Transcript
Podcast Host (0:00)
This is an iHeart podcast.
Amazon Health AI Advertiser (0:02)
Guaranteed Human Amazon Health AI presents painful
Erin Menke (0:07)
thoughts why did I search the Internet for answers to my cold sore problem? Now I'm stuck down a rabbit hole filled with images of alarmingly graphic sores in various stages of ooze. I can clear my search history, but I can never unsee that.
Amazon Health AI Advertiser (0:27)
Don't go down the rabbit hole. Amazon Health AI gets you the right care fast. Healthcare just got less painful.
Erin Menke (0:38)
Welcome to Erin Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild.
Narrator (Cabinet of Curiosities Storyteller) (0:47)
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. On a sunny Texas afternoon in 1992, an old cowboy in a wide, brimmed white hat and gray suit walked into the Mesquite nations bank. The town was so small, only one teller was working. She smiled at the old man when she saw him in line and beckoned him to the window. How can I help you today? Cowboy Bob pulled the brim from his hat a little lower, knowing without having to look that someone would review this. Moments later, when they checked the security cameras, the teller smiled again. While she waited for a response, Cowboy Bob stayed calm, never fidgeting, only sliding a note on the counter between them. The teller's face paled when she read the message. She turned, shaking, and placed every last bill from her cash drawer, a grand total of $5,317 inside a bag from the side of her desk. When the teller handed the bag over, she watched, horrified, as Cowboy Bob dug inside and removed a hidden dye pack from a stack of bills. He handed it back to her with the tip of his hat and strode back out of the bank. Former FBI agent Steve Powell was stumped. The nation's bank of Mesquite was the third in a line of robberies, all committed by the mysterious Cowboy Bob. Steve looked over the footage again. By the thief's calm demeanor, Powell knew that he was looking for a professional. Cowboy Bob's gray beard and strange gait was another clue. The man they were looking for would be at least 60 and maybe older. Steve Powell spent most of his 30 year career chasing bank robbers, so Cowboy Bob shouldn't have been much of a problem. He was making me start to pull my hair out, powell said. How could this thin, little dried up cowboy be whipping us this bad? Time after time? In September of 1992, a few months after Cowboy Bob robbed the nation's bank. Steve Powell received a call. The Cowboy Bob had just left the First Gibraltar bank in Mesquite with $1,700. Powell loaded into his car and raced to the scene to interview witnesses and review the footage. When he arrived, he learned that Mesquite's First Interstate bank had just been robbed as well. This time, Cowboy Bob had hit the jackpot, leaving with $13,000. And so Powell scrambled towards First Interstate and hit the first break in his case. An eyewitness had seen Cowboy Bob pulling away in a brown Pontiac Grand Prix. This wasn't the first time someone had noticed the car driving away from the scene of the crime. But it was the first time anyone got a look at the license plates. Two hours later, Powell and a team of FBI agents pulled into a Dallas apartment complex. It turns out that the car was registered to a man named Pete Tallis who lived at that address. Steve Powell was certain that he was about to catch the bank robbing cowboy red handed. But as they discussed the best ways to storm the apartment, a pretty woman walked out of the apartment and towards the car they had followed. This must be Cowboy Bob's girlfriend, Powell told the other agents. They allowed the woman to drive away from the apartment to avoid suspicion. And then they pulled her over a few blocks away. This woman named Peggy Jones was friendly. She explained that the car was hers and that she had driven it earlier that morning to a gardening center. Powell then asked her if they might have a look around her apartment. Just for a moment. Peggy Jo hesitated. No one was in the apartment except for her sick mother, she told them. But finally she agreed. Agents entered the apartment and began searching through cabinets, under the beds and questioning Peggy Jo's elderly mother. Steve Powell stayed with Peggy Joe because there was something nervous about her. She glanced toward the hallway closet and then back at her mother. And then she chewed on the top of her lip. And that was when Steve Powell took a closer look at Peggy's face. Just above her mouth was a dab of white glue. Steve's eyes widened. Check the closet, he told one of the agents. And inside, on the top shelf, was a styrofoam head with a wide brimmed hat perched on top and beneath it, a gray false beard. Gentlemen, Powell said, Cowboy Bob is actually Cowboy Babette. Because she carried out her crimes without using weapons, Peggy Jo received a mild 33 month sentence. She told police that she had started robbing banks to pay for her mother's medications. Powell put the rest of the pieces together. All by himself. It turns out that Cowboy Bob's strong, silent Persona had more to do with Peggy's higher pitched voice than anything else. A previous mastectomy also made it easier for her to fit into men's clothing. Her manners, however, were never faked. Cowboy Bob or Bobette was quite the gentleman.