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In The Last Man: A Novel of the 1927 Santa Claus Bank Robbery by Thomas Goodman, four men in a small, depression-era Texas town lay in wait to carry out their unique plan for a holiday heist.
It’s December 23 and a man in a Santa Claus suit walks into a bank. But rather than his bag full of Christmas surprises, he’s brought a gun. With the element of surprise on their side, the robber and his two partners would collect the cash, while another partner waited in the getaway car. It all seemed so simple.
At the time, Texas bankers—in order to deter crimes such as this—promised a $5,000 reward for any dead bandits, “and not one cent” for the capture of a live one. Should anything go wrong, the possibilities for disaster were clear as a Greek tragedy, but what could go wrong?
Guns blaze within minutes of entering the bank.
Robbers are shot. Two lawmen—including a popular sheriff—die. In swift order, the criminals are captured, and Texas-style justice insures the death penalty is on the table for all four men.
But that’s just the beginning of this 20th century western crime novel.
Based on a true story, we learn the sad tales of the four men who came together, mostly as strangers, to commit the robbery. We follow each of them through their individual court trials, as the prosecutors howl for bloody vengeance and the defense battles to keep each of them from the electric chair.
In the end, they all are found guilty and put on the court’s—and the public’s—“naughty” list. Two face the harshest possible punishment, and one dies at the hands of a violent mob who drags him from his jail cell and hangs him after an attempted prison escape goes terribly wrong.
However, one of the four does survive his sentence.
Despite multiple escape attempts and clashes with the law, the last of the four men avoids the harsh sentences handed down to the other robbers and instead gets a shot at a real life even with his criminal past.
This book intrigues readers with each robber’s individual odyssey, their prison lives, escape attempts, and the unrelenting searches to bring them back.
Particularly gut-wrenching are the descriptions of life for at least one of the men on Death Row. He awaits execution behind what the prisoners refer to as “the little green door,” an iron door that closes behind each condemned man as he faces the grim fate that looms just a few steps away.
One of these condemned men watches as 13 of his fellow prisoners are executed. Man after man, they take that long walk to the little green door as gospel music from an old needle-drop phonograph announces the electric chair. We feel his anxiety as he wonders how many days are left until he will walk the same path. And as he watches the others take their final steps, he is propelled to a horribly rash and dark act.
The Last Man brings readers into the center of these men’s lives through a poignant selection of details.
Goodman not only presents the facts of their lives—he delivers the quality of those lives. These are no heroes. There’s not much to sympathize with. But they all deserve better than what they got under the harsh hand of Texas justice.
Fans of true crime should put this book at the top of their list.
Thomas Goodman’s The Last Man is on sale as a Kindle ebook for 99¢ until Saturday, Oct 26th, 2024.
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