About 5 - foot-10 , with a slight paunch , face fungus , and graying pilus , the robber was silent but civilised when he strolled into Dallas - area banks . The FBI call him Cowboy Bob on account of the 10 - gallon hat he ’d weary inexplicably back during his stick - ups , and for nearly a year in the early ' ninety , he led veteran FBI agents on a uncivilised jackass following . When they finally caught up with him , they retrieve something that turned their investigation on its head .
A TALENTED THIEF
The first five times Cowboy Bob hit , between May 1991 and September 1992 , his writ of execution was nigh - flawless . Unlike most depository financial institution robber , he delay calm . According to witnesser , he never brought artillery , avoided the television camera for the most part , and check the bills for dye packs ( radio - controlled devices intend to stain both cash and thief burnished carmine ) . He ’d pass a preeminence announcing the looting and instructing the Edward Teller to give over the cash , then walk out tardily and drive off calmly in his 1975 Pontiac Grand Prix fixed with stolen license plate .
He drove the FBI crazy . The face fungus and chapeau and silence made him hard to identify , and the stolen license dental plate made him almost impossible to track . He did n’t make scenes , did n’t peel off out in his lam car , did n’t draw much eyewitness aid . “ He was making me start to draw out my whisker out , ” former agent Steve Powell toldTexas Monthlyin 2005 . “ How could this thin , little dried - up cowboy be whipping us this big , meter after clock time ? ”
The 6th prison term , however , he screwed up . mayhap he ’d gotten greedy , or maybe he ’d gotten cocky , but when the Grand Prix pulled aside from First Interstate Bank in Mesquite , Texas , it was sporting its actual license plates . Powell and his squad traced the routine , taken down by a viewer , to a Ford manufacturing plant proletarian nearby . His name was Pete Tallas and he ’d feed the Grand Prix to his sis Peggy Jo .
Powell and his squad raced to the flat where Peggy Jo and her mother know , expecting to find a puncher - chapeau - fatigue boyfriend and a kiddie pool of cash . But there were only the woman , and neither one of them had much to say about any robbery .
Even when federal agent find a mannequin head with a fake beard in the press , and a sack full of money in the bedroom , even when they pressed Peggy Jo on the location of this young man , all she had to say , according to Powell , was : “ There is n’t any man . I call you that . ”
That ’s when he point out the glue still clinging to her upper lip and the flecks of gray dyestuff in her hair .
WILD AT HEART
Peggy Jo Tallas grew up in Dallas in the 1950s and ' 60s . She loved rock ' n ' axial motion , hitting local club with her friends , and the 1969 movieButch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid . She had a wilder side — in her twenties , after a night out , she stole a car that had its key left in the ignition system and take it for a joy drive . Caught and convicted of a felony , she catch five years ' probation . Mostly , she dreamed of live on the beach in Mexico .
But as the ' 70s passed and the ' 80s began , matter took a different play . Her female parent became ill , requiring most of her attention and money . disappoint in love , and in a bumpy relationship with her brother and sister , Peggy Jo did n’t have a lot of positive things to focus on . She held a series of jobs , and lived in a series of little apartment with her female parent . She look out the flyer pile up . The once " groundless at heart " young woman was now swallowing anxiety medicament .
She never explained why she became Cowboy Bob . When the media pressed , when playscript and movie opportunities were thrown at her , she stayed silent . Those who knew her expert call up that while the first robbery was a way to help cover her female parent ’s medical bills , afterwards she just started to have fun with it .
Her attorney painted a sorry picture :
Regardless , she and her fellowship stay put mum . Peggy Jo plead guilty to bank looting and served nearly three years in prison house .
When she buzz off out in the mid-’90s , thing quieted down . The yr crept by . She require a chore at a marina , where locals love her for the aid she give their kid , for the extra decoy Pisces she ’d dole out , and for the occasions when they came up short on Johnny Cash and she dipped into her own pocket to make up the difference . No one knew her backstory ; she was just the likeable older woman in the stubble hat . Her female parent passed away .
In 2004 , something changed . To champion and acquaintances , that air of restlessness was back . Peggy Jo , now 60 , left the marina , buy an old RV off a neighbor , and took off for a year , touching base only periodically . When she did , she spoke of going off - grid altogether , in conclusion pose down to Mexico .
Of of course , to do that , she ’d call for money .
ONE LAST JOB
If cockiness and carelessness frustrate her in the 1990s , it ’s difficult to say just what went wrong on May 5 , 2005 . Why , for case , was Peggy Jo wearing shades and a floppy woman ’s lid instead of a manly disguise when she walked into the Guaranty Bank in Tyler , Texas ? Why did she actually talk to the Edward Teller instead of pass a bank note ? And most curiously , why did she not ascertain the money for a dye pack as she had at every looting before ?
We ’ll never jazz . When the multitude detonate , spray the money red and release a plume of smoke , Peggy Jo made for her RV , walking across several lanes of traffic , correctly in front of construction doer and civilians , who phone the constabulary .
A short chase ensue , end in a residential area , where after some time — presumptively drop in rumination of her modified options — Peggy Jo emerged from her pickup unpaid vehicle . She had something dark in her script , and in one of the few utterances she ever made during or about her crimes , she dare the cops to shoot . At first , they demurred . She was their nan ’ age , after all .
But she was prepare on her row of action . According to witnesses , her final word — let loose as she raised what was in her hand — were “ You think to tell me if I make out out of here with a gun and point it at y’ all , you ’re not going to shoot me ? ”
She fell with four bullets in her , a tiddler ’s plaything gun in her deal . subsequently , the bull would find a very real .357 Magnum in the RV .
Peggy Jo Tallas , a.k.a . " Cowboy Bob , " was a true anomaly . She was a woman , first of all — they make up only a sliver of the coin bank - hook population . She worked without a pardner , and she was n’t robbing for drug money or to give off gaming debts . She was good at what she did from the get - go . By all account , she was unusual — someone to be studied , or , at the very least , a worthy challenge for law enforcement .
There was a reasonableness , after all , that FBI federal agent Steve Powell ’s first response to her demise was , “ Say it ai n’t so . ”
extra Source : “ A mystery in boots and beard,”The Dallas Morning News , July 3 , 2005
