And she loved events where people bucked the system. Hollandsworth: She would tell her friends “Deep down, I’m wild at heart.” And that was this signature phrase of hers. Hollandsworth thinks Tallas did it for the money, certainly, but just maybe he wonders if it wasn’t the hair-raising thrill of it all. “Cowboy Bob”-is in magazine's November issue. “Texas Monthly” executive editor Skip Hollandsworth was intrigued by what would make a woman in her late 40s turn to bank robbing. Skip Hollandsworth, Texas Monthly executive editor: She gets out in the mid-90’s. She pleaded guilty to one count of bank robbery and was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison. The FBI posse had its man, only she turned out to be a woman. It was at about that time that I noticed something had been applied to her hair that was now falling on her shoulder and I looked at that and then, at that moment is when it clicked with me… that’s the moment that I asked her to step out of the vehicle that she was under arrest for bank robbery.”Murphy: "Cowboy Bob" was the wrong handle? Powell: It’s not “Cowboy Bob,” it’s “Cowboy Babette.” Powell: I told her,“We’ve got all the money.” She stuck with her story. There is nobody else.”Īgents up in the apartment, meanwhile, kept looking and soon found a stash of over $15,000 stolen from the two Mesquite banks earlier that morning. Powell: I got back into the vehicle and sat down with Peggy and I said, “Peggy you have a problem, child,” and I said, “Now, come on, who’s been with you? Where is he?”Īnd again, just stone-faced, no emotion, she said, “I’m the only one that’s been in this vehicle. The beard looked a lot like ones they’d seen in grainy bank surveillance pictures. There was something else though- a mannequin head with a beard stuck on it. The agent stopped the car and the driver identified herself as 48-year-old Peggy Jo Tallas.Īgents, meanwhile, stormed the woman’s apartment and found her elderly mother home but no Cowboy Bob. Agent Powell figured this had to be Cowboy Bob’s wife, or his girlfriend. When the FBI-man pulled-in, sure enough, there was the parked Grand Prix and it wasn’t long before a middle-aged woman got in the car and drove off. Tracing the plates and owner led to an apartment complex in a Dallas suburb. Powell: I couldn’t leave the first bank quick enough to try to get to that residence to see if I could find that vehicle. An authentic plate led to an owner and address. Cowboy Bob made his getaway in the orange Grand Prix but instead of the customary stolen plate attached, the car had its real one. He got away with it until Septemwhen he got greedy and held up two banks in a row in Mesquite, Texas, and made an uncharacteristic slip at the second. This bank robber was "getting getting away with it." Murphy: It looks like Cowboy Bob has run circles around you.Powell: That’s correct. From May of ‘91 to May of ‘92 the 10-gallon bandit, described as a white male, about 5’10”, mid-40’s robbed four banks in the greater Dallas area.
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