8C Bank robbers

Ice-breakers

• Why do people rob banks?
• Do you know the names of any 'celebrity' criminals from the past?
• Why do people think of some historical criminals in a romantic way, even when they were sometimes murderers?
• Why are films about criminals so popular?
• When you watch a film about a crime, do you ever want the criminals to win or 'get away with it' (ie escape)?

ROBBERS: Who was Ronnie Biggs?

Ronnie Biggs was a member of the gang that stole over two million pounds in Britain in the Great Train Robbery of August 1963. The gang changed the signals and stopped a mail train travelling from Scotland to london. The gang didn't use any guns, but the train driver was hit over the head with an iron bar and was seriously injured. He never worked again. Thirteen of the fifteen gang members were caught, tried and given long prison sentences. Although it was a violent robbery, many members of teh British public felt quite positive towards the train robbers, especially Ronnie Biggs, who escaped from prison and went to live for 30 years in Brazil, where he fathered a child. But in 2001, he finally agreed to return to the UK and was immediately put back in prison to finish his 28-year-sentence. The stolen money was never found!

CULTURAL NOTES: BONNIE&CLYDE

• The real Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were violent bank robbers. Their career together was fairly short. They only met in 1930 and were both shot dead on May 23 1934.
• Police trying to catch Bonnie and Clyde and other famous 'celebrity' criminals of the 1930s had problems because each American state had its own police force that generally didn't work over state lines. This helped lead to the formation of the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation - a nationwide force).
• Bonnie, who was only 4 foot 10 inches (1.5 meters) tall, was married to a man doing a 55-year-prison sentence. She wrote a poem called The story if Bonnie and Clyde, which was widely published.
• The film was released in 1967. At the time it was considered an extremely violent film. The romanticised picture of the pair helped to make them famous celebrities again.

LANGUAGE NOTES:

- A GANGSTER is a member of a criminal gang.

- A HOLD-UP is a robbery using guns.

• Part of Clyde's reason for robbing the bank is to impress Bonnie. When the clerk tells Clyde that the bank has no money, he is worried what Bonnie will think of him. He pushes the clerk out of the bank at gunpoint to the car where Bonnie is waiting, and forces him to explain to Bonnie that the bank has closed down. Bonnie bursts out laughing. They then go to a grocery store where they carry out their first real robbery and Clyde shoots the grocery store owner.

Further listening practice

American police
The gun debate
Crime in America
A lawyer's work