
The Great Buenos Aires Bank Heist
They were an all-star crew. They cooked up the perfect plan. And when they pulled off the caper of the century, it made them more than a fortune—it made them folk heroes.
Great articles, every Saturday.
They were an all-star crew. They cooked up the perfect plan. And when they pulled off the caper of the century, it made them more than a fortune—it made them folk heroes.
Peggy Jo Tallas spent most of her adult life doing two things: taking care of her ailing mother and robbing bank after bank dressed as a pudgy, bearded cowboy.
Skip Hollandsworth Texas Monthly Nov 2005 35min Permalink
The story of Edward Averill, a blind man with one foot who robbed a bank in Austin, Texas.
Ciara O'Rourke The Atavist Magazine Jan 2019 40min Permalink
Tom Justice was once a cyclist chasing Olympic gold. Then he began using his bike for a much different purpose: robbing banks.
Steven Leckart Chicago Magazine Jan 2019 40min Permalink
How Jim Hayes blew it all.
Natalie O'Neill The Daily Beast Sep 2018 15min Permalink
The most prolific bank robber in Texas history.
Helen Thorpe Texas Monthly Mar 1997 30min Permalink
Carbanak’s suspected ringleader is under arrest, but $1.2 billion remains missing, and his malware attacks live on.
Charlie Devereux, Franz Wild, and Edward Robinson Bloomberg Business Jun 2018 10min Permalink
Having fallen on hard times, a former football star and the pride of his small town decides to rob the local bank. His weapons of choice: Craigslist, bear mace, and an inner tube.
David Kushner GQ Oct 2010 20min Permalink
Houston was plagued by a series of brutal armored car robberies that bewildered FBI agents for nearly two years. To finally bring down the unassuming mastermind behind it all, the agents had to stage an elaborate trap—and catch him in the act.
Skip Hollandsworth Texas Monthly Apr 2018 35min Permalink
Ray Bowman and Billy Kirkpatrick, who began boosting together as teenagers, were arrested only twice during their prolific partnership. The first time was for stealing 38 records from a K-Mart in 1974. The second arrest came in 1997. In between, Bowman and Kirkpatrick robbed 27 banks, including the single biggest haul in United States history: $4,461,681 from the Seafirst Bank in suburban Tacoma.
Alex Kotlowitz New Yorker Jul 2002 20min Permalink
Hervé Falciani, a computer engineer working at HSBC, stole the bank’s list of secret accounts. But was he out to expose tax cheats or get rich himself? Perhaps both.
Patrick Radden Keefe New Yorker May 2016 40min Permalink
How a 24-year-old nurse discovered Vegas, high-stakes gambling, and serial bank robbery.
Jeff Maysh BBC Apr 2015 25min Permalink
They were an ordinary pair of small-time criminals in the UK. Then they figured out how to blow up an ATM.
Nick Summers Bloomberg Business Jan 2015 Permalink
Scott Catt was a single dad trying to make ends meet, so he started robbing banks. Then he needed accomplices, so he asked his kids.
Skip Hollandsworth Texas Monthly May 2014 20min Permalink
How architecture has made Los Angeles a bank robber’s paradise.
Geoff Manaugh Cabinet May 2013 10min Permalink
How a struggling comedian became a pimp who eventually started sending teenage hookers on bank robbery missions that earned them notoriety as the “Starlet Bandits.”
Gene Maddaus LA Weekly Jul 2013 20min Permalink
An Iraq War veteran assuages his PTSD with bank heists.
Scott Johnson Buzzfeed May 2013 35min Permalink
A captured bank robber makes a remarkable claim.
Tom Schoenberg Businessweek Apr 2013 10min Permalink
The story of Attila Ambrus, who was released from jail this morning in Hungary. Nicknamed the Whiskey Robber because witnesses always spotted him having a double across the street prior to his heists, Ambrus only stole from state-owned banks and post offices, becoming a Hungarian folk hero during his seven years on the lam. While on his spree he was also the goaltender for Budapest’s best-known hockey team and was arguably the worst pro goalie ever to play the sport, once giving up 23 goals in a single game.
Excerpted from Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts.
A bank robber tells the story of a successful heist.
Dane Batty Crime Magazine May 2011 Permalink