Due to modern security measures, bank robbery is rarely successful, and most organized crime groups tend to make their money by other means, such as selling and smuggling drugs.
When Pilsen State Bank in Lincolnville, Kan., population 225, was robbed by two armed men in October 2001, bank president Kurt Spachek was eating lunch in a room away from the main banking area and didn't know what had happened until it was over.
When Spachek's bank was held up again in March 2002 by a single robber, who Spachek believed was one of the guys from the October robbery, the man ordered Spachek and four employees into a bathroom.
Bank robberies in small cities and towns increased by more than 35 percent from 1996 to 2001 and by almost 20 percent in rural areas.
This robber's words, if they were his, had been borrowed by hundreds of people to illustrate all sorts of points just in 1996.
Though he was to gain his fame as a bankrobber, his first experience in unauthorized withdrawals from banks and jewelry stores was learned at the knee of a crook named "Doc" Tate, an expert safecracker.
The robber had several stays with the law, including a stint in Sing Sing, which was one of three prisons he escaped from in ingenious ways, and in Attica, which he left through other talents.
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