27 Facts About Willie Sutton

Willie Sutton is known as the namesake of the so-called Willie Sutton's law, although he denied originating it.

Willie Sutton was born into an Irish-American family on June 30,1901 in Brooklyn, New York to William Francis Willie Sutton Sr.

Willie Sutton's family lived on the corner of Gold and Nassau Streets in the neighborhood of Irishtown, Brooklyn, now called Vinegar Hill.

Willie Sutton's mother was, according to the biography, born in Ireland; however, according to the 1910 US Census, she was born in Maryland and her parents were born in Ireland.

Willie Sutton was the fourth of five children, and did not attend school after the 8th grade.

Willie Sutton became a criminal at an early age, though throughout his professional criminal career, he did not kill anyone.

Willie Sutton was described by Mafioso Donald Frankos as "a little bright-eyed guy, just 5'7" and always talking, chain-smoking.

Frankos declared that Willie Sutton made legendary bank thieves Jesse James and John Dillinger seem like amateurs.

Willie Sutton usually carried a pistol or a Thompson submachine gun.

Willie Sutton responded that he never carried a loaded gun because somebody might get hurt.

Willie Sutton stole from the rich and kept it, though public opinion later made him into a type of gentleman thief, like Robin Hood.

Willie Sutton was captured and recommitted in June 1931, charged with assault and robbery.

Willie Sutton failed to complete his 30-year sentence escaping on December 11,1932, using a smuggled gun and holding a prison guard hostage.

On February 15,1933, Willie Sutton attempted to rob the Corn Exchange Bank and Trust Company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Willie Sutton came in disguised as a postman, but an alert passerby foiled the crime.

Willie Sutton conducted a Broadway jewelry store robbery in broad daylight, impersonating a postal telegraph messenger.

Willie Sutton usually arrived at banks or stores shortly before they opened for business.

Willie Sutton was apprehended on February 5,1934, and was sentenced to serve 25 to 50 years in the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for the machine gun robbery of the Corn Exchange Bank.

Willie Sutton was recaptured the same day by Philadelphia police officer Mark Kehoe.

On March 20,1950, Willie Sutton was the eleventh listed of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, created only a week earlier, on March 14.

Judge Peter T Farrell presided over a 1952 trial in which Sutton was convicted of the 1950 robbery of $63,942 from a bank of the Manufacturers Trust Company in Sunnyside, Queens.

Willie Sutton received a sentence of 30 to 120 years in Attica State Prison.

In 1976, Willie Sutton published his second book, Where the Money Was, co-authored with journalist Ed Linn.

Willie Sutton made a television commercial for New Britain Bank and Trust Company in Connecticut for their credit card with picture identification on it.

Willie Sutton was in ill health at the time, suffering from emphysema and in need of an operation on the arteries of his legs.

Willie Sutton died in 1980 at the age of 79; before this, he had spent his last years with his sister in Spring Hill, Florida.

Willie Sutton frequented the Spring Hill Restaurant where he kept to himself.