[EPISODE 38] A Christmas Catastrophe: The Santa Clause Bank Robbery Blunder

Adam Cox: the Texas Bankers Association introduced a reward of 5, 000 for anyone, who shot a bank robber during the crime. 

Adam Cox: And that's quite a lot of money, , that was the equivalent of 88, 000 today. Wow! And so, a slight side note, because I wanted to dig, into this , , , how much does that mean?

Adam Cox: Yeah. And so in the UK, the average price for a hitman is around 20, 000. 

Kyle Risi: Where are they getting this information from? Is there some kind of, uh, like money saving expert.

Kyle Risi: com? 

Adam Cox: Money saving hitman. com. 

Kyle Risi: Money saving hitman. com. Compare your prices for the most Competitive hitman 

Adam Cox: around. 

Adam Cox:

Adam Cox: Submit your request. And this is​Welcome to the Compendium, an assembly of festive tales that you won't be reading to your kids this Christmas. This story comes with a warning. Don't piss off Texans. 

Kyle Risi: Ooh, a festive story where you don't piss off a Texan. Yeah. I guess this is our Christmas episode, 

Adam Cox: isn't it? Yeah, it's a, it's a sort of a Christmas special, if you will.

Adam Cox: Yeah. But, uh, yeah, any ideas of what we could be covering today? Well, I mean, 

Kyle Risi: I do not, I have absolutely no idea. It's got to be about Santa Claus, right? Because it's. It's 

Adam Cox: Christmas! It's Christmas! Well, you are right, it is about Santa, and it is about Christmas, Today we're covering Today we're covering one of the most famous manhunts in Texas and US history.

Adam Cox: A man dressed as Santa Claus robs a bank in what was intended to be a non violent crime. Oh. That didn't go quite to plan. No. Bad Santa! In fact, it couldn't really go much worse. , as a result, it ended with people shot to death. Oh! Shot 

Kyle Risi: to death, so fatalities. Shot to death is such a weird way of saying it.

Kyle Risi: Shot to death. Which is the way you said it. Actually, when I just said it in shot to death, that sounds quite ominous. But the way you said it 

Adam Cox: was just weird. What, people shot to death? Shot to death. Shot to death. Uh, eight were wounded. Three were kidnapped. One was electrocuted. And another one lynched.

Adam Cox: What?! 

Kyle Risi: Hang on, lynched? When 

Adam Cox: was this? Merry Christmas! Yeah, who wants a nice warm and fuzzy tail when you could be served this this Christmas? Yeah, not me! I mean, you could still, you know, have some mulled wine and, sit by the fire while she listened to this. You can still try and feel festive. Well, I mean, this is perfect 

Kyle Risi: for us because it's, I don't know how festive this is going to be because we've only just put up our Christmas tree because obviously we record this just a couple weeks before.

Kyle Risi: So yeah, hopefully, well I don't see this really getting me into the Christmas spirit of things. 

Adam Cox: No. I could be wrong. Um, well if it does, I'd be concerned. 

Yeah, 

Kyle Risi: there's nothing like a bit of death and murder to get you into the Christmas 

Adam Cox: spirit. But before we go any further, let's do introductions. For those of you tuning in for the first time, I'm your host today, Adam Cox.

Adam Cox: And I'm your co 

Kyle Risi: host Kyle Risi. 

Adam Cox: You're listening to The Compendium, an assembly of fascinating and intriguing things. We're a weekly variety podcast where ordinarily Kyle tells me, Adam, all about a topic that he thinks that I will find both fascinating and intriguing From groundbreaking events to unforgettable people.

Adam Cox: It'd 

Kyle Risi: be nice if you returned the favor. I tell you fascinating and intriguing things, you just serve me whatever you scrape from the bottom of the barrel. 

Adam Cox: I'll have you know. Some of my episodes are some of the best received episodes, Kyle. This is true, actually. I think 

Kyle Risi: maybe we need a new, a new host in the, in the driving seat 

Adam Cox: permanently, right? Yeah. But anyway, we do this in one hour ish episodes every week, giving you just enough information to stand your ground at a social gathering. Mm hmm. But before we get into the main topic today, it's time, I think, Kyle. For all the latest 

Kyle Risi: things!

Kyle Risi: So, Adam, as you know, I'm a massive fan of the Doom scrolling. Yes. So I was on TikTok and I came across a story about this woman who had matched with this guy on Tinder or Hinge. She doesn't say which one it is. So, they are hitting it off, and they're vibing, you know, all that kind of Gen Z language that they have. And, he quickly asks her out on a date to this specific restaurant, right?

Kyle Risi: And everything seems cool, and the date is set, and she's all excited, she gets dressed up. And she's excited about the evening. But when she arrives at the restaurant, he's a no show. 

Adam Cox: Oh no. I know. Did he like see her before he arrived and then ran away? Why does everyone keep 

Kyle Risi: saying that? So she's trying to reach out to him, but he's unmatched her on the app. So she's super confused and she's really pissed off, but she's all dressed up and she's already there at the restaurant. So she's like, well, I might as well just have something to eat.

Kyle Risi: Right. So later, she's scrolling through Facebook and she sees this post from another girl who had the exact same experience at the same restaurant. That's weird. Yeah. So it turns out that some restaurants are creating fake profiles on dating apps to lure people in and then when they get stood up, they're like, well, I might as well, I'm here already.

Kyle Risi: So I might as well just kind of buy a meal. Damn. Yeah. So this is not just a one off thing. So there's this whole thing on Reddit about what they call food diggers. Food diggers. Food diggers. And basically, it's these restaurants that are partnering up with these bot apps and creating fake profiles on all these major dating sites.

Kyle Risi: And it seems like all this is coming out of India, where these agencies are now expanding outside of the country and trying to gain business from other restaurants all around the world. And I mean, I knew restaurants were getting desperate, especially obviously since the end of the pandemic and stuff because people weren't spending money, but this, this desperate measure is just taking things to a whole new level.

Kyle Risi: And it's like, in the world of AI and bots and things like that, like, who can you trust anymore on the internet? Like, you vibing with someone who you genuinely think is a real person, they're really hot, and boom, it turns out that's a bloody bot that's trying to get more money 

Adam Cox: out of you. Yeah, , I can't believe these restaurants are doing that. 

Kyle Risi: It's just so dishonest and I wonder like how Aware restaurants are of this 

Adam Cox: I imagine this might hit a peak around valentine's day because that's only a couple of months away, right?

Adam Cox: Oh god, 

Kyle Risi: can you imagine all those lonely hearts sitting in the restaurant all being stood 

Adam Cox: up? Yeah, but then it could be a way of finding other people that you wouldn't have normally met Well, hey, I 

Kyle Risi: mean unlucky for this woman that it was someone from the same sex that she just wasn't interested in but maybe they could have got together if they'd met at the restaurant Right.

Kyle Risi: Yeah Yeah. Yeah. Maybe it's a, maybe it's a new type 

Adam Cox: of dating. I'm trying to think if I got stood up, would I have a meal there? I don't know. What would you do? Um, 

Kyle Risi: I mean, it depends how much stock and effort you put into getting ready for the date, right?

Kyle Risi: So I don't know. 

Adam Cox: Would you maybe have a drink and then go? Because you'd feel like a little bit weird, but I don't think I'd have a full blown main meal. Yeah, 

Kyle Risi: yeah, I don't know. I think it takes a certain type of maturity to stay in a restaurant or go to a restaurant have a meal on your own when you're not on business.

Adam Cox: Yeah, I think I'm happy to have food by myself, but I think if I'm dressed up and it looks like I've been stood up, I'm not sure I would stay. Would you ever go to the cinema on your own? Um, do you know what I used to say? No, but I think I probably would be okay with doing that now. And 

Kyle Risi: again, it's a maturity thing, right?

Kyle Risi: As you get older, you just like, do you know what? 

Adam Cox: I need no one. 

Kyle Risi: Yeah, I don't need anyone. I've got myself. 

Kyle Risi: But the thing is though, like these sites are supposed to be helping people get matched and supposed to be easier. Right. So it's a streamline that process, but there's so many people that we know from the kind of the GNZ generation who are still really struggling and really disheartened by it all.

Adam Cox: Wasn't there that documentary where a woman had requested to have all of her, data , profile downloaded? I can't remember what app it was. Was it like Tinder or Bumble or something like that? 

Kyle Risi: You're right, it was Tinder. So she set out to just do a data request. On all the data that Tinder had on her.

Kyle Risi: And she was, she would like download the app. She would kind of browse for a bit and then she would meet someone. Then she would delete the app. And then basically she got 800 pages sent through to her, which she printed out. And it was a massive manual, all the data that Tinder had about her. Every time she swiped left, every time she swiped right.

Kyle Risi: The times a day that she was messaging people and this was really disturbing because all these pages represented her most vulnerable kind of periods of her life when she was feeling lonely or like one in connection with another person and they had all this information. They were monetizing it.

Kyle Risi: They were probably studying this information to work out how they can get more money out of someone. 

Adam Cox: Or yeah, get them back into the app, re engage, show the right people. And whilst maybe there's some good intention in trying to like, well, she's come on the app to like find love or whatever. Let's try and serve people at the right time, which is going to be more engaged.

Adam Cox: So she has a positive experience with the app, but then also just having or holding that data on you. , like you say, in this very vulnerable sort of time, that's kind of weird, isn't it? That you're allowing this computer in to study you. Yeah, it's 

Kyle Risi: gross. And I know like a lot of people have this mentality now that like, they are uncomfortable with, because Google adopt this approach, they are uncomfortable with giving your data to Google.

Kyle Risi: But Google says, it's, it's okay, you can give our data to us. We're not going to read it personally, a computer will read it. And somehow people are okay with that. Yeah. 

Adam Cox: I guess that's true because people are like, well, no one's actually studying line by line and can then go have a conversation about, Oh, did you know about Sally down the road?

Kyle Risi: But what's disturbing there is what they're saying is like, we're not going to read your personal emails. We're going to aggregate that information and look at it as a whole. So to them, we are just a number. We are just a statistic in a group, but humans aren't that. Humans are individual. They're fragile.

Kyle Risi: They're complex. Do you know what I mean? And to be just summed down to an aggregation of data. That to me is disturbing. Hmm. Yeah, so yeah, that's my all the latest things for this week. . Scams on dating websites. Meh. What have you got for me, boy? 

Adam Cox: So mine this week is about, well, if you've got a mice, or a mouse, a pet mouse.

Adam Cox: A mice. Yeah. A mice. If you have more than one mouse, um, then maybe next Christmas if you're thinking about, well, what can I get it? Have you thought about getting it some VR goggles? 

Kyle Risi: Genuinely, no, I haven't thought about 

Adam Cox: it. So scientists have made VR goggles for mice so they can feel What it's like to be attacked by a bird 

Kyle Risi: Shit, I guess it's good 

Adam Cox: training, right?

Adam Cox: Yes. I guess these are for mice maybe in captivity I'm sorry, but when you keep 

Kyle Risi: saying mice, it doesn't sound right. I know it's technically correct, but it sounds like you're saying 

Adam Cox: it wrong.

Adam Cox: Mouses. Do you want me to say 

Kyle Risi: mouses? It's not mouses either, but just mice. Ooh, you've got a picture. 

Adam Cox: A picture. I mean, this is like CGI because it's a prototype. That poor 

Kyle Risi: Mouse. Basically, he's got these giant lenses. Over his eyes. This thing cannot hold its head up. I imagine that has 

Adam Cox: gotta be super light and I think , the idea is that they can see how they behave uhhuh when they are potentially about to be attacked, Uhhuh, so they can kind of like monitor their heart and everything else and see if it's like a flight or fight kind of situation.

Adam Cox: And what are the findings? They've only just sort of started it, so stay tuned. Okay, great. But yeah, that's really cool. I just thought like, well you could just get this for all like animals, right?

Adam Cox: You're cat, a dog, and they're even going to do like situations whereby they're not just the prey, but they're also the predator. So , show them this vision of, a fly or something like that they would go catch. Yeah, yeah. And so they'll see how they respond to that. So I thought it was quite interesting that we're going to that level of detail now.

Kyle Risi: would purchase that for Keith, right? Because I hate being the bearer of bad news or being the bad guy when it comes to Keith, right? And you're his best friend and he's your best friend. And that causes me a bit of jealousy. But when he does something wrong, I don't have the heart to tell him off. So if I give him the VR glasses And then make it as if you're about to attack him or tell him off.

Kyle Risi: I can really chip away at that relationship that you have with him. And then boom, 

Adam Cox: I'll be his favourite. Never, never will be his favourite. But yeah, that's it for all the latest things. 

Kyle Risi: So tell me, this Christmas Day heist, what is that all about?

Adam Cox: Well, our festive tale today dates back to the 1920s in Cisco in Texas, USA. Wow! That long ago? Yeah, it's almost a hundred years ago. 

Kyle Risi: Hang on, you said, oh, hence the lynching. Hmm. Oh, 

Adam Cox: okay. 

Adam Cox: . Um, so back then Texas, USA it was known for cotton farming and the oil industry. The Ku Klux Klan was actually gaining momentum in Texas at that time. Prohibition would have been running for seven years. And it was also the this is this is the 

Kyle Risi: root of everyone's problems. 

Adam Cox: No alcohol. It does seem to cause a lot of issues.

Adam Cox: However, 

Kyle Risi: deciding to rob a bank dressed as Santa Claus sounds like something. Sounds like something someone would do when drinking illegal alcohol. You know, like the 

Adam Cox: moonshine stuff. That's interesting, because They did get drunk before the robbery. Oh right, okay, moonshine. Um, Also, in Cisco, it was also the birth of, well, sort of, the hotel chain Hilton.

Adam Cox: Oh 

Kyle Risi: really? Is that where Paris Hilton's great, great grandfather ? Started creating the, hotels? .

Adam Cox: Yeah , he wanted to buy a bank, but got refused a loan, uh, so he opted to buy a hotel instead, which was probably a really good thing as if you owned a bank in Cisco back then.

Adam Cox: It was prone to being robbed quite a lot as you'll find out. But in 1927 specifically, this year was also the year that Santa Claus robbed a bank. Okay. A guy dressed as Santa goes to a bank on December the 23rd, 1927, causing one of the biggest manhunts in the state. Some would say it was bigger than Billy the Kid, one of the most famous outlaws up until that time, which is why this crime has earned its place in the history books. 

Kyle Risi: Wow. Do you think that because he robbed the bank addresses Santa Claus on the 23rd of December That that was a clever ploy because he knew that there'll be other Santas all around.

Adam Cox: Well, I think he, he needed a disguise as you'll find out. And obviously he's not the real Santa. Santa was busy in the North Pole. Whaaat? 

Kyle Risi: But how does Santa get all the money to make all those 

Adam Cox: toys? Oh yeah, good point. Maybe that's, maybe a little short on cash this year. Um, but the guy that dressed as Santa Claus was a man named Marshall Ratliff.

Adam Cox: He was a 24 year old and he had a few run ins with the law previously. Him along with Him and along with his brother Lee had previously robbed a bank in Valera, Texas. However, being perhaps a bit too loose lipped and were pleased with their efforts, they were apprehended by a guy called Chief Bedford after boasting about their crime and throwing money around after getting drunk.

Adam Cox: So the two brothers are sent to prison for about 18 years, but only serve around a year before they're pardoned and they're released shortly after. What are they pardoned for? I don't know. Good 

Kyle Risi: behavior. Oh, you're being good here. Like, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll take 17 years off for your sentence. 

Adam Cox: I know there's quite like, there's a massive, number of years to be sentenced right?

Adam Cox: And they're only to serve a year. Probably because they're white and they're privileged. Well, they are white. I don't know if they're privileged. I think they come from a poor background. Um, so they did try and go straight and find honest work in an oil field, but nothing really came of it. And with little job prospects that they had, and they really wanted easy money.

Adam Cox: Um, they decided that we should just rob another bank. Yeah, as you do. So this time they had their mind, , set on robbing the bank in Cisco. But Lee, , the little tow rag was too impatient and got himself arrested for robbing another bank. Right. Before they could Properly hatch their plan.

Kyle Risi: You don't get too many toe rags anymore, 

Adam Cox: right? Um, I guess so. Don't use that word anymore. We should bring them back. A little toe rag. You're a little toe rag. What? 

Kyle Risi: Hang on. When you think about what toe rag is, that's quite, what is it? Oh, I've got a dirty toe. I'm just going to wipe it with this rag. And it's the rag I used to wipe 

Adam Cox: my toe with.

Adam Cox: I don't know. There's probably, I'd like to now know the definition of toe rag. But anyway, , so Marshall, now that he hasn't got his brother with him, uh, needed a new team and he chooses three other men. He first recruits 31 year old Henry Helms, a young guy who's 21 called Robert Hill, and both of these guys were prison buddies together when Marshall served, , in prison before. Initially, Marshall aimed to have a skilled safe crepper. Initially, Marshall tried to get a skilled safecracker to join his team, , to crack the bank vault, but his first choice got sick, so Marshall had to find a replacement.

Adam Cox: Now, here's where it gets interesting, because instead of finding someone to fill his brother's shoes, Marshall recruits a guy called Louis Davis, a 22 year old, , without any criminal record, and he was Henry Helms brother in law, so keeping it in the family. Mhm. Uh, and so Crime hadn't really tempted him up until then, but he was like, you know what?

Adam Cox: I'll give it a shot. I need some money. And so these four people form the team that's going to rob this bank. But the thing about Louis David, , he was like, , I only want to get involved if there's not going to be any gunfire. Yeah. Okay. And they were like, sure, no problem. But then I don't know how they could do that.

Adam Cox: How could they promise that there wasn't going to be any gunfire? Just have no 

Kyle Risi: guns, maybe have play guns. Play 

Adam Cox: guns. But what if the police turned up? 

Kyle Risi: But then he can't, you can't get, well, are they definitively saying there's not going to be any 

Adam Cox: gunfire? I think they said that we might have guns, but we won't shoot them.

Adam Cox: OK, we'll just threaten them. Yeah. So I think he's a little bit naive to think, oh, we're fine. This will be a nice bank robbery. It's Christmas day for God's sake!

Adam Cox: Um, so yeah, so I do kind of question maybe how, I mean he is young, so he is a bit naive, perhaps he wasn't really thinking because there's a couple of reasons for this. Bank robberies in Texas were so common that they would happen three to four times a day. Shit! 

Kyle Risi: Three to four times a day! 

Adam Cox: Yeah, I mean, it was across the whole of Texas, but that's still a lot.

Adam Cox: It's still, 

Kyle Risi: Adam, three to four a day. I mean, and this is what, 

Adam Cox: 1920s? 1920s, yeah. God. And so the sheer number of bank robberies that were happening daily caused the Texas Bankers Association to introduce a reward of 5, 000 for anyone, police, public, who shot a bank robber during the crime. Wow. Okay. And not just shot in the leg or the arm.

Adam Cox: No, no, no. That wasn't good enough. You don't get a part payment for 250 for like a maimed hand or anything like that. You had to shoot them dead. 

Kyle Risi: Right, so, are these like bank punters who are visiting the bank that end up shooting all these robbers because they want like, Ooh, I'm gonna get this five grand 

Adam Cox: reward.

Adam Cox: Yeah, I guess, a way to help police the area and trying to prevent these bank robberies. Yeah, 

Kyle Risi: promoting like vigilantes. 

Adam Cox: And that's quite a lot of money, because even back then, that was the equivalent of 88, 000 today. Wow! And so, a slight side note, because I wanted to dig, into this , , , how much does that mean?

Adam Cox: If I was a hitman, how much would I get paid? for killing someone, okay? Yeah. And so in the UK, the average price for a hitman is around 20, 000. 

Kyle Risi: Where are they getting this information from? Is there some kind of, uh, like money saving, like an aggregation kind of website? What do you call it? Like money saving expert.

Kyle Risi: com? 

Adam Cox: Money saving hitman. com. 

Kyle Risi: Money saving hitman. com. Compare your prices for the most Competitive hitman 

Adam Cox: around. Yeah, you just put in a little brief, submit your request. And this is my price. I'm 

Kyle Risi: looking to kill an old granny. Oh, that's going to cost you more. 

Adam Cox: So, well, yeah. How they find this? I don't know, but they, when I was looking online, they said there's researchers. They did a post hit survey. I don't know how they did this. And it ranged from around like a few hundred pounds up to a hundred thousand pounds for a hit these days.

Adam Cox: So, um, the reward back then was better than you'd get for a hit today. Wow. 

Kyle Risi: So yeah. Wow, so what you could do is you could just say, uh, you could tell someone that there's going to be a bank robbery. You could say, oh, I've got some inside news for you, right? This is a jilted lover, right? Who wants to get her husband killed off, like, So my husband has decided he's going to rob this bank.

Kyle Risi: If you're there, maybe you can shoot him dead. And then, um, And then they do it unknowingly. Shooting an innocent civilian. And that's how you get your hit. That's the cheapest way. And also, you probably don't need to pay the money, 

Adam Cox: right? You just get a cut of it or something. No, 

Kyle Risi: but you don't have to pay anything because they've killed an innocent civilian.

Adam Cox: Oh, okay. Yeah, that's Because 

Kyle Risi: people would be willing to do it. Like, oh, it's completely lawful for me to shoot a bank robber. 

Adam Cox: Yeah, but I think if you shot a civilian, I think you would still get in trouble for that. No, of course they'll 

Kyle Risi: get in trouble, but you won't get in trouble for that. I 

Adam Cox: didn't make him do it.

Adam Cox: True. I mean, this is only in Texas, America. Um, so, the gang decides their target would be the First National Bank in Cisco. There was some concern Marshall might get recognized, given his criminal record. So he persuaded this woman, Mrs. Heron, who he lodged with, to sew a Santa Claus suit to disguise him.

Adam Cox: Mm hmm. And it was that time of year, and so no one's gonna suspect Santa, maybe there's other Santas around, he's just gonna blend in. Why couldn't 

Kyle Risi: he just go to like a fancy dress shop and just buy one? 

Adam Cox: Um, I don't know, maybe they're less common, I don't know. Yeah, maybe it wasn't a thing back then. Yeah, I don't know.

Adam Cox: , so on December the 22nd, the men get drunk, they steal a car, and they start towards Cisco. , but, I don't know about you, doing a bank robbery on a hangover I don't know, it doesn't feel like it's going to go well. It's a bit like 

Kyle Risi: hair of the dog, right? Might as well just go deep. 

Adam Cox: What could go wrong? 

Adam Cox: It's the next day and downtown Cisco was all abuzz with Christmas shoppers getting ready for Christmas. Children are super surprised and delighted when by chance they get to see Santa strolling down the street. Some of them rush over to him and he greets them. Ho ho ho! He pats them on the head and he's probably thinking, oh, maybe this isn't as low profile as I thought it was gonna be.

Adam Cox: , so the other thing this is a homemade outfit, so I don't know how good it was. And he's not like, he's a skinny man. He's not like gonna be a jolly Santa. You know, so I imagine if you're a kid, I'd look at him and go, something's a little bit off about this guy. Yeah, Santa's 

Kyle Risi: skinny. What's happened?

Kyle Risi: Mummy, what's happening to Santa? And I guess like, you can't really , pad it with like, pillows and stuff because you're going to be less agile, especially when you're robbing a bank, right? So like, you've got to be skinny and sleek and svelte. 

Adam Cox: Exactly. But there's, you know, it fools the kids enough and they're like, oh my god, Santa.

Adam Cox: It would fool me, right? 

Kyle Risi: I mean, I'm not picky with my Santas, I'd be like, am I going to get a present? 

Adam Cox: Yeah, well, he's playing the part and he's trying to go undetected and so, you know, he sort of has settled over to all the kids and everything and then eventually they make their way into the bank.

Adam Cox: The bank manager greets Marshall, and he goes, Hello Santa, but Santa doesn't respond. So the bank manager says, Hello Santa, and Marshall 

Kyle Risi: It's almost as if, like, hang on a minute, this isn't how this goes. Like, I've said, Hello Santa, you have to, by law, go, Ho ho ho ho 

Adam Cox: ho, you know? You're no Santa of mine. Yeah, well, 

Kyle Risi: I'm reporting you! By the state of Texas law, you're supposed to respond 

Adam Cox: with, Ho ho ho! And so Yeah, the manager's kind of like, a little bit put out, and Marshall doesn't say anything again, and it's at this point one of the other guns sh It's at this point one of the other guys shouts, Stick him up, everyone! whilst pulling out his gun.

Adam Cox: Okay. And everyone realizes quite quickly, oh, this is a hold up. So everyone, now including Santa, has got their gun, like, aimed at the civilians, at the bankers, at the yeah, everything. And the 

Kyle Risi: cashier's like, But, but I said hello, 

Adam Cox: Santa! I was nice to you. Um, I think they actually missed a little trick here, because the other guys, they're, I thought it would have been funnier if they were dressed as elves, and so yeah. But no, they, yeah, I thought that would have been cool. So what were they dressed up as? Just regular people. Just regular bank robbers. Yeah, yeah. So Santa orders the assistant cashier to open the safe and begin stuffing money and bonds into his sack, which he's hidden beneath his costume, which I think is good, because he's very on brand that he's brought a sack. The other men keep control of the customers and employees. Marshall grabs money from the staff and forced one of them to open the vault. Meanwhile, a woman on the street, Mrs. B. P. Blassingame, which is a great name. Yeah, what a name. Blass, 

Kyle Risi: say it again? 

Adam Cox: Mrs. B. P. Blassingame. 

Kyle Risi: Blassingame. With G A M E. Yeah.

Adam Cox: Blassingame. Blassingame. Her and her six year old daughter, Frances, had spotted Santa walking into the bank. And in Frances's excitement, she's like, oh, can we go in? And so they head in for a closer look and then, you know, to see Santa, not knowing that the robbery was in progress. And so this poor kid is now scarred for life because Santa's there, with a gun, threatening these staff.

Adam Cox: And the mum's like, oh god, what's going on? And so 

Kyle Risi: Way to ruin Christmas for, for your whole life, right? All I wanted was a Barbie. 

Adam Cox: And so as soon as she, the mother realises what's going on, she pushes her way through the crowd and and she pushes her kid outside and she manages to get outside without being shot herself. Right. And she's running down the street and she's screaming for help. And she travels just a matter of yards before she's at city hall and the police department alerting chief of police, , chief Bedford, the one that put Marshall away about a year ago.

Adam Cox: Oh, okay. So he's aware of this person. . Yeah. Which I think is kind of strange, that they've chosen a bank which is quite close to a police station? 

Kyle Risi: Yeah, it's, it's, it's not well, I mean, remember they're hungover. And they don't sound like the brightest people in the world. No, you'll, you'll 

Adam Cox: see that they've made few mistakes already.

Adam Cox: Already, yeah. And still 

Kyle Risi: they've not handed out any presents! That's probably the biggest mistake! 

Adam Cox: So yeah, what they were thinking, I don't know, it's not how you rob a bank, but anyway. Chief Bedford takes his gun and makes his way to the bank with two of his officers, R T Reddies and George Carmichael, to cover the back door and also the alleyway where the bank is.

Adam Cox: But back inside the bank, one of the men with an automatic weapon in each hand growled at the bookkeeper, don't look at me. But by this time, Santa Claus had filled his sack with the equivalent of 2. 8 million in today's money. Wow. 

Kyle Risi: Don't look at me. I know. Yeah. That reminds me of this time when, um, we were driving along, we were going to a pub in, Scotland and um, my mom was traveling a different car with my sister and they were gone ages.

Kyle Risi: We're like, where were they? Like, where are they? They were only like, just behind us. And then we came out the car park and we see a car parked down the road and it's my mom and my sister and we walk down and there's my mom outside of the car. She's been sick everywhere. And I remember. She's been really amazed like what's happening and I'm looking down at the vomit on the floor and she was like DON'T LOOK AT IT!

Kyle Risi: And we were like, shit. 

Adam Cox: To be honest, it's one of my fondest memories of your mum. Mine 

Kyle Risi: too. I felt so bad for her because she was so car sick. Yeah. When someone says don't look at it, they mean it. Don't 

Adam Cox: look at it. Don't look at him! 

Adam Cox: So it's unclear who fires the initial shot, but according to certain accounts Marshall may have fired the first, hitting the bank's plate glass window, or potentially signalling to someone else that the robbery was successful, others think that maybe someone had shot from the outside, , because they heard all the commotion, basically it's not clear.

Adam Cox: But as soon as the first one is fired, then that just starts a whole cascade of bullets firing everywhere. Oh really? Multiple shots continue. Now, this gunfire alerts passers by and because of the reward that is on offer to kill a robber in the act to get five grand reward, civilians pull out their guns and start firing at the bank too.

Adam Cox: Shit. How 

Kyle Risi: can they prove who's 

Adam Cox: killed, whose bullets killed who? Exactly. How do you know if you've actually shot a robber? Yeah. Or some civilian? Yeah. And who, if there's like ten people shooting at a robber? Then who, which one is it? Do you split the reward? How do you know? Do you go and examine that's my bullet?

Adam Cox: That's 

Kyle Risi: probably what I was just going to say. They probably have to do some forensics on the bullets. Not that they can probably do forensics. Maybe they can do a degree of 

Adam Cox: it. Do you have your own initials on your bullet? I think 

Kyle Risi: like, like each barrel of the gun has got a unique signature kind of like print or whatever.

Kyle Risi: So when the bullet fires out, they can see like the, the. The track marks of the bullet kind of scraping against the inside of the barrel, which would be unique. 

Adam Cox: Okay, but I wonder how much detail they went into. I mean, 

Kyle Risi: if the reward is five grand. Yeah. At that time, they're probably gonna pay to get that done, 

Adam Cox: right?

Adam Cox: That's a lot of money. Maybe, yeah. Now in the lead up to Christmas, if you were shopping in downtown Cisco, you might have been a bit ill prepared for today. You know, you weren't thinking about, I'm gonna catch a robber. No. You're thinking about, I don't know, making a trifle for the in laws, okay?

Adam Cox: So you didn't pack your pocket pistol. But, don't worry, the local hardware stores got you covered as they were handing out pistols and rifles to people that didn't want to miss out on this opportunity. Just handing it out! Well, that's what they say, so I don't know if they had to pay for them or not, but I think they were like, Come back later and then you can pay for it.

Adam Cox: Yeah, or something like that, or like, we'll split the reward or something, I don't know. Only in Texas. Now, this is absolutely chaos. Shots are being fired everywhere. It's reported that up to 100 people turned up that day with guns. 

Kyle Risi: Man, and how, what time frame is all this, all 

Adam Cox: happening within? I think it's just within a couple of hours.

Adam Cox: It's not like, um, a lot of time. 

Kyle Risi: still in the bank? They've been in the bank for like 

Adam Cox: two hours? I don't know exactly, but enough time for a hundred people to turn up with their gun and start shooting. And for the word 

Kyle Risi: to spread, just from that one woman running down the road. Where's her kid, 

Adam Cox: by the way?

Adam Cox: I think she's fine. She's safe.

Adam Cox: So a rifle bullet strikes one of the fugitives held in the bank, which obviously is not going to take long before someone else actually gets her, someone innocent. So they're shot in the arm and they get spun around. A bullet hits a cashier in the jaw, while another one hits a bank customer in the leg.

Adam Cox: So now the robbers want to escape, essentially, um, and they've got a few hostages with them, and they start forcing people out the back door as they want to try and run to the car, , and so they manage to pick up a couple of girls, , Laverne Corner, who's 12, and Emma Mae Robertson, who's 10, and they use them as shields in order to get into their getaway car, and there are people still firing.

Adam Cox: They're like, don't worry about them. We won that five grand. Yeah, it's gonna be a good Christmas this year. Shit.

Adam Cox: In the alley, Chief Bedford and Deputy George Carmichael , were mortally wounded. At the head of the alley, Police Chief Bedford stood in the way and was trying to like, , block the robbers from going anywhere and unfortunately, he is shot several times. , five times I think it was.

Adam Cox: And , he sadly dies, um, On the scene. On Christmas day. Oh, damn. 

Adam Cox: Carmichael dies almost a month later on January the 17th. Six other civilians are also wounded, and Davis, the young robber who didn't want any gunfire, was severely wounded in the shootout, while Marshall suffered from two wounds, one in the chin and one in the leg. 

Kyle Risi: Jeez, oh god, can you imagine getting shot in the bloody chin?

Adam Cox: That would hurt, right? In the chin! Oh, that's right, you've heard toothache before. Officer Reddies runs to the police station and retrieves a rifle and begins to pursue the robbers on foot as they're trying to get away, But he's soon picked up by others that are, like, the civilians that are getting in cars and basically they're all now chasing the robbers who are in their getaway car.

Adam Cox: Another thing to, another thing to add is when they actually examined the bank, they found over 200 bullet holes in the bank. Really? 

Kyle Risi: That's crazy. What a shootout. A civilian shootout. Yeah. Trying to kill Santa. 

Adam Cox: I just look at all the kids there and they're like, what's going on? 

Kyle Risi: Mommy murdered Santa! I'll explain when you're older, son, but it's not what you think. It is!

Adam Cox: So the four robbers are in their getaway car with the two girls as hostages. and it's not long before they realise they're almost out of gas. You mean petrol? Oh, sorry, petrol. They're almost out of petrol. This is a UK show for American listeners. Yeah, that's true. Um, so basically they forgot to fill up the tank before the robbery. Wow, idiots. They are absolute idiots. I don't know who the getaway driver was, but surely you've got a couple of jobs, right?

Kyle Risi: You had one job, two jobs, maybe! 

Adam Cox: Maybe they shouldn't have got pissed the night before. They should not have. , so they haven't made it out of town properly before one of the tyres is then shot at and causes a puncture, right? . So they figure the best thing to do is to switch to another car, which has got more petrol and, you know, four tyres.

Adam Cox: Yeah. Just the basics. And Marshall, still dressed as Santa, approaches a family in a car and pulls out his gun. Oh god. Now Marshall may or may not have been slightly shocked to find a 14 year old boy called Woody Harris behind the wheel of the car. Why would 

Kyle Risi: he be shocked by that?

Adam Cox: Well, when he turns to the back of the car, there's his older relatives in the backseat. So there's a 14 

Kyle Risi: year old kid just driving his relatives. 

Adam Cox: Yeah. So maybe he's the designated driver that day. They've had a sherry at lunch. I don't know. Yeah, maybe. 

Kyle Risi: I guess also in the in, in, in America at the moment, right?

Kyle Risi: You can be 15 and be 

Adam Cox: driving, right? That's true. Maybe that's a lot different than one year. Yeah, but I just thought a 14 year old. I imagine 14 year olds driving. I don't want them driving me. 

Kyle Risi: No, like I imagine my nephew and he's like 13. Oh god, I do not want him behind a wheel. Exactly. Damn 

Adam Cox: it. .

Adam Cox: So obviously scared, the Harris family exit the car with guns pointing at their face, and Marshall and his crew load up the car with the money, the injured guy, Davis, and the two hostage girls. So they're still keeping them as kind of an insurance, essentially. But when they go to start the car, however, they realize the keys are missing.

Adam Cox: Good ol Woody Harris had sneakily swiped the keys before running off with them with his family, so they couldn't get away in that car. Oh man. 

Kyle Risi: So he was a smart lad. Yeah, don't underestimate a 14 year old. My nephew does need a 

Adam Cox: car. Maybe. So now too late to go after this boy.

Adam Cox: Uh, he's long gone. And they're still being chased by the police and the mob and the locals that are all trying to claim their bounty. So the gang decides to get back into their old car, with the two girls, and it's at this point that Laverne and Emma realize that, I think, the robbers weren't that smart and maybe they will be home for dinner after all.

Adam Cox: Um, but before they could help Davis back into the old car, he's already passed out, and so they decide that they're going to leave him behind in that car. But the people from the town had now caught up to the gang, on foot and in cars, and then another shootout starts, and so, one of, the guys, Hill, he's shot in the arm this time, so three out of the four robbers are now injured.

Adam Cox: Damn. They eventually managed to escape, with the little petrol that they had remaining in their car. when they realized that they'd left. Santa's sack of money in Woody's car along with Davis. What? I don't know. Why does that sound dirty? 

Kyle Risi: Why, Adam? 

Adam Cox: Why? I don't know who ruined it. 

Kyle Risi: Santa's sack of money. Santa's spunking money.

Adam Cox: So anyway, yeah, done this robbery. They've gone to all this effort. four of them injured. They've now lost the money that they've stolen. This is not going well for them. It's 

Kyle Risi: not. It's not gonna be a happy Christmas. 

Adam Cox: So they can't go back for the money because they're gonna get shot at and so there's just, you know, they just now have to make a run for it and get away to save themselves from going to prison.

Adam Cox: They begin throwing out roofing nails in an effort to puncture the tires of people that are chasing them. Mm-Hmm. . They then turn into a pasture which is full of cactuses and other bushes and shrubs, which, that, 

Kyle Risi: that's not a posture. Well, this is what a, a posture of cactuses and shrubs. that. Not a pasture.

Kyle Risi: A posture is a rolling green hill of luscious green grass with a few cows. What you've just described there is the desert. 

Adam Cox: Well, I did think that was odd. But this is how it was described when I was researching it. And I was like, a pasture? Okay, I'll go with it. I've never been to Sisko. Yeah, who knows?

Adam Cox: Okay, so there's cactuses and shrubs and everything. It feels spiky, to be honest. And these shrubs and bushes just get denser and denser to the point that it's impossible for them to go any further by car. Plus, they didn't have much fuel anyway. So, upon hearing the cars coming for them, they get out of the car and they decide that actually the best thing to do is just escape on foot.

Adam Cox: They abandon the car and they actually leave the hostages behind, I guess they're just going to slow them down, they don't need them anymore, but they do tell the girls to lie down and stay in the car whilst they run away and to not look where they go. Okay. Of course they're young girls. 

Kyle Risi: They're curious about the male form. 

Adam Cox: I just meant they're gonna peek to see like, actually, where they're gonna go. I don't think this is a moment of awakening for them.

Kyle Risi: I like 

Adam Cox: my version better. So they, they see where they're going and so when the police and everyone do like catch up, they can easily go, Yeah, they went that way. Yeah. 

Kyle Risi: And 

Adam Cox: damn, they were fine! How'd they run?

Adam Cox: It's also

Adam Cox: It's also this time that the young guy, um, Davis, who's, he's taken to hospital, and when he comes to, he refuses to reveal who the rest of the gang are and details from the robbery. However, once doctors tell him his odds of survival aren't great, I guess he wants to clear his conscience, and I guess he wants to clear his conscience, and he tells them everything before he succumbs to his injuries.

Kyle Risi: Yeah, I mean what it takes to just get people to yap. Right, isn't much. It's like, people will just, yeah. 

Adam Cox: They're gonna die. You might as well just tell us. Yeah, just tell us. Um, which is really sad, because he didn't want to get caught up in this, and whilst obviously he is a criminal now, he didn't want to like, hurt anyone or anything like that.

Adam Cox: So I do feel sorry how he, got dragged into this, essentially. How sorry 

Kyle Risi: can you be for him? He has tainted an entire generation of young people in that area about What Santa is. Santa's now this 

Adam Cox: villain, right? Yeah, there was some confused kids apparently this Christmas. There was like some carol services afterwards and people were like, I don't know if I want to leave out Mince Pies for the summer this year.

Adam Cox: Santa's been real bad. He's on the naughty list. Yeah. Um, the wounded fugitives escape throughout the bush and three days go by, Christmas comes and goes and the gang manage to stay out of sight whilst police officers from ten counties are on the hunt, which is why it quickly became the biggest manhunt in Tesco.

Adam Cox: I mean, Tesco does 

Kyle Risi: it. Take 

Adam Cox: two! They're holding out on the frozen isle. 

Kyle Risi: So, in, in, for our American listeners, because there are many, Tesco's is like Walgreens. Is it Walgreens? Walmart, sorry. Yeah. Yeah. 

Adam Cox: They're not, they're not on Tesco.

Adam Cox: Oh dear. Anyway, um.

Adam Cox: , so the guys, they're still out in the wild and they've, um, come very close to capture. In fact, one of the search party stands on this giant rock and the robbers are hiding underneath it, but they don't manage to find them or anything. So they've managed to do like a good job of like keeping. Yeah, in the shadows.

Kyle Risi: Do you know that's like always the most intense scene right when there's like a hunt for people and like you see it in game of thrones in like like so many other films yeah there's someone searching for them but they're just below kind of like the roots of the tree or behind a boulder 

Adam Cox: and they're right there yeah and you always think of course you just go around the rock right but actually this is real life situation where this Yeah, it actually happened.

Adam Cox: Yeah. 

Adam Cox: So the three guys, they manage to steal two more cars, and they hold one of the drivers hostage, a guy called Carl Wiley, and , they made him drive for like 24 hours. As they steal the car, Carl's dad fires his shotgun, which ends up striking his son, but he does survive, so it's okay. Oh God, he shot his 

Kyle Risi: son!

Kyle Risi: Oh God! 

Adam Cox: They just don't care about who they hit. 

Kyle Risi: Oh, can you imagine? It's like, Carl, Carl, don't tell mum, don't tell her. Like, it's just between us, it's our little secret, right? It's our little bonding experience.

Kyle Risi: Don't tell your mum, I'll shut you, please, please, please, please, I'll buy you a motorbike. Carl recalls I hold that against my dad, always. I'll be like, like, Dad, can I stay out late tonight? He's like, no, you've got school in the morning. And I'm like Oh, this bullet wound. It's really acting up. I think maybe I should get mommy to look at it.

Kyle Risi: Yes, I'll get you to 

Adam Cox: go out tonight. Do you remember that time I lost my arm? God! Um, yeah. But Carl recalls they had a sack which contained a rifle, several shotguns, a pistol. 

Kyle Risi: Actually, I want to tell a story. Wait, I want to tell a story about Kyle Wiley. Well, can I finish this bit? No, because it's related and then you can cut it in or you can take it out.

Kyle Risi: Right, fine. So, it's always, it's always great to have the upper hand when your parents do something really mean to you and you can hold it against them. So one day, I was, uh, me and my mum were in an argument and I remember I swore at her. And she come running after me, right? So I ran around the swimming pool to the other side of the swimming pool and she was on this end.

Kyle Risi: So every time she tried to run around the swimming pool, I would just kind of mirror where she was but on the opposite side so she can catch me. And when I got to the other end, I just ran off out the gate and like four hours went by and I came home. And as I was coming home, I opened the gate real slow, right?

Kyle Risi: And I snuck through the gate and she was hiding right behind the corner and she went to grab me but when she went to grab me her nail gripped my lip and it ripped my lip open and I had a big old flappy bit of skin hanging and my mum , felt awful. She felt so awful and I remember later that evening, I went up to her and I said to her, all sniffily, I went, Mummy, What, what do I tell people Happening at school tomorrow? 

Kyle Risi: And she Cried, she felt awful. That's terrible. 

Adam Cox: It's 

Kyle Risi: awful. So yeah, like Carl, if you play your cards right, you can get anything you want. You want, you want that new Tetris game? You get it. You milk that.

Kyle Risi: So yeah, just a little bit of advice for, just a little bit of advice for them kind of young alpha generation listeners out there. Play the game. 

Adam Cox: I think plenty of them play the game right now. Learn it from you. My 

Kyle Risi: poor mother, the stuff I put her through. I 

Adam Cox: know, poor Janice. Um, it's back to Carl. I don't know if he did do that.

Adam Cox: Um, but what does say when he was in the car being held hostage, , 

Adam Cox: in their sack, he noticed that there was a rifle, several shotguns, a pistol, lots of ammunition and two oranges, which they didn't offer him. They didn't offer him an 

Kyle Risi: orange? No. It's because they're for stocking fillers. They were like, censor's going to put them in a 

Adam Cox: stocking.

Adam Cox: Well, I don't know. I just thought like, you know what? Give me at least a segment. I drove you like 24 hours. Yeah, I didn't give him anything. Uh, Carl is let go and naturally he goes to the police. My dad shot me. You might have said that. , he tells them everything. Uh, what the robbers were doing. And, um,

Adam Cox: He tells them everything. How the robbers were doing. And it wasn't very good at this point because, you know, they've been shot. They're probably starving. They're tired and everything like that. And so, , it's probably going to be quite easy to capture them now. Mm hmm. So one morning, officers spot their car, and the robbers begin to drive away, and of course, a cha The robbers begin to drive away, and of course, a car chase starts, and, there's another shootout in a field, and the three try to, leg it on foot.

Adam Cox: Involved in this, uh, shootout was a deputy called Sheriff Cy Bradford. Okay. As Bradford's car came to a halt, he swiftly emerged with his double barreled shotgun, dubbed Old Bitsy, and an additional pair of shells in hand. And without delay, Bradford fired, bringing down one of the fleeing criminals. He quickly reloads, anticipating a potential standoff, but the other two robbers continue to run and he starts shooting at them.

Adam Cox: He basically hits both of them and they fall to the ground, but they manage to kind of stagger and run away. So two get away and then one, is caught. And that person that is caught and apprehended initially is Marshall. Okay. Oh, Santa's been captured. Santa's in jail. Yeah.

Adam Cox: Three days later, Helms and Hill are caught and are taken into custody. And they are wounded. They're starving and they went without a fight. They basically just gave up. All three men now are in Eastland County jail. And that ended the largest manhunt ever in Texas. Wow. All three men were charged with murder, bank robbery, and car theft.

Adam Cox: Helms attempted to claim insanity, but was sentenced to death for his crimes. He was electrocuted in the electric chair in 1929. What?! For robbing a bank?! But people died, Kyle. It's true. It's true. Hill was given 99 years in prison, uh, Hill did not want to spend his life rotting in jail, so he attempted to escape, and on three separate occasions, , he was sent right back.

Adam Cox: Wow. So, I mean, if a prison allows a man to escape two times, how are they not learnt by that point? 

Kyle Risi: Yeah, exactly. I mean, well, prison's all supposed to be about rehabilitation, right? But what we discover at the beginning of this is that all of these secondary plans are all kind of devised while they're in prison.

Kyle Risi: So it's like something's going wrong. This is supposed to be rehabilitation. You're supposed to learn from your mistakes. 

Adam Cox: Yeah, they did not. What happened to Marshall? Well, we'll get to him. We'll cover off Hill. So Hill, 

Adam Cox: , eventually serves 20 years in prison and he does learn from his mistakes. Does he?

Adam Cox: In what way? Tell me. So he gets parole and he turns over a new leaf and he lives the rest of his life as a good citizen. And apparently he makes friends with Woody Harris, the 14 year old boy he tried to steal the car from. Oh really? So that's a nice end for them. How does that even happen? I don't know, maybe they're in the pub and I'm like, I recognise you.

Adam Cox: Yeah. You held a gun to my face when I was 14. How are you doing? How you been? I 

Kyle Risi: was more like, hang on, I recognise you. Have we slept together? No, oh, I robbed you! Oh yeah, that's what I meant, that's 

Adam Cox: what I meant. Um. I mean, that's what the gay bar's like, so. Really? Marshall. So he is sentenced to 99 years in prison for armed robbery.

Adam Cox: But despite there being no witnesses to say that he had fired a gun in the bank or killed anyone, he was then sentenced to death for the deaths of the two police officers. I mean, there's a chance that the Public could have killed them, I don't know, but guilt by association, essentially. It's a felony murder.

Adam Cox: So he, yeah, regardless of if he killed anyone. Yeah, this happened. Was he electrocuted? Well, Helms is electrocuted by the, well, Helms is electrocuted by the electric chair. And when Marshall learns about this, he acts a bit strange and he claims insanity and is paralyzed. he refuses to speak and mumbles in incoherent sounds and officers think he's faking it, right? Like, how does this suddenly happen? And they would position his body in a certain way at bedtime, and they'd be like, Right, let's see what he looks like in the morning. And they go into his cell in the morning, and he hasn't moved a muscle. Really? Wow. They would stand him upright, and would apparently let him fall on his face.

Adam Cox: And he doesn't flinch or try to save himself, he just injures his face as he falls. Do they know what happened? Do they know what's wrong? Well, at the moment, they're like, well, maybe just he's, I don't know, made a bad turn, everything, all the events of, or the stress, maybe? His mother requests a lunacy hearing, and, but the residents of the county were not having it.

Adam Cox: And so the pressure from these citizens made the judge extradite Marshall to another prison. In his new cell, he continues to appear paralyzed , and prison officers now believe him. They're like, okay, he can't be faking this. And so they bathe him, they feed him, they take him to the bathroom, everything.

Adam Cox: Please tell me 

Kyle Risi: he's faking. Please tell me he's been faking this whole time. 

Adam Cox: Oh, he is good. He commits to this character like no other. Give this man an Oscar. Damn, that's method acting! Absolutely. Because in November 1929, a prison officer leaves his cell door open. Probably thinking no harm, right? Because the way he's behaving.

Adam Cox: Yeah, he's an invalid. He's not going to go anywhere. Exactly. And this was Marshall Chance. Suddenly he jumps up, he's all mobile, and he shoots out of that cell like you couldn't believe. He's running to get out, he grabs a pistol, and on his way out So there's six bullets in this pistol and one just so happens to fall out, which is weird, but okay.

Adam Cox: What do you mean fall out? You'll, you'll see. He just, it doesn't, maybe it's not properly loaded in the gun. Right. It falls out of it. Sure. So he crosses path with another, he crosses path with a police officer. He crosses path with a police officer and points the gun at the police officer demanding the keys.

Adam Cox: And he shoots the officer five times. This, obviously, this commotion, , causes a second officer to come running, and he attacks Marshall, and he gets the pistol off him, and he goes to shoot Marshall, but just by coincidence, , that bullet had fallen out, so he has to basically hit him until he's unconscious, and drags him back to the cell.

Adam Cox: Wow. The prison officer that is shot, sadly dies, obviously, five times, you're not gonna probably survive that. This angles local residents even more, and so when the news breaks, over a thousand citizens arrive at the prison wanting to avenge the prison officer's death. They're like, this is enough.

Adam Cox: And is 

Kyle Risi: the hardware still handing out guns? 

Adam Cox: I don't know, they've got a two for one deal. I don't know. And plus they're really annoyed that this guy has not been executed yet. They're like, he's been sentenced, what's happening? So, around 15 to 20 men force their way into the prison and Marshall's cell and forcibly remove Marshall.

Adam Cox: They strip him naked and they toss a rope over his head, uh, well they use like a, they toss a, they strip him naked and they tie a rope around his head and they toss it over a guy wire stretched between two telephone poles, uh, intending to hang him, the initial try doesn't work out, the rope snaps, but that doesn't deter them 

Adam Cox: , as someone pops to the local hardware store, so it is open that day, and they get a stronger rope, and they do a attempt , , and it's a sturdier rope, and they then try and hang him again, and it works. He is hung 15 feet in the air, and he dies on November the 19th, 1929. Damn. So there's your lynching.

Adam Cox: Ugh. The next day, thousands of people come out to view Marshall's body that has been displayed at a local furniture store? Don't know why, but that's where they display him. Yeah, that's weird, isn't it? Very weird. Which I feel sorry for his mother. Yes, he's a criminal, but they come and they take his body and they bury him in a local church near them.

Adam Cox: Mm hmm. Strangely, no one's ever been tried or found guilty of the lynching. It's almost like they got a pass. So apparently two wrongs do make a right. 

Adam Cox: Damn. Yeah. Damn. Poor Marshall. 

Kyle Risi: I was hoping, in my mind, I was hoping he'd be Sent to the electric chair. I think he would have done. And then demanding that he wear his outfit. And then, when they have like any last words, I would say, Does anyone want to sit on Santa's lap?

Kyle Risi: And then like, you would have this iconic image of Santa being electrocuted. 

Adam Cox: Yeah, they didn't do that. He didn't make it to the electric chair. He was lynched 

Kyle Risi: instead. How awful being lynched by a mob 

Adam Cox: of people. Texans, they are brutal. 

Kyle Risi: Well, it sounds like they've like Texas is like Norwich in the middle ages, right?

Kyle Risi: When they would like hang people for stealing a loaf of bread and just hang their body on the castle. Yeah, 

Adam Cox: that's true. And so yeah, that is the story of the time when Santa robbed a bank. Merry Christmas. And Merry Christmas to you too! Yeah, maybe we'll, we'll do one about Rudolph next year. But I was, when I was researching this Well, what's Rudolph done?

Adam Cox: Tune in next year. But this isn't the only Santa Claus robbery, but it is the most famous. Yeah. I found a couple other examples. There was one in Montreal in 1962 and another in Florida in 2013. 

Kyle Risi: I can understand the Florida one, but come on, Canada! Montreal is Canada, 

Adam Cox: right? Yeah. Okay, good. Yeah, and that's it.

Adam Cox: And so there's this building that still stands, the bank. And within it now, I think there is a mural and newspaper clippings of the event that day. So there's still this really big thing.

Adam Cox: Yeah. In that, in that town. Iconic. Cisco. 

Kyle Risi: What a great story. Who knew? That yeah, who knew I had no idea the story even existed and what a saga.

Kyle Risi: I know 

Adam Cox: it's just it's crazy, right? It's so funny. How did you find out about this 

Kyle Risi: story? Like where did this 

Adam Cox: come from? Um, I was just I was researching Christmas stories, and I know we were like well We want to do something that's sort of festive but you could listen to this any time of year. Yeah. And so hence this one I kind of settled on because I think it's just, it's just bizarre.

Adam Cox: Like you just think it's a Santa robbery but then it just goes wrong and wrong and wrong. It's like a carry 

Kyle Risi: on film isn't it? Yeah. Like a comedy, I can imagine Benny Hill kind of playing 

Adam Cox: in the background. it wasn't for the fact that people died I feel like this could be just a comedy movie or something.

Adam Cox: Yeah. But yeah, that's the story. 

Kyle Risi: Great. Yeah, let's, shall we run the outro? 

Adam Cox: Yeah, sure. So we have come to the end of another episode of the Compendium, an assembly of fascinating and intriguing things. If you found today's episode both fascinating and intriguing, then please subscribe and leave us a review.

Adam Cox: And don't just stop there, schedule your episodes to download automatically. Automatically! Doing this not only ensures you are always in the loop, but also boosts our visibility, helping us to serve you even more captivating tales straight to your ears. You can follow us on Instagram at The Compendium Podcast, or visit our, or visit our home on the web at thecompendiumpodcast. com. We release new episodes every Tuesday, and so until then, remember He's making a list and he's checking it twice. He's gonna find out who's naughty and nice. Santa Claus is a big fat criminal. Till next week. Bye. 

Kyle Risi: See you later. Merry Christmas.​