Cleveland bank heist solved, 52 years later

Back in the late '70s the stepfather of one of my good friends disappeared. Literally vanished.

He had a successful business in our small town. Was a nice guy. Treated the kids and his wife well. Joked around with us guys when we visited. He disappeared. Zero trace. Drove off one night, I guess "to get cigarettes" or something, and that was it. After seven years he was officially declared dead for legal purposes. By then my friend's mom had moved on and found another guy.

It was later determined that he had moved two states away and started over. Best I can remember he didn't change his name. Just got tired of marriage and three kids that weren't his and whatever other crap was going on or he thought was going on in his life. It was quite a blow to my friend and his sisters but they'd also moved on by that time.

Today, you'd have to walk away with cash and a backpack with some clothes. Nothing else. No phone, credit-debit cards, no electronics of any kind, nothing. You'd have to have crafted quite a plan. With the intrusive Orwellian facial recognition going on now even in some smaller towns along with doorbell cameras and various security cameras, it would be tough to get away and start over.

Not impossible but almost impossible, in my opinion.

From Wired in 2008: Gone Forever: What Does It Take to Really Disappear?

 

You mean . . . ?

Not a single luxury. Like Robinson Caruso, it's primitive as can be.

 

Crazy to think how cash wasn't as available until the mid 1980s. No ATMs, no cash back at stores. We would wait in line at the bank to deposit or withdraw money, sometimes as little as $10. And banks would close at 3, staying open until 5 on Fridays. There were no Saturday hours. You had to guess how much cash you would need for a weekend.

On the other hand, you could write a check on Friday knowing it wouldn't cash until at least Monday. Made it easier to spend money you didn't have yet.

 

As a soon-to-be graduating college senior, I remember having a bit of a cash crisis getting ready to drive home from a job interview in 1983. Had no credit card, but did have a nearly empty tank and a 7-hour drive ahead of me. The grocer Kroger saved the day by cashing a $20 check for me.

 

My father's brother was an outside salesman on the road. When he died his wife and family in Tulsa first met his wife and family from Ok. City at the funeral home.

 

The Boston bar Foley's, which re-invented itself successfully as a yuppie bar for the South End, was once the bar for the Herald and the Boston Police Dept. (each was a few blocks away back then). It was also a check cashing service (paychecks much preferred) for the employees of those two fine institutions. I cashed more than one paycheck there, I will admit, before the start of longer road trips.

 

D.B. Cooper say hi.

 

DB Cooper disappeared into the Columbia River. Or he and his chute were hanging from a Doug fir for a decade while his body rotted.

 

Julia Roberts would have one less movie to make.

 

Yikes. Tulsa and OKC are 100 miles apart. (Plus I imagine there's a lot of direct interaction between the cities.) That's pretty damn close to pull that secret-family shit.

 

When I hear these stories my first thought is always “the cost of living must have been f-ing low”

 

Hmmm. that wasn't the first fictional character/TV series I thought of ...