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Article: The bank robber, the quote, and the final irony.(Willie Sutton)
- Article from:
- ABA Banking Journal
- Article date:
- March 1, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A reporter's odyssey finds that 20 years ago, the noted bank robber and prison escape artist locked himself up for the last time
This is the story of what became an obsession.
Sometime last fall, I slit the last of the Monday mail and found the text of an executive's speech. I skimmed the document for news. There it was, a few pages into the text, "it" not being news, but "THE QUOTE," which I have read and heard, even borrowed, hundreds of times in 18 years of writing about banks.
If you've ever been to a banking conference, you've heard, or even used it, yourself. With many variations, it goes like this:
"As Willie Sutton the bank ...