209: Lottery Chaos & A Pistol Packin' Santa

And, Doug, there's nowhere I wouldn't go to help someone customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual. Even if it means sitting front row at a comedy show. Hey, everyone. Check out this guy and his bird. What is this, your first date? Oh, no. We help people customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual together. We're married. Me to a human, him to a bird. Yeah, the bird looks out of your league. Anyways, get a quote@libertymutual.com or with your local agent. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. It began long ago. Two young boys in an American town riding their bikes to school and little league practice. Over the years, the boys became fast friends, united in their love for stories where things would go horribly wrong. Pour yourself a strong beverage and buckle up. You're in the shallow end with Schnebly and Toff. Okay, this is our second attempt to start this show. This show is sort of like a 747. It takes a lot to get it down the Runway and up into the air. It's not just hitting a button, folks. Oh, sure, it sounds like it's just two guys talking, but damn it, it's such a. Such a finely tuned. Watch that. Well, yeah, sometimes we have false starts. Yeah. It's also very difficult to keep it in the air once we. We do get off the. But we'll do our best. We'll do our best. You got a story? I do. I was thinking of saving this for later this year, like closer to the Christmas holiday season, but it's just too good to wait. There you go. In the sleepy oil boom town of Cisco, Texas. This was two days before Christmas in 1927. Children lined the street waiting to see Santa Claus. And Santa did show up. Only this Santa was heavily armed. No. Yeah, yeah. No Santas with guns. Santa guns. Here's what happened. The event became known as the Santa Claus bank robbery. And for decades, it's lodged itself into Texas folklore because it sounded almost too bizarre to be real. But it was a gang, even by Texas standards. Yeah, well, certainly a gang of armed robbers using one. One of them had a Santa suit as camouflage during a Christmas Eve style bank heist. But the reality was even stranger and sadly bloodier than. Than the legend. So, wow. The Robbery happened on December 23, 1927, at the First National Bank. Cisco. And Cisco at the time was booming thanks to nearby oil discoveries. Money flowed through the town constantly. Payrolls were large, banks were flush with cash, and that made Cisco attractive to desperate criminals. The gang was led by a guy named Marshall Ratliff. He was a career criminal with a reputation for violence and bad decisions. It's interesting that somebody named Marshall would be a criminal. Yeah, it sounds more like an ad executive for a radio station. Good. Good choice. Yeah. Ratliff had recently escaped from prison and assembled a small gang that included a guy named Robert Hill, Louie Davis, and Roy Kilgore. And their plan was, well, deceptively simple. Dress a man up as Santa Claus to avoid suspicion. Near the bank during holiday festivities. Rob the bank, quickly escape town, and disappear into the Texas countryside. Now, Ratliff had purchased the costume earlier in the day in the disguise. Even though it was a little stroke of brilliance, I would think it actually became more of a problem because kids kept flocking around him, pulling on his beard, tugging on his pants, asking him for gifts while he was nervously trying to prepare for a robbery. Yeah, that could be distracting. Right? I would be like, hey, come on, get out of here, kid. You bother me. And it is an unsettling image. Children laughing and waving at Santa while underneath his beard, he's carrying guns and planning a violent felony. So the gang entered the bank. Things unraveled almost immediately. I know that might surprise you. Lynn's accounts differ slightly on the exact, exact sequence, but witnesses reported shouting, pistols being drawn and waved in the air. Terrified employees being to hand over cash. They managed to grab about $12,000. And in today's money, that's about just under a quarter of a million. That's a good chunk of change. It sure is. But Cisco was not the kind of town where people quietly accepted being robbed, especially by a jolly old elf. So as the gang fled the bank, citizens began fighting back almost instantly. One of the remarkable things about this story is how quickly ordinary townspeople transformed into armed resistance force. Store owners, civilians, police officers, even teenagers picked up rifles and pistols and began pursuit. It is Texas, after all. Right. Yeah. The streets, reports say, exploded into gunfire. Wow. A police officer named George Bedford confronted the robbers, and he was shot. Another officer, G.E. bit. Bedford was also badly wounded. Civilians were hit as bullets tore through downtown Cisco. Fortunately, none of the townspeople were killed. And then came the moment that kind of pushed this story into a really different level. As weird as this might seem already. Yeah. They carjacked a model T and then. And disturbingly kidnapped two young girls. Sisters named Edna and Lois Grisham. Yeah. They use them as human shields while trying to escape from town. A model T. This reminds me of Jay Leno used to have a joke about how impossible the premise for the a team Was you got this van with a big red swoosh being driven by Mr. T. And the military's best. People keep saying, no, we can't find them, I think. All right, you got Santa in a Model T with hostages returning gunfire. Witnesses described the girls as crouched in the getaway car while bullets flew around them during the chase. Wow. Can you imagine being a child in the backseat of that whole situation? You're looking about Christmas decorations hanging from downtown street signs, gunfire echoing everywhere, and a panicked Santa in the front seat grinding the gears of a Model T covered in sweat and gunpowder. Yeah, that's cinematic. It is. The chase barreled out of Cisco and into the countryside. Posses formed almost immediately. This wasn't modern policing with helicopters and tactical units. This was armed Texans grabbing whatever weapons they had and pursuing killers across rural roads. The gang's escape vehicle eventually crashed near the town of South Bend after a running, constant gun battle. I just. I picture Santa driving this old Model T, leaning out the window, returning gunfire as he. Yeah. Barrels across a dusty rural Texas road. Ho, ho, ho. On this, more shooting erupted. Some gang members were wounded badly. Roy Kilgore died from. Well, during the chaos. And Louis Davis was critically injured and then later died in the kidnapped girls. They survived. Good. Which is good. But they were traumatized. Of course they were. And, of course, you know, this is Texas in the 1920s. There probably was no thought about maybe not returning gunfire on Santa when he had two young girls in the back. They kept shooting. They just kept shooting. Of course, it's Texas. Marshall Ratcliffe, the man in the Santa suit, survived and was captured alive. And you would think that would be the end of the story, right, Lindsay? But no, instead, the entire state became obsessed with him. Newspapers sensationalized every detail because the crime seemed to strike directly at something sacred. Bank robberies, of course, were common in Texas and certainly in the 20s. But a Santa Claus committing murder days before Christmas? That hits differently. Yeah. So Ratcliffe was eventually convicted and sentenced to death. But while awaiting his execution in the jail at Eastland, he attempted yet another escape. Well, of course he did. It's sad. Yeah. He walked over to a chimney, put his finger against his nose and up. No, he didn't. In fact, what he ended up doing is attacking a jail guard and beating him severely. And that was the final straw for the public. A mob formed outside the jail, and Texas vigilante justice took over. Yeah. Yeah. On November 19, 1929, citizens stormed the jail. They dragged Ratliff out and hanged him from a telephone Pole. Okay. Sadly, he was not wearing his Santa suit at the time. That would have been festive. Yeah. Crowds reportedly gathered to watch photographs were taken. Some accounts say women and children were present. It became one of the last large public hangings in Texas history. Now, there are so many bizarre shallow end layers to this story. A man disguised as the symbol of childhood innocence. Children unknowingly interacting with him before an armed robbery. Downtown gun battle just before Christmas. Kidnapped girls using them as shields. And finally, an enraged public carrying out its own execution in the street, Texas style. Yep, and today the story still hangs over Cisco. Historical markers commemorate the event, and it remains one of the most infamous crimes in Texas folklore. The disguise turned the crime into something almost mythic. How can you not focus on this story? If the same robbery happened with ordinary masks, it probably would have just faded long into history. But a gunman wearing a Santa suit making a getaway in an old timey car that he probably had to crank to get started. Come on. Yeah. I am really glad, though, that the two girls, Edna and Lois Grisham, were fine. They were not injured during or at least physically during the abduction. But it must have been an emotionally traumatizing event for these two girls. Well, I would think not only for them, but, you know, for kids. Yeah. Everywhere that every time they would see a Santa, they had to be thinking, you know, am I going to get hurt? Is this guy going to stick up a bank? Like, it's like a Pavlovian response. They hear sleigh bells and immediately start checking for firearms. Exactly. Yeah. You know, imagine being a kid in 1927 Texas thinking, oh, boy, Santa. Only to discover Santa smells like cigarette smoke and desperation. And one minute you're excited about maybe getting a doll for Christmas, and the next you're crouched in the backseat of a stolen getaway car while bullets ricochet off fence posts and a sweaty Kris Kringle screams. Things that absolutely would not appear in any known accounts of the birth of Jesus. Right. At some point, the girls had to be thinking, either this is the worst Santa ever, or we've been really, really bad this year. Does this mean we're not going to get the gifts we wanted? Imagine trying to explain that trauma later in life. Why does grandma hate mall Santas? Well, maybe because one kidnapped her during prohibition era bank robbery and used her as a human shield while exchanging gunfire with a posse made up of angry Texas vigilantes. Yeah. The end. The fact that he didn't get the costume until the morning of shows a certain lack of Planning that it would have been hilarious if he couldn't find one and he had to make one using things he found in a dumpster, if they had dumpsters in 1927 Texas. Or realizes too late that the Santa thing's not going to work out. And so at the last minute, he switches to an Easter bunny costume. I don't know which is worse. Just. Just trying to make do with what's available. Santa's beard's like an old mop, you know, Whatever he can find. The email address is lifeguardallownpodcast.com we get an email from Kelly, who says, hello, friends. I wanted to write you about the story about the bees and the activist beekeeper. Being a former beekeeper myself, I felt I should tell you that we don't use smoke to calm the bees. In fact, it triggers an alarm response. It drives them deeper into the hive, trying to collect as much food as possible because they believe the hive is on fire. Also, one more little bee fact for you both. And, Cat, as I'm a fan of both shows, do not eat bananas or wear a scent like banana anywhere near. Near a beehive. It mimics their alarm pheromones and will most likely lead to a sting. Thanks for entertaining my husband and myself while delivering food around the O Town area. Love you all, Kells. Thank you, Kells. That is fascinating, Kells. And it reminds me of a story we did on Box of oddities a number of years ago about urban beekeepers in New York City and how on one neighborhood rooftop where there were a bunch of. Kept. All of the sudden, for no obvious reason, all of the honey started to turn red. Whenever they would harvest the honey, it was red, and they couldn't figure it out. What they did eventually figure out was that there was a maraschino cherry factory that was across the river. And I remember this story. Yeah. They were feeding on that red goo, that syrup. Yeah. Saccharine kind of sauce that they. They put the cherries in that goop. Yeah. And then in addition, wasn't that actually being used? The factory was like a. There was. There was something illegal going on in the factory. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. I can't remember all the details, but, yeah, they. They discovered something there. Like drop. It was like a. Hidden. Hidden rooms. Yeah. And it was actually a front for. Yeah. God, that's. I. I remember you guys telling that story. That was wild. That was crazy. I just a week ago, got stung by a bee. And I happen to remember the last time I got stung by a bee was the year 1996, when I was on vacation in Boston and I was running with some friends along the Charles river and got stung by a bee. So that was 1996. So exactly 30 years later, I got stung again. I was grilling burgers because, you know, it's America, and I see this bee swimming around in the pool making little whirlpools, you know, very clearly trying to avoid drowning. And so trying to be helpful, I reach in and think I can get enough water where he will float and I can just. Just drop him by the side of the. Of the pool and. And I'll save his life. But I got stung for the effort. Oh, there you go. See, that's why they. They invented pool skimmers. Yeah, yeah. That would be the object. You mean that was just like three feet behind me when I just decided the big blue. Blue plastic thing. Yeah. With the mesh mag and the. The thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, see, next time I see this, I'm going to call you and say, hey, Jethro, should I have a bee, A bee in the pool? Should I use my hand again? Or should I use this giant leaf rake thing? Skimmer thing? Yeah. I don't know. You be you, Linds. That's what I always have said. I just thought it was very ironic that it happened solely as a result of trying to be, you know, good to mother Nature. Save a bee. Well, that'll teach you. That'll learn ya. That'll learn ya. You're in the shallow end with Schnebly and Toth. I got a story for you, Jethro. Would you like to hear it? I am all at Twitter. My adrenal meters are pegged. When is the last time? Let me start by asking you this. When's the last time you bought a lottery ticket? Mmm. You remember? Oh, probably two or three years, something like that. Okay. I bought one maybe a month ago, four to six weeks ago. We were traveling with our friends the Browns. We were up in Monterey area, and our buddy Derek says, I'm gonna go buy a lottery ticket. And so I gave him a $20 bill and said, hey, you know, I'm for, for 20 as well. Get. Get me a ticket. And I, I won $8. Well, there you go. Right? Yeah. Yeah. So I could choose to look at it as being down 12, but instead I, I tro. I chose to look at it like, wow, I. I just got $8. Yeah, yeah. It's easy to try to. Trying to make some lemonade. Yeah, exactly. I saw a video if this doesn't cure you of the urge to gamble. I was watching a YouTube video last night. A guy who's a big high roller kind of guy. He had $200,000 and he was doing $1,000 spins on slot machines, and he ended up losing $200,000 just watching over and over and over, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. And I started to feel sick watching it. Yeah, yeah. You know what? I am so grateful that I don't have that. That, you know, that feeling of, this one's going to win. Yeah, this is. This is the ticket. Just one more spin and I'm a zillionaire. God almighty. Anyway, there are people who win the lottery, Jethro, and do things like, I don't know, buy a yacht, start a business, pay off all their friends debts. Maybe they win the lottery and disappear to a private island they've bought. And then there are people like a gentleman named James Farthing, a guy who won $167 million and apparently said, you know what would make this experience even more exciting? Crime. Now, to understand James Farthing, you have to understand that he was not what experts call new to the criminal justice system. This was a guy whose rap sheet reportedly had enough pages to qualify as a small novel. One report claimed he had spent time in 25 different correctional facilities over the previous 30 years. Well, that's quite an accomplishment. It is, it is. I mean, he applied himself, right? Really? I mean, talk about stick to itiveness. After decades of prison food, wake up every morning praying for a second chance. But James Farthing won the Powerball and treated it like downloadable content. The story begins in Kentucky, where James and his family bought a Powerball ticket. By the way, this was just April of last year. Now, against all mathematical probability, that ticket hit. And suddenly this guy, Mr. Farthing, who had probably heard the phrase, spread your belongings against the wall more often than congratulations, became, well, one of the richest people in the state. News cameras showed him grinning with that giant ceremonial check. You've seen those big, big checks. Giant novelty check. Exactly. And if you look closely at the photos, you can almost see the exact moment that every parole officer in Kentucky probably whispered, oh, boy. Because winning the lottery doesn't automatically transform you into a financial genius. It actually just turns your bad decisions a shade of platinum. The media asked him the normal lottery winning questions, like, what are you gonna do now? Where most winners say things like, I'm gonna help my family, or I'm gonna travel, or I'm going to take a percentage and invest the rest But James Farthing apparently answered with his actions, which were, quote, fight a guy in Florida, kick a deputy, and maybe burglarize a house later. Wow. Why would you do that? You're. You've won $167 million. But just three days after winning that 167 million, James went to Florida on vacation. Because nothing says fresh start like immediately violating parole across state lines. Yep. Now, imagine being Jethro at this beach resort. You're, I don't know, sipping a margarita. You're wearing sandals worth more than your dignity. Everything smells like sunscreen and regret. And suddenly you hear a shirtless Kentucky millionaire yelling, I won the Powerball. Which honestly already sounds like the beginning of a police report. Well, according to reports, James got into an argument with another hotel guest. Now, witnesses said that James was bragging about winning the lottery, which is already dangerous behavior in Florida, a state where every third person is one jet ski accident away from becoming a local news legend. But the argument escalated, and not surprisingly, punches were thrown. Deputies arrived, and that's when James allegedly attempted to kick another man, but instead ended up kicking a deputy in the head. Which is honestly incredible. Imagine winning $167 million, and your first major purchase is a charge of assault on a law enforcement officer. Police eventually tased him. And do you know how hard it is to become a millionaire and a taser demonstration at the same weekend? I mean, that is efficiency, right? I guess somewhere in America, there are people working 80 hour work weeks trying to achieve financial freedom. And meanwhile, James Farthing Speed ran the entire American dream backward. What makes this story beautiful in the saddest possible way is that for most of us, the lottery would solve almost every problem you could think of. You need money. Done. Need a new house. Done. Need stability. Done. Need legal representation. Well, you can now afford attorneys with cufflinks. Yeah, there you go. But James approached wealth the way raccoons approach a campground. Recklessly and with immediate consequences. After the Florida arrest, most people would sit down with a financial advisor and, you know, plan out the rest of their lives. Which would probably involve buying a couple homes, planning on vacations, ideally setting a large chunk of it aside so that even your children wouldn't have to worry about working. But not James. Months later, authorities say he was arrested again after allegedly threatening a woman during a bizarre incident involving marijuana, edibles, firearms, and text messages. Scary enough to get police involved. Wow. Now, at this point, Kentucky police were probably answering dispatch calls like, let me guess, lottery guy. Again, even stranger. Reports say officers found a firearm near his bed during one incident. And as you probably know, if you're a convicted felon, you're not supposed to own a firearm. Which means James Farthing somehow achieved the impossible. He made millions of dollars and still lived like a guy who owes everybody else 50 bucks. Then came Jethro. Perhaps the most astonishing chapter. We're not done. Because authorities later accused him of burglarizing a home and stealing $12,000 in cash. $12,000? James, you've won 167 million. It's gotta be like an adrenaline thing for him. That's. That's what I thought. It's not about the money. It's. It's the rush of, you know, entering a stranger's home. And what if I get caught? What if I don't? Police say surveillance cameras allegedly caught him entering the house. They later found him at a gaming facility, and according to reports, he was sitting there with marijuana visible in the car ashtray. Oh, God. The Internet became fascinated with him because he represented a very specific kind of chaos. Reddit commenters summed it up perfectly. Winning the lottery doesn't suddenly make you smarter. Money changes your circumstances, but it doesn't operate your basic personality. Imagine trying to guide Jethro this. This guy responsibly. Imagine being a financial planner and saying, james, we recommend diversified investments. And James says, well, what if I fought a stranger at a beach bar? And you go, no, no, James, we think diversified investments. Well, what if I stole 12 grand for no good reason? No, James, no. See, that's not a very good idea. Through all of this, James somehow became a folk legend, the human embodiment of the phrase, you can take the man out of prison, but you apparently cannot take prison out of the man. It's the kind of story that feels almost like it was invented by a. By a Coen brothers movie. Oh, yeah, it's very normal lottery, isn't it? Yeah, normal lottery winners buy boats and mansions, pay off friends debts. James Farthing just bought legal complications. He treated millions of dollars like a temporary side hustle between arrests. And maybe that's why this story fascinates people so much, because deep down. And it answers an important philosophical question, Jethro. If you gave a lifelong criminal unlimited muddy, would he finally relax? Apparently not. Apparently, he would just commit crimes with better transportation. I guess that's. That's the bottom line there. Wow. I got this story from the New York Post and the smoking gun. James Farthing. That is crazy. It makes me wonder, would there be enough if he had won, say, $500 million instead of just 167 million. Would he think, okay, I don't need a life of crime anymore? My guess is no amount of money, none would, would keep somebody from making decisions like that. No, no. If you won that much initially, you know, even if you won a hundred thousand, I would think that the logical thing would be to take a step back from your life of crime and keep your head down a bit. But not this guy. Not James. No, sir. No, sir. But at least he didn't do it in a Santa costume. Well, that's true. That's true. That is so we got 1927 though, and a model T shooting out the rear window. Santa's got a bag of something for you, coppers. Come and get it. Lifeguard@shallow endpodcast.com that's where you can reach us. And we always look forward to, to hearing from you. We read every email and we look forward to seeing you next time. Until then, just, you know, a word of advice, especially if you just have won the lottery. Make good choices. Your life might depend on it. So concludes another episode of the Shallow End with Schnebly and Toph. We thank you for listening. Oh, be a dear, would you please subscribe to this podcast, give these boys a five star rating and think of something nice to say, even if you have to make something up. And visit us online@shallow endpodcast.com okay, gotta go.