Comments on Crime ain't what it used to be

"Grand-daddy was a bankrobber..."
-The Clash?

He was legit!! But you gotta give it up to "cowboy bob"

'member her? ;)

Police kill Texas bank robber who pulled fake gun

By: Associated Press

DALLAS -- A bank robber once dubbed "Cowboy Bob" because of her bearded male disguise was fatally shot by police Thursday after holding up a bank, fleeing police in a recreational vehicle and pulling a toy gun that officers thought was real.

Peggy Jo Tallas, 60, stopped the RV in a residential area two miles from the bank in Tyler in northeast Texas, police spokesman Don Martin said. She was not in disguise, although a number of wigs and hats were later found in the vehicle.

Officers were trying to persuade her to surrender when she pulled what appeared to be a revolver, prompting four officers to open fire, Martin said.

Tallas was convicted of three counts of bank robbery in the early 1990s, Martin said. In what a judge at the time called "one of the most unusual cases I've ever seen," Tallas eluded authorities by posing as a Western-styled man, complete with fake beard, cowboy hat, sunglasses and cowboy duds.

She was sentenced to two years and nine months in prison in 1993 after pleading guilty to robbing a Mesquite bank, one of four she held up during a 10-month period.

According to her attorney at the time, she resorted to robbery out of desperation about her situation, including caring for an invalid mother and being unemployed.

In one of the robberies, Tallas presented the teller with a note saying she had a gun and a bomb. Neither was seen, but she fled with nearly $14,000. FBI agents traced the robber to Tallas' apartment, but when they looked inside, there was no man -- only Tallas and her mother.

Agents figured out the ploy in a later search, in which they found fake facial hair, glue, a cowboy hat and tens of thousands of dollars.

Now that's some style.

Word is she was a hella of a nice lady. So I was told by a hella of a nice girl who told me her story. Why cant Seattle have crooks like that?

We gots Ted Bundy, Gary Ridgeway, and so on..

Check out the P-I's heeeelarious editorial this morning, which somehow links this statistic to the drug use statistic from a couple of days ago: "We get high, then we rob banks."