A History of Heists

May 25, 2015
Retired FBI agent Clark and veteran journalist Palattella opt for breadth rather than depth in this solid survey of bank robberies in the United States, beginning in 1798 with the first one on record and spanning to the present. Their work suffers a bit from hyperbole; in their introduction, the coauthors assert that bank robbery “is a crime that, perhaps more than any other, has helped influence and define the nation.” Victims of gun violence at the hand of mass murderers probably won’t agree that “no single crime is more synonymous with crime in the United States than bank robbery.” Despite this, the book serves as a useful introduction to the topic, particularly in the sections that cover the 18th and 19th centuries. Other works, such as Bryan Burrough’s Public Enemies (2004), have gone deeper into the era of Dillinger and Bonnie and Clyde, and the shift to online theft and the reduced use of cash make this more of academic rather than practical interest.