Because he robbed banks using a revolver or Thompson submachine gun, Sutton spent most of his adult life in prison.
Mature adults are where the money is.
The picking is remarkably easy and thieves don't have to display weapons when trying to take it. Even if caught in the act, few ever spend a day in prison. Today's robbers of mature adults promote investment and other scams, using the Internet, telemarketing and direct mail to steal billions of dollars under false pretenses. The bandits don't face the threat of return fire and their successful theft each year is estimated at 25,000 times that of Willie Sutton in his lifetime of bank robberies. Investment fraud on mature adults is possible because federal and state law have gaps big enough for an army of schemers and scammers to march through boldly and without interference.