This Here's a Stick-Up: The Big Bad Book of American Bank Robbery

Rating:
Summary: This Here's A Fun Book!
Review: Author Swierczynski has crafted an entertaining, light-hearted, and trivia-filled glimpse into the great American pasttime of bank robbery, complete with how-to (and how-not-to!) tips from the pros. It's packed with historical chapters on all the noted practitioners of the trade and, while there are a number of historical errors crammed from unreliable sources like Nash's Bloodletters and Badmen, it's still packed with good information presented in a devilishly tongue-in-cheek format.

Rating:
Summary: A spirited, oddball criminal history
Review: In THIS HERE'S A STICK-UP, Duane Swierczynski, a senior editor at Philadelphia Magazine, has compiled more than 200 years worth of crafty, quirky and bungling efforts to make surprise withdrawals from U.S. financial institutions. He identifies the nation's first bank robber as Isaac Davis, who in 1798 filched $162,821 from the Bank of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, with some help from the repository's porter. Then he goes on, in spirited anecdotal fashion, to remark on many of the usual suspects -- Butch Cassidy, Jesse James, John Dillinger and Patty Hearst are all represented in these pages -- as well as myriad forgotten felons, such as Paddy Mitchell, whose "Stopwatch Gang" became known between 1974 and 1994 for quick heists, never firing a shot in the execution of their business and wearing masks of ex-presidents to conceal their identities.

In addition to the plunderer profiles, THIS HERE'S A STICK-UP looks at theft techniques (lone-wolf-style robberies versus takeover-style invasions), the success of the Pinkerton Agency and later the FBI in apprehending these thieves, and the cities most susceptible to bank jobs ("L.A. is the bank robbery capital of the world, and has been since 1978"). A chapter titled "Reservoir Dorks" will have you howling over world-class foul-ups by looters who just couldn't catch a break. (Don't miss the account of a Brooklyn robber who, during his escape from a hold-up, was mugged and lost his whole paper sack full of cash.) Swierczynski even includes a clever "stick-tionary" at the end, where you can pick up a mouthful of crook-speak. This here's a book for folks who prefer to take their history with a grain of assault. -- From January Magazine, June 2002