This book explores a real married couple who decided that they needed to have a better life for the wife's unborn child. The problem was that they decided to rob small time stores in Brooklyn, New York to get the money to improve their surroundings.
The year was 1924, and everything was changing. Women were getting their hair bobbed, and such women were being labeled as "flappers" (young women who were into partying, drinking and sex). Celia and Ed Cooney wanted a better life, and you could buy it on the installment plans of that time. She wanted a fur coat, and Ed bought for her, because he wanted her to have it. But the pending arrival of a baby meant that they needed to find a way to improve their home conditions quickly, and that meant money.
Ed had a job where he could borrow a car, and he got a few guns for them. Celia, who loved Ed, was also a child of the streets, and was willing to try robbing stores, if it meant they could live in a real home for their coming child.
After the first few robberies, the press exploited the then novel concept of a woman robbing stores who had bobbed hair and a fur coat and a gun. From there the “Bobbed Hair Bandit” phenomenon just took off, with newspapers making the woman the fearless tough leader in the robberies, and her husband as the mere helper.
Under tremendous pressure to catch the Bobbed Hair Bandit, the police responded by arresting anyone who might be her. All the while, the press was daily stoking the fire for the police to stop the robberies, and the newspapers linked this to a general news slant of a crime wave sweeping the city.
The Police Commissioner’s response was a stepped-up police and detective presence in Brooklyn, and Ed and Celia found daily living, staying unsuspected and planning future robberies, was getting to be a real challenge. Robbing small-time stores was not enough money, and they planned on one last big robbery to set them on the road to life, and going straight. They also planned on leaving Brooklyn before the police closed in on them.
The robbery phenomenon lasted about 3 months, but finally came crashing down on the Bobbed Hair Bandit and her husband. Their arrest, trial and the life after, makes up the rest of the story.
Lavishly illustrated and filled with the events surrounding the Bobbed Hair Bandit and her husband, this is a good read for true crime fans.