12 Crimes of Christmas: Santa Robs a Bank

On December 23, 1927, a gun-toting Santa Claus and his three bandits robbed the First National Bank of Cisco, Texas before setting off on a wild, week-long chase with the police. Although the costume was donned by a decidedly young and lanky man, the image of the beloved Christmas hero allowed this Santa to distract the bank patrons while his bandits filed into the building undetected.

While Santa was raiding the bank’s safe and stuffing an “Idaho Potatoes” sack with $12,200 in cash and $150,000 in securities (or, when adjusted for inflation, about $182,570 in cash and $2,244,724 in securities), his bandits were holding down the scene and making sure no one escaped. Amazingly, one woman managed to sneak past the commotion, slip out of the bank’s back door and alert the Cisco police of Santa and his bad little helpers. When the police arrived, the bank robbers used the bank employees as human shields to evade any bullets that came at them while they escaped through the alleyway.

By the time the four men reached their getaway vehicle, approximately 200 shots had been fired. In the aftermath, two officers lay dying and six bystanders had sustained wounds of varying severity. The unruly gang also succeeded in taking 10-year-old Emma May Robinson and twelve-year-old Laverne Comer hostage, but had to leave one injured bandit behind to die. Santa, who was eventually revealed to be 26-year-old Marshall Ratcliff, drove madly through thick fields of bushes, cactus, and brush while the police followed him in hot pursuit. Over the course of the chase, the three remaining robbers accumulated several hostages and injuries but were eventually captured by police exactly one week after the bank robbery.

Ratcliff was sentenced to 99 years in prison, but attempted to plead insanity and was moved from the penitentiary to the county jail in Eastland, Texas. Whilst in the throes of his insanity schtick, Ratcliff tried to escape and ended up killing a jailer. Local Texans grew angry, broke Ratcliff out of jail, and hung him themselves. In the end, the Santa-led bank robbery cost six people their lives, including three of the four robbers.