October 1, 2024 • 37 mins
A man walked into the Corn Exchange Bank at Elkton, South Dakota, on the afternoon of August 25, 1938, and announced, quote, “This is a holdup.” Bennie and Stella Dickson were Depression-era bank robbers and outlaws who successfully stole what authorities then estimated to be more than $50,000 over an eight-month period. They were tagged by the FBI as Public Enemies No. 1 and 2., and J. Edgar Hoover, who led the bureau at that time, compared them to other notorious criminals of the era including John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, “Babyface” Nelson, and “Pretty Boy” Floyd. That's quite a cast of crooks. But were they?
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership
with iHeartRadio. Hey everybody, Holly here. Before we get started,
I just wanted to tell you about a fun little event.
If you listen to Criminalia, you probably already know that
we have a book coming out on October fifteenth that
is Killer Cocktails, dangerous drinks inspired by history's most nefarious criminals.
(00:25):
And before the book comes out in just a day,
we're going to have a fun online event for anyone
who'd like to join us. Novel Suspects is hosting Maria
and Me this Wednesday, October second, from six thirty pm
to eight pm Eastern Standard time for a wicked cocktail
making time. We're going to talk a little bit about
the book, we're going to make a couple of the drinks,
(00:46):
and we're just going to have a lot of fun.
And this event is open to everyone, so if you're curious,
please come and join us. To do that, go to
crowdcast dot io slash c slash Killer Cocktails. Once again,
that's crowdcast dot io slash c slash Killer Cocktails. We
(01:07):
are gonna have so much fun and we hope to
see you there.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
A man walked into the Corn Exchange Bank at Elkton,
South Dakota on the afternoon of August twenty fifth, nineteen
thirty eight, and announced, quote, this is a hold up.
Benny and Stella Dixon were Depression era bank robbers and
outlaws who successfully stole what authorities then estimated to be
more than fifty thousand dollars over an eight month period
(01:37):
between August nineteen thirty eight and April nineteen thirty nine.
They were tagged by the FBI as Public Enemies number
one and number two, and j. Edgar Hoover, who led
the bureau at that time, compared them to other notorious
criminals of the era, including John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde,
Babyface Nelson, and Pretty Boy Floyd. That's quite a cast
(02:00):
of crooks. Welcome to Criminalia. I'm a rich Marky.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
And I'm Holly Frye. When Benny and Stella Dixon robbed
their first bank in Elkton, South Dakota, they were well,
they were very polite about it. After being told by
the bank cashier that the lock to the vault was
a delayed timelock and would not open for thirty five minutes.
They didn't give up. They simply waited. Benny preyed on
(02:26):
any customers with deposits who entered the bank, as, after all,
this was a hold up in progress. But there was
a twist. He'd have a cashier look up the customer's
bank balance, and if he figured that the person could
afford the financial loss, he took their cash, but if
their balance was low, he'd just let them be.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
During the wait for the vault lock, some customers inside
the bank noticed a second person holding what appeared to
be a small machine gun, standing guard outside the bank door.
When said party entered, the bank reported the Elkton record
afterward quote It was then that those who got a
good view became certain that this assistant was a girl
(03:07):
of rather young years and of slight build.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
When the vault lock finally opened, and that must have
felt like a very long thirty five minutes, Benny gathered
all the cash in the vault and he and Stella
left town with two one hundred seventy four dollars and
it was all done without a shot fired. They drove
a carefully planned kind of meandering route on backcountry roads
(03:33):
to keep a low profile as they headed to Benny's
family's farm just over the state boundary near Tyler, Minnesota.
There his mother, Alma, had grown up, and it's also
there where he hid the money. Stella corroborated this in
her later confession, stating quote, we did not stop on route.
When we got to the farm. We parked the car
(03:54):
near the barn. He said he was going to hide
the money.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Several days later, the couple left the farm for Topeka, Kansas,
where they stayed with family. The pair laid low. Benny
taught Stella how to shoot, and he planning to return
to a legitimate livelihood, was preparing to enroll in college.
But only a few weeks after the robbery, the money
was already running low, so Benny started planning the next
(04:22):
bank robbery. Stella later recalled in her confession quote, two
days before we robbed the bank at Brooking, South Dakota,
we slept in the buick in the barn at the
farm in Tyler, Minnesota, because we had run out of
money and did not have funds with which to pay rent.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
That's so much money. If they're just hanging out on
a farm, what are they doing?
Speaker 2 (04:40):
I know, right, I'm like, exactly did he just bury
it around the grounds. I'm not sure, but I did
remember that later in the script she had like a
wedding band with seven diamonds in it, So that might
explain a few things.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Maybe maybe They took off next for South Dakota, and
on October thirty first, nineteen thirty eight, about two months
after their first bank robbery, Benny and Stella hit up
the Northwest Security National Bank in Brooking, South Dakota. That
was just a few miles northwest of their first hit,
the corn Exchange Bank. The two story bank building anchored
(05:12):
the southwest corner of the intersection of forth Street and Maine,
which was the town's busiest shopping area. The building had
large granite pillars framing its entrance and it took up
half a block. It was considered one of the most
imposing structures in Brookings. Inside the bank also had a
delayed timelock on its vault, and again the outlaws waited patiently.
(05:37):
This lock, though, took quite a long time, reportedly somewhere
from an hour and a half to two and a
half hours for the vault to open. Apparently in no hurry,
they politely told bank officials to quote do business as usual.
In the end, they made off with a whole lot
more from this vault than the first bank. Their takeaway
(05:59):
from Brookings was seventeen thousand, five hundred and ninety two
dollars and ninety nine cents in cash. They also walked
away with stocks valued at the time to be worth
more than sixteen thousand dollars. The press dubbed them the
Timelock Bandits.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Authorities never recovered the money from either bank. But let's
talk banks and g men for a minute. Because the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ensured the Corn Exchange Bank, the
hold up was a violation of the National Bank Robbery Act,
and that came under Federal Bureau of Investigation jurisdiction. In fact,
(06:38):
both of the duo's bank robberies came under the purview
of the FBI, led by J. Edgar Hoover. In nineteen
thirty four, it become a federal crime to rob any
national bank or state member bank of the Federal Reserve System.
The law quickly expanded to include everything from bank burglary
and larceny to other similar crimes, and jurisdiction was delegated
(07:01):
to the FBI. The Bureau had sole jurisdiction among federal
law enforcement agencies to investigate bank robberies, so this was
the FBI and j. Edgar Hoover's manhunt.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
The Brookings Register reported two people had robbed the Northwest
Security National Bank in Brookings. From descriptions given by bank
employees and customers, we have an idea of what Benny
and Stella looked like as bank robbers. Rather than say
Benny's mugshot. Benny was quote a pasty faced man about
(07:34):
thirty years old, and Stella quote a young, attractive, blonde.
Benny on the day of the Brookings robbery wore glasses,
a gray herringbone suit, a brown hat, and a gold
signet ring on the little finger of his left hand.
Stella wore a salmon colored coat over a green dress,
(07:54):
and one eyewitness remembered she was quote pretty and neatly dressed.
The brook Register also reported that based on those descriptions
of the robbers, it was possible they were the same
duo who had robbed the Corn Exchange Bank at Elkton,
and the FBI agreed.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
After the second robbery, authorities had pretty good physical descriptions
of the robbers, good enough to start making and distributing
press releases and wanted posters, but they had no idea
who the bandits were. It would be a few weeks
later when someone allegedly it was a health resort employee,
came forward to identify the pair as Benny and Stella Dixon.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
The Brookings Record published quite a bit on the bank
robbery and the bank robbers, and on December first, nineteen
thirty eight, reported quote described as desperate criminals by federal officials.
Both Dixon and his wife are known to be extremely dangerous,
and the public is warned that they would just as
soon shoot to kill whoever gets in their way.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
We are going to take a break for a word
from our sponsors, and when we reached we'll talk about
who Benny and Stella were, including where they grew up
and where and how they met.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Welcome back to Criminalia. Benny had been a boy scout,
Stella had been a straight A student, and then they met.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Benny Dixon was born in Topeka, Kansas, in probably nineteen thirteen,
but give or take a year or two on that one.
He was the son of a high school chemistry teacher.
His family was well respected in the community. At age ten,
Bennie and his older brother Spencer, both received commendations from
the mayor for their heroism after rescuing a woman from
(09:52):
drowning in one of Topeka's Central Park ponds. Benny was
a boy scout for eight years. However, at some point
changed in his life and he began to commit minor crimes.
He once spoke of falling in with a bad crowd
as a youth. He served time in the Kansas State
Reformatory for car theft. Seven years later, in nineteen thirty one,
(10:13):
he was incarcerated for five and a half years at
the Missouri State Penitentiary for a botched bank robbery he
was involved in with a few other guys. Upon his release,
he returned to Topeka, where he moved back in with
his family. There, he began to turn things around a bit.
He began to study law, and he won distinction as
an amateur featherweight boxer.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Stella May Irvin was also from Topeka, Kansas. Born on
August twenty fifth, nineteen twenty two, she grew up in
an abusive home, and after her parents split when she
was a toddler, she lived with her mother and her
younger brother, Junior she was an a student. She was
also often said to be quite attractive, generally described as
(10:56):
a stereotypical teenager and often moody. It's also said that
she was desperate for attention as well as a way
out of the boredom of her Kansas life. In June
of nineteen thirty seven, all Most fifteen year old Stella
met twenty four year old Benny at a roller skating
rink in Topeka, and, in an age gap scenario that's
(11:18):
rather unsettling, there was an immediate attraction. He introduced himself
to her as Johnny D. O'Malley, an insurance salesman from
Chicago and known to be quite charismatic. He quickly won
Stella's affection. He then told her his real name, and
they began seeing each other. They secretly planned to marry
(11:40):
when she turned sixteen.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
It wasn't long after that first meeting, though, that Benny
unexpectedly left town to avoid jail time after an assault charge.
Their relationship got put on hold. Months later, Stella received
a letter from him asking her to join him in
California and assuring her that despite his absence, he still
very much wanted to marry her. He paid for her trip,
(12:02):
and she went it was a done deal. She traveled
by train to him, and a police judge in Pipestone,
Minnesota married the couple on August third, nineteen thirty eight,
while they were vacationing at nearby Lake Benton with the
Dixon family.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
It was on Stella's sixteenth birthday when the newlyweds kicked
off their partners in crime career. That was the day
they robbed the corn Exchange bank at Elkton, South Dakota.
It was a crime they successfully repeated at a Brookings,
South Dakota bank just two months later on Halloween, and
these back to back robberies brought them fame in the newspapers,
(12:38):
but it also brought them to the attention of federal authorities.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
In the months following the bank robberies, federal agents pursued
the Dixons through several Midwestern states, during which time the
pair added to their crime roster first car theft. Stealing
new getaway cars put them in violation of the National
Motor Vehicle Theft Act, which was a relatively new law
that made interstate transportation of stolen cars a federal crime.
(13:07):
They were now also wanted for kidnapping, and the two
crimes went together. Benny and Stella were bank robbers, not kidnappers,
but when the pair needed a vehicle, they took one,
and sometimes people were inside that hijacked car. The crime duo, though,
turned their victims loose as soon as it was convenient.
According to their FBI poster, they were specifically wanted for quote,
(13:31):
the kidnapping of Henry Metti and Claude Minis, and for
transporting them across state lines from Michigan to Indiana that November.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
By this time, the FBI had issued nearly one thousand
press releases nationwide about the duo, hoping for information about
their whereabouts. Another of their FBI issued wanted posters, dated
November of nineteen thirty eight, seeks quote information related to
the husband and wife team of bank robbers Benny and
Stella Dixon on charges of kidnapping, bank robbery, and motor
(14:03):
vehicle theft. The poster featured a mug shot of Benny,
whose real name was Benjamin James Dixon, and two candid
photos of a Stelle Stella Dixon. It listed their respective
aliases and their physical descriptions.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
The pair were tracked down to a cabin motel called
Ace Cabin Camp in Topeka, Kansas, on November twenty fourth,
nineteen thirty eight, that was Thanksgiving Day. As eight federal
agents tried to apprehend them, Benny drove away amid a
hail of gunfire. It was reported by the Topeka Daily
Capital that officers fired forty eight gunshots at his thirty
(14:40):
seven Pontiac. Benny did not fire back. He did, though,
suffer a minor scalp wound. In the meantime, Stella escaped
on foot. Benny abandoned his now bullet riddled car in
North Topeka, and, needing a new car, hijacked a couple
at gunpoint and took theirs. He drove to South Clinton, Iowa,
(15:01):
where he stole another car, before returning to Topeka to
meet up with Stella at a previously planned renezvous point
the next day.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Together, they drove toward Michigan, and authorities made several attempts
to capture them along the way. This is the place
in their story where Benny nicknamed his young wife sure Shot.
When Stella shot out the tires on a pursuing patrol car,
not to injure anyone, but to hinder their chase. The
couple remained at large for the next several months, popping
(15:30):
up only when they stole cars again. They eluded police
by sticking to country back roads. A Kansas City Journal
news article quoted FBI special agent Gerald Norris, in charge
of the case, describing Stella as quote just as tough
a customer as Benny was, while the Kansas City Star reported,
quote Estelle Dixon is wanted just as badly as her
(15:54):
husband was.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
On April sixth, nineteen thirty nine, Benny entered the Yankees
to Hamburger Shop in Saint Louis alone to meet a
person later described in newspaper articles as a quote woman
in brown. This woman in brown was the sister of
one of his former cellmates, and today historians believe she
was a paid informant who set up this meeting, this
(16:17):
meeting where Benny was shot, though she's identified in FBI
files as Naomi. The bureau later denied that any paid
informant had been present that day. We'll talk more about
what else they denied in just a moment. As Benny
left the cafe at about seven pm, four FBI agents
(16:38):
were waiting outside, yelling for him to put his hands up.
According to the FBI's story of events, Benny emerged from
the building immediately crouched and reached for his guns, which
prompted agents on the scene to fire in self defense.
They shot him twice on the sidewalk, and these were
fatal wounds.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Newspapers reported that Benny failed to follow the hands up
command from the agents and instead had tried to reach
for a gun. There's controversy to that narrative, though Matthew Cecil, historian, professor,
and author, has questioned that assertion for decades. In a
nineteen ninety nine edition of South Dakota History, the quarterly
(17:20):
publication of the South Dakota State Historical Society, he contends
that eyewitness testimony suggests something different than the FBI's explanation.
A waitress named Gloria Cambraun witnessed the shooting that day
and repeatedly stated that Benny fled on foot, heading north
and that he was trying to open a door leading
(17:41):
to a nearby apartment when he was shot once in
the shoulder and once in the side. She did not
agree that he was crouched or that he was reaching
for a weapon.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Interestingly, though an internal FBI memo corroborated Gloria's version of
the story. But then this gets messy. In a personal
and confidential letter to FBI Director j Edgar Hoover, Gerald Norris,
you'll recall he was the special agent in charge of
this case, recounted the events. He wrote that one agent
(18:13):
shot Benny Dixon quote twice in the body, one bullet
entering his shoulder and going down through his body toward
the front, and the other going from one side of
his body to the other. Norris described the second bullet
struck under the right arm. According to that letter, no
other agents fired their weapons. In a separate letter pena
(18:33):
Hoover by Norris, he stated, quote all of this information
was furnished to the Bureau before it was given out
to any other sources.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
We'll talk about what that last quote means to the case,
but first we're going to take a break for a
word from our sponsors. And when we return from Bullets
to confessions two more from j Edgar Hoover, we'll cover
it all through Stella's sentencing.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Welcome back to Criminalia. Historian Matthew Cecil wasn't so sure
that the FBI's public narrative was correct, and researched and
wrote extensively about it. Let's talk about what he found
and what he believed really happened.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Historian and author Matthew Cecil wrote extensively about the FBI
under J. Edgar Hoover. In regard to the Dixons, he
argued against the FBI's story of what happened to Benny
that day, contending that if the bureau's public claim that
Benny was directly in front of the agent's is correct,
it's unlikely a bullet could have entered his shoulder from
(19:49):
the back and moved with that trajectory they described toward
the front, mainly because well physics. Cecil also stated that
if Benny was actually reaching for his gun, it would
have been difficult for a bullet to enter his body
under the right arm, because the arm would have been
down at his side. However, if he had been attempting
(20:09):
to open an apartment door to the north of the
Hamburger shop, as Gloria Cambron's eyewitness account described, his body
would have been turned in such a way that the
fired bullets could have struck with the trajectories described by
the FBI.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Meanwhile, Gloria had publicly told her version of the story
several times and was scheduled to testify under oath at
the coroner's inquest. However, FBI Assistant Director Edward Tatum penned
a letter to Norris quote that this woman should be
brought into the office and given a good scare, and
that she should be told that she has been quoted
(20:46):
in the newspapers as telling some stories that were not true,
and that if we are going to have to prosecute
her for perjury or something, we will do so. In
the end, we don't know if Gloria was intimidated from
making her statement, but we do know that she did
not testify. Officials at the inquest absolved the FBI of
any blame in the Dixon shooting.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
And basically that meant the FBI could tell any version
of the event that they pleased, and the FBI's public
relations department went to work. They immediately released a lot
of pro FBI propaganda, including a series of radio scripts,
case memoranda, and commercially distributed books, telling the bureaus version
(21:29):
of the Benny Dixon shootout story that agents fired on
him because he was reaching for a weapon. Not because
he was fleeing. So what about Gloria the eyewitness? What
about that woman in Brown? The Bureau got their guy.
But the more historian Cecil investigated their reports, the clearer
it became that they whipped up a false narrative about
(21:51):
the fatal shots in a time when the FBI was
looking for feel good public relations story, and they left
out a bunch of critical facts in doing so.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Let's return to the scene of the shooting. So during
this frenzy, Stella waited in the car parked about half
a mile away and had been there since her husband
went into the Hamburger shop. She later stated, quote, I
couldn't see the Hamburger stand very well because of the
cars parked in front of it. I heard several shots
fired across the street. I already had the motor running,
(22:24):
and I swung the car around to get on Johnny's
side of the street and open the car door. As
I turned, Johnny was lying on the sidewalk. Johnny, to
clear up confusion, was Stella's nickname for Benny. Remember it
was the name he used when he first introduced himself
to her at the rink.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Stella drove off and abandoned the car in a nearby
parking garage. Wanting to get home to her mother, she
hired a driver instead of hijacking a car, But newspapers
and the FBI had splashed her photo all over the place,
and that driver recognized her and he informed authorities. He
drove her to her mother's head, but instead of meeting
(23:01):
the welcoming arms of her mother, she was met by
FBI agents. She later stated to one of those agents, quote,
I knew the minute he stopped he was going to
get a federal man to arrest me. I didn't care.
I just sat in the car. I knew if I
got out and tried to get to Topeka by myself,
I wouldn't get there alive. And I wanted to see
(23:22):
my mother.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Just two days after her husband was killed, Stella was
taken into custody by federal agents. She had seventy dollars
in her pocket and she was wearing three rings, among
them her wedding ring set with seven diamonds. She also
carried a key to a New Orleans apartment and a
poem her late husband had written for her, which read, quote,
(23:45):
in the eyes of men, I am not just, but
in your eyes, Oh life, I see justification. You have
taught me that my path is right if I am
true to you.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
According to the Sioux Falls Daily Argus Leader, she initially
denied that she played any role in the bank robberies
or in the kidnappings of which the couple was accused.
Less than one week after her capture, officials ordered her
extradited to South Dakota to face the charges of bank
robbery for the two banks that she and Benny had robbed.
(24:18):
Her imminent arrival in Sioux Falls caused a frenzy in
the media, and newspaper stories announced that she would arrive
by train. Large crowds gathered at the Milwaukee Railroad depot
downtown to await a glimpse of her.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Because of all this attention, state officials instead transported her
to the newly constructed City Jail in Mitchell, seventy miles
to the west of Sioux Falls and far enough away
to avoid any incident or riot. As she arrived, The
Sioux Falls Daily Argus Leader described Dixon's arrival there on
April fifteenth with an account of her appearance, reporting quote
(24:57):
dressed in a blue checkered sport coat. The print dress.
Wearing a wide brimmed black hat, she walked down the
courthouse corridors with long strides. The Brookings Register reported quote
FBI agents dressed a Stelle in the clothes found in
an abandoned Dixon automobile in order to help witnesses identify her.
(25:19):
On April twentieth, Brookings Bank employees Dorothy Coffey and John
Torsi arrived in Mitchell and positively identified Stella as the
woman they had seen in connection with the robberies.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Stella's initial sixteen page confession was made alone and without
either legal or parental guidance. And remember she was just
a teenager, and that confession stated that she had willingly
participated in the crimes. But that confession changed after a
discussion with her attorney and her mother. A second confession
(25:51):
was issued, a version that was close to the first.
There were actually only a few factual changes, but it
did not read the same way. Here's what we mean.
The revision carried a tone befitting a coverture defense. So
let's talk quickly about what that is. Under the principle
of coverture, a woman or child could avoid prosecution if
(26:14):
they had been following the direction of an authority figure
such as a husband or a father, in committing a.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Crime, Unlike in her initial confession claiming she had been
a willing participant, in her second statement, Stella stated, quote,
Johnny planned each of these bank robberies, and I was
with him during each robbery only because he told me
to go with him. I did not plan to go
into either of those banks, but did go into each
(26:41):
of them because Johnny stayed in each bank so long,
I got worried about him and went into the banks
to look for him. She also stated that Benny quote
frequently got mad at me and said if I left him,
he would kill me, and said he would kill anybody
who helped me leave him. That latter part raised some eyebrows,
as though he was a criminal, there was no record
(27:04):
of his ever having threatened to kill anyone. It was unexpected,
even to the FBI. In an FBI news release attributed
to j Edgar Hoover, the bureau expressed skepticism over the
revised confession, calling it a quote scheme devised by Dixon
and her attorneys to avoid punishment, and I mean, really
(27:26):
truth be told. After reading the first confession and then
the revision that second confession really doesn't sit right.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
During the legal negotiations that followed, Stella, in a surprise
to everyone, protested her innocence under the coverture rule. In May.
Federal marshals next transported her to Sue Falls, where her attorney,
Chet Morgan of Mitchell, South Dakota, discussed her case with
United States Attorney George Phillip. The FBI may have painted
(27:55):
an aura of danger around her, but local papers that
were following her did not. They described her as looking
quote more like a schoolgirl than a gun mall waiting
the proceedings of the court on charges of bank robbery,
including the taking of hostages, a possible capital offense. She
is a small girl, short and not very heavy, and
(28:16):
wore a small black hat set back on her blonde hair,
which made her appear no older than the sixteen year
she claims.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Under pressure from j Edgar Hoover and the Justice Department,
United States District Court Judge Alfred Wyman brought the prosecution
and defense together on a plea agreement. Finally, and on
August twenty first, nineteen thirty one, four days before her
seventeenth birthday, Stella Dixon pleaded guilty to two counts of
(28:45):
bank robbery in Federal District Court in Deadwood, South Dakota.
Judge Wyman, citing the defendant's youth and the corrupting influence
of her husband, sentenced her to what was considered a
pretty light sentence two concurrent ten urreed tids at the
United States Women's Reformatory in Alderson, West Virginia, a sentence
she began serving on August twenty seventh.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
After she was paroled at age twenty six, Stella never
returned to a life of crime. She settled into life
as a grocery store clerk and lived in relative solitude
in Raytown, Missouri, until her death at age seventy two.
So were she and Benny the public enemies number one
and two that Jay Edgar Hoover considered them to be
(29:30):
wanted dead or alive. Modern dives into the case of
Benny and Stella, such as Matthew Cecil's exhaustive work, suggests
that these two time bank robbers, who were known to
be polite and nonviolent, may actually have been kind of
just small time criminals who just happened to play into
both the public's fascination with these Depression era crimes, as
(29:52):
well as the FBI's focus at the time to be
positively represented and heroic in the media. Oh, Maria, are
you ready to make it a double.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
I most certainly am always okay.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
I have such thoughts about this because I could not
stop thinking the entire time about the fact that Stella
was still a child during all of this.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
She was fourteen when he met her.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Yes, And it's one of those things that makes my
heart ache because I'm sure many of us, especially when
we were teenagers, have had those times where we felt
unloved and vulnerable, and it is so easy to be
taken in when someone seems like they offer a way
out of all of the unhappiness in your life.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
And we know that she was, you know, one of
those fourteen year olds who was like, my life in
Kansas is so boring, I can't wait to get out
of here. Yes, absolutely so.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
You know whether or not she actively went along with
Benny's plans and his crimes, right is like a maybe.
But even if she did, this is also a teenager
whose prefrontal cortex is not fully developed yet. Right, Just
in case anybody listening doesn't know, that's the part of
(31:08):
the brain that handles a lot of executive function, but
among other things things like risk assessment and decision making. Yes,
and here's the thing, that part of your brain doesn't
even finish developing until you're mid to late twenties. So
even Benny was not necessarily ready and functioning with a
fully working and matured sense of reasoning consequences, et cetera.
(31:33):
He certainly was not when he started his life of crime.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
He was not fully cooked yet either. Those brains were
brand new.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
Brains, no ye, still percolating. So in thinking about all
of this, I also started to consider the heady and
intense feelings that come with meeting someone and falling in
love when you're at that young age, and that feeling
of just being in it together and like that you're
in this world where no one else understands you. It's
(32:01):
just you and this person against everybody else.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
And so in thinking about all of that, and thinking
about their decision to get married, and also to me
the slightly odd detail that they went to Benny's families
for all of this, Like they weren't just like tootling
around solo. They had connection to family.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Right, They were always hanging out with the Dixons.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
And I thought about whether or not they actually had
much of a wedding ceremony, and that got me to
thinking about what I wanted to do with a drink.
And this drink is called Teenage Wedding Cake, and it
features some of the ultra sweet flavors that someone whose
palette is still youthful and undeveloped might lean toward. Don't panic,
(32:45):
I know that's not your jam, because one I worked
on ways to temper that. But this is also a
choose your own adventure cocktail because there is a way
to make it. I don't know if I would call
it like the straightway or the regular way. But then
there's a second way you can make it that involves
(33:05):
a tiny addition of one ingredient that completely changes everything,
Like literally one drop is all you need. So we're
gonna make it first the basic way, and what I
wanted was to make something that tasted like a fruity
vanilla pound cake essentially, but with a little kick. So
you're gonna start with a quarter ounce of lemon juice,
(33:27):
a half ounce of orange liqueur. This is drinker's choice.
I actually went with a mandarin orange liqueur that I
have that I really like, but you could use you know,
a quandtrie, a triple sc It's on you. You could
even if you don't like orange, pick a different fruit.
Just pick a fruity liqueur here. Then you're gonna do
an ounce in a quarter of vanilla vodka. Then you
(33:49):
will shake that together and pour it into a pre
chilled coop and to that you're gonna add an ounce
of cream soda and then an ounce of prosec And
so you have this already. The prosecca really shears off
the cloying sweetness, so you already have a drink that
(34:10):
is it's definitely got those sweet and fruity notes of
a cake, but it's not as like intensely sweet as
you might anticipate based on the early ingredient. There is
a second way to make this drink, and it changes
it completely Because I did. I love that version of it,
but I wasn't confident that Benny was fully represented. And
(34:33):
the idea that like, you could have this fun adventure
that completely ruins your life or in Benny's case, ends it.
So you're gonna make it entirely as above, except before
you shake your lemon juice, orange liquor, and vanilla vodka.
You're gonna add one drop of the hot sauce of
your choice, and that also has a wide range of possibilities.
(34:58):
I went with one that's a Sri racha. We have
one here at the house that is a ghost pepper.
I'm not touching it, but I can perish. I can't
handle that, biz. But this completely changes the flavor of it,
because then what you get is this bubbly heat, and
then there's this faint notion of like, is there fruit
in here somewhere, which feels a little bit. It's more
(35:20):
intense as a drink, which matches their relationship, but it's
also more intense in terms of like the heat is
catching up to you.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Right, You just rob you Bank's intensity.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Right right. So that is the teenage wedding cake there
is for the mocktail version, it's very very easy. You're
going to do a quarter ounce of lemon juice, a
half ounce of orange syrup, an ounce in a quarter
of vanilla tea, so it is going to be darker
in color than the other one, and you will shake
those together with ice, just as you would have your
(35:52):
your spirits and your lemon juice. In the earlier version,
you can also optionally add hot sauce here, and then
you will add an ounce of cream soda and instead
of prosecco, an ounce of ginger ale. I will say
the thing I always say, which is that I would
opt for low sugar versions there makes it a little
closer to the original drink and a little less intense.
So that is the Tede wedding cake, which hopefully people
(36:15):
enjoy very heady and bubbly, and it's one of those
things that will for me. Once you add a champagne
or a prosecco or any sparkling, we're on a faster
track to feeling a little buzzy. So I agree with
that that too, was part of creating this intense, buzzy
sensation of their life. If you make it, I hope
(36:36):
you enjoy it. We have sure enjoyed sharing this story
with you, and we're so glad you have been here
with us. We will be right back here next week
with another criminal Duo and another make it a double drink.
Criminalia is a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio.
(36:57):
For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, Please visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership
with iHeartRadio. Hey everybody, Holly here. Before we get started,
I just wanted to tell you about a fun little event.
If you listen to Criminalia, you probably already know that
we have a book coming out on October fifteenth that
is Killer Cocktails, dangerous drinks inspired by history's most nefarious criminals.
(00:25):
And before the book comes out in just a day,
we're going to have a fun online event for anyone
who'd like to join us. Novel Suspects is hosting Maria
and Me this Wednesday, October second, from six thirty pm
to eight pm Eastern Standard time for a wicked cocktail
making time. We're going to talk a little bit about
the book, we're going to make a couple of the drinks,
(00:46):
and we're just going to have a lot of fun.
And this event is open to everyone, so if you're curious,
please come and join us. To do that, go to
crowdcast dot io slash c slash Killer Cocktails. Once again,
that's crowdcast dot io slash c slash Killer Cocktails. We
(01:07):
are gonna have so much fun and we hope to
see you there.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
A man walked into the Corn Exchange Bank at Elkton,
South Dakota on the afternoon of August twenty fifth, nineteen
thirty eight, and announced, quote, this is a hold up.
Benny and Stella Dixon were Depression era bank robbers and
outlaws who successfully stole what authorities then estimated to be
more than fifty thousand dollars over an eight month period
(01:37):
between August nineteen thirty eight and April nineteen thirty nine.
They were tagged by the FBI as Public Enemies number
one and number two, and j. Edgar Hoover, who led
the bureau at that time, compared them to other notorious
criminals of the era, including John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde,
Babyface Nelson, and Pretty Boy Floyd. That's quite a cast
(02:00):
of crooks. Welcome to Criminalia. I'm a rich Marky.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
And I'm Holly Frye. When Benny and Stella Dixon robbed
their first bank in Elkton, South Dakota, they were well,
they were very polite about it. After being told by
the bank cashier that the lock to the vault was
a delayed timelock and would not open for thirty five minutes.
They didn't give up. They simply waited. Benny preyed on
(02:26):
any customers with deposits who entered the bank, as, after all,
this was a hold up in progress. But there was
a twist. He'd have a cashier look up the customer's
bank balance, and if he figured that the person could
afford the financial loss, he took their cash, but if
their balance was low, he'd just let them be.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
During the wait for the vault lock, some customers inside
the bank noticed a second person holding what appeared to
be a small machine gun, standing guard outside the bank door.
When said party entered, the bank reported the Elkton record
afterward quote It was then that those who got a
good view became certain that this assistant was a girl
(03:07):
of rather young years and of slight build.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
When the vault lock finally opened, and that must have
felt like a very long thirty five minutes, Benny gathered
all the cash in the vault and he and Stella
left town with two one hundred seventy four dollars and
it was all done without a shot fired. They drove
a carefully planned kind of meandering route on backcountry roads
(03:33):
to keep a low profile as they headed to Benny's
family's farm just over the state boundary near Tyler, Minnesota.
There his mother, Alma, had grown up, and it's also
there where he hid the money. Stella corroborated this in
her later confession, stating quote, we did not stop on route.
When we got to the farm. We parked the car
(03:54):
near the barn. He said he was going to hide
the money.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Several days later, the couple left the farm for Topeka, Kansas,
where they stayed with family. The pair laid low. Benny
taught Stella how to shoot, and he planning to return
to a legitimate livelihood, was preparing to enroll in college.
But only a few weeks after the robbery, the money
was already running low, so Benny started planning the next
(04:22):
bank robbery. Stella later recalled in her confession quote, two
days before we robbed the bank at Brooking, South Dakota,
we slept in the buick in the barn at the
farm in Tyler, Minnesota, because we had run out of
money and did not have funds with which to pay rent.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
That's so much money. If they're just hanging out on
a farm, what are they doing?
Speaker 2 (04:40):
I know, right, I'm like, exactly did he just bury
it around the grounds. I'm not sure, but I did
remember that later in the script she had like a
wedding band with seven diamonds in it, So that might
explain a few things.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Maybe maybe They took off next for South Dakota, and
on October thirty first, nineteen thirty eight, about two months
after their first bank robbery, Benny and Stella hit up
the Northwest Security National Bank in Brooking, South Dakota. That
was just a few miles northwest of their first hit,
the corn Exchange Bank. The two story bank building anchored
(05:12):
the southwest corner of the intersection of forth Street and Maine,
which was the town's busiest shopping area. The building had
large granite pillars framing its entrance and it took up
half a block. It was considered one of the most
imposing structures in Brookings. Inside the bank also had a
delayed timelock on its vault, and again the outlaws waited patiently.
(05:37):
This lock, though, took quite a long time, reportedly somewhere
from an hour and a half to two and a
half hours for the vault to open. Apparently in no hurry,
they politely told bank officials to quote do business as usual.
In the end, they made off with a whole lot
more from this vault than the first bank. Their takeaway
(05:59):
from Brookings was seventeen thousand, five hundred and ninety two
dollars and ninety nine cents in cash. They also walked
away with stocks valued at the time to be worth
more than sixteen thousand dollars. The press dubbed them the
Timelock Bandits.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Authorities never recovered the money from either bank. But let's
talk banks and g men for a minute. Because the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ensured the Corn Exchange Bank, the
hold up was a violation of the National Bank Robbery Act,
and that came under Federal Bureau of Investigation jurisdiction. In fact,
(06:38):
both of the duo's bank robberies came under the purview
of the FBI, led by J. Edgar Hoover. In nineteen
thirty four, it become a federal crime to rob any
national bank or state member bank of the Federal Reserve System.
The law quickly expanded to include everything from bank burglary
and larceny to other similar crimes, and jurisdiction was delegated
(07:01):
to the FBI. The Bureau had sole jurisdiction among federal
law enforcement agencies to investigate bank robberies, so this was
the FBI and j. Edgar Hoover's manhunt.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
The Brookings Register reported two people had robbed the Northwest
Security National Bank in Brookings. From descriptions given by bank
employees and customers, we have an idea of what Benny
and Stella looked like as bank robbers. Rather than say
Benny's mugshot. Benny was quote a pasty faced man about
(07:34):
thirty years old, and Stella quote a young, attractive, blonde.
Benny on the day of the Brookings robbery wore glasses,
a gray herringbone suit, a brown hat, and a gold
signet ring on the little finger of his left hand.
Stella wore a salmon colored coat over a green dress,
(07:54):
and one eyewitness remembered she was quote pretty and neatly dressed.
The brook Register also reported that based on those descriptions
of the robbers, it was possible they were the same
duo who had robbed the Corn Exchange Bank at Elkton,
and the FBI agreed.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
After the second robbery, authorities had pretty good physical descriptions
of the robbers, good enough to start making and distributing
press releases and wanted posters, but they had no idea
who the bandits were. It would be a few weeks
later when someone allegedly it was a health resort employee,
came forward to identify the pair as Benny and Stella Dixon.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
The Brookings Record published quite a bit on the bank
robbery and the bank robbers, and on December first, nineteen
thirty eight, reported quote described as desperate criminals by federal officials.
Both Dixon and his wife are known to be extremely dangerous,
and the public is warned that they would just as
soon shoot to kill whoever gets in their way.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
We are going to take a break for a word
from our sponsors, and when we reached we'll talk about
who Benny and Stella were, including where they grew up
and where and how they met.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Welcome back to Criminalia. Benny had been a boy scout,
Stella had been a straight A student, and then they met.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Benny Dixon was born in Topeka, Kansas, in probably nineteen thirteen,
but give or take a year or two on that one.
He was the son of a high school chemistry teacher.
His family was well respected in the community. At age ten,
Bennie and his older brother Spencer, both received commendations from
the mayor for their heroism after rescuing a woman from
(09:52):
drowning in one of Topeka's Central Park ponds. Benny was
a boy scout for eight years. However, at some point
changed in his life and he began to commit minor crimes.
He once spoke of falling in with a bad crowd
as a youth. He served time in the Kansas State
Reformatory for car theft. Seven years later, in nineteen thirty one,
(10:13):
he was incarcerated for five and a half years at
the Missouri State Penitentiary for a botched bank robbery he
was involved in with a few other guys. Upon his release,
he returned to Topeka, where he moved back in with
his family. There, he began to turn things around a bit.
He began to study law, and he won distinction as
an amateur featherweight boxer.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Stella May Irvin was also from Topeka, Kansas. Born on
August twenty fifth, nineteen twenty two, she grew up in
an abusive home, and after her parents split when she
was a toddler, she lived with her mother and her
younger brother, Junior she was an a student. She was
also often said to be quite attractive, generally described as
(10:56):
a stereotypical teenager and often moody. It's also said that
she was desperate for attention as well as a way
out of the boredom of her Kansas life. In June
of nineteen thirty seven, all Most fifteen year old Stella
met twenty four year old Benny at a roller skating
rink in Topeka, and, in an age gap scenario that's
(11:18):
rather unsettling, there was an immediate attraction. He introduced himself
to her as Johnny D. O'Malley, an insurance salesman from
Chicago and known to be quite charismatic. He quickly won
Stella's affection. He then told her his real name, and
they began seeing each other. They secretly planned to marry
(11:40):
when she turned sixteen.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
It wasn't long after that first meeting, though, that Benny
unexpectedly left town to avoid jail time after an assault charge.
Their relationship got put on hold. Months later, Stella received
a letter from him asking her to join him in
California and assuring her that despite his absence, he still
very much wanted to marry her. He paid for her trip,
(12:02):
and she went it was a done deal. She traveled
by train to him, and a police judge in Pipestone,
Minnesota married the couple on August third, nineteen thirty eight,
while they were vacationing at nearby Lake Benton with the
Dixon family.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
It was on Stella's sixteenth birthday when the newlyweds kicked
off their partners in crime career. That was the day
they robbed the corn Exchange bank at Elkton, South Dakota.
It was a crime they successfully repeated at a Brookings,
South Dakota bank just two months later on Halloween, and
these back to back robberies brought them fame in the newspapers,
(12:38):
but it also brought them to the attention of federal authorities.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
In the months following the bank robberies, federal agents pursued
the Dixons through several Midwestern states, during which time the
pair added to their crime roster first car theft. Stealing
new getaway cars put them in violation of the National
Motor Vehicle Theft Act, which was a relatively new law
that made interstate transportation of stolen cars a federal crime.
(13:07):
They were now also wanted for kidnapping, and the two
crimes went together. Benny and Stella were bank robbers, not kidnappers,
but when the pair needed a vehicle, they took one,
and sometimes people were inside that hijacked car. The crime duo, though,
turned their victims loose as soon as it was convenient.
According to their FBI poster, they were specifically wanted for quote,
(13:31):
the kidnapping of Henry Metti and Claude Minis, and for
transporting them across state lines from Michigan to Indiana that November.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
By this time, the FBI had issued nearly one thousand
press releases nationwide about the duo, hoping for information about
their whereabouts. Another of their FBI issued wanted posters, dated
November of nineteen thirty eight, seeks quote information related to
the husband and wife team of bank robbers Benny and
Stella Dixon on charges of kidnapping, bank robbery, and motor
(14:03):
vehicle theft. The poster featured a mug shot of Benny,
whose real name was Benjamin James Dixon, and two candid
photos of a Stelle Stella Dixon. It listed their respective
aliases and their physical descriptions.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
The pair were tracked down to a cabin motel called
Ace Cabin Camp in Topeka, Kansas, on November twenty fourth,
nineteen thirty eight, that was Thanksgiving Day. As eight federal
agents tried to apprehend them, Benny drove away amid a
hail of gunfire. It was reported by the Topeka Daily
Capital that officers fired forty eight gunshots at his thirty
(14:40):
seven Pontiac. Benny did not fire back. He did, though,
suffer a minor scalp wound. In the meantime, Stella escaped
on foot. Benny abandoned his now bullet riddled car in
North Topeka, and, needing a new car, hijacked a couple
at gunpoint and took theirs. He drove to South Clinton, Iowa,
(15:01):
where he stole another car, before returning to Topeka to
meet up with Stella at a previously planned renezvous point
the next day.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Together, they drove toward Michigan, and authorities made several attempts
to capture them along the way. This is the place
in their story where Benny nicknamed his young wife sure Shot.
When Stella shot out the tires on a pursuing patrol car,
not to injure anyone, but to hinder their chase. The
couple remained at large for the next several months, popping
(15:30):
up only when they stole cars again. They eluded police
by sticking to country back roads. A Kansas City Journal
news article quoted FBI special agent Gerald Norris, in charge
of the case, describing Stella as quote just as tough
a customer as Benny was, while the Kansas City Star reported,
quote Estelle Dixon is wanted just as badly as her
(15:54):
husband was.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
On April sixth, nineteen thirty nine, Benny entered the Yankees
to Hamburger Shop in Saint Louis alone to meet a
person later described in newspaper articles as a quote woman
in brown. This woman in brown was the sister of
one of his former cellmates, and today historians believe she
was a paid informant who set up this meeting, this
(16:17):
meeting where Benny was shot, though she's identified in FBI
files as Naomi. The bureau later denied that any paid
informant had been present that day. We'll talk more about
what else they denied in just a moment. As Benny
left the cafe at about seven pm, four FBI agents
(16:38):
were waiting outside, yelling for him to put his hands up.
According to the FBI's story of events, Benny emerged from
the building immediately crouched and reached for his guns, which
prompted agents on the scene to fire in self defense.
They shot him twice on the sidewalk, and these were
fatal wounds.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Newspapers reported that Benny failed to follow the hands up
command from the agents and instead had tried to reach
for a gun. There's controversy to that narrative, though Matthew Cecil, historian, professor,
and author, has questioned that assertion for decades. In a
nineteen ninety nine edition of South Dakota History, the quarterly
(17:20):
publication of the South Dakota State Historical Society, he contends
that eyewitness testimony suggests something different than the FBI's explanation.
A waitress named Gloria Cambraun witnessed the shooting that day
and repeatedly stated that Benny fled on foot, heading north
and that he was trying to open a door leading
(17:41):
to a nearby apartment when he was shot once in
the shoulder and once in the side. She did not
agree that he was crouched or that he was reaching
for a weapon.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Interestingly, though an internal FBI memo corroborated Gloria's version of
the story. But then this gets messy. In a personal
and confidential letter to FBI Director j Edgar Hoover, Gerald Norris,
you'll recall he was the special agent in charge of
this case, recounted the events. He wrote that one agent
(18:13):
shot Benny Dixon quote twice in the body, one bullet
entering his shoulder and going down through his body toward
the front, and the other going from one side of
his body to the other. Norris described the second bullet
struck under the right arm. According to that letter, no
other agents fired their weapons. In a separate letter pena
(18:33):
Hoover by Norris, he stated, quote all of this information
was furnished to the Bureau before it was given out
to any other sources.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
We'll talk about what that last quote means to the case,
but first we're going to take a break for a
word from our sponsors. And when we return from Bullets
to confessions two more from j Edgar Hoover, we'll cover
it all through Stella's sentencing.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Welcome back to Criminalia. Historian Matthew Cecil wasn't so sure
that the FBI's public narrative was correct, and researched and
wrote extensively about it. Let's talk about what he found
and what he believed really happened.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Historian and author Matthew Cecil wrote extensively about the FBI
under J. Edgar Hoover. In regard to the Dixons, he
argued against the FBI's story of what happened to Benny
that day, contending that if the bureau's public claim that
Benny was directly in front of the agent's is correct,
it's unlikely a bullet could have entered his shoulder from
(19:49):
the back and moved with that trajectory they described toward
the front, mainly because well physics. Cecil also stated that
if Benny was actually reaching for his gun, it would
have been difficult for a bullet to enter his body
under the right arm, because the arm would have been
down at his side. However, if he had been attempting
(20:09):
to open an apartment door to the north of the
Hamburger shop, as Gloria Cambron's eyewitness account described, his body
would have been turned in such a way that the
fired bullets could have struck with the trajectories described by
the FBI.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Meanwhile, Gloria had publicly told her version of the story
several times and was scheduled to testify under oath at
the coroner's inquest. However, FBI Assistant Director Edward Tatum penned
a letter to Norris quote that this woman should be
brought into the office and given a good scare, and
that she should be told that she has been quoted
(20:46):
in the newspapers as telling some stories that were not true,
and that if we are going to have to prosecute
her for perjury or something, we will do so. In
the end, we don't know if Gloria was intimidated from
making her statement, but we do know that she did
not testify. Officials at the inquest absolved the FBI of
any blame in the Dixon shooting.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
And basically that meant the FBI could tell any version
of the event that they pleased, and the FBI's public
relations department went to work. They immediately released a lot
of pro FBI propaganda, including a series of radio scripts,
case memoranda, and commercially distributed books, telling the bureaus version
(21:29):
of the Benny Dixon shootout story that agents fired on
him because he was reaching for a weapon. Not because
he was fleeing. So what about Gloria the eyewitness? What
about that woman in Brown? The Bureau got their guy.
But the more historian Cecil investigated their reports, the clearer
it became that they whipped up a false narrative about
(21:51):
the fatal shots in a time when the FBI was
looking for feel good public relations story, and they left
out a bunch of critical facts in doing so.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Let's return to the scene of the shooting. So during
this frenzy, Stella waited in the car parked about half
a mile away and had been there since her husband
went into the Hamburger shop. She later stated, quote, I
couldn't see the Hamburger stand very well because of the
cars parked in front of it. I heard several shots
fired across the street. I already had the motor running,
(22:24):
and I swung the car around to get on Johnny's
side of the street and open the car door. As
I turned, Johnny was lying on the sidewalk. Johnny, to
clear up confusion, was Stella's nickname for Benny. Remember it
was the name he used when he first introduced himself
to her at the rink.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Stella drove off and abandoned the car in a nearby
parking garage. Wanting to get home to her mother, she
hired a driver instead of hijacking a car, But newspapers
and the FBI had splashed her photo all over the place,
and that driver recognized her and he informed authorities. He
drove her to her mother's head, but instead of meeting
(23:01):
the welcoming arms of her mother, she was met by
FBI agents. She later stated to one of those agents, quote,
I knew the minute he stopped he was going to
get a federal man to arrest me. I didn't care.
I just sat in the car. I knew if I
got out and tried to get to Topeka by myself,
I wouldn't get there alive. And I wanted to see
(23:22):
my mother.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Just two days after her husband was killed, Stella was
taken into custody by federal agents. She had seventy dollars
in her pocket and she was wearing three rings, among
them her wedding ring set with seven diamonds. She also
carried a key to a New Orleans apartment and a
poem her late husband had written for her, which read, quote,
(23:45):
in the eyes of men, I am not just, but
in your eyes, Oh life, I see justification. You have
taught me that my path is right if I am
true to you.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
According to the Sioux Falls Daily Argus Leader, she initially
denied that she played any role in the bank robberies
or in the kidnappings of which the couple was accused.
Less than one week after her capture, officials ordered her
extradited to South Dakota to face the charges of bank
robbery for the two banks that she and Benny had robbed.
(24:18):
Her imminent arrival in Sioux Falls caused a frenzy in
the media, and newspaper stories announced that she would arrive
by train. Large crowds gathered at the Milwaukee Railroad depot
downtown to await a glimpse of her.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Because of all this attention, state officials instead transported her
to the newly constructed City Jail in Mitchell, seventy miles
to the west of Sioux Falls and far enough away
to avoid any incident or riot. As she arrived, The
Sioux Falls Daily Argus Leader described Dixon's arrival there on
April fifteenth with an account of her appearance, reporting quote
(24:57):
dressed in a blue checkered sport coat. The print dress.
Wearing a wide brimmed black hat, she walked down the
courthouse corridors with long strides. The Brookings Register reported quote
FBI agents dressed a Stelle in the clothes found in
an abandoned Dixon automobile in order to help witnesses identify her.
(25:19):
On April twentieth, Brookings Bank employees Dorothy Coffey and John
Torsi arrived in Mitchell and positively identified Stella as the
woman they had seen in connection with the robberies.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Stella's initial sixteen page confession was made alone and without
either legal or parental guidance. And remember she was just
a teenager, and that confession stated that she had willingly
participated in the crimes. But that confession changed after a
discussion with her attorney and her mother. A second confession
(25:51):
was issued, a version that was close to the first.
There were actually only a few factual changes, but it
did not read the same way. Here's what we mean.
The revision carried a tone befitting a coverture defense. So
let's talk quickly about what that is. Under the principle
of coverture, a woman or child could avoid prosecution if
(26:14):
they had been following the direction of an authority figure
such as a husband or a father, in committing a.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Crime, Unlike in her initial confession claiming she had been
a willing participant, in her second statement, Stella stated, quote,
Johnny planned each of these bank robberies, and I was
with him during each robbery only because he told me
to go with him. I did not plan to go
into either of those banks, but did go into each
(26:41):
of them because Johnny stayed in each bank so long,
I got worried about him and went into the banks
to look for him. She also stated that Benny quote
frequently got mad at me and said if I left him,
he would kill me, and said he would kill anybody
who helped me leave him. That latter part raised some eyebrows,
as though he was a criminal, there was no record
(27:04):
of his ever having threatened to kill anyone. It was unexpected,
even to the FBI. In an FBI news release attributed
to j Edgar Hoover, the bureau expressed skepticism over the
revised confession, calling it a quote scheme devised by Dixon
and her attorneys to avoid punishment, and I mean, really
(27:26):
truth be told. After reading the first confession and then
the revision that second confession really doesn't sit right.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
During the legal negotiations that followed, Stella, in a surprise
to everyone, protested her innocence under the coverture rule. In May.
Federal marshals next transported her to Sue Falls, where her attorney,
Chet Morgan of Mitchell, South Dakota, discussed her case with
United States Attorney George Phillip. The FBI may have painted
(27:55):
an aura of danger around her, but local papers that
were following her did not. They described her as looking
quote more like a schoolgirl than a gun mall waiting
the proceedings of the court on charges of bank robbery,
including the taking of hostages, a possible capital offense. She
is a small girl, short and not very heavy, and
(28:16):
wore a small black hat set back on her blonde hair,
which made her appear no older than the sixteen year
she claims.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Under pressure from j Edgar Hoover and the Justice Department,
United States District Court Judge Alfred Wyman brought the prosecution
and defense together on a plea agreement. Finally, and on
August twenty first, nineteen thirty one, four days before her
seventeenth birthday, Stella Dixon pleaded guilty to two counts of
(28:45):
bank robbery in Federal District Court in Deadwood, South Dakota.
Judge Wyman, citing the defendant's youth and the corrupting influence
of her husband, sentenced her to what was considered a
pretty light sentence two concurrent ten urreed tids at the
United States Women's Reformatory in Alderson, West Virginia, a sentence
she began serving on August twenty seventh.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
After she was paroled at age twenty six, Stella never
returned to a life of crime. She settled into life
as a grocery store clerk and lived in relative solitude
in Raytown, Missouri, until her death at age seventy two.
So were she and Benny the public enemies number one
and two that Jay Edgar Hoover considered them to be
(29:30):
wanted dead or alive. Modern dives into the case of
Benny and Stella, such as Matthew Cecil's exhaustive work, suggests
that these two time bank robbers, who were known to
be polite and nonviolent, may actually have been kind of
just small time criminals who just happened to play into
both the public's fascination with these Depression era crimes, as
(29:52):
well as the FBI's focus at the time to be
positively represented and heroic in the media. Oh, Maria, are
you ready to make it a double.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
I most certainly am always okay.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
I have such thoughts about this because I could not
stop thinking the entire time about the fact that Stella
was still a child during all of this.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
She was fourteen when he met her.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Yes, And it's one of those things that makes my
heart ache because I'm sure many of us, especially when
we were teenagers, have had those times where we felt
unloved and vulnerable, and it is so easy to be
taken in when someone seems like they offer a way
out of all of the unhappiness in your life.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
And we know that she was, you know, one of
those fourteen year olds who was like, my life in
Kansas is so boring, I can't wait to get out
of here. Yes, absolutely so.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
You know whether or not she actively went along with
Benny's plans and his crimes, right is like a maybe.
But even if she did, this is also a teenager
whose prefrontal cortex is not fully developed yet. Right, Just
in case anybody listening doesn't know, that's the part of
(31:08):
the brain that handles a lot of executive function, but
among other things things like risk assessment and decision making. Yes,
and here's the thing, that part of your brain doesn't
even finish developing until you're mid to late twenties. So
even Benny was not necessarily ready and functioning with a
fully working and matured sense of reasoning consequences, et cetera.
(31:33):
He certainly was not when he started his life of crime.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
He was not fully cooked yet either. Those brains were
brand new.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
Brains, no ye, still percolating. So in thinking about all
of this, I also started to consider the heady and
intense feelings that come with meeting someone and falling in
love when you're at that young age, and that feeling
of just being in it together and like that you're
in this world where no one else understands you. It's
(32:01):
just you and this person against everybody else.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
And so in thinking about all of that, and thinking
about their decision to get married, and also to me
the slightly odd detail that they went to Benny's families
for all of this, Like they weren't just like tootling
around solo. They had connection to family.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Right, They were always hanging out with the Dixons.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
And I thought about whether or not they actually had
much of a wedding ceremony, and that got me to
thinking about what I wanted to do with a drink.
And this drink is called Teenage Wedding Cake, and it
features some of the ultra sweet flavors that someone whose
palette is still youthful and undeveloped might lean toward. Don't panic,
(32:45):
I know that's not your jam, because one I worked
on ways to temper that. But this is also a
choose your own adventure cocktail because there is a way
to make it. I don't know if I would call
it like the straightway or the regular way. But then
there's a second way you can make it that involves
(33:05):
a tiny addition of one ingredient that completely changes everything,
Like literally one drop is all you need. So we're
gonna make it first the basic way, and what I
wanted was to make something that tasted like a fruity
vanilla pound cake essentially, but with a little kick. So
you're gonna start with a quarter ounce of lemon juice,
(33:27):
a half ounce of orange liqueur. This is drinker's choice.
I actually went with a mandarin orange liqueur that I
have that I really like, but you could use you know,
a quandtrie, a triple sc It's on you. You could
even if you don't like orange, pick a different fruit.
Just pick a fruity liqueur here. Then you're gonna do
an ounce in a quarter of vanilla vodka. Then you
(33:49):
will shake that together and pour it into a pre
chilled coop and to that you're gonna add an ounce
of cream soda and then an ounce of prosec And
so you have this already. The prosecca really shears off
the cloying sweetness, so you already have a drink that
(34:10):
is it's definitely got those sweet and fruity notes of
a cake, but it's not as like intensely sweet as
you might anticipate based on the early ingredient. There is
a second way to make this drink, and it changes
it completely Because I did. I love that version of it,
but I wasn't confident that Benny was fully represented. And
(34:33):
the idea that like, you could have this fun adventure
that completely ruins your life or in Benny's case, ends it.
So you're gonna make it entirely as above, except before
you shake your lemon juice, orange liquor, and vanilla vodka.
You're gonna add one drop of the hot sauce of
your choice, and that also has a wide range of possibilities.
(34:58):
I went with one that's a Sri racha. We have
one here at the house that is a ghost pepper.
I'm not touching it, but I can perish. I can't
handle that, biz. But this completely changes the flavor of it,
because then what you get is this bubbly heat, and
then there's this faint notion of like, is there fruit
in here somewhere, which feels a little bit. It's more
(35:20):
intense as a drink, which matches their relationship, but it's
also more intense in terms of like the heat is
catching up to you.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Right, You just rob you Bank's intensity.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Right right. So that is the teenage wedding cake there
is for the mocktail version, it's very very easy. You're
going to do a quarter ounce of lemon juice, a
half ounce of orange syrup, an ounce in a quarter
of vanilla tea, so it is going to be darker
in color than the other one, and you will shake
those together with ice, just as you would have your
(35:52):
your spirits and your lemon juice. In the earlier version,
you can also optionally add hot sauce here, and then
you will add an ounce of cream soda and instead
of prosecco, an ounce of ginger ale. I will say
the thing I always say, which is that I would
opt for low sugar versions there makes it a little
closer to the original drink and a little less intense.
So that is the Tede wedding cake, which hopefully people
(36:15):
enjoy very heady and bubbly, and it's one of those
things that will for me. Once you add a champagne
or a prosecco or any sparkling, we're on a faster
track to feeling a little buzzy. So I agree with
that that too, was part of creating this intense, buzzy
sensation of their life. If you make it, I hope
(36:36):
you enjoy it. We have sure enjoyed sharing this story
with you, and we're so glad you have been here
with us. We will be right back here next week
with another criminal Duo and another make it a double drink.
Criminalia is a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio.
(36:57):
For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, Please visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hosts And Creators
Holly Frey
Maria Trimarchi
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