Organized Crime: Notoricus Bank Robbers

With the Great Depression for the 1930’s came a wave of crime. This was not the typical bootlegging from the 1920s and prohibition era with the mobs and mob leaders such as Alphonso Capone of Chicago. This was a new wave of crime: notorious bank robbers. We all know of the Wild West bank robbers, for instance the James Younger gang, the Hole in the wall gang led by butch Cassidy and many others. The difference now is that modern day bank robbers were not armed with colt single action revolvers and they most defiantly were not fleeing on horseback any more. They were now heavily armed with colt 1911 automatic pistols, 45 caliber Thompson sub machine guns and B.A.Rs (browning automatic rifles). Along with their fully automatic military grade weapons they were using the auto mobile as a source of their getaway. For the most part these gangsters struck in the heartland of the United States. This was where the Great Depression had a huge effect on the life of the people. The civilians looked at the bank robbers as an act of revenge on the banks.

The famous bank robbers of the 1930s were not from areas they were known to rob. For the most part, some of the bank robbers consisted of John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd, Machine Gun Kelly, and Baby Face Nelson. Many of these men and women had younger criminal activity. They came from all over the United States.

John Dillinger came from Indianapolis Indiana. He was known to be one of, if not the most famous bank robber of the 1930’s. In his career of crime, he was in prison on two separate offenses. When going to prison the first time, he was quoted saying “I will be the meanest bastard you ever saw when I get out of here” (johndillinger/ quotes).

The second time he was sen...

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... of different occasions. One story told a tale of gangsters paying off farmers’ debt, so they could return to work and get back to their lively hood. It portrayed them as Robin Hood, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. People looked at the banks as the culprit of the Great Depression. When they heard of the bank robberies they would look at it as an act of revenge against the banks for all that they done to the country.

In the 1930’s the country was a very unstable place. Many people turned to a life of crime because they didn’t see any other better solution. They could find no work and had very little going for them, so they went down a path where they saw nothing to lose. When you look back at these men and women seeing what they did, given the situation they were in, and what the people really were was just a product produced by the time they were in.