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The Bobbed Haired Bandit | Morbid | Podcast

January 16, 2025 / 55:54

This episode covers the story of the "Bobbed Haired Bandit," a notorious female robber in 1920s Brooklyn, and her accomplice. Hosts Elina and Ash discuss the cultural implications of her actions, the media's portrayal, and the eventual arrest of Helen Quigley and her partner.

The episode begins with light banter about the time difference between recording and airing, leading into the main topic. The hosts introduce the case of Helen Quigley, who, along with her male accomplice, robbed a grocery store in Brooklyn in 1924. They highlight her fashionable appearance and how it symbolized the flapper culture of the time.

As the story unfolds, the hosts describe the public's fascination with the female robber and the media's sensationalism surrounding her actions. They discuss the letters she sent to the police, taunting them and expressing her innocence, which only fueled the public's interest.

Eventually, the hosts reveal that Quigley and her partner were arrested, and they delve into their backgrounds, including Quigley's difficult upbringing and her motivations for turning to crime. The episode concludes with a reflection on the societal pressures that led to their criminal activities.

Throughout the episode, the hosts maintain a humorous tone while addressing serious themes of crime, gender roles, and the impact of societal expectations on individuals.

TLDR

The episode tells the story of the Bobbed Haired Bandit, a female robber in 1920s Brooklyn, and her cultural significance.

Episode

55:54
00:00:06
hey weirdos I'm Elina I'm Ash and this is [Music] morbid and it's beginning to look a lot
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like Christmas but for you it's probably June I was like NOP no I was like I'm going somewhere with this I'm going
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somewhere with this me and Mikey both were like no oh no no it's not that like give me give me a moment just let me
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live yeah it's literally almost crimmas for us we're 5 days it's the new year for you it's 2025 what's it like in the
00:00:53
future it's been the new year for you yeah is it cool there I hope so is everything better what are the drones
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doing oh my God just going to say that they could abduct Me it's fine it's not aliens I was going
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to say they won't cuz it's not aliens it's the government so I don't want them to abduct Me no I'm not saying the
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government I want I would like aliens to come through and pick me up because I'm
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scared cuz I'm scared can you pick me up aliens I'm just kind of complacent now that's like scary for you though I'm
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like numb to it I'm just like well it is what it is I got that too it's so funny
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I had like welcome to my therapy session I had like the worst end of the world anxiety for a long time like especially
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this year I think just like the mental state that I was in really fed to that fed that but now I'm just like I feel
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like one people have always thought the world was ending and that helps me immensely fine and then can't do
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anything about it yeah so like why why really did some great [ __ ] work on my mind she did yeah shout out to her shout
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out to her shout out to all my therapists out the years there's been like eight of them pour one out for all
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your for each of them each each one of them each one each one well I have a interesting case for us today that has
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nothing to do with therapy and everything to do with robbery oh well there we go we told you we were going to
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give you a little pallet cleanser kind of thing yeah it's definitely pallet cleanser this has just
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like put them up fella she's got a Transatlantic accent yes 100% she's yeah she's got the bob
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haircut yeah there's so many quotes throughout this and I don't know if I'm great at a Transit Atlantic accent but
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I'm definitely was interesting but I have faith in you then no that's fair I'm also really tired um Mikey also no
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it wasn't good it was honestly it was oh oh Mikey's worried that everyone's going
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to come after me probably listen they love me so you better you better no it was awesome you're that was such a good
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trans oh now they're really going to come after you because that was fake as [ __ ] no but I wish everybody saw the the
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the fing the finger guns that went along with it cuz it really added to but I liked it yeah was you know I I do what I
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can yeah I'm going to punch Ash in the face after this guys she hits me a lot all the time it's
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crazy um I don't know how to transition out of that I was like Where Do We Go From Here
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leave all the lights on please all right all right all right so robbery Transatlantic accent and ladies
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and what what is this case called it has a fun name it's called and you already know because you pressed the episode but
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for those of you who didn't read it the bobbed haired Bandit see that's that's what I'm talking about the bobbed haired
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Bandit that's what we need After the Blackout Ripper and you know what I have a [ __ ] ass Bob right now you do have a
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[ __ ] ass Bob so I feel seen and my hairdresser just had her baby so I'm going to have a [ __ ] ass Bob for longer
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than I thought which is totally fine welcome to the world te um but I it was the perfect time to do this story
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absolutely you and your [ __ ] ass Bob cementing in my [ __ ] ass bobom and let's
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go [ __ ] ass bobom I like [ __ ] ass bobom I like it our hashtag still a thing use
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that let's go I'm old all right a little past 9:30 on the evening of January 5th
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1924 won Lester Lowden that's his name ler Lester isn't that a cute name like Lester Holt I love him Lester Lowden
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Lester Lowden he was working at the Thomas Rolston grocery in Park Slope Brooklyn that night had been pretty
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quiet and as the evening was going on fewer and fewer customers were coming in the store was completely empty when a
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young woman entered and let me tell you baby she was serving Lukes she was wearing a seal fur coat over a
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beautifully beaded dress it looked like she was on her way to a party oh damn he
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said who's that girl in her [ __ ] ass Bob he didn't even know who Madonna was yet
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so it was crazy but the woman approached the counter where he was standing and she had her hands in her coat pockets
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and she just said hello can I have a dozen eggs I can't do transatlanticism so trans Cab for
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Cutie it's a great song it really is it gets you crying oh it does oh all right well as Lowden was wrapping up the eggs
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for this beautiful young woman she took a few steps back from the counter and pulled out a 25 automatic pistol from
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that seal fur coat and she shouted at him stick them up quick she did like a May West style that was my best
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sh [ __ ] she said I'm happy to see you and it's a gun wait you're good at it sh don't do
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that this is my episode and not yours but he immediately threw them hands in the air like like he did care
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like he did care he cared very much in that moment he deeply cared he was uh he was obviously focused on the woman in
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front of him with a giant pistol but he also noticed that in the time it had taken him to get the a what I was just
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going to say eggs but then my mouth went to say ass the ass I don't know it's a romantic it's a romantic vibe in this
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[ __ ] Los this grocery store it's the end of the year I'm so tired I'm like but did she get the eggs
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she didn't want the eggs I want the eggs and the time it it taking to get the eggs I'm getting eggs today happy eggs
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yay me too a man had entered the store and was now corralling the other clerks to the back of the store like he was
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like everybody back here the woman back here now yeah the woman motioned for lden to join the other
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clerk she was like go on get back there and she held her gun on all of them and the man shouted to her hold them back as
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he started rifling through the register stuffing bills and handfuls of coins into his pocket that night also one of
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the clerks hadn't pushed the cash envelope all the way into the safe so they were also able to get that as well
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oh [ __ ] once they grabbed all the cash in the store $680 in total back then which doesn't sound like a ton that
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would be $2,545 today holy [ __ ] cuz this is 1924 RA in 20s they got all that money
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and they started backing away in the direction of the door and the man yelled don't make a move if you want your head
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blown off just try to follow us out oh I liked that one yeah I lik that there was
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also some some more finger guns he backing out with guns they said if you want your head blown off just try to
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follow us out don't make a move don't make any move moves outside they jumped into their car that was parked across
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the street and they drove off leaving the six clerks just huddled in the back of the store like what the [ __ ] just
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happened here damn and probably traumatized probably so to the police and the public the robbery of the
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grocery store wasn't that shocking it wasn't that surprising the economy was trending downward in New York at the
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time we entering the Great Depression it was pretty Jazzy it was you know yeah it
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[ __ ] was popping off a lot of men were out of work it was also the time of prohibition so crime and General was on
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the rise between bootleggers and organized crime Rings it was it was [ __ ] wild in the New York streets
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yeah in New York the Press dubbed 1923 the gunman's year noting that 270 murders had been committed with guns
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that year many in the commission of armed robbery so this unfortunately wasn't Like A New Concept to anybody
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yeah yeah and all of this culminated in a culture of criminality that New Yorkers simply came to accept as a
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reality life in the city at this point on a smaller level it kind of reminds me of what you were talking about with the
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blackouts in the blackout Ripper story it's like the setting really add and the setting in the time period really add to
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the vibe of the overall story yeah absolutely so while most people weren't super interested in the news of the
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robbery what did catch people's attention was the fact that one of the robbers and the one who seemed to take
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the lead was a woman and not just a woman but she was young and she was fashionable she was h she was hot she
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was a hot girl she was smoking she did hot [ __ ] like robbing grocery stores that's not hot [ __ ] don't do that yeah
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don't do that but for many New Yorkers especially the older residents the woman's clothing and specifically her
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hairstyle were very symbolic of this youth culture that was emerging during this specific period you know who I'm
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talking I'm talking flappers flappers flappers We're Young sexually liberated women especially compared to Generations
00:09:27
before them and they just didn't give a sh when it came to things like dancing drinking and mixed gender socialization
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oh my goodness they were talking to boys committing Capers over here it's crazy according to author Steven Dunc older
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Generations came to view the bobbed hairstyle as a quote are you ready symptom of the mentally
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defective I'm obsessed with that the bobbed hairstyle was a symptom of the mentally defective and they even blamed
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this hairstyle for quote unquote breaking up marriages absolutely and then I wrote in my notes
00:10:05
today we call it a [ __ ] ass Bob a [ __ ] ass Bob and I got one so the outrages
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over floppers and supposedly loose women was pretty much just like a moral Panic
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very similar to satanic Panic it's when the older Generations are like oh my God
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the youth is crazy it's always happened yeah but the fact that one of these robbers appeared to fall into that
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category of crazy youth only strengthened the belief among many that young people were heading in a very
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dangerous and even criminal Direction so already Under Pressure [ __ ] ass Bobs they [ __ ] ass Bobs thank you so already
00:10:38
Under Pressure to do something about the about Street crime in the city Brooklyn
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Police acted very quickly and within a week they arrested 22-year-old Helen Quigley a former burlesque dancer oh
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come on she was just living with her father in Brooklyn a few days earlier her boyfriend Vincent apples
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kavalski I this is a this is such a casee what a time to be alive what a time I'm dating apples kavalski that's
00:11:05
right who isn't you know you know what yesid question so a few days before she had
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been arrested apples there had been picked up on suspicion of robbery and wasted no time in confessing and also
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implicating Helen as his accomplice wow loyalty I know seriously they did Bear a
00:11:25
slight resemblance to the two who had uh robbed the Rolston grocery and they were
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actually even picked out of a photo lineup by Lester Loden but Helen Quigley insisted that she had nothing to do with
00:11:36
the robbery or any of the other holdups in the area she said You Got Me Wrong why I'm so afraid of a gun I can hardly
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look at one I like that I try I'm really really trying with yeah you're really you're starting to embody it thank you I
00:11:49
automatically go Southern when I try to do an accent it's I mean transatlantic accents have like a hint of Southern to
00:11:55
it so you're you're on there all right thank you I like it but she said You Got Me Wrong You Got Me Wrong now despite
00:12:01
her Declaration of Innocence she was the embodiment of the 1920s flapper right down to her very casual demeanor when
00:12:08
she was faced with arrest when police went to her dad's house to arrest her she quote calmly asked if she could
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finish drying the supper dishes before they brought her in for questioning priorities you know they said ma'am
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you're under arrest for robbery and she said my dad's going to get pissed if I don't clean up dinner yeah she's like
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you think I want to leave that in the sink fair enough think we want rodents in here you know it is New York but
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according to Helen she did have a date with apples kavalski on the night of the murder but he never showed up that's so
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like apples you had his number from the very beginning of course I did apples kavalski come on she even Helen knew
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yeah so she was like whatever she didn't give a [ __ ] she was like I just stayed
00:12:45
home that night other than that she called kavalski a dirty rat and a Squealer that's right but she didn't say
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much else during the hours long interrogation damn the press and the police were completely certain that she
00:12:57
was the Bob teared B it who had robbed several stores in South Brooklyn neighborhoods but that was certainly
00:13:04
shaken just a few days later when another store was robbed this time it was a Weinstein drug store according to
00:13:11
Lewis HEC the clerk who was at the wiin Weinstein that night this is rude a quote chunky Bobby bobbed haired girl
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and her boyfriend entered the store and immediately pointed the gun at him demanding the cash in the register in
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the register excuse me after pocketing the cash and looting the store the girl handed Ed him a note and told him to
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give it to Captain Cary of the detective Bureau oh my God they're like going they're like let's communicate with the
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cops full send yes the note read you dirty fish pedling bums leave this innocent girl Helen quickly alone and
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get the right ones which is nobody but us and we are going to give Mr Hogan the manager of rolston's on 7av another
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visit as we got two checks we couldn't cash and also ask bohack's manager did I ruin his cash register also I will visit
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him again as I broke a perfectly good automatic on it we defy you fellows to catch
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us I'm so obsessed this fact that she was like you [ __ ] bums innocent girl you you dirty fish
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pedaling bums dirty fish pedaling bums you got the wrong girl in there I looks looks like you got the wrong girl I beg
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of us to do better and to speak like this again better call people dirty fish pedaling bums honestly that's a great
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insult it's Chef's like I can't think of something better you know I was looking
00:14:37
up 1920 slang cuz I'm going to try to throw it in here as we go I love you to go on a drinking spree on a toot on a
00:14:45
toot just oh you know he's a you know where apples is he's just out on a toot on a toot that's what your kids call a
00:14:50
fart so it makes it even funnier it's so funny like everything was funnier it really was like I know life was not
00:14:57
funnier because like you know the depression looming and all that [ __ ] they added so much to it to make it
00:15:03
worthwhile I was going to say it was the the stuff like this like the the Linguistics of the time it's so good so
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good so the note was signed the bobbed haired Bandit and companion I love that she called herself the Bob haired Bandit
00:15:19
yeah I think they had already dubbed her at that point and she was I love that she was like I'll take it said and
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companion and my companion look he's not yeah my man companion that egg over there I love it so this note seemed to
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have been written explicitly for the purpose of proving the innocence of Helen Quigley and her man apples there
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good for her she's trying to get that girl out she's like it's me at that point those uh apples and Helen Quigley
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had been arraigned on uh of robbery and assault charges oh so they're like headed for the big house oh damn but by
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the time they received the note captains car and Sullivan had actually started to
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question whether Helen was actually guilty and the latest robbery at the Weinstein seemed to indicate that she
00:16:00
probably wasn't the Bandit yeah so after Helen Quigley and apple koval's arrangment I keep wanting to say
00:16:07
Arrangement you can say that it's arranged it's arranged their arrangment and the announcement that they would be
00:16:12
held on $20,000 Bond another letter arrived for the police and this one was more forceful than the last the writer
00:16:19
said why don't you see that Helen quigle is letg go you cops are rotten as she ain't guilty if you can't find the
00:16:25
guilty party you grab the first one you get a hold of if you hold a grudge again
00:16:28
against them wow she said you guys are filthy and fake she said wow you're real dumb pretty much unfortunately the note
00:16:37
had the opposite effect that the writer intended the judge actually doubled Quigley and koval's bond damn and was
00:16:44
pretty certain that the writer was just a third accomplice trying to weaken their case against the pair but as the
00:16:50
robberies continued so did the letters to the police and to members of the Press on January 22nd the editor of the
00:16:56
standard Union received a note that read I must say we have a wonderful police force they must all be asleep cold
00:17:03
nights are the best to stick people up the cops and bulls have Hangouts and are always in on cold wet nights I passed
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two cops and Bulls standing on Fulton Street and Bedford Avenue Saturday night I asked one of them where ke's theater
00:17:15
was and they directed me I almost laughed in their faces to think they were talking to the one they were
00:17:20
looking for and can plainly see they blind or asleep she's oh I'm not condoning anything has done no it's kind of iconic
00:17:31
no it's truly iconic kind of iconic she said she's like I was right in your face
00:17:36
and you didn't even she said LOL and you got the wrong person I'm telling you you
00:17:40
got the wrong person and you're still not letting her go yeah like damn I love what she's doing damn so by late January
00:17:47
store clerks and residents were seeing the Bandit and her companion all over Brooklyn on January 21st a grocer in
00:17:53
Brooklyn claimed he'd been robbed of $600 by the pair who escaped in a car that they had parked around in the
00:17:59
corner which obviously like that part is not great cuz you're like these Grocers
00:18:02
do not deserve to be terrorized losing their their work know I mean like their you know what they use to put food on
00:18:09
their table and like the clerks being scared to go to work that's none of that is cool her notes are hilarious to the
00:18:17
cops just to clarify but that same night uh that the other robbery happened for quote boy Bandits ranging in age from 14
00:18:25
boy Bandits ranging in age from 14 to 18 held up several stores in the Bronx and
00:18:30
took more than $700 which would be $113,000 in today's get it together everyone I'm like how did you hide that
00:18:37
from your parents damn now even though there was no apparent connection between these and the other holdups the Press
00:18:43
still subtly implied that there was definitely an epidemic of violence and robberies being perpetrated by young
00:18:49
people across the city damn it's kind of just a fact yeah one journalist wrote every other night or so the frightened
00:18:54
proprietor of a chain grocery store would back away from a crouching snarling little demon whose eyes blazed
00:19:00
over the sights of an ugly automatic a foulmouthed fury who but a moment before had seemed in the background wow why
00:19:08
can't we do better why can't we talk like this why can't we they used to call policemen elbows shut the fck why I need
00:19:16
an explanation on that one call them elbows I love that yeah I love that so much yeah well with each
00:19:26
new Bandit letter published in the paper the public had new material to inform the growing mockery and the jokes aimed
00:19:32
at the police who were unable to catch the pair after a run of particularly rainy days in late uh January the
00:19:38
standard Union joked if this weather keeps up the girl with the Bob tear may try her luck in getting away with a red
00:19:43
hot stove whoa they said the cops don't really work well during the rain so she's going nuts the increase in public
00:19:50
criticism was very clearly starting to irritate City officials in an article published in the New York Herald Mayor
00:19:57
John F Highland angrily told reporter there isn't any bobbed haired Bandit that's only a myth you you're just flim
00:20:03
flamming us I'm like sir she's been seen she's been she's been witnessed by several people who have been held up at
00:20:11
these stores like is everybody just making this up yeah they just don't want to admit that you know what this is
00:20:17
there's a lady that's uh getting the best of them making a run making us run for our money here and we're not happy
00:20:24
with it yeah she should stay in the kitchen where she belongs whether he genuinely beli beli that or not there
00:20:29
was indeed a bob teed Bandit and the failure to capture her was definitely starting to make the NYPD look like a
00:20:35
bunch of idiots they were so mad and they were pissed they were so mad so on the night of January 26th the contingent
00:20:42
of 200 police officers picture that 200 scattered across neighborhoods all over Brooklyn intent on capturing the Bob
00:20:52
teed Bandit and her companion and her comp I love companions believing that they the pair were sure to to strike
00:20:59
that night as they had the previous five Saturdays officers stood watch outside of grocery stores drug stores and even
00:21:05
delies around the city just waiting for that Bandit to make a mistake and at that same time another large group of
00:21:11
officers were assigned to watch over the home of NYPD commissioner Richard enri after one of the Bandit's notes
00:21:18
referenced making a visit to the man's home oh damn but by the time the police had spread out their net the Bandit had
00:21:25
already robbed eight businesses of nearly $2,000 which would be $37,000 in today's Cash Dam and showed
00:21:34
no signs of slowing down or even losing any kind of confidence cuz why why slow down they're not catching you it's
00:21:41
raining I got to go yeah it's raining however despite that large scale effort there was no sign of the Bandit that
00:21:47
January 26th night and the next day the Press reported on yet another failure by
00:21:52
the police uhoh in the meantime John Highland expressed his complete support and commissioner enrite and the NYPD
00:21:59
writing it has always seemed to me a very regrettable feature of the of life in New York that some of the newspapers
00:22:06
consciously or unconsciously Aid in attempts to dislodge a Fearless Police Commissioner wow she's like it's the
00:22:12
newspaper's fault it's yeah obviously we can't catch this person obviously the newspapers like you're the one who's
00:22:19
saying that she doesn't even exist exactly but now as far as he was concerned the Bob teed Bandit wasn't the
00:22:25
problem the Press was he already said that he did he thought she was a myth created by the press to sell papers and
00:22:31
he later said true occasionally a girl may commit a Larsen but there's surely no occasion for the scareheads about
00:22:37
girl Bandits the scareheads the scareheads nor for moralists to say that the town is infested with them he's like
00:22:43
girl Bandits aren't real that's that is exactly the energy that he is delivering
00:22:48
girl Bandits are fake girl Bandits have cooties no there only boy Bandits you can't be a girl Bandit
00:22:55
no you're stupid that's so funny but he said he was confident that if they could
00:23:00
crack down on the press and prevent them from fueling this public hysteria the Bob haired Bandit would just disappear
00:23:05
and people would go on with their lives yeah because the Press had no interest or reason to stop a reporting on the
00:23:12
Bandit as long as she continued to pull off these robberies around the city and as long as readers were interested in
00:23:17
her Antics they were going to keep publishing the stories to sell those papers yeah and they didn't give a [ __ ]
00:23:23
how it made the police look they're like make yourselves look better by early February the local papers honed on a new
00:23:29
Theory detectives had been developing and it was that despite all reports the Bob haired Bandit was not a woman at all
00:23:36
but perhaps a young man disguising himself by wearing young woman's clothing because once again there's no
00:23:42
way that this is a girl banded they said a girl is not defying us like this it must be a man yeah well some may have
00:23:49
found the theory more credible than others just as many dismissed it as nonsense noting that many of the
00:23:54
witnesses quote describe the Bandit's feet and shoes as typically feminine and and her walk is characteristic of a
00:24:00
member of the weaker sex adorable it makes me think of in Scream one when Stu is like no there's no way a girl could
00:24:08
have killed him and ry's like it takes a manth to do something like that oh my God it's so true that's the perfect
00:24:15
quote that is the that's the vibe that I'm getting man takes a man to do something like that I love it that's
00:24:23
exactly what this is giving that's the vibe now the Bandit and her companion they did lay low for a few weeks and
00:24:29
that was until early February when they were back at it again with the [ __ ] ass
00:24:33
Bob hell yeah she's getting out there with her Glad Rags what's a glad rag tell us all about it oh my God our Glad
00:24:40
Rags she's going to go commit a caper is that a crime yeah a robbery a crime I love it yeah well she they were back on
00:24:47
the job and they landed themselves right back on the front pages of the New York
00:24:51
papers a little after 10: p.m. on the evening of February 3rd the bobbed haired Bandit entered an HC Boh hat
00:24:57
grocery store on Lafayette Street and approached the counter wearing what the Press described as a saucy turban
00:25:04
trimmed with fur oh I love a saucy turban Saucy turban now despite the late hour there were still several store
00:25:11
clerks behind the counter and actually three customers waiting in line when she reached the counter the Bandit asked the
00:25:16
butcher Peter uh Peter Crossman for a whole chicken she said one whole chicken please me too same he disappeared into
00:25:23
the deli and when he returned with the chicken the B the chicken excuse me the Bandit P her revolver from her coat
00:25:29
pocket and said one peep and you're a dead butcher she said hey grab a little air that's also sling what does that
00:25:37
mean that means put your hands up grab a little air I just love that she made like a chicken joke one I love that I
00:25:43
love it and you're a dead butcher so the butcher dropped the chicken on the floor
00:25:48
and threw his hands up in the air because again he did care yeah he grabbed a little air the Bandit then
00:25:53
whistled and within seconds her companion was by her side pistol in hand and I just picture her doing the like
00:25:59
the pinkies in the mouth kind of wh the mouth whistle hell yeah I wish I could do that kind of whistle she then
00:26:06
directed Cosman and the other clerks to the back of the store while the Bandit kept everybody at the back of the store
00:26:11
the man went through the cash register stuffing bills into his pockets 150 bucks in total that night today that'd
00:26:17
be about 2,700 bucks once they emptied the registers they backed their way out of the store loudly declaring that they
00:26:24
would shoot anybody who made a move or yelled for the police and once they got outside they just jumped in their car
00:26:29
and they sped off and they said bye a few days later police arrested 19-year-old Mary Cody for this robbery
00:26:36
and they declared they had finally got her this was their bobbed haired Bandit doubt it they claimed Moore wasn't
00:26:42
acting alone but rather she was the leader of a gang of Bandits that included her boyfriend Matthew Boyd Boyd
00:26:51
Boyd that's you my girl girl and a man by the name of Richard Gibbons Mary Cody and the two men were accused of several
00:26:59
taxi cab holdups in the area but the only evidence connecting her to the Bandit robberies was the fact that she
00:27:05
owned a seal fur coat and wore her hair in a bobbed style yeah seems a little hinky to me she had a coat and a Bob I
00:27:12
just want you to let that sink in that's it unfortunately when their robbery victims were shown photographs of this
00:27:18
woman and her two accomplice quote unquote they all denied that she was the banded they said no that's not the girl
00:27:23
they said Noah she just got a coat and they said okay fine and they arrested uh another young woman just one day later
00:27:30
they said all right Mario it's not you but I think it's Rose Mo yeah me too we're going to go arrest her yeah and
00:27:35
they arrested her after her mother reported her missing to the police when a detective caught up with rose she was
00:27:41
wearing a seal skin coat and a pink hat over her bobbed ass hair over her Bob assir over her bobbed ass hair the
00:27:50
arresting detective told the Brooklyn Eagle he was quote satisfied in his own mind that Ros Moore and the notorious
00:27:57
bobbed haired Bandit Wy and defiant were one and the same but the next day it was clear she
00:28:03
had nothing to do with the holdups and she was released from custody her brother Edward who actually was the one
00:28:09
to report his suspicions of her to the police damn later said Rose is a good girl but fond of fun and I suppose I was
00:28:16
too strict with her my sister had no record of any kind against her of course and it was really my fault that she
00:28:21
received this unpleasant publicity wow fond of fun you're a [ __ ] bag he was like you're having too much fun I'm
00:28:29
going to make them think you're a bandit much fun you have a [ __ ] ass Bob I'm going to put you in the big house men
00:28:34
suck like you're the worst are you kidding he's like and it's like her brother it's like shut the [ __ ] up yeah
00:28:40
shut the [ __ ] up shut the [ __ ] up sibling like get the [ __ ] out of here she's having too much fun I got to throw
00:28:45
in the big house you're not my dad yeah get the [ __ ] out of here well by this point Helen Quigley and Mary Cody were
00:28:51
actually still in custody of uh on suspicion they're just like they're arresting people while they have all the
00:28:59
bobbed haired girls in little holding cells all of them police were arresting or detaining anybody who fit the
00:29:06
description of the Bandit and her companion desperate to close the case and her companion companion they were
00:29:12
just desperate to close the case they wanted to end all the public criticism meanwhile as detectives uh interrogated
00:29:18
Rose Moore the real Bandit continued writing notes just taunting the police and condemning the press for printing
00:29:24
lies about her after an interview with the supposed Bandit appeared in the Brooklyn an eagle the editor received a
00:29:29
note that read Dear Sir the interview you printed about the bobbed haired Bandit was a fake and you ought to be
00:29:35
exposed it seems to me that you would have more to do than sit down and just make things up personally I think you
00:29:42
are a bum I have never been interviewed as a matter of a fact and I defy you P.S
00:29:48
I also defy the police a photographic copy of this letter has been turned over to the police of the popular Street
00:29:55
Station I I think you are a I we need to start calling people bums again we have to call people bums 2025
00:30:04
yeah 2025 we're bringing back calling people bums personally I think you are a bum yeah it should be said that while
00:30:12
the bobbed haired Bandit did write a lot of notes to the police and the Press there were countless other fake notes
00:30:17
written by Anonymous uh senders it's not always known which is which but but all
00:30:22
of them are they they have such zest and flare they do have such zest and what else do they have they're very hoty
00:30:30
totsy they are very hoty totsy and you know what we got a lot of bobhair patsies sitting in the big house right
00:30:36
now tell me everything what Bob paired PSIs yeah PSIs are people who are set up a fool a chump a chump they're sitting
00:30:44
in the big house in jail this is too much I love it so much I wish we were dressed like Swanky I
00:30:52
know I'm wearing sweatpants oh we need to do a liter tale that's 1920s themed so we can go early yesterday I don't
00:30:59
know how we do that but we'll figure it out we could just read regular tales and
00:31:02
just decide to be 1920s I love it I like it well regardless the letters became so
00:31:07
popular with readers that the Brooklyn Eagle just continued collecting them and Publishing them now on a weekly basis
00:31:13
damn much to the irritation of the police I imagine because not only did the letters make detectives look foolish
00:31:19
for their inability to catch the Bandit but they also reminded New Yorkers that crime was still a big problem in the
00:31:24
city and that that fact reflected very poor on police commissioner enr after a few weeks of downtime the Bandit popped
00:31:33
up again in late February this time wielding a pistol in each hand she got one too oh damn and this was when she
00:31:41
and her companion robbed the James Butler grocery in Brooklyn by that point the public had started mistakingly
00:31:47
seeing the Bandit everywhere so when the woman entered the store wearing her quote 3/4 length seal skin coat and her
00:31:54
black turban one of the customers shouted the Bob head B did she's arrived here she is the pair went through their
00:32:02
usual routine coring the customers and the clerks to the back of the store while one of them went through the
00:32:06
registers and then they backed out of the store with their guns drawn and said don't tell anybody and they said oh my
00:32:12
God it's really a skirt what does that one mean she's a real skirt she's a real skirt what's it
00:32:19
mean a woman a woman oh my God it's a woman now a skirt Bandit uh as they made their way out of the door the Bandit
00:32:26
shouted give us 10 minutes get away or you'll be sorry this time the total takeaway was
00:32:32
less than $60 but still a good sum of money that'd be about 1,000 bucks today yeah the latest string of robberies led
00:32:38
the police to devise a new strategy though casting an even wider net and questioning nearly anyone who met even
00:32:45
one of the bandits to scriptors however while this strategy was intended to catch the criminal it had the unintended
00:32:52
effect of scaring or just straight up inconveniencing the female members of the public by the end of February
00:32:58
detectives have put so much emphasis on the Bandit's hair and clothing that women all over the city started altering
00:33:04
their appearances so that they wouldn't be mistaken for the band oh damn yeah one hair stylist told the reporter girls
00:33:10
won't Bob their hair anymore and the ones who have theirs already bobbed are letting it grow as fast as they
00:33:16
can they're just encouraging their hair to grow please grow every night they're like please grow
00:33:21
faster that's how that works they're using rosemary oil biology the sentiment was shared by
00:33:27
other in the beauty industry and only led to more criticism of the police and of course their inability to catch this
00:33:33
bobbed haired Bandit I love her another stylist told reporters it's a shame the way the police are playing hide-and seek
00:33:39
with the girl and letting her out with them all the time I love this a police force of bobbed haired girls would catch
00:33:45
her soon enough she said [ __ ] that why don't we take all these bobbed haired arrestes and make them the police yeah
00:33:51
they're out here they're they're tooting the wrong ringer yeah you know it's that like barking up the wrong
00:33:57
tree asking the wrong person I love it tooting up the wrong ringer fortunately for the NYPD it would not come to that
00:34:04
but I do love the image that conjures I immediately thought of a bunch of [ __ ]
00:34:09
ass bobhair Flappers just walking in flashing a batch put them up I love it I love it oh I want to be one the
00:34:19
robberies continued into March and of course so did The Sensational press coverage soon enough the Bandit was
00:34:24
being celebrated by most as a kind of anti-hero and obviously an early feminist figure
00:34:30
pushing back on the suffocating norms and restrictions imposed by a world ruled of stinky stupid men there you go
00:34:37
one journalist wrote for the Brooklyn Eagle Brooklyn's girl Bandit is merely part of the great world revolt against
00:34:43
Authority and correct principles using her energies on the only plane open to her in which she can Revolt W they said
00:34:50
she's got a bob and she's robbing people and [ __ ] men yeah she's a weak sister no
00:34:56
love it by the end of March commission commissioner enr was [ __ ] pissed and the NYPD and him had become so
00:35:02
frustrated with the situation that he started to speak out to the Press about how he might have to step into the
00:35:08
investigation and bring the Bandit in himself he said I had about reached the conclusion that I would have to go out
00:35:15
and get her myself I'm not so sure that she is not a Shad man oh see we can't we
00:35:20
can't just give it it's a skirt I'm like no she's a skirt and she's getting The Best of You commissioner and you're just
00:35:26
upset about it his comments were aimed at the critics of the police but it's also clear from his statement that the
00:35:31
Bandit's gender was at least some degree of a threat to him otherwise he would have never called it into question
00:35:37
exactly [ __ ] I'm saying for months the Bandit and her companion had been holding up drug stores my favorite part
00:35:44
to be honest her companion and groceries around the city all without firing a single shot or harming anybody no shots
00:35:51
had been fired up to this point which thankful for that but that all changed on April 1st
00:35:58
when the pair attempted to rob the payroll department of the National Biscuit Company which is a company that
00:36:04
I would love to support I was going to say that place is near and dear to my heart same now the heist was to be the
00:36:11
biggest of their career thus far not only because it was the biggest supposed to be the biggest payout but also
00:36:17
because it occurred in broad daylight while a number a large number of Clerks were present that morning the couple
00:36:23
actually hired a car to take them to the biscuit company which I'm going to do that too but I'm not going to rob them
00:36:29
I'm just going to buy a lot of I'm getting a car to go to the biscuit company right now nisco National Biscuit
00:36:35
Company Nabisco oh my God I never knew that Mikey just told us Nabisco Mikey just cracked the code I never knew that
00:36:44
Biscuit Company what the [ __ ] I'm going to support them boom well when they boom
00:36:50
boom when they arrived to Nabisco the man pointed a gun at the driver Arthur West and told him to get in the back of
00:36:57
the the car once West had been tied up and placed on the floor in the back seat the Bandit took over the wheel and they
00:37:02
continued to down the street to the National Biscuit Warehouse Nabisco W once they reached their destination
00:37:11
they parked on the street outside the W warehouse and entered through the front door and climbed the stairs straight to
00:37:17
the administrative offices so on the second floor the young woman walked to the CAG in payroll office and she
00:37:22
stepped up to the desk and handed the clerk Nathan Mazo an envelope Mazo opened the envelope and took out the
00:37:29
paper inside but it appeared to be blank when he looked up prepared to question the woman in front of him he found
00:37:36
himself staring into the barrel of the bobbed haired Bandit's pistol uhoh seconds later the Bandit's male
00:37:42
companion appeared at her side with pistols in both hands and a handkerchief covering his face oh the payroll office
00:37:50
erupted into chaos as the clerks and SEC secretary started running trying to escape the gunman but the Bandit kept
00:37:57
focused on Mazo and the other man coralled the employees and forced them into a smaller office just adjacent to
00:38:03
the payroll cage now as the staff began filing into the small office Mao was last in line and he appeared to make a
00:38:10
move for the Bandit's gun grabbing her arm when he passed by her the Bandit fell back away from Mazo tumbling over a
00:38:17
chair a chair and falling to the floor seeing what was happening her companion fired Two Shots oh hitting Mao in the
00:38:26
arm causing the man obviously to scream and then the scene to erupt in the chaos
00:38:31
because fire has now been you've now heard gunshots exactly with everything having gone ay the pair fled down the
00:38:38
stairs and out to the car with several National Biscuit drivers following behind them now you know they they they
00:38:45
were doing these little ones that were going well at night and they got two they they were putting on the rits they
00:38:52
were high hatting I know what that's all about high they were getting swelled thrown on side acting High High toned
00:38:58
acting High toned got to keep it chill you got to chill out how do you say chill out in 1920s like I think it's
00:39:07
like hold on look hold on you got to simmer down you got to cool your jets hold your horses keep
00:39:19
your shirt on I like keep your shirt on take it easy pipe down keep your hair on
00:39:24
keep your hair on why do I feel like you're ma right now she doesn't really talk like that but
00:39:29
like kind of but she kind of does she has a 1920s Vibe about her when she when she gets going W you be Bal lupas baby
00:39:38
she does she does the trans I just like the like haen getting swelled and swelled getting too big for
00:39:45
you br keep your hair on keep your hair on well nobody's hair was on everybody was [ __ ] terrified they were getting
00:39:51
swelled they were getting fully swelled acting way too high toned an ambulance and police ared at the scene a short
00:39:58
time later and Nathan Mao was taken to the hospital for treatment a few blocks away a patrolman Came Upon the Packard
00:40:04
that the pair had arrived in whoop and the driver Arthur West was still tied up in the floor in the back on the floor in
00:40:11
the back the patrolman took the car and the driver to the nearest precinct where
00:40:15
he explained that he had picked up the couple at a hotel near Prospect park and had driven them down to where the car
00:40:21
had been found at which point he was jumped by the couple and thrown into the back of the car oh damn he said he had
00:40:28
not seen either passenger's face but according to the Press quote his description of both the girl and her
00:40:33
companion tallied perfectly with that of the Bob teed Bandit and her companion oh
00:40:40
after 17 successful robberies 17 17 we just did the highlights here holy [ __ ] the holdup of the National Biscuit
00:40:50
Company naisa changed everything for the Bandit and her companion wow where she was spoken of as an anti-hero now the
00:41:00
papers were accusing her and her companion as attempted murderers and announcing quite inaccurately that Mao's
00:41:06
wounds will quote probably prove fatal they didn't okay he was shot which is very wrong absolutely he was shot in
00:41:14
the arm he was not going to die a few days later he himself would capitalize on the spotlight giving interviews where
00:41:20
he heroically claimed that he'd been reaching for the gun not trying to remove the Bandit's Veil as had been
00:41:26
suggested by the police in the Press he told a reporter believe me if I got that
00:41:30
gun I would have saved the police a lot of trouble I'd have killed them both that's what I'm going to do next time
00:41:36
I'm going to get the gun and I'm going to shoot her honestly I probably would have been as insufferable coming out you
00:41:42
in the like I would have come out and I would have been like next time I'm getting that gun I'm getting you yeah
00:41:46
you shoot me in the arm you're done yeah but if Nathan Mao was fantasizing about
00:41:51
a second visit from the Bandit and her companion he would be sadly disappointed after months of robberies and obviously
00:41:57
VI ly very intense press coverage the Bob haed Bandit and her companion seemingly disappeared wa for weeks NYPD
00:42:04
officers and detectives spread out across the city in search of the bobbed haired Bandit and her companion but the
00:42:09
robberies had stopped all together and there was no sign of the infamous Duo anywhere wow finally in mid April
00:42:17
investigators got a break when they learned that The Parkers who were the couple that hired the car and the driver
00:42:23
that took them to the Biscuit Company were 20year old old Celia Cooney 20 20-year-old Celia Cooney and her
00:42:33
25-year-old husband Ed Ed Ed honestly yeah her companion is Ed the couple lived in Brooklyn until recently when
00:42:42
they gave up their apartment and told their landlord that they were moving down to Florida NYPD detectives
00:42:48
contacted authorities in Florida who put out an alert across the state and in the
00:42:53
early hours of April 21st Celia and Ed Cooney were arrested stayed at a rooming House in
00:42:59
Jacksonville damn is that her yeah the Bob head band she does look 20 she looks younger than that to be honest wow so
00:43:09
now who exactly were Celia and Ed K who were they well Celia was born into extreme poverty and raised along with
00:43:17
seven brothers and sisters by a single mother who relied on her children to beg for money in the street that's how bad
00:43:23
things were ah so she kind of this was in her in her bones already uh for most of her younger years the family lived in
00:43:30
a coal Cellar until Celia was taken in by an aunt in Brooklyn when she was 14 in 1918 she moved out on her own and a
00:43:37
few years later in 1923 she met her now husband VA uh Ed at a Vaudeville theater
00:43:43
on fton street I love that that's so 1920s like that's so of the time and I it's a beautiful love story to be honest
00:43:52
she later remembered that night saying I thought I'd blow 30 cents taking in a show and hoping to run into some friends
00:43:57
but by the end of the night she struck up a conversation with the man next to her and as the picture came to an end
00:44:03
she had fallen in love with Ed's quote unquote wonderful smile oh my God right that's actually really sweet they dated
00:44:11
for a few months before they decided to get married on May 18th 1923 and Celia said I'd never been so happy in my life
00:44:18
but we weren't saving a scent Ed kept insisting on me buying myself some nice clothes it seemed so wonderful to me to
00:44:24
be loved and worried about so we spent our money that summer almost as fast as we made it wow at the same time Ed was
00:44:31
working as a welder for a small Garage in Brooklyn and while the salary wasn't great it was enough to pay a small rent
00:44:38
on the small room that they shared in a rooming house but in September Celia learned that she was pregnant and that
00:44:45
news changed everything oh she told Ed I'm not going to have my baby raised in a little 2x4 hole like I was insisting
00:44:53
that they needed to find a more suitable home for their family and Ed promised that that he would find a way to make it
00:44:58
happen oh this was how this sounds like such a like sweet story at first you're just like you like root for them yeah
00:45:05
and then they just said you know how we could do that robbing a lot of said oh no this was how Celia and Ed Cooney
00:45:11
became the bobbed haired Bandit and her companion wow and her companion at first
00:45:16
it all seemed like this strange fantasy to the young couple Celia said I had been reading magazines and books about
00:45:22
Girl Scout uh girl Crooks and bandits girl Crooks girl Crooks and bandits and it began to seem like a game or play
00:45:28
acting after i' really came home with the guns it was more exciting than anything I'd ever thought I'd do wow the
00:45:35
couple said they never intended to hurt anybody and they never wanted to the the
00:45:40
shooting at the Biscuit Company was completely unexpected and it was an unconscious reaction from Ed when he
00:45:45
thought his pregnant wife was in danger he told the police and in that sense you're like ah like you put like
00:45:51
obviously putting your being in the position of robbing people whilst pregnant already you're you lose that
00:45:58
argument like you know what I mean like that's it but now you you almost believe
00:46:02
her when she says like we didn't intend to hurt anybody because they never tried
00:46:06
to before you know like it seemed like the intimidation tactic was what they were
00:46:11
going with and it seemed to work yes which is wrong and throwing people off kilter with her being the first one
00:46:17
going in there with the gun I think was their intention like throwing them off completely at first yep and then Ed can
00:46:22
sauner in all tall and like you know get everything done get everything done yeah
00:46:28
I think his reaction was a somewhat Natural Instinct I guess he was just trying to protect his wife he told it's
00:46:35
not okay they had put themselves in that position to begin with so it's like precisely your argument false swap
00:46:40
precisely he told police I thought she had been struck or maybe cut and I fired through the door at Mao who fell my girl
00:46:47
was down and I had to rush in I picked her up and carried her out and if they hadn't already planned to go to Florida
00:46:52
after one final heist the reports in the papers the next day certainly would have
00:46:56
prompted them to run among the details of the holdup and the shooting were detailed descriptions of both Celia and
00:47:02
Ed along with orders from the uh from commissioner enrite to quote shoot her on site if
00:47:08
necessary damn which is like I don't think that's necessary but without the money from the biscuit hold up life in
00:47:15
Florida wasn't much better than what they had in New York when they first got married after spending most of their
00:47:20
money on train and boat fairs to get to Jacksonville the two had run out of money and they vowed not to commit any
00:47:26
more holdups Celia said we had less than $50 left and my baby was coming soon which would cost money the Bandit stuff
00:47:33
was over we never even thought of trying that again so Ed set out to find work as
00:47:37
a mechanic in Jacksonville but by then their descriptions had made it to the papers up and down the east coast and
00:47:44
would then would be followed by their actual names so they knew it was only a matter of time before law enforcement
00:47:49
caught up with them a few days after their arrest Ed and Celia were brought back to New York much to the Delight of
00:47:55
the New York Press who were happy to have their main story back in the city the pair were quickly arranged arraigned
00:48:01
on charges of armed robbery and assault where they indicated their willingness to plead guilty to as many as 10
00:48:07
robberies but they both maintained that they only started robbing stores in order to afford their baby and give Ed
00:48:14
to find uh a better paying job give him some time to do that Celia proudly told the court that the world owed them a
00:48:20
living and she said we did not want our baby born in an unfinished room we needed money to get furniture and get
00:48:26
set up on our and set up our own home and Ed said I had been reading in the newspapers of numerous robberies and I
00:48:32
decided I might get enough money that way to fix us up damn although enthusiasm for the couple had waned
00:48:39
slightly once they were identified Celia and Ed still had a fair share of fans and more than a little sympathy when
00:48:45
they arrived to New York from Florida their train was met by a mob of onlookers hundreds of people rushed the
00:48:52
train stores just in an effort to get a look at the comp the Bandit and her companion oh I believe it and more than
00:48:58
a few of them were saddened to hear that just a few days before being brought back to New York Celia had given birth
00:49:04
to her baby and the baby unfortunately passed away a few days later oh that's sad yeah the baby was buried in Florida
00:49:12
detectives meanwhile had a hard time believing that Celia Cooney was the Bob haired Bandit who had plagued them for
00:49:17
months if you see her she's just this tiny little she so little friends and neighbors reported to investigators that
00:49:24
Ed also was one of the nicest guys they knew and and they never would have suspected him to be an armed robber but
00:49:30
Celia on the other hand received uh fewer glowing reviews from people who actually knew her oh according to one of
00:49:38
her former land ladies Celia would quote lay in a filthy bed in a filthy room until noon every day reading detective
00:49:44
and True Crime magazines and watching boxing matches damn yeah wow there's a lot to unpack there and an anonymous
00:49:53
source interviewed by the Press also had questionable things to say about CIA they said she would talk to men on the
00:49:59
phone who had Italian names and I had the suspicion then that she was talking to members of the underworld that's the
00:50:05
way she struck me these men had Italian names like maybe she's just friends with Italians
00:50:12
don't say like Jesus Christ I love how it's just like automatically like that is the wildest like she's talking to Joe
00:50:20
Bonino these these men with Italian names they're definitely part of the underworld they have to be in the days
00:50:25
after the arraignment a new narrative was emerging in the Press now that she had been unmasked the Bob teared Bandit
00:50:31
was no longer a symbol of the feminist Revolution now people just thought she was a low a low class degenerate who had
00:50:37
duped her husband into being her criminal accomplice have fallen wow we didn't plan that no a few days after their
00:50:46
arraignment judge uh George Martin announced that he wanted the pair to be evaluated by psychiatrist after
00:50:51
receiving concerning letters from members of Ed's family according to the letters Ed had quote shown signs of a a
00:50:57
disordered mentality since childhood and he displayed a parent inability to grasp
00:51:02
a situation oh which is interesting that is interesting Celia on the other hand was described in dismissive and scathing
00:51:09
terms the Press claimed that she quote had begun to visualize the unwritten part of the detective stories of which
00:51:15
she is so fond of she looks forward to the sentencing in court its dramatic possibilities appeal to her oh man so
00:51:21
they're's like she's wrapped up in this crime fantasy world really the the images of her is is Falling Slowly yeah
00:51:29
now now a little faster actually they're making an example of her it's hitting the skids the psychiatrist opinions of
00:51:35
Celia were no Kinder than the Press had been Celia he claimed was the head of the operation while Ed was quote usually
00:51:42
in the background and His function was to smash the cash registers and gather in the loot while his wife took Center
00:51:47
Stage the psychiatrist told a reporter there was something abnormal and not womanly about her actions she was acting
00:51:54
under an Impulse that was apparently unnatural and in every case she dominated the man
00:51:59
who was with her she was the director and he was simply a tool love like that's not womanly I'm like yeah excuse
00:52:06
me like I should reevaluate my lifetime I guess a few weeks later on May 6th uh Celia and Ed appeared before Judge
00:52:14
Martin where they pleaded guilty to charges of robbery and assault each was sentenced to 10 years in prison Ed went
00:52:20
to sing sing and Celia went to Auburn correctional facility and they both had the opportunity for parole after 7 years
00:52:28
before leaving the courtroom Celia wrote one last note uh this one to the judge in the hopes that he would share with
00:52:33
the press and the New York Times shared it she wrote to those girls who think they would like to see their names in
00:52:39
the paper as mine has been or think they would like to do what I have done let me
00:52:43
just say don't try to do it you won't you don't know what you will suffer while I smile my heart is breaking in Me
00:52:50
O she was just lost she was very lost she was very lost bad choices very very bad choices but I do have this
00:52:59
weird sympathy for her cuz you think she I mean she obviously grew up in very rough yeah with nothing and it's like
00:53:06
she clearly fell into these like you know detective magazines and all that she going to be this glamorous like yeah
00:53:15
yeah but what she again the moral of the story is what she did was wrong andn while she was obviously lost and like
00:53:22
thought it was going to be this whole glamorous thing she also wasn't thinking about the people whose lives she was
00:53:28
completely destroying putting at risk that kind of money taking that from somebody like a grocer or somebody who
00:53:34
owns a business that's their whole livelihood that's it it's like and they have families too that they need to take
00:53:38
care of so it's like yeah you may be pregnant you may be trying to like feed your kid right taking it out of somebody
00:53:43
else's mouth who's working hard for it is not the way to do it there's other ways yeah now in late October 1931 Celia
00:53:51
and Ed Cooney were each granted parole on the condition that they find suitable employment unfortunately for for Ed that
00:53:57
was going to be pretty difficult uh he had had an accident in the prison machine shop and that had resulted in
00:54:03
his arm being amputated damn he sadly died from tuberculosis just 5 years later oh poor Ed I know Celia did manage
00:54:12
to find work as a typist and she remarried in the mid 1940s and just kind of did her best to stay out of the
00:54:17
public eye she relocated to Florida and she died from natural causes in 1992 damn isn't that crazy holy [ __ ] she
00:54:26
lived a long life yeah that was that was a swell a jake a Nifty the cat's meow the cat's pajamas the bees knees I was
00:54:34
having a ball it was a Whoopi and with all that being said we sure hope you keep listening and we hope
00:54:42
you keep it weird we I don't know that was my best not so weird that you try a Transatlantic accent and you really feel
00:54:50
miserably at that [Music] [Music] [Music]

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Episode Highlights

  • The Bobbed Haired Bandit
    A fashionable young woman robs a grocery store, shocking the public.
    “She was a hot girl robbing grocery stores!”
    @ 09m 00s
    January 16, 2025
  • Notes to the Police
    Helen Quigley sends humorous notes to the police, claiming innocence.
    “You dirty fish pedaling bums!”
    @ 13m 43s
    January 16, 2025
  • The Bobbed Haired Bandit Strikes Again
    After a brief hiatus, the Bandit returns to the scene, robbing stores with confidence.
    “Hell yeah she's getting out there with her Glad Rags!”
    @ 24m 31s
    January 16, 2025
  • Public Perception of the Bandit
    The Bandit becomes a symbol of rebellion against societal norms, celebrated by some as a feminist figure.
    “Brooklyn's girl Bandit is merely part of the great world revolt against Authority.”
    @ 34m 39s
    January 16, 2025
  • Police Frustration Peaks
    Commissioner Enr expresses his frustration, suggesting he may need to take matters into his own hands.
    “I had about reached the conclusion that I would have to go out and get her myself.”
    @ 35m 13s
    January 16, 2025
  • The Bobbed Haired Bandit
    Celia Cooney and her husband Ed became infamous for their robberies, but their story is more tragic than glamorous.
    “After 17 successful robberies, the papers were accusing her and her companion as attempted murderers.”
    @ 40m 40s
    January 16, 2025
  • A Life of Hardship
    Celia's upbringing in extreme poverty shaped her choices, leading to a life of crime.
    “Celia was born into extreme poverty and raised by a single mother.”
    @ 43m 14s
    January 16, 2025
  • A Heartbreaking Note
    Celia's final note to the judge reveals her regrets and the pain behind her actions.
    “Let me just say don't try to do it, you won't know what you will suffer.”
    @ 52m 43s
    January 16, 2025

Episode Quotes

  • I had like the worst end of the world anxiety for a long time.
    The Bobbed Haired Bandit | Morbid | Podcast
  • You dirty fish pedaling bums!
    The Bobbed Haired Bandit | Morbid | Podcast
  • There's a lady that's uh getting the best of them.
    The Bobbed Haired Bandit | Morbid | Podcast
  • It's a shame the way the police are playing hide-and-seek with the girl.
    The Bobbed Haired Bandit | Morbid | Podcast
  • We did not want our baby born in an unfinished room.
    The Bobbed Haired Bandit | Morbid | Podcast
  • While I smile, my heart is breaking in me.
    The Bobbed Haired Bandit | Morbid | Podcast

Key Moments

  • Robbery Begins02:12
  • Public Criticism19:50
  • Robbery Spree21:25
  • Media Frenzy23:12
  • Gender Debate23:36
  • Police Desperation29:10
  • Anti-Hero Status34:27
  • Chaos Erupts37:50

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown