Column Chronicles: Never caught, the greatest bank robber in history, part two

Never caught: the greatest bank robber in history, part two

Frank Cotolo
June 11, 2020

Deadly Don Billingsly was never caught, charged or convicted for robbery, murder or any other criminal charge because DD (as some began to call him) came up with a foolproof plan to commit crimes from the beginning of his long career as an outlaw.

While other criminals of the era were busting into banks with Tommy Guns blazing, Don and his crew moseyed into banks, stood on line and waited to be served and silently asked for money while pointing a pistol at a teller. The teller was so appreciative to Don and his crew for being polite, respectful and non-violent that he or she handed over stacks of cash. Don and his crew carefully placed the money into their pockets and shirts and impressed the teller again by thanking him or her and quietly saying, "Bless your family, your pets and the ground upon which you live with continued health and may God Himself bring good food and great comfort to every meal you have, answering your nightly prayers and your deepest wishes for a long life and the happiness deserved by you and yours."

That personal approach to stealing money was accepted by bank tellers anywhere DD and his gang went to rob money. However, that was not the end to the brilliance of DD's robbing method. After a bank was robbed, DD or one of his henchmen, took the money to another back across town and sometimes out of state and opened a savings account with the money under a fake name backed by faked credentials.

In the first year of DD's bank-robbing scheme, he and his gang had opened fourteen savings accounts that held the money the gang stole from fourteen other banks. The police in the territories where the money was robbed were baffled. For one, the tellers involved would not give descriptions of the DD gang. For another, police were distracted by the violent means banks were being robbed by the popular outlaws like Bonnie and Clyde, Haley and Bailey, Pretty Boy Floyd, Surly Girl Shirl and others.

Detective Sam Truckload of the Wisconsin Police Department, who was assigned to bank robberies by popular outlaws, told the press in 1931 that "the bank-robbing market is so crowded with criminal gangs these days that we think there may be more criminals than police. Plus, lots of us getting killed trying to stop them."

...to be continued.

Frank Cotolo can be found hosting the talk and interview programme Cotolo Chronicles. You can send him an e-mail at this address: frank@148.ca.