Customer Reviews

Where the Money Was: The Memoirs of a Bank Robber (Library of Larceny)

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This book makes you feel like you are side-by-side with Willie thru the planning, bank robberies, getaways, and even prison breaks. It is written in down-to-earth language and makes you feel like Willie is your buddy, and you are sitting there listening to him tell his story. Willie makes you feel like it was okay to rob the banks, and you find yourself rooting for him. It was amazing how his mind worked, so methodically planning breaking INTO the banks, and the same mindset is what helped him break OUT of prison.

"HIGHLY RECOMMENDED"

Although I disagree with Mr.Sutton's Chosen Profession, I believe the man a genius. And sadly what other things he could have done.but I am not GOD to pass judgment on anyone. This book tells like it is, like it was For Willie.
It is very high paced and informative reading. Highly recommended.

Where the Money Was by Willie Suton was an excellent book. It takes you through his crimes, escapes, and prison time. I would recomend it to anyone.

Interesting story of an interesting man. One of those books you're surprised there hasn't been a movie of.

Not the typical bank robber. Never used a gun or violence, or so he said. Instead, he used his mind, dressing up as bank employees, postal workers, cops, or other people that could get into banks and rob them easier than a guy with a gun. Interesting how he got in the business of robbing banks and how he fought like crazy to get out of jail. Definitely lets you get a glimpse into the mind of a smarter-than-average career criminal.

Over all, a very fun read. Much different from what I normally read, but I enjoyed it so much I'm going go through the other books in this series.

I stumbled upon this book in the library, and thought it looked pretty interesting, so I checked it out. Little did I realize how interesting it would be. This book details the life of Willie Sutton, bank robber extraordinare, a man who held the #1 most wanted spot for over two years. I expected him to be a thuggish man, but boy was I wrong. It turns out he was quite a gentleman and intellectual, who had some kind of compulsion to rob banks. He never fired a gun, never physically harmed anyone, and managed to steal so much money from the government that they made him their most wanted man. When they caught him and sent him to prison, he spent his time reading Kierkegaard, Kant, Victor Hugo, etc. He then escapes from a maximum security prison which no one has escaped from in it's 100+ year existence, and works in a nursing home while trying to lay low, because he wanted to help people. He gets caught again, escapes again from a maximum security prison, makes the Most Wanted list, and is finally caught when he is in his 50's. He ends up with three life sentences. He decided he was too old to escape from prison again, so instead he spent a few years reading all the law books he could get his hands on, appealed all of his court decision, and had all of them overturned on technicalities that he had come across while reading. He spent the last 10-15 years of his life peacefully, as a law abiding citicen. Quite an interesting story to say the least. When asked by a reporter why he robbed banks, he supposedly said "Because that's where the money is." Hence the title of the book.

I did a little research on Sutton after I read the book, thinking that perhaps he had just tried to make himself look good. It turns out that he spent his post-jail life lecturing on prison reform and helping banks increase the level of their security. Mr. Sutton is perhaps the only class act robber I have read of this side of Robin Hood.

Overall grade: A

Excellent fast paced read. Will keep you interested all the time. A real journey thru a bank robber's life. Must Read!

This is a fascinating tale. But even before I get into the story of Willie, I must pay tribute to Ed Linn. The influences of a professional writer are all over this book - and I say that in a positive way. The story line, the editing, the sentence structure, the characterization, the plot development, the embodiment of the image, the conscious manipulation of the reader - obviously undetected by the other reviewers who all feel as though they were sitting in Willie's lap all through the book. A great job that I must credit Mr. Linn for, even understanding Willie's potential for genius. This is Willie's only book. If Willie had gone on to write several other books, I may not have been so bold as to credit Mr. Linn so lavishly. But this book is too good to have been written by a one time writer who has expressed nowhere to have had an interest in writing.

Ed Linn gets no credits in this book other than the three words ... "with Ed Linn" printed on the cover. Mr. Linn assisted other greats like Leo Durocher and Bill Veeck in the same type "autobiography." He has also written a biography of one of my favorite sports greats, Ted Williams, "The Hitter." Ed was also a very successful sports writer and journalist. So giving Ed Linn his due, I will move along to Willie Sutton.

Despite the heroic nature of the book Willie Sutton was an admitted professional criminal. He loved robbing banks. "Why did I rob banks? Because I enjoyed it. I loved it. I was more alive when I was inside a bank, robbing it, than at any other time in my life. I enjoyed everything about it so much that one or two weeks later I'd be out looking for the next job. But to me the money was the chips, that's all."

Willie admitted that he was never responsible for the famous quote that is the title of this book. His supposed answer to the question of why he robbed banks ... because it was Where the Money Was. He credits that infamous quote to some unknown creative journalist.

Willie spent the majority of his life breaking into or out of someplace. He was a thief. He is credited with being the greatest bank robber in American history - but yet he spent over half his life in prison. He spent all of World War II trying to tunnel his way out of one prison. Willie may have won each individual battle but he certainly lost the war.

There is something psychologically strange in the accolade that Willie was the greatest bank robber ever. I would suggest that the greatest bank robbers in all of American History are more prominent characters who never set a foot inside a prison. J.P. Morgan, for example, or John D. Rockefeller Jr. or a long list of many of the prominent heads of our present collapsed banking system who are still knocking down millions in bonuses and paychecks. Willie's whole career only grossed him 2 million. That is peanuts in today's world of professional white collar bank robbers. I suppose that I could qualify that boast by saying that Willie Sutton was the greatest, modern day, blue collar bank robber in American history.

Willie expresses this same attitude regarding the reciprocal justice of his craft. He said that he felt no guilt in robbing banks because banks robbed people all the time. This is true but in our present "no fault" banking system if Willie were robbing banks today, he would still be robbing us and not "them." But back in the good old days he was probably getting more from "them" than from us. So we will bow to that old time wisdom.

Willie's story is like a reverse Buddha. The Buddha left his castle and saw poverty and suffering and felt the need to lie down in the middle of it and feel the pain. Willie was born into poverty and the hard times of the twenties and thirties and saw wealth and good fortune and wanted to relax in the middle of it all and feel the joy.

It didn't seem to work out all that well for the Buddha or for Willie. Both of these heroes traveled a bitter road of self abuse in the name of enlightenment.

There was something flagrantly lacking in Willie's criminal nature. He really didn't get away with anything. He robbed and paid for it. Willie didn't want to be rich and famous it seems to me. He wanted to be infamous and notable. And so he was.

He was a tough little cookie who had the desire to show those who controlled things that he understood their game and was capable of sticking it all in their face. Whether he was successful or not, is difficult to determine.

Willie paid for his stance and his crimes but he won the respect of the bad guys and the good guys alike. Willie took the road less traveled, there is no doubt. And in a strange backasswards way he won the respect and admiration of the public audience. This book does a great job in painting that picture. He is made out to be a Robin Hood. But, as he says, he stole from the rich and kept it. Well, not exactly ... he stole from the rich and spent it.

There is a lot to learn from reading this book. We learn about crime, prisons, criminals, murderers, petty crooks, cops - crooked and dedicated, and the system. But we learn even more about the human condition. Willie was a thinker and much of his angst comes through to the reader in the pages of this book.

The book has a happy ending. Willie makes his final break and busts out of Attica via hard earned legal expertise gained from reading law books while in prison, coupled with his hard earned street smarts and with a lot of help from his friends and admirers. One can also not discount Willie's luck and as he boasts on the final page - he craft in devising a plan. Willie lives happily ever after - for eleven years anyway. He finds work helping banks with their security and touting for a credit card company. He also becomes an advocate for prison reform.

I don't know if this book is still in print, but it is worth the hunt to find a copy. I feel like I know Willie and he is a confused but treasured buddy from my past.

Richard Edward Noble - The Hobo Philosopher - Author of:

"Just Hangin' Out, Ma" Humorous Anecdotes

This book was a great read.I remember hearing about Willie Sutton when I was a child.I have also read I,Willie Sutton which was written in 1953.This is by far the better book.Willie kept the code until the latter years of his life.After reading both books I saw the truth in this publication.Highly recommended.