Author of new novel based upon the Santa Claus Bank Robbery in Abilene Friday.
Fans of Texas history and the 1927 Santa Claus Bank Robbery in Cisco will have the chance to indulge in it Friday as the author of a new fictionalized account of the infamous crime appears in Abilene.
More: The Santa Claus Bank Robbery: How Christmas went terribly wrong for some Wichita Falls bandits
Austin author Thomas Goodman will sign copies of his new novel, The Last Man, 2-3:30 p.m. Friday at Abilene's Texas Star Trading Company, and then again in the Eastland County Square during Saturday's Old Rip Festival. Goodman's book explores what might have happened to the fourth man of the crew who robbed Cisco's First National Bank on Dec. 23, 1927.
One of the most infamous bank robberies of the time, the caper gets its name from the heist's mastermind, Marshall Ratliff, who believed dressing as Kris Kringle would assist with the anonymity needed for the crime as no one would suspect Santa Claus walking into a bank so close to Christmas Eve.
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The robbery and its blunders resulted in the largest manhunt in Texas history, as well as the last public lynching in the state after they broke into the Eastland County Jail to hang Ratliff who had killed a jailer the night before.
The historic event was popularized by author A.C. Greene's nonfiction account, The Santa Claus Bank Robbery (1972). Goodman's story focuses on what might have become of the fourth man in the robbery, the fate of the other three having been well-documented.
“I had to devise the dialogue and motivations of the characters,” Goodman writes, “but the robbery, the manhunt, the execution, the escapes, and the lynching follow the newspaper record” of legendary journalist Boyce House and accounts by noted Cisco historian J. W. Sitton as well as A.C. Greene.
This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Author of new novel based on the Santa Claus Bank Robbery in Abilene
