I’m reading the book ‘Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933–34’ by Byran Burroughs.
In it he details the crimes of Alvin Karpis and the Barker Gang, John Dillinger and his gang, Bonnie and Clyde and a few more outlaws of that era. I was amazed at the amount of money stolen by these people over time. Between ransoms for kidnapping and especially bank robberies the amounts were more often than not in the $20, 50 and even 70 thousand dollar range. By todays standards those figures would easily be in the 6 digit range. Even divided amongst gang members still would provide each with a handsome haul.
Where did all these ill-gotten gains go? These people were always on the run so its not like they were out eating in fancy restaurants, buying quality clothes, investing in real estate and stocks, etc. They (especially Dillinger) would hit bank after bank, leave with loads of cash and run off until he stole again.
Anything I’ve read about these people never details anything about how they spent their small fortunes.
Dillinger hid in Chicago, Pretty Boy Floyd in Toledo: both heavily mobbed-up towns where they were left alone by local law enforcment. A lot of their wealth went to “taxes.”
Machine guns, ammo, cars, slick threads, hookers, travel and lodging, payoffs - those expenses add up after awhile.
Bank-robbing teams tended to involve quite a few people (controlling personnel and bank guards, securing the money, driving the getaway car(s), firing rounds wildly for crowd control (Baby Face Nelson), so the money had to be split many ways.
Did any bank robbers from the era do the ‘smart thing’ (as I see it) and take their money to Mexico, the Caribbean, or some other comfortable locale to never be seen again?
That line of work is pretty erratic. You can’t count on $X a week. You could be very successful for some length of time and then have a much more prolonged dry spell. And it was only a matter of time before the feds get hold of you. So we’re not talking about people who had large hauls on a regular basis for a long period of time. More like guys who were doing very well at the brief peaks of their careers.
In addition to the business expenses mentioned by others above, this type of person did not tend to be very financially disciplined. When they did well they threw around a lot of money.
And it was difficult for them to salt away of a lot of money in any event. Having money in banks and the like would make it easier for them to get caught.
A rather surprising fact is how little all forms of theft take in in the USA. Only about $12-billion a hear, half of it from auto theft. That’s less than a dollar a week, per capita.
The problem is, how?
International banking operates on an interesting trust system. there wasn’t airline travel or the internet, so your average gangster would have to hop a train across country or an ocean liner to get to the foreign bank.
There were no money laundering laws, but also no privacy law - many banks probably had no problem mentioning to authorities about the odd American who wandered in with $50,000 cash and opened an account. So your deposit process would need an organized meet with a courier, and a cooperative bank.
Like any conspiracy, the more people you drag into it, the sooner it would become public knowledge.
Another point was that a 3% rate of return was very good for that era, IIRC. So it’s not like your nest egg would double every decade or so.
Plus, like today, there’s a difference between a middle-class living wage, and the money needed to live in style for a decent sized gang. I’m sure you or I could take $1M and live ok for the rest of our lives; but $1M a gang of eight or 10 living in hotels and hitting the bars every night would probably burn through pretty quickly.
One or two things to remember, is that Bonnie and Clyde were extremely low income thieves. Their biggest haul was $3000 or less, usually a lot less. And, it seems that Pretty Boy Floyd didn’t do a whole lot better. So, that only leaves the Barker gang, and Dillinger, IIRC. There’s one more gang, it seems to me, but I can’t recall right off who they were.
Karpis had to split a lot of his to money laundering and among gang members, and, as mentioned above, payoffs to the local crime bosses, and staying on the run, etc… everything previously mentioned.
Dillinger needed lawyers and usually was paying trying to arrange jail breaks for himself or his gang.