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Revision as of 00:01, 18 January 2025 by SDGB1217 (talk | contribs) (Created stub)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Rebecca Bradley (died 1950), also known as the Texas "Flapper Bandit," was an American bank robber whose crime widely covered in the press.
Life
In 1926, Bradley was studying towards a degree in American history at the the University of Texas at Austin, whilst working as an assistant to a university professor who handled business and financial affairs for the Texas State Historical Association. She also served as the vice president of her local chapter of the Present Day Club, which was a women's organisation dedicated to reducing crime and supporting prohibition. She drove her own car.
Bradley was married in secret to her high school sweetheart and law student, Otis Rogers. Her mother lost her job, leaving Bradley supporting them both. She struggled financially and got into debt.
She went into the Farmer's National Bank of Buda, Texas, posing as a newspaper reporter and convinced the bank tellers to allow her to use a typewriter. She locked two male bank employees in the safe at gunpoint.
After her arrest, she was taken to San Marcos for booking. The sheriff later claimed that she laughed about her arrest and said: "I have a whole lot to live down, but not as much as those men back there who let a little girl hold them up with an empty gun."
Bradley initially denied being married, until her husband arrived to be her defense. He arranged for his wife his wife to be examined by three psychologists and they testified that she was suffering from dementia praecox and could not tell right from wrong.
When Bradley was put on trial, she charmed the all-male jury with her “melting brown eyes.” After four trials,
She was sentenced to 14 years in jail.
She died in 1950.
References
{Reflist}
- ^ Baker, T. Lindsay (2011-08-31). Gangster Tour of Texas. Texas A&M University Press. pp. 111–121. ISBN 978-1-60344-258-9.
- ^ Niebauer, Laura (2025-01-14). "Meet the Texas Flapper Bandit". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved 2025-01-17.
- ^ Power, Texas Co-op. "The Flapper Bandit Learned a Hard Lesson". Texas Co-op Power. Retrieved 2025-01-17.
- ^ McIlvain, Myra Hargrave (2017-04-17). Texas Tales: Stories That Shaped a Landscape and a People. Sunstone Press. ISBN 978-1-63293-163-4.
- ^ "Legend Has It..." www.visitsanmarcos.com. 2020-07-27. Retrieved 2025-01-17.
- "GIRL BANDIT GETS 14 YEARS IN PRISON; Texas Jury of Men Convicts Mrs. Rogers of Robbing Bank and Fixes Her Sentence. SHE HEARS FATE UNMOVED But Verdict Shocks Her Husband Lawyer, Who Had Asked for Her Freedom or Death". The New York Times. 1927-12-18. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-01-17.
- Coppedge, Clay (2021-07-26). Texas True Crime Miscellany. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4396-7316-4.