William Francis Sutton Jr. was an American bank robber. During his forty-year robbery career he stole an estimated $2 million, and he eventually spent more than half of his adult life in prison and escaped three times. For his talent at executing robberies in disguises, he gained two nicknames, "Willie the Actor" and "Slick Willie". Sutton is also known as the namesake of the so-called Sutton's law, although he denied originating it.
Willie Sutton
Sutton in 1966
Bank robbery is the criminal act of stealing from a bank, specifically while bank employees and customers are subjected to force, violence, or a threat of violence. This refers to robbery of a bank branch or teller, as opposed to other bank-owned property, such as a train, armored car, or (historically) stagecoach. It is a federal crime in the United States.
A masked man poses as a bank robber during a demonstration of a German device that protected cash and sounded an alarm during a robbery (1931).
Patty Hearst takes part in the April 1974 Hibernia Bank raid with other SLA members.
Expended dye pack after a Los Angeles area Bank of America robbery, January 2, 2008. This particular pack was concealed inside a stack of twenty-dollar bills.