Willie Sutton - wikipedia Willie Sutton For the American football player, see Will Sutton. Willie Sutton FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive Charges Bank robbery Description William Francis Sutton, Jr. ( 1901 - 06 - 30 ) June 30, 1901 Brooklyn, New York November 2, 1980 ( 1980 - 11 - 02 ) ( aged 79 ) Spring Hill, Florida Status Added March 20, 1950 Caught February 1952 Number 11 Captured William Francis `` Willie '' Sutton, Jr. ( June 30, 1901 -- November 2, 1980 ) was an American bank robber. During his forty - year robbery career he stole an estimated $2 million, and he eventually spent more than half of his adult life in prison and escaped three times. For his talent at executing robberies in disguises, he gained two nicknames, `` Willie the Actor '' and `` Slick Willie ''. Sutton is also known as the namesake of the so - called Sutton 's law, although he denied originating it. Contents 1 Early life 2 Career in crime 3 Personal life and death 4 `` Sutton 's law '' 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External links Early life Sutton was born into an Irish - American family on June 30, 1901. The family lived on the corner of Gold and Nassau Streets in the neighborhood of Irishtown, Brooklyn, now called Vinegar Hill. According to his biography, `` Where the Money Was '', at the age of three the family relocated to High Street. His father, William Sutton Sr., was a blacksmith. His mother was Mary Ellen Bowles and, according to the biography, born in Ireland ; however, according to the 1910 U.S. Census, she was born in Maryland and her parents were born in Ireland. By 1910, she had given birth to five children, of which three were still alive. According to the 1910 Census, his maternal grandfather, James Bowles, and his two maternal uncles were also living with the family. Sutton was the fourth of five children, and did not attend school after the 8th grade. Career in crime He became a criminal at an early age, though throughout his professional criminal career, he did not kill anyone. Described by Mafioso Donald Frankos as `` a little bright - eyed guy, just 5'7 '' and always talking, chain - smoking... cigarettes with Bull Durham tobacco. '' Frankos stated also that Sutton `` dispensed mounds of legal advice '' to any convict willing to listen. Inmates considered Sutton a `` wise old head '' in the prison population. When incarcerated at `` The Tombs '' ( Manhattan House of Detention ) he did not have to worry about assault because Mafia friends protected him. In conversation with Donald Frankos he would sadly reminisce about the 1920s and 1930s when he was most active in robbing banks and would always tell fellow convicts that in his opinion, during the days of Al Capone and Charles Luciano, better known as Lucky Luciano, the criminals were the bloodiest. Gangsters from the time period, and many incarcerated organized crime inmates, enjoyed having Sutton for companionship. He was witty and non-violent. Frankos declared that Sutton made legendary bank thieves Jesse James and John Dillinger seem like amateurs. Sutton was an accomplished bank robber. He usually carried a pistol or a Thompson submachine gun. `` You ca n't rob a bank on charm and personality, '' he once observed. In an interview in the Reader 's Digest published shortly before his death, Sutton was asked if the guns that he used in his robberies were loaded. He responded that he never carried a loaded gun because somebody might get hurt. He stole from the rich and kept it, though public opinion later made him into a type of Gentleman Thief, like Robin Hood. He allegedly never robbed a bank when a woman screamed or a baby cried. According to writer Pavle Stanimirovic who wrote about Willie Sutton in his new True Crime Stories from behind the wall with Burl Barer, he talks about all the `` old school '' gangsters from `` Mad Dog '' Joe Sulivan, Jimmy `` The Gent '' Burke, John Gotti, and Jimmy Ida. Sutton was captured and recommitted in June of 1931, charged with assault and robbery. He failed to complete his 30 - year sentence however, escaping on December 11, 1932, using a smuggled gun and holding a prison guard hostage. With the guard as leverage, Sutton acquired a 45 - ft ( 13.5 meter ) ladder to scale the 30 - ft ( 9 meter ) wall of the prison grounds. On February 15, 1933, Sutton attempted to rob the Corn Exchange Bank and Trust Company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He came in disguised as a postman, but an alert passerby foiled the crime. Sutton escaped. On January 15, 1934, he and two companions broke into the same bank through a skylight. The FBI record observes : Sutton also conducted a Broadway jewelry store robbery in broad daylight, impersonating a postal telegraph messenger. Sutton 's other disguises included a police officer, messenger and maintenance man. He usually arrived at banks or stores shortly before they opened for business. Sutton was apprehended on February 5, 1934, and was sentenced to serve 25 to 50 years in the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for the machine gun robbery of the Corn Exchange Bank. On April 3, 1945, Sutton was one of 12 convicts who escaped the institution through a tunnel. Sutton was recaptured the same day by Philadelphia police officer Mark Kehoe. Sentenced to life imprisonment as a fourth time offender, Sutton was transferred to the Philadelphia County Prison, Holmesburg section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On February 10, 1947, Sutton and other prisoners dressed as prison guards carried two ladders across the prison yard to the wall after dark. When the prison 's searchlights hit him, Sutton yelled, `` It 's all right ! '' No one stopped him. On March 20, 1950, Sutton was the eleventh listed of the FBI 's FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, created only a week earlier, on March 14. During February 1952, Sutton was captured by police after having been recognized on a subway and followed by Arnold Schuster, a 24 - year - old Brooklyn clothing salesman and amateur detective. Schuster later appeared on television and described how he had assisted in Sutton 's apprehension. Albert Anastasia, Mafia boss of the Gambino crime family, disliked Schuster because he was a `` rat '' and a `` squealer ''. According to Mafia renegade and first major government informant, Joe Valachi, Anastasia ordered the murder of Schuster, who was then shot dead outside his home on March 9, 1952. Judge Peter T. Farrell presided over a 1952 trial in which Sutton was convicted of the 1950 robbery of $63,942 ( equal to $650,387 presently ) from a bank of the Manufacturers Trust Company in Sunnyside, Queens. He received a sentence of 30 to 120 years in Attica State Prison. During December 1969, in response to a motion by Sutton 's attorneys, Farrell ruled that Sutton 's good behavior in prison and his deteriorating health due to emphysema justified commutation of his sentence to time served. At the hearing Sutton responded, `` Thank you, your Honor. God bless you, '' and wept as he was led out of the court building. During 1970, a separate 30 - years - to - life sentence given in Brooklyn during 1952 was also commuted on similar grounds, and he was released to parole. After his release Sutton delivered lectures on prison reform and consulted with banks on theft deterrent techniques. He made a television commercial for New Britain Bank and Trust Company in Connecticut for their credit card with picture identification on it. His lines were, `` They call it the ' face card. ' Now when I say I 'm Willie Sutton, people believe me. '' Personal life and death Sutton married Louise Leudemann during 1929. She divorced him while he was in jail. Their daughter Jeanie was born the next year. His second wife was Olga Kowalska, whom he married during 1933. His longest period of ( legal ) employment lasted for 18 months. A series of decisions by the United States Supreme Court during the 1960s resulted in his release on Christmas Eve, 1969, from Attica State Prison. He was in ill health at the time, suffering from emphysema and in need of an operation on the arteries of his legs. Sutton died in 1980 at the age of 79 ; before this, he had spent his last years with his sister in Spring Hill, Florida. He frequented the Spring Hill Restaurant where he kept to himself. After Sutton 's death, his family arranged a quiet burial in Brooklyn in the family plot. `` Sutton 's law '' Main article : Sutton 's law A famous apocryphal story is that Sutton was asked by reporter Mitch Ohnstad why he robbed banks. According to Ohnstad, he replied, `` Because that 's where the money is ''. The quote evolved into Sutton 's law, which is often invoked to medical students as a metaphor for emphasizing the most likely diagnosis, rather than wasting time and money investigating every conceivable possibility. In his autobiography, Sutton denied originating the pithy rejoinder : The irony of using a bank robber 's maxim as an instrument for teaching medicine is compounded, I will now confess, by the fact that I never said it. The credit belongs to some enterprising reporter who apparently felt a need to fill out his copy. I ca n't even remember where I first read it. It just seemed to appear one day, and then it was everywhere. If anybody had asked me, I 'd have probably said it. That 's what almost anybody would say... it could n't be more obvious. However, he also said : 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. The Redlands Daily Facts published the earliest documented example of Sutton 's law on March 15, 1952 in Redlands, California. A corollary, the `` Willie Sutton rule, '' used in management accounting, stipulates that activity - based costing ( in which activities are prioritized by necessity, and budgeted accordingly ) should be applied where the greatest costs occur, because that is where the greatest savings can be found. References ^ Jump up to : Sutton W, Linn E : Where the Money Was : The Memoirs of a Bank Robber. Viking Press ( 1976 ), p. 160. ISBN 067076115X Jump up ^ 1905 N.Y.S. Census Jump up ^ 1910 U.S. Census Jump up ^ Hoffman, William ; Headley, Lake ( 1992 ). Contract Killer : The Explosive Story of the Mafia 's Most Notorious Hitman -- Donald `` Tony the Greek '' Frankos. Thunder 's Mouth Press. New York City, p. 116 - 118. Jump up ^ https://books.google.com/books?id=o9tDBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT150&lpg=PT150&dq=never+robbed+a+bank+when+a+woman+screamed+or+a+baby+cried.&source=bl&ots=RJaehgHKvD&sig=2gIH7rBTdnM_0mfpzWh6sVyr4SY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwijxpS66ffLAhXIbB4KHfuWDxYQ6AEIJTAB#v=onepage&q&f=false%7Cdate=March 2014 Jump up ^ Pace, Eric ( November 10, 1992 ). `` Peter T. Farrell, 91 ; Judge Who Presided At the Sutton Trial ''. The New York Times. Accessed October 11, 2009. Jump up ^ Staff. `` A JAIL TERM LIFTED, SUTTON CRIES IN JOY ''. The New York Times. December 2, 1969. Accessed October 11, 2009. Jump up ^ `` Business : Willie Sutton, Bankers ' Friend ''. Time. October 26, 1970. Jump up ^ Lawrence Block ( 2004 ). Gangsters, Swindlers, Killers, and Thieves : The Lives and Crimes of Fifty American Villains. OUP USA. p. 219. Retrieved 7 November 2017. Jump up ^ Mikkelson, B ( November 14, 2008 ). `` Quotes : Willie Sutton ''. Snopes.com, retrieved July 28, 2015. Jump up ^ Cost and Effect, Kaplan, R.S. and Cooper, R., Harvard Business School Press, Boston MA, 1998, ISBN 0 - 87584 - 788 - 9 Further reading Contract Killer : The Explosive Story of the Mafia 's Most Notorious Hit Man Donald `` Tony the Greek '' Frankos by William Hoffman and Lake Headley Moehringer, JR. Sutton. Thorndike Press ( 2012 ). ISBN 1410451119... ( Biography ) External links FBI website entry on William Sutton `` Willie Sutton, Urbane Scoundrel '', The New York Times, February 17, 2002 ) Notable Names Database ( NNDB ) Willie Sutton ' Willie Sutton Is Dead At 79 ', New York Times obituary, November 19, 1980 LCCN : no91029898 VIAF : 75880759 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Willie_Sutton&oldid=842383071 '' Categories : FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives 1901 births 1980 deaths 20th - century American criminals American bank robbers American people convicted of assault American people convicted of robbery American people of Irish descent Deaths from emphysema Disease - related deaths in Florida People from Brooklyn Sing Sing People from Spring Hill, Florida Hidden categories : All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from March 2014 Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Talk Contents About Wikipedia Deutsch עברית Русский Tiếng Việt Edit links This page was last edited on 22 May 2018, at 02 : 57. 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Question: who said i rob banks because that where the money is
Answer: Sutton