well, let me 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:39.840 get the crime and then well and listen to this. 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:44.559 He's charged with burglary, grand larceny and abduction a fifteen 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:47.360 year old girl named Bessie Ender. Was she into it 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:49.920 and they just threw the book at him because you 0:08:49.920 --> 0:08:52.600 know they could, and yeah, oh yeah, So here's what happened. 0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:58.040 He's seventeen when exactly they were in love the moment 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:01.000 they met each other. It was just instant. And her 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:03.640 mom had died when she was little, and her dad 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:06.560 was like really controlling and only let her spend time 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:08.720 with other girls. That's all who she could play with, 0:09:08.800 --> 0:09:12.640 hang out with. No boys allowed. Um. So they meet though, 0:09:12.640 --> 0:09:15.880 and they're just like stars, little hearts floating in the 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:18.480 air around them. They're like the sid Nancy there Will 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:22.600 and Bessie. Yes, exactly, they knew the only way that 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:25.000 like a sheltered girl with a single dad and the 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:27.520 young bad boy from the wrong side of the tracks 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:30.920 could make a go of it. They decided to elobe. 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:34.640 So how are they going to do this? Well, they 0:09:34.679 --> 0:09:38.360 go into her dad's office and steal money. She's like, 0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:40.560 I know where the safe is, I know the combination. 0:09:40.640 --> 0:09:44.920 Let's do this. They walked out with six dollars. Yeah 0:09:45.120 --> 0:09:48.120 so little dowry. Yeah. So like all right, look, let's 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:50.240 start our lives together. They walk out on the street. 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:53.560 Willie sees this guy. Excuse me, sir, um, can you 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:56.680 tell me where the nearest marriage license bureau is? The 0:09:56.720 --> 0:10:00.760 guys like looking at him, recognizes them. It's like, okay, 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:04.959 the man had seen a bulletin about a guy from 0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:07.280 Brooklyn who said that he'd been robbed and his daughter 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:11.079 had been kidnapped. Willie fits the description. He turns out 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:18.240 Willie had asked the chief of police. Chief of police 0:10:18.400 --> 0:10:25.160 immediately an So Willie gets jail, goes to trial, ordered 0:10:25.200 --> 0:10:30.040 to never associate with Bessie again. But they're married. They 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:33.280 didn't make it, so you know they're they're split up. 0:10:33.800 --> 0:10:36.160 They did see each other one more time, but it 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:38.600 was an accidental thing. It was at the dance hall 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:43.160 where they had first met. So they're there, Um, Bessie's 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:46.400 there with a bunch of girlfriends and Willie's you know, 0:10:46.480 --> 0:10:49.080 looking cool in a corner. Um. They see each other 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:51.600 and they like walk towards each other, like out of 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:55.280 a Lifetime movie. And then he says, I'm gonna leave, 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:57.440 and if you want to talk, I'll be waiting two 0:10:57.440 --> 0:10:59.960 blocks away. And then just like cool guys out the door, 0:11:00.520 --> 0:11:02.959 which direction of two? She had to go in a 0:11:03.040 --> 0:11:06.240 two block radius. It took a long time. Um, So 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:08.800 she shows up. She finds him right, she sniffs, she 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:11.800 smiths the air um and then he sees that the 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:14.600 engagement ring he'd given her was on a chain around 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:17.040 her neck. So she's still wearing it, but just like 0:11:17.160 --> 0:11:20.720 in secret. And she's like, you know, my father has 0:11:20.800 --> 0:11:23.880 arranged for me to marry this guy, Jack String, you know, 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:27.800 heir to the Straying warehouses, the Crown the Crown Heights Strings, 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:33.240 not the Crown Heights. She like, Bessie, her dad arranges us. 0:11:33.320 --> 0:11:35.320 She says her dad, Look, I'm on love with his 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:39.560 Jack String. I mean no offense, Jack, but whatever. The 0:11:39.640 --> 0:11:41.840 Dad's like, look, you are no longer a woman of 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:45.000 virtue after hanging out with Willie. We know what what happened, 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:47.840 and no one's going to marry you, so I had 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:53.400 to arrange this brutal and so they like, well, I 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:55.040 guess that's just how it's going to work out. And 0:11:55.040 --> 0:11:58.720 they parted ways and he was just heartbroken. Damn. Yeah, 0:11:58.920 --> 0:12:01.240 so you kind of wish around for a while. He 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:04.360 winds up getting a job at the Ptmoors Shipyard as 0:12:04.400 --> 0:12:11.320 an apprentice burner. What was I like that. I know 0:12:11.360 --> 0:12:14.240 a lot of people have been apprentice burners. I know 0:12:14.440 --> 0:12:19.400 some actual journeyman burners and some full unionized burners. I 0:12:19.440 --> 0:12:22.800 know you do. Um. So he's like cutting steel plates 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:27.040 with a settling torch. Um, he's a super hard worker, 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:29.040 really well liked. I mean that's like something you'll see 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:30.880 is this guy is just everyone likes. This guy is 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:34.200 a good dude. Um. He learns really quickly, picks up 0:12:34.200 --> 0:12:37.400 a ton of overtime. He had a really good work ethic. 0:12:37.559 --> 0:12:41.040 But then he starts to realize that burner knowledge might 0:12:41.160 --> 0:12:43.800 kind of mesh well with the bank knowledge that he has. 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:48.960 He's like, have torch will travel. So in four he 0:12:49.000 --> 0:12:54.600 became an apprentice to Edward Doctate, a master burglar and safecracker, like, 0:12:54.800 --> 0:12:58.280 check us out, I know banks, I know burning Yeah, 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:03.040 they were burning in it was it okay. So Tate 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:05.959 had this rule when it came to safe cracking, always 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:10.200 work out of town, don't work at home. So the 0:13:10.240 --> 0:13:12.840 first time they worked together was in Boston. They broke 0:13:12.880 --> 0:13:16.040 into a drug store to crack open the safe um. 0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:19.480 Sutton was like, you know, apparently they worked in New 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:23.720 York together, Pennsylvania. So Tate and his crew, including Sutton, 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:26.480 they pull off jobs all over the East Coast. It 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:28.560 was good while it lasted, but you know, he was 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:30.760 only with Tate for like a year. They parted ways 0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:35.520 in Over the next five years, Sutton just goes into overdrive. 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:38.000 He robs a bunch of places. He's working by himself 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:39.520 at this point. He would pick up like one or 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:43.200 two guys here or there. Yeah he's got like he 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:50.040 does banks, jewelry stores, a life insurance company, a florist store. Yeah, yeah, 0:13:50.040 --> 0:13:55.960 he's going the Tom McCann. Nothing was safe. He goes into. 0:13:56.120 --> 0:13:58.120 Any time they've got like a register or safe, he's 0:13:58.160 --> 0:14:02.600 on it. So it was the October robbery of the 0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:05.720 Rosenthal and Son jewelry store that led to his first 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:08.240 major arrest. So he gets all dressed up as a 0:14:08.240 --> 0:14:12.880 telegraph man. Hello, that's that's how they sound. And he 0:14:13.000 --> 0:14:15.520 goes all the casual like up to the store. Hello, 0:14:15.640 --> 0:14:21.560 there was a singing telegram man. Yes, yes, So the 0:14:21.600 --> 0:14:24.240 porter opens the door for the telegram and really pulls 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:27.160 out a gun and works with that little round pillbox 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:30.400 hat and like a little short jacket, A little short 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:33.360 jacket looks like maybe like and no pants of course, 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:38.280 of course, want to pure appropriately picture it. That's what 0:14:38.360 --> 0:14:40.800 it is. So he forces his way, and he's got 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:45.120 this accomplice, Marcus Bassett with him, who's a Bassett Hound. 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:48.440 He's got a dog dressed up as a telegram so 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:50.600 they pushed their way in. He's got a gun. He 0:14:50.640 --> 0:14:53.760 forces his way in. I should note that like he 0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:55.440 carried a gun on all these things, but it was 0:14:55.520 --> 0:14:59.080 never loaded. Yeah, I'm smart, you know. So, um, each 0:14:59.080 --> 0:15:01.200 employee as they are arrived for the day, he'd find 0:15:01.240 --> 0:15:03.760 out what their job was and if they had access 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:07.840 to the safe and then if they didn't. And they're 0:15:07.920 --> 0:15:11.440 arriving at work, he has like he has like a clipboard. 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:15.000 He's like name position, okay, and do you know no, 0:15:15.080 --> 0:15:17.880 you don't tie them up over there. He's got like 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:21.560 a partition rope next. So he as they come in, 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:24.160 they're like that, you know, I'm just the window wiper. 0:15:24.360 --> 0:15:26.760 I don't know to a bank in a while. Have 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:30.080 you is a jewelry store, whatever jewelry store. Every jewelry 0:15:30.080 --> 0:15:32.080 store has a window wiper, a lot of glass. You 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:34.640 got a fair point there. So they're like, come on 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:36.760 and like so he ties them up over the side 0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:38.760 until someone who comes in. It's like, yeah, I can 0:15:38.800 --> 0:15:41.400 do the safe. I mean, I don't know which is 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:43.240 wiser to say yeah, I can do it and just 0:15:43.800 --> 0:15:45.680 get rid of it, or be like, I have no idea, 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:51.040 I just vacuum here. True. So he finds someone who 0:15:51.040 --> 0:15:53.440 could open the safe. They come in, he forces them 0:15:53.480 --> 0:15:55.720 to open her up, gets out with a hundred and 0:15:55.720 --> 0:15:58.560 twenty nine thousand dollars worth of jewelry. That's like two 0:15:58.560 --> 0:16:01.120 and a half million dollars today. That's a fat score. Yeah. 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:04.720 And so there were apparently like undisclosed clues at the 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:07.800 scene of the robbery that led the detectives to Sutton 0:16:08.000 --> 0:16:11.760 and Bassett. Um. The cops trailed Bassett's wife to a 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:15.600 diner where she was meeting up with Sutton, and Sutton 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:19.480 gets arrested and sentenced to thirty years in Sing Sing prison, 0:16:21.520 --> 0:16:23.560 just north of New York City, right on the banks 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:26.440 of the Hudson. When we come back, I'm gonna let 0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:49.640 you know how Sing Sing panned out for Willie Sutton's 0:16:49.680 --> 0:16:53.480 Aaron Elizabeth, welcome back. Thank you, glad you could join 0:16:53.560 --> 0:16:55.600 me quite the host. Thank you, thank you so much. 0:16:56.080 --> 0:16:58.360 Please have a seat. Can I get you something to drink? 0:16:58.640 --> 0:17:01.320 Number three so I don't know if I'm next, No, no, no, okay, 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:05.080 you're gonna have to wait. When we left off, Willie 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:08.800 Sutton gaining cred as a serious robber man. That's the 0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:12.280 officials been sent up to Sing Sing Sing Sing robber man. 0:17:12.920 --> 0:17:16.000 He had an accomplice. Um, they just robbed a jewelry 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:20.520 store for almost a hundred and thirty thousand dollars in jewelry. Um. 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:23.040 He gets caught sent to Sing Sing. Here's the thing. 0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:29.000 He escaped from Sing Sing December eleven. So he remember 0:17:29.080 --> 0:17:32.600 he's just thirty years so he lasts like to um. 0:17:32.680 --> 0:17:35.760 He and another inmate, guy named John Egan, they used 0:17:35.760 --> 0:17:39.040 hack saw blades to remove the lower bars of their cell. 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:43.359 I can't be easy. No, cannot imagine that's easy because 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:44.760 if you just have the blades, because you got to 0:17:44.760 --> 0:17:46.040 figure out a way to hold the blade and going 0:17:46.080 --> 0:17:49.159 back and forth. Right now, at this point, like Sutton 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:52.560 because of his work with doctorate, he's a skilled lock pick. 0:17:53.040 --> 0:17:54.720 But I guess that they're like, we just got a 0:17:54.760 --> 0:17:56.720 star way out of this one. But so they cut 0:17:56.720 --> 0:17:59.360 out of cells and then Willie uses his lock pick 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:02.960 skills to go through the subsequent doors. Um. There is 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:06.080 speculation that he had inside help from a prison guard, 0:18:06.160 --> 0:18:08.480 but it's it's cooler to imagine that he just pulled 0:18:08.520 --> 0:18:11.080 a bobby pin out of his hair or a Kirby 0:18:11.080 --> 0:18:13.760 grip for those across the pond, and just made quick 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:16.840 quick work of the locks. That's way more fun. Get 0:18:17.200 --> 0:18:20.760 no help. Um, So Willie and John Egan, they're creeping 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:23.679 out when they run into a trustee, and a trustee 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:27.639 is an inmate who is it has a job, and 0:18:27.720 --> 0:18:29.760 it's usually like if you don't have a violent crime 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:32.159 and you've been like well behaved, you know they'll let 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:35.200 you do it. Um run into him. They tie him 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:37.640 up and left him in the basement under the mess 0:18:37.640 --> 0:18:40.240 hall and just kept going They're like, don't tell a word, 0:18:40.880 --> 0:18:42.280 and he's like, I don't know what you're talking about. 0:18:42.440 --> 0:18:45.000 So they tie him up. Then they find two ladders 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:48.800 and they tie them into one ladder using wire and 0:18:48.840 --> 0:18:53.560 they go over the west wall. So um. And then 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:56.240 at that time of night, the area really wasn't under 0:18:56.320 --> 0:18:58.520 the watch of guards like the one that they jumped 0:18:58.520 --> 0:19:00.600 out of, and they had to get a way car 0:19:00.680 --> 0:19:04.040 waiting for him because Willie's wife had visited a couple 0:19:04.040 --> 0:19:06.040 of days before, and the two of them cooked up 0:19:06.040 --> 0:19:08.400 this whole plan. So at this point, he's married, he's 0:19:08.440 --> 0:19:10.719 gotten over Bessie. You can see my face. I'm over here. 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:15.320 I'm like, wait, is best No, Bestie's got a boring life. 0:19:15.680 --> 0:19:19.960 So they get in the getaway car. Four days into 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:22.960 their newfound freedom, Sutton and Egan, they get to work. 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:25.120 No time to waste. You know, is there in these 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:28.000 banks aren't going to rob themselves? I've heard that about banks. Yeah, 0:19:28.600 --> 0:19:35.280 Target Manufacturers, Trust Company. Yeah. So on December fifty two, 0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:37.800 Willie Egan and then these two other dudes that they 0:19:37.840 --> 0:19:40.639 picked up headed into the bank. So you said December 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:43.280 what day? So like four days after he breaks out, 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:45.800 four days, four days right, he's like, I need some 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:48.560 some road money exactly, and he's just itching for it. 0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:51.800 So the four of them they get in there. They 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:56.000 have revolvers, a machine gun, and tear gas and this 0:19:56.080 --> 0:19:59.200 is like the twenties, right, It's like a Thompson machine 0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:02.159 gun is one of those. Yeah, that's the sound it 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:04.639 made because they didn't have bullets in it. Um, So 0:20:04.680 --> 0:20:09.439 that's what they had to yell, po po um. So 0:20:09.560 --> 0:20:13.160 they walk out with thirteen thousand dollars pretty good. They 0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:16.120 had a getaway driver waiting, not the wife, someone else, 0:20:16.960 --> 0:20:19.040 and as they left to like tossed the tear gas 0:20:19.119 --> 0:20:22.840 grenade behind them into the bank for good measure, yours 0:20:22.920 --> 0:20:27.040 and then exactly. So the next bank job was the 0:20:27.119 --> 0:20:31.359 corn Exchange National Bank and Trust in Philadelphia. My bank 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:38.080 corn Exchange. So that was on February three. So Sutton 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:41.160 he gets dressed up as a postman and he talks 0:20:41.200 --> 0:20:43.720 his way into the bank before it opened. He tells 0:20:43.800 --> 0:20:47.119 the banker, look, I really I got to deliver this man, manager, like, 0:20:47.240 --> 0:20:51.159 I I got I have so much corn on the 0:20:51.200 --> 0:20:55.160 cob in my truck, so that there's corn in this bank. 0:20:55.200 --> 0:20:57.880 And that's the corn Exchange. So they're like, I've got 0:20:57.960 --> 0:21:06.320 corn and then I exchange it for corn? Can I 0:21:06.320 --> 0:21:09.840 get baby corn? Change? Yeah? You want it broken up? 0:21:09.880 --> 0:21:11.840 Can I get these cobs of corn broken up into 0:21:11.880 --> 0:21:15.159 baby corn? Do they do? Is baby corn? That's just 0:21:15.280 --> 0:21:18.119 like an eighties thing baby Cornyea, I think it's pretty 0:21:18.200 --> 0:21:20.840 much not really a thing anymore because it's like, not 0:21:20.920 --> 0:21:23.040 I'm gonna go get a can of it, just go 0:21:23.119 --> 0:21:26.640 to town on it sitting the driveway. Um anyway, so 0:21:26.760 --> 0:21:30.560 where was that corn exchange? So they are like, we've 0:21:30.560 --> 0:21:32.760 really got to deliver this mail, bro And they're like, okay, 0:21:32.760 --> 0:21:36.400 come on in, it's corn time. And so then Willie 0:21:36.400 --> 0:21:38.560 and Egan they tie the guard up and they wait 0:21:38.600 --> 0:21:40.879 for the bank manager to arrive to open the vault. 0:21:41.520 --> 0:21:45.919 Here's the problem. The bank guard total pro He gets loose, 0:21:46.560 --> 0:21:49.120 and not just that, he gets his hand on one 0:21:49.160 --> 0:21:52.400 of their tear gas bombs blue like sets it off. 0:21:53.040 --> 0:21:54.960 So Willie and Egan they had to make a run 0:21:55.040 --> 0:21:57.080 for it. They didn't get any sweet corn. They just like, 0:21:57.480 --> 0:21:59.480 wait a minute. So the guard sets it off for 0:21:59.520 --> 0:22:02.240 all of the Yeah. He was just like yeah, he 0:22:02.400 --> 0:22:05.520 was like we're one, Like we're all going down with 0:22:05.560 --> 0:22:08.720 the ship here. I just want about it here. So, yeah, foiled. 0:22:09.440 --> 0:22:12.480 Later that same month, Willie he goes after another bank, 0:22:12.520 --> 0:22:15.440 the Lafayette National Bank in New York. Um. He had 0:22:15.440 --> 0:22:17.400 to give up on that one too the day of 0:22:17.960 --> 0:22:21.080 because Egan didn't show up at the getaway car. Where 0:22:21.160 --> 0:22:27.520 was Egan in the morgue he got he was shot 0:22:27.600 --> 0:22:30.920 and killed in a shooting at a speakeasy. So I'm 0:22:30.920 --> 0:22:35.880 going to count that as point five percent murder because yeah, 0:22:35.920 --> 0:22:38.239 but it was not part of the story, wasn't. It 0:22:38.320 --> 0:22:41.960 wasn't Willie Sutton who did it. It was like, it's 0:22:42.000 --> 0:22:46.200 an adjacent it's point five it's a half a percent, okay, okay. 0:22:46.320 --> 0:22:49.119 As then Willie like after that, he just cools his 0:22:49.200 --> 0:22:52.200 heels for six months. He's rocked by this. It's upsetting, 0:22:52.200 --> 0:22:56.000 it's traumatic. Yeah. So but like he at the same time, 0:22:56.040 --> 0:22:58.800 he just couldn't resist the robbing in the ceiling. Well, 0:22:58.840 --> 0:23:01.160 you know, you gotta do what you could. Yeah, So 0:23:01.440 --> 0:23:03.879 a lizard can't be and stop being a lizard exactly. 0:23:04.359 --> 0:23:06.640 So here's the thing I should mention that Willie had 0:23:06.680 --> 0:23:12.199