Willie Sutton was born in the Irish slums of Brooklyn in 1901, and he came of ag
e at a time when banks were out of control. Sutton saw only one way out and only
one way to win the girl of his dreams. So began the career of America's most su
ccessful bank robber. During three decades Sutton became so good at breaking int
o banks, the FBI put him on its first-ever Most Wanted List. But the public root
ed for the criminal who never fired a shot, and when Sutton was finally caught f
or good, crowds at the jail chanted his name.
In J.R. Moehringer's retelling,
it was more than need or rage that drove Sutton. It was his first love. And when
he finally walked free--a surprise pardon on Christmas Eve, 1969--he immediatel
y set out to find her.
