Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: On a sunny, Texas afternoon in nineteen ninety two, an
Speaker 1: old cowboy in a wide brimmed white hats and gray
Speaker 1: suit walked into the Mesquite Nations Bank. The town was
Speaker 1: so small only one teller was working. She smiled at
Speaker 1: the old man when she saw him in line and
Speaker 1: beckoned him to the window. How can I help you today?
Speaker 1: Cowboy Bob pulled the brim from his hats a little
Speaker 1: lowering without having to look that someone would review this
Speaker 1: moments later, when they checked the security cameras. The teller
Speaker 1: smiled again. While she waited for a response. Cowboy Bob
Speaker 1: stayed calm, never fidgeting, only sliding a note on the
Speaker 1: counter between them. The teller's face paled when she read
Speaker 1: the message. She turned, shaking and placed every last bill
Speaker 1: from her cash strawer, a grand total of five, three
Speaker 1: hundred and seventeen dollars inside a bag from the side
Speaker 1: of her desk. When the teller handed the bag over,
Speaker 1: she watched horrified as Cowboy Bob dug inside and removed
Speaker 1: a hidden die pack from a stack of bills. He
Speaker 1: handed it back to her with the tip of his
Speaker 1: hat and strode back out of the bank. Former FBI
Speaker 1: agent Steve Powell was stumped. The Nation's Bank of Mesquite
Speaker 1: was the third in a line of robberies, all committed
Speaker 1: by the mysterious Cowboy Bob. Steve looked over the footage again.
Speaker 1: By the thief's calm demeanor, how knew that he was
Speaker 1: looking for a professional cowboy. Bob's gray beard and strange
Speaker 1: gait was another clue the man they were looking for
Speaker 1: would be at least sixty and maybe older. Steve Powell
Speaker 1: spent most of his thirty year career chasing bank robbers,
Speaker 1: so Cowboy Bob shouldn't have been much of a problem.
Speaker 1: He was making me start to pull my hair out,
Speaker 1: Powell said, How could this thin, little, dried up cowboy
Speaker 1: be whipping us this bad time after time? In September
Speaker 1: of nineteen ninety two, a few months after Cowboy Bob
Speaker 1: robbed the nation's bank. Steve Powell received a call the
Speaker 1: Cowboy Bob had just left the first Gibraltar bank in
Speaker 1: Mesquite was seventeen hundred dollars. Powell loaded into his car
Speaker 1: and raced to the scene to interview witnesses and review
Speaker 1: the footage. When he arrived, he learned that Mesquite's first
Speaker 1: interstate bank had just been robbed as well. This time,
Speaker 1: Cowboy Bob had hit the jackpot, leaving with thirteen thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: and so Powell scrambled towards First in State and hit
Speaker 1: the first brake in his case. An eyewitness had seen
Speaker 1: Cowboy Bob pulling away in a brown Pontiac Grand Prix.
Speaker 1: This wasn't the first time someone had noticed the car
Speaker 1: driving away from the scene of the crime, but it
Speaker 1: was the first time anyone got a look at the
Speaker 1: license plate. Two hours later, Powell and a team of
Speaker 1: FBI agents pulled into a Dallas apartment complex. It turns
Speaker 1: out that the car was registered to a man named
Speaker 1: Pete Talis, who lived at that address. Steve Powell was
Speaker 1: certain that he was about to catch the bank robbing
Speaker 1: cowboy red handed, but as they discussed the best ways
Speaker 1: to storm the apartment. A pretty woman walked out of
Speaker 1: the apartment and towards the car they had followed. This
Speaker 1: must be Cowboy Bob's girlfriend, Powell told the other agents.
Speaker 1: They allowed the woman to drive away from the apartment
Speaker 1: to avoid suspicion, and then they pulled her over a
Speaker 1: few blocks away. This woman, named Peggy Joe, was friendly.
Speaker 1: She explained that the car was hers and that she
Speaker 1: had driven it earlier that month, warning to a gardening center.
Speaker 1: Powell then asked her if they might have a look
Speaker 1: around her apartment just for a moment. Peggy Joe hesitated.
Speaker 1: No one was in the apartment except for her sick mother,
Speaker 1: she told them, but finally she agreed. Agents entered the
Speaker 1: apartment and began searching through cabinets, under the beds, and
Speaker 1: questioning Peggy Joe's elderly mother. Steve Powell stayed with Peggy
Speaker 1: Joe because there was something nervous about her. She glanced
Speaker 1: toward the hallway closet and then back at her mother,
Speaker 1: and then she chewed on the top of her lip,
Speaker 1: and that was when Steve Powell took a closer look
Speaker 1: at Peggy's face, just above her mouth was a dab
Speaker 1: of white glue. Steve's eyes widened. Check the closet, he
Speaker 1: told one of the agents, and inside, on the top
Speaker 1: shelf was a styrofoam head with a wide brimmed hat
Speaker 1: perched on top and beneath it a gray false beard gentlemen.
Speaker 1: Powell said Cowboy Bob is actually Cowboy Babett. Because she
Speaker 1: carried out her crimes without using weapons, Peggy Joe received
Speaker 1: a mild thirty three month sentence. She told police that
Speaker 1: she had started robbing banks to pay for her mother's medications.
Speaker 1: Powell put the rest of the pieces together all by himself.
Speaker 1: It turns out that Cowboy Bob's strong, silent persona had
Speaker 1: more to do with Peggy's higher pitched voice than anything else.
Speaker 1: A previous mastectomy also made it easier for her to
Speaker 1: fit into men's clothing. Her manners, however, were never faked.
Speaker 1: Cowboy Bob or Bob Bette was quite the gentleman. The
Speaker 1: small town of Appomattox courthouse sat uneasy that morning on
Speaker 1: April ninth of eighteen sixty five, as the two generals
Speaker 1: sat in the parlor of the McLean family home mapping
Speaker 1: out terms to end the brutal civil war that had
Speaker 1: engulfed the country for the previous four years. Finally, Robert E.
Speaker 1: Lee signed the document officially surrendering the Army of Northern
Speaker 1: Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. An exhausted country
Speaker 1: breathed a sigh of relief. Weeks later than hundreds of
Speaker 1: miles away, on the dry Texas Prairie, a small band
Speaker 1: of Union soldiers and an opposing force of Texas Rangers
Speaker 1: rode toward each other to meet in battle, unaware that
Speaker 1: the war they were fighting was already over. During the
Speaker 1: jubilant celebrations back east, word was only slowly trickling westward
Speaker 1: across the frontier. After all, communication lines across the South
Speaker 1: had been broken. Although Jefferson Davis had fled, there were
Speaker 1: still pockets of Confederates who continued to operate as though
Speaker 1: the war had continued, in the hopes that the South
Speaker 1: would see a resurgence. Nowhere was this more true than
Speaker 1: in Texas or The Union had never gained a real
Speaker 1: foothold in the U s area, instead keeping to a
Speaker 1: handful of forts. The rest of the states was at
Speaker 1: that point sparsely populated. A lawless frontier, where the Southern
Speaker 1: cause was still deeply popular. The Rio Grande gave the
Speaker 1: Union troops more than enough to do. Mexican smugglers still
Speaker 1: gave aid to the scattered Confederates, and onto this stage
Speaker 1: stepped two commanders, Union Colonel Theodore H. Barrett and Confederate
Speaker 1: Colonel John rip Ford. Barrett had made a name for
Speaker 1: himself during campaigns in Arkansas and had been ordered to
Speaker 1: escort a supply convoy with two hundred infantry north from Brownsville,
Speaker 1: where he was to secure the crossing of the San
Speaker 1: Antonio River. He was a disciplined soldier by all accounts,
Speaker 1: a pragmatic man, but he still held out hope that
Speaker 1: he can make a name for himself. Meanwhile, Confederate Colonel
Speaker 1: Ford was still sure that the Confederacy could be saved.
Speaker 1: He was an impulsive man, famous for raids that he
Speaker 1: conducted along the frontier. He had in his employe between
Speaker 1: three hundred and four hundred men, some cavalry and some
Speaker 1: Texas Rangers. Neither commander had reliable ways to receive orders,
Speaker 1: though telegraph service was still spotty on the outskirts of
Speaker 1: the country, and there were constant rumors of a Confederate revival.
Speaker 1: Both men were set to hold the shallow Ford on
Speaker 1: the San Antonio at Palmito Ranch. It was a crucial
Speaker 1: supply route that both wanted. Both arrived within a day
Speaker 1: of one another. Both assumed the other to be a
Speaker 1: larger enemy force, and so when scouts from the Confederate
Speaker 1: cohort discovered the advancing Union troops, shots were fired to
Speaker 1: hold them back, but instead of retreating, Barrett decided to
Speaker 1: stand his ground, ordering a warning shot be fired from
Speaker 1: a cannon to scare off the would be attackers. It
Speaker 1: had the opposite of its intended effect, though. Ford ordered
Speaker 1: the Confederate cavalry to charge at the Union convoy, and
Speaker 1: what followed was a brief but intense battle. Union infantry
Speaker 1: firing from a shallow ditch while their artillery rained down
Speaker 1: cannon fire from a rise. The Confederate assault came in
Speaker 1: two waves. The first wave was rifle fire and the
Speaker 1: second was cavalry advancing on the Union line, and it
Speaker 1: looked like a stalemate until Barrett ordered that a portion
Speaker 1: of the Union cavalry out flank Ford's men, which finally
Speaker 1: broke their line and scattered the soldiers When it became
Speaker 1: clear that the battle would be lost, Barrett and Ford
Speaker 1: made their way onto the battlefield, shook hands, and called
Speaker 1: it a truce. Around thirty Union soldiers had been killed
Speaker 1: to the Confederates thirty five. In the weeks that followed,
Speaker 1: it became clear that the Union's victory, however small, finally
Speaker 1: affirmed Union control, which helped to re establish federal governance
Speaker 1: on the frontier. Now there's some argument over which battle
Speaker 1: was actually the last of the war, although the Battle
Speaker 1: of Galveston on June nineteenth has a pretty good claim
Speaker 1: on that. But the Battle of Palmito Ranch does help
Speaker 1: illustrate that although the war officially ended at Appomatox Courthouse,
Speaker 1: it took some time for the actual fighting to subside
Speaker 1: out on the fringes of the nation. It's a lesson
Speaker 1: in the value of clear communication and a sobering reminder
Speaker 1: of what happens when, despite our near instant access to
Speaker 1: news and updates, we're faced with the spread of false
Speaker 1: information and an irrational loyalty to bias over fact. And
Speaker 1: in that sense, it is a curious curse, one that
Speaker 1: will remain long after the official end of any conflict.
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. This show was created by me Aaron Mankey
Speaker 1: in partnership with iHeart Podcasts, researched and written by the
Speaker 1: Grim and Mild team, and produced by Jesse Funk. Learn
Speaker 1: more about the show and the people who make it
Speaker 1: over at Grimandmild dot com slash Curiosities. You'll also find
Speaker 1: a link to the official Cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book,
Speaker 1: available in bookstores and online, as well as ebook and audio.
Speaker 1: And if you're looking for an ad free option, consider
Speaker 1: joining our Patreon. It's all the same stories, but without
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Speaker 1: sign up over at patreon dot com, slash Grimandmild, and
Speaker 1: until next time, stay curious.