5 Infamous Bank Robberies
Even after the Great Depression ended and the peak of bank robberies and gangsters of the 1930s passed. To remember individuals who choose to take the road less traveled, a path filled with arrest records, bloodshed, and ill-gotten gains. Take a look at five of history’s most famous thieves and know their story.
Bonnie Parker and Clye Barrow
Some argue that couples that share common interests are more likely to be successful, albeit this may depend on how you define success. They began their joint crime spree two years later, after Clyde was released from prison on a burglary conviction. The pair perished tragically in the spring of 1934 after being ambushed by Texas and Louisiana police officers after committing a run of bank robberies that resulted in the deaths of multiple police officers and civilians.
Lester M. Gillis
For stealing a Chicago bank in January 1931, he was finally sentenced to a year to life in prison. On February 17, 1932, while being taken from the Illinois State Penitentiary in Joliet, Illinois, to Wheaton, Illinois, to stand trial for another bank heist, he escaped from prison guards. Soon after, he teamed up with California booze smuggler John Paul Chase, and the two embarked on a crime binge during which Nelson is thought to have killed the most FBI agents of any criminal. Check out this blog: Cove Smart
John Dillinger
John Dillinger was one of the most well-known bank robbers of the time. Between September 1933 and July 1934, Dillinger was released at the age of 30 and joined a group that committed dozens of bank robberies, three jailbreaks, and ten murders. Johnny Depp memorialized his life on the big screen in the 2009 film ‘Public Enemies.’
Stanley Mark Rifkin
Stanley Mark Rifkin, who coordinated one of the first computer-assisted bank robberies in the United States on Oct. 26, 1978, and the largest bank heist ever committed in the United States at the time. The computer consultant-turned-criminal was successful in stealing $10.2 million from the Security Pacific National Bank in Los Angeles, electronically transferring the funds to a Swiss account, and then using the cash to buy millions of dollars worth of Russian diamonds that he smuggled back to the United States.
Patty Hearst
Heart was kidnapped from her Berkley, Calif., apartment by the Symbionese Liberation Army, a domestic terrorist organization. She was later captured on camera helping her own captors rob a San Francisco bank. On March 20, 1976, Hearst was found guilty of bank robbery and sentenced to 35 years in prison, which was later reduced to seven years.
