"They Call Me Fancy Dan, AKA the Flying Bank Robber"

For nearly a year to the day, the FBI chased this elusive bank robber all around the country. And for that year, the Flying Bank Robber embarrassed J. Edgar's G-Men on the front pages of the nation's newpapers. Over the course of criminal escapades this all-American midcentury blue collar James Bond wannabe visited countless states, used 35 aliases, stole 29 cars, and crashed three planes. Until one day, his luck went sour, when he crossed paths with an ornery Mexican cow.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Elizabeth Dutton Zaron Burnett got a question for you, Yes, sir, then,
since you're out here and how bushy eyed and bright tailed? Right, Uh,
do you know what's ridiculous? I do what's ridiculous?

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Okay, you know how you we've talked about how much
you love baths. Oh yeah, right, that's not ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
No, not at all. That is refreshing and salubrious.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
No, no, no, so, but we've also talked about how
the biggest mash up culprit so far as Cheetos.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah. Yeah, I think they are the top one.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Okay, So Cheetos and baths. That's where I'm going with this. Okay,
did you know we got this from a lot of
instagram root dudes that there's a Cheetos bath dust?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Is that like a bath bomb? But you've floated on
the skin of the water.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
I feel like bath dust is after the production of
bath bombs. They just gather like the dust that's left
over and package it is. I'm not kidding. I think
that's what this is.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
So this is the hot dog to all the better
cuts of meat.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
Yeah, yeah, it's bath bomb scrapple. So it's so anyway
there there. We were sent these pictures where there's an
icy like the blue raspberry, frozen drink, Sure fruity pebbles,
and Cheetos. They guess they came in like a three
piece set. If you wanted to buy them, they have
this pack on eBay for thirty dollars.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
I want to take a I'm gonna take a soft pass.

Speaker 3 (01:24):
It comes to us from Taste Beauty, which I don't know.
They're they're all about mixing up like food stuffs, but
it's like sweets, right, Okay, So I started thinking about
this Cheeto's bath dust. It's citrus scented, by the way,
it doesn't it's not cheesy, No, it doesn't. But then
I started looking at The Environmental Working Group has a
website where they'll break down the hazards of various.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Put so they look at the chemical constituents. They say,
this one will really set the water.

Speaker 4 (01:53):
So Cheeto's flame in hot bath dust citrus. They gave
a four.

Speaker 3 (01:59):
So the it's you know scale, it's moderate on a
scale one to ten, so it's a moderate cancer risk,
high allergies and immuno toxicity risk, low developmental and reproductive
toxicity and then moderate use restrictions and the big thing.
It's an eight that's high. Higher is worse. It's an

(02:20):
eight in the fragrance because there are allergy and immuno
toxicity risks, but also like endocrine disruption which is a
big deal. On non reproductive organ system toxicity. ECO toxicity
is low, and then you know moderate irritation risks. So

(02:41):
don't don't use it.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
On the thank you for It New Jersey Wellness Scale.

Speaker 4 (02:47):
It got a Yeah, it's it's bad. And you know
what else, it's ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
Damn well, you got a second because I got another
one that's ridiculous. It doesn't involve any chemical constituents, but
it's it's a doozy Okay. Do you know that the
FBI's Most Wanted list was started in nineteen fifty? I
did not know that March fourteenth, nineteen fifty to be exact, Yes, right,
one day shy of the IDEs.

Speaker 4 (03:12):
The dad was born.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
Really no, no, being that it was this top ten list. Right,
of course, it becomes an instantly, a huge hit. Everybody's
talking about. It becomes big publicity for the agency, or
I guess I should say the Bureau of the FBI. Anyway.
The whole point is that within weeks of being announced
on the top ten most Wanted list, often a fugitive
would be turned in by some observant citizen, some pain

(03:36):
in the neck and isn't bystander like you Hi?

Speaker 4 (03:38):
You just pointed at me.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
I was like, wait what, You're totally the type who
would actually check out the most Wanted list once it
dropped fresh Most Wanted list guys, anyway, they'd call in
your boy. Willie Sutton, he was on the OG list
nineteen fifty made it, yeah, top of the I think
it was number nine or ten. Anyway, long comes the
nineteen fifty eight most Wanted. That year, the Bureau added

(04:01):
a fugitive to the list, one who proved far more
elusive than any of the prior top ten criminals. They
couldn't catch this dude. The FBI chased him around the
country for nearly a year. He was spotted all over
the place. People were calling in tips. Wasn't any help
in that time. This cat used thirty five different aliases.
He stole twenty nine cars. Who he was spotted everywhere Elizabeth.

(04:23):
There was calls from Seattle to Main, Mississipi, North Dakota,
and he was in those places. It wasn't like oh
I thought I saw him. These people weren't wrong. I
can give you two clues why this particular fugitive was
so difficult to catch and capture. For one, he was
this blue collar James Bond of mid century America. I
loved this guy. And two his nickname that'll really give

(04:45):
it away. The FBI called him the Flying bank Robber.

Speaker 5 (04:49):
Okay, this is Ridiculous Crime A podcast about absurd and

(05:13):
outrageous capers.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
Heih cons it's always ninety nine percent murder free, a
and ridiculous. Okay, yeah, okay, I put my back into
that one.

Speaker 4 (05:25):
Really did.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
No. This cat I want to tell you about today, Elizabeth.
His name is Frank L. Sprinds.

Speaker 4 (05:30):
Frank L. Sprinds.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
That's Sprinds like money spends but with an R and
ends in a Z and there's no D.

Speaker 4 (05:38):
But just like that, it's exactly like frank Els.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
Friends. Now, this cat was born in Akron, Ohio, on
February thirteenth, nineteen thirty good mid century American, A hard
time in America to be a young and though so
he was raised in the deprivations of the Great Depression
right now. Being too young to go off to war
when World War two came around, he didn't get to
share in any of the glory of the war years
or the adventuring abroad. He just got to know the

(06:03):
deprivations of rationing and all the stuff that came along
with that. So he missed out though luckily for him
on all the wanton death, the battlefield bloodshedscic trauma of war,
so you know, it was a win win for him
in that regard. However, America nineteen forty eight, frank El sprinds,
he's now eighteen years old. The warriors are over, America
is looking to move on. Everybody's about to create the

(06:25):
world that we know right, a new time, a new
temper is taken over the country. The fifties are beginning
to take shape, but they begin to take shape in
the end of the forties. And that's where we are
nineteen forty eight. Now, as I said, going to be
a very different America than the one that you knew
before the war years for the warriors, all depression. Now
America's becoming industrial. The nation's getting stitched together with freeways,

(06:48):
the nation's already somewhat bound together by radio waves and
the mass culture that comes along with that. Now there's
TV nineteen forty eight, first year TV is really booming along.
Now we have the New America and Frank el Sprand's
eighteen years old. Now, dude, work blue collar jobs. I said,
give you a little sample. He was an auto mechanic,

(07:08):
construction worker. He also liked fanciful jobs like lifeguard. I
mean he was a young cat, so it's not a
fancifuld but I mean he's like, he's like, he doesn't
want to he's not into like ditch digging and.

Speaker 4 (07:17):
Backbreaking the word an office guy.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
No, he did. He worked a couple office jobs. He
was a clerk typist.

Speaker 4 (07:23):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
Yeah, And you know it's in the nineteen fifties, rold
around Elizabeth. What comes along but beautiful new cars because
out of the forties you had a lot of cars
that they didn't I mean, they change if you look
at the forties, but they really didn't change much from
nineteen forty to nineteen forty eight. There's just big and
round and some stuff. In the fifties, you have so
much dynamic design in automobiles that you can tell the

(07:45):
year just looking at the tail fins, or the looking
at the windows, like the front window of the back window, yeah,
or even the headlights. This guy, he's a car guy,
so he gets into this and everything is just perfect
for him. And once again, he's young at this point,
nineteen fifty, he's a twenty years old, right. So people, guys,
I said, they gotten used to rationing and and all
the deprivations of the depression. And then in the war

(08:07):
years when they had like you know, their liberty gardens
and so forth, so people once again there was gas rationing,
so you weren't allowed or you know, just by nature rationing,
weren't allowed to go and do for long drive.

Speaker 4 (08:18):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
So of course when the war ends, people they take
to these new freeways being built. They have these new cars.
It's just go, go, go. And here's this guy. He's
like looking at all these cars and the beautiful they said,
beautiful new numbers. You got these curvy joints, big sweeping
tail fins. This is cars as like modern art.

Speaker 3 (08:37):
One of the most beautiful cars is a forty nine Mercury.

Speaker 2 (08:40):
Totally great call taste, I do. Now this is as
I've said the automobile. Basically, it's becoming America's defining technology,
just to cut the story short. And freeways are being
built at this exact same time and once Eisenhower comes along,
so consequently the culture is changing. This was also true
for crime, right, so we'd start seeing interstate crime in.

Speaker 4 (09:00):
A big, big way. Right, that makes sense.

Speaker 2 (09:02):
Middle all of this, I said Frank L. Sprint, who
is a car guy. So this cad he found he
really loved other people's cars. He's like, they have so
many better cars than I do. So he's like, you know,
cars he could never purchase. Obviously, it's just this poor kid.
So what would he do, Elizabeth? He would borrow them?

Speaker 4 (09:19):
Oh, quote unquote.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
Borrow okay, whatever the law would say. He stole them
in his mind, but he thought he was going to
bring them back. I just want to take him for
a ride.

Speaker 3 (09:26):
He's a guy who, you know, never he never met
a stranger. Everyone's his friends, exactly, borrowing from everybody.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
He's just Will Rogers behind the wheel exactly. Now. Also,
though he'd finally found something he was good at, okay,
telling he could stick to as a career. So he's
it's amazing he tried to go straight at this point,
so like one time he stole a car and he
drove over to the recruiting station so he could join
the army. Right, He's like trying to mix his his talents.
He's like, yo, I got a fresh body, young, I

(09:54):
could go.

Speaker 4 (09:55):
Fight the ticket for one to the forgotten war exactly.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
So anyway, try as he might, though, going straight didn't
last long for him, but he did get into the army.
So while he was in the army, he also stole cars,
so he was stationed in Baltimore. He stole multiple cars.
He claimed the numbers as high as fifteen cars, so
he really got to work right anyway, Stanton the army
didn't last long. He didn't like taking orders. A lot
of the people we cover this is a common theme.

(10:20):
I was in the army, didn't last anyway, No surprises there.
World War is over, so it really is nothing holding
him in Korea hadn't really kicked off at this point,
so he gets back to blue collar work. He works
as an auto mechanic, like I said, a car guy.
By his late twenties, his life path has now begun
to take shape, right, so he does the next expected thing,

(10:41):
he winds up in prison. You see, he caught a
bad rap after he'd robbed the Olympic bar in Akron, Ohio.

Speaker 4 (10:49):
He robbed a bar.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah, allegedly he robbed a bar in his hometown in
broad daylight. Oh yeah, so there was no mistaking and anyway,
the daylight robbery of the bar, him and his crew
about fourteen hundred and ninety dollars.

Speaker 4 (11:02):
That's a lot then.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (11:03):
Then he had a crew.

Speaker 2 (11:04):
Yeah, well a couple guys. Yeah, this year, the year
at this point is nineteen fifty eight. So that that hall,
that bar job hall fourteen hundred and ninety dollars. I know,
you like to know these things is now be worth
about fifteen th eight hundred and sixty two dollars.

Speaker 4 (11:18):
It's a good chunk of change from a robbery.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
Heck, yeah, right, I don't know many bars to keep
fifteen grand in that, That is really true? Yeah, right
on property, Well, I don't know how I mean, now
we have in the daylight. This would be the next day.
Remember it's the daylight. So they were counting their money
or whatever from the night before, from the week before hopefully. Anyway, Yeah,
so he gets busted because he doesn't get away with
this fifteen large and he gets locked up in jail

(11:41):
in Akron, Ohio, while he's awaiting trial for the bar robbery.
Guess he didn't want to test the American justice process
because he decides, I need to bust out of this place.
Another thing you'll find in.

Speaker 4 (11:51):
Yeah, we got a lot of these dudes to them impatient.

Speaker 2 (11:54):
Yeah, they're just like, look I got it, I got
stuff to do.

Speaker 4 (11:57):
Impatient. They don't respect authority.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
No.

Speaker 4 (12:00):
The names are zaren Saren Hey.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
So this guy, he's good with tools, right, he's used
to working with metal from his time as an auto mechanic.
So he fashions a key out of a piece of
metal he breaks off from the frame of his jailhouse bed.
Whoa yeah, and he gets this key to work right,
and he unlocks his cell door. He walks out of
the jail cell. There were a couple obstacles, so he
got four other convicts with them. He like open their
jail cells together. They break out, They overwhelm some guards,

(12:23):
they try to flee the scene. They manage to get away.
Now at this point it's April nineteen fifty eight. Frank
sprinds he's like, you know what, it was fun, you guys,
I'm gonna go my own way. And the other guys
were like, hey man, Frank, no, we should no trust me.
I'm gonna go my own way. I'm going east. He
goes west, right, they all take off, all of them
get caught within two weeks. All four guys sprints. He
actually does go west, and he there are reported sightings

(12:45):
of him all across the country. While he makes his way,
the FBI takes up this man hunt because there's this guy.
He's busted out of jail, and they love people bust
out of jail. Sure, we got a show, we got
we can catch these folks, right, and it's like a
hunt for them, right, So sprinds. He stays gone, though.
He disappears into the big western states with the little population.
Because remember once again, nineteen fifties, this is like before

(13:06):
the freeways they've been air conditioning have made the West
what it is now. The FBI doesn't know this, but
he's actually in Seattle, far from Akron, Ohio. By September
ninth that same year, nineteen fifty eight, the FBI, they
gain a little more respect for this escaped fugitive and
they put him on the top ten most wanted list,
like we can't catch his cat all right, So now
Frank sprinds he's made it to the top of the charts.

(13:28):
I found an AP wire service story about Spriends making
the top ten most wanted list. This is from September tenth,
nineteen fifty eight. The Spokane Chronicle headline Fancy Dan is
placed on big list.

Speaker 4 (13:39):
Fancy Dan.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
Yeah, that was his first nickname, Like when he.

Speaker 4 (13:42):
Was making his way.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
I just love that headline. I don't know why. So
imagine you get locked up in a men's central booking
and some tough ass biker guys like, hey man, who
what are you in for? Who are you? They call
me Fancy Dan, and I'm in here for Robin a
Bar anyway, So that's the FBI's first nickname for him.
The reason why they called him that was they like
to make fun of the people they're chasing or give
them either memorable nicknames or diminutive nick So they saw

(14:10):
that he had these aspirations at preppiness and Ivy League standing.
He liked Ivy League clothes. He also wore a two
pay to make him look younger. Fancy last yeah, so
they called him Fancy Dan. All right, So frank Al
Sprinds and this is from the story quote frank El Sprends,
a reform school graduate with Ivy League taste and the
characteristics of a chameleon, was added today to the FBI's
most Wanted Fugitives list. The FBI said the twenty eight

(14:33):
year old fugitive may be armed and should be considered
an extremely dangerous described as quote vicious. Sprinds is reputed
to be an excellent marksman who will quote shoot without provocation.
Now comes his shots at his appearance in the way
of presenting himself.

Speaker 4 (14:46):
They love to.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
Take the easy shots. Right here we go, and I
quote the agency says, Spriends, who likes to wear Ivy
League clothes, can change his appearance quote almost magically with
the simple addition of a two pay. His moods can
change too, from quote stut in quiet spoken to quote
bragging and playing the big shot.

Speaker 3 (15:04):
Well, listen, they didn't seem to insult him as much
as we've seen in other papers.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
Now, but in case you missed the two pay of
it all, yeaheah, he doubles back and hits smash on
the two pay button right, and the ap the wire Service.
This new stories followed suit quote. The FBI circular shows
him with and without a two pay, which he sometimes wears.
Without the two pay, he looks older than his twenty
eight years, and with it he looks considerably younger. Oh wow,

(15:28):
so good ad for two pays though, yeaway. Of course,
of course, the FBI doesn't want John Q Public to
get involved, so the bureau was quick to warn that quote.
Sprinds is an avid gun collector and gun trader, preferring
forty five and forty four caliber weapons. Once, while in
trouble with the army for stealing a pistol on a
machine gun, he admitted stealing fifteen automobiles.

Speaker 4 (15:47):
Oh yeah, wait, so they're like, did you steal this gun?
He's like, yeah, and accidentally also stole fifty Shoot. I
shouldn't have said that.

Speaker 2 (15:53):
Yeah, forget the guns. I like, you stole a couple
of those. I stole fifteen cars. Let's focus on that
big nerve numbers people. Okay, So now about this point
he's made the big time. He's still free out on
the lamb. What was Frank's friends doing while he was
hiding out?

Speaker 4 (16:06):
Elizabeth no, I have no idea.

Speaker 2 (16:08):
Okay, well let's take a break, and after this I
will tell you all about what my man was doing
out in Seattle.

Speaker 4 (16:13):
Ye all right, Elizabeth, okays Aaron, We're back.

Speaker 2 (16:36):
Yep. So my man Frank L. Sprinds. I asked you
what he was doing while he was out on the lamb,
and I told you he was in Seattle.

Speaker 4 (16:43):
Yeah, herunge A good call.

Speaker 2 (16:45):
Good guess. No, but he was doing what I would
be doing if I were on the lamb. Oh, he
was taking flying listens. Oh my god. So while he's
hiding out in Seattle, he took some money from a
bank robbery he pulled off on his way working west.
You know, he needed some traveling money, some folding cash,
and he used those proceeds from the bank job to
learn to fly. Then he went one further and he
also started planning his nationwide bank robbing spree. You know,

(17:08):
he's like, once I can fly, I'm now working four dimensionally,
you know, I working in time and space. So once
he was confident in his skills and certainly he could fly,
Frank's friends, he heads back East, where he knows the
world better. And for at first he crossed the border
into Canada, and he worked his way east to Toronto.
So we're so smart because the FBI is not usually
in Canada. So that's also where he began to live

(17:30):
my best life, Elizabeth. This man he snuck onto the
tarmac of Toronto Municipal Airport. Then he got out of
paint brush and he got to work. He changed the
call numbers on a plane and then he stole it.
It's like it's like a wily coyote kind of thing.
So what kind of plane did he steal? Remember, I said,
he's living my best life. He stole a seaplane so

(17:52):
he can land anywhere. Now you know how much I
want my own, See, Elizabeth, he did it the old
fashioned way. He stole it, So Frank el Sprands, he
steals himself a single engine seaplane or is the Canadian
press called it a pontoon plane. And once he has
his hands on this hot seaplane, what does he do next?

Speaker 4 (18:10):
I go somewhere where there's water. I would assume good call.

Speaker 2 (18:14):
He does the next natural thing. He plans to take
off and fly back into America. Now, before he takes
off into the wild blue yonder, let's leave him there
at the controls of that stolen seaplane. And let's take
a moment, because remember I tell you he's the flying
bank robber, right, I think flying bandit would have been
a better name than flying bankrupt.

Speaker 4 (18:33):
But isn't there already? Well later on there's a flying band.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
Yeah, of course that's because the name was so awesome.
He hadn't been used, or like, let's call him the
flying bandit flying bank rubber. Anyway, So, as I said,
Frank el Spran's living my best life. He goes, he
wants to fly back into America. Can you guess what
city he lands in?

Speaker 4 (18:50):
Somewhere where there's water.

Speaker 2 (18:52):
On the East coast. Oh, on the east Coast's in Toronto?

Speaker 4 (18:56):
Baltimore? Does he go? I don't know. I feel like
you gotta go to Miami if you have a seaplane.
But uh, somewhere in Virginia.

Speaker 2 (19:03):
No, you said it, Baltimore he went? He goes to
where you go? Right, Remember this is a guy who
robs a bar in his hometown in the.

Speaker 4 (19:10):
Middle data to Annapolis.

Speaker 2 (19:12):
Oh, no, he goes to the barn. I guess he
was the mood for fresh crabs because he was just like,
I gotta get back to the harbor.

Speaker 4 (19:20):
Toolis best place on it.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
You knew it. Knowing these on the FBI's top ten
most wanted list, he saides, I've been to fly back
at my stolen seaplane, but I should probably lay low,
so I'm gonna head to somewhere I know. So he
heads to the Baltimore Harbor, but which coincidentally is just
where you happen to be. Yeah, oh really, yeah, mid
century Elizabeth chi giggles. Would you mind favoring me with
an impression of mid century Elizabeth?

Speaker 4 (19:44):
Oh god, all right, let me just get into character.

Speaker 3 (19:48):
Here have a body smith, I'm Elizabeth, and I'm abouts
thank you.

Speaker 4 (19:55):
Yeah, there it is.

Speaker 2 (19:56):
So now that we've set the table and we're in
the mood for some criminal fun and then I team fifty.

Speaker 4 (20:00):
Can I hurt myself on the Elizabeth, I'd like you to.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
Close your eyes and picture ells. You are in a
waterfront bar in Baltimore in mid century America, dateline February
nineteen fifty nine, and you are a lizzing but some
sort of quantum leap has thrown you back to nineteen
fifty nine, and you've just arrived roughly an hour earlier.
So far. I've just been enjoying the music in this
local bar at the moment, on the curvy Whirreloitzer jukebox

(20:26):
with the art deco light up front, a tune place.
It is a tune you put on the Louis Jordan
and his Timpany five track. Ain't nobody here but us chickens.
It's a silly song, but you dig it. Now, you
get your drink refreshed. You can leave a healthy tip
for the bartender, because you're just like that. And then
you raise your glass of non alcoholic wine aka grape juice,

(20:47):
but with a splash of soda cause it's a mocktail.
But they don't know what that is in nineteen fifty nine.
So anyway, these working class folks in Baltimore, they have
little interest in your weird drink. But the bartender, he
clinks your glasses, his head, cheers anyway, and you step
outside for some fresh air. Now you walk out onto
the wooden observation deck that looks out over at the
Baltimore Harbor. You hear it before you see it, the

(21:10):
propellers of a plane. You look skyward and gauging the clouds,
and then out of the fog over the water. It
appears it is a seaplane. The plane doesn't circle over
the waterfront. You take a drink of your grape juice
and watch it. Then it flies low, as if it's
judging whether it's safe to land in the harbor. You
call back to the bartender, who you've learned his name

(21:30):
while you've been there this past hour. Frankie, Frankie, come quick,
you gotta see this. The bartender steps outside, wiping his
hands on his long white apron. What is it? Yes, luck,
You point at the seaplane. Both of you watches. The
seaplane comes in low over the water and sets down
his pontoons and glides across the bay waters taxis over
to a waterfront. You think he's military, The bartender asks,

(21:53):
I have no idea. I don't think that's legal. You surmise.
Now the two of you watch the seaplane pull up
to a dock in the marina. It's a slip mint
for a boat. No plane is supposed to park there.
The pilot bounce from the plane. He looks around like
he's expecting company or the cops, and then he walks
away real quick and walks right order over towards you.
Guys where the lights are on a bar. He comes
over the pilot. He gives a conspiratorial smile to both

(22:18):
you and Frankie the Bartender, and then steps inside. Frankie
the Bartender follows him, and then you follow Frankie the Bartender.
He pulls out a watt of cash, far more than
most folks in this place have seen it forever. They've
never seen a bank roll like that, in fact, unless
it was in the movies. The strange part, though, is
it's a role of Canadian money, So the Loonies as
they called up north. Frankie decides to take the Canadian dollars,

(22:39):
mostly for the novelty of it all. The stranger orders
a brandy to warm himself up. You ask him if
he's the one who set that seaplane down in the harbor.
Knowing the answer, this stranger just nods. You ask him
if he's heard of Tommy Fits aka Lucky Fits, who
just landed a plane in New York City in nineteen
fifty six. But you remember that that may not be news,
even though you know it from being a time traveler. Well,

(23:01):
there's yeah, the stranger says, I don't know this Lucky Fits.
You just smile and nod. Of course he hasn't heard
from him. Maybe it's not been big news anyway. You
quickly change the subjects and say, Frankie, the bartender ought
to call the newspaper guy, because if it's true, you
can get this guy in the news, then he'll be
a big story. The guy landing the Baltimore Harbor. I mean,
come on, that's amazing. Frankie laughs. He says the newspaper

(23:25):
reporter that he knows the only one he knows. He'd
come down to the bar, and he'd need to get
Patton's fifth Army to get him to leave. So you laugh,
and you turn to ask the stranger if he'd like
to even be in the newspaper, and you see that
he is gone. The stranger's back is all you see
is he heads for the door. Over his shoulder, he says,
thanks for the drink. He shure to look for me
in the funny papers, and then the battle above the

(23:46):
door shines, and with that he's gone. The door swings
shut behind him. The pilot guy doesn't walk back to
his seaplane. Instead, he hails a cab and he disappears
into the night.

Speaker 4 (23:56):
Huh okay, amazing.

Speaker 2 (23:58):
Now later that next morning, Elizabeth, you would have stayed
in your quantum late.

Speaker 4 (24:01):
Body at Sparrow's Point exactly.

Speaker 2 (24:04):
When the Baltimore PD showed up at the waterfront and
the cops investigated the scene, namely the stolen seaplane. The
detectives discovered that there were a few clothes left behind
in the plane that gave them a couple clues. The
police also found a couple fake IDs. They assumed they
would be helpful, but at this point those ideas had
to be burnt and they were unlikely to be used again.

(24:25):
Pilot was in the wind. Meanwhile, mystery stranger Frank else friends,
what's he doing?

Speaker 4 (24:31):
Yeah, what is he doing?

Speaker 2 (24:32):
He's feeling cocky, Elizabeth. At this point, he's toying with
the FBI. He's leaving the atrayal of crumbs in the
form of stolen planes. The FBI has trailed this escape
convict all across the country. They almost caught up to
them in Norfolk, Virginia. Then were the reported sidings of
him in Seattle. The FBI showed up in Seattle far
too late. Then there were reports of sidings of him

(24:52):
in Detroit, and then there were sightings of him in Toronto.
The fact that he next showed up in Baltimore wasn't
particularly surprising, as I told you, because been stationed there
in the army. That's where he'd been a successful young carthief.
By this point, though, the FBI is out of leeds.
They don't even know what to do, and their partners
in local law enforcement are in full pursuit with them,
but they don't know where to look. Basically, at this point,

(25:13):
everybody's in hot pursuit, as my man Beautforte Justice was saying,
but they can't see the bandit because he's a flying
Now after he'd escaped detection in Baltimore, Frank's friends, where's
he go? He moves north North, Okay, to this point,
it's February nineteen fifty nine. And what does he do?
He steals a plane, sure, because that's just how what
do think he learned to fly for so and he's

(25:34):
already good at stealing stuff. He just combined interest. Now
he was in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Oh you know Scranton.

Speaker 4 (25:41):
Yeah, I watched The Office. I mean I would if
I watched TV.

Speaker 2 (25:45):
It's home to under Mifflin Paper. If I'm not mistaken,
never mind, you don't watch TV. You do know what
I'm talking about. February nineteen fifty nine, Scranton, PA. Frank
Elsprinds rolls into town. He's like, is cornpop here? No?
He is. He goes to the local municipal airport. The
picture a local airport, just a small place with hangars
and some like planes, planes on the tarmac. Thank you,

(26:06):
right now, this is what your people like. Those wind socks, Yes, exactly,
wind socks. And if you're into planes, picture Piper cubs.
Picture like Cessna's Diamond DA forties. That's the training.

Speaker 4 (26:18):
Plane basically the litlands Yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
Exactly, like a lot of learner planes. Right, So the
single engine propeller plane so forth right, wings over the
cabin for a lot of them, you know, with the
strauts underneath. So frank el sprints he's snuck out on
the tarmac of the Scranton Municipal Airport. He finds himself
a plane, thinks he can fly. He makes sure it's
gassed up, and then he steals it.

Speaker 4 (26:38):
Yeah, tommy, right there, right exactly.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
Now. I don't know if he wasn't logging flights plans
with the tower. I don't know if your boy Tommy
fitz did that.

Speaker 4 (26:45):
I don't think he did.

Speaker 2 (26:46):
I don't know if he was required.

Speaker 4 (26:47):
I don't know because broken.

Speaker 2 (26:49):
Okay, there you go. So either way, this guy steals
a plane, takes off, flies north, and then he flies east.
He aims his small plane at Vermont. He's like, oh,
just flying airport over there in the trees somewhere over Burlington.
Though he had plane trouble. He had to improvise a
landing and it did not go well, Elizabeth, crash the plane,
just destroy the plane. According to the Daily Courier, I

(27:12):
looked up this February seventeenth, nineteen fifty nine edition quote.
The plane was badly damaged in the landing. Police said,
sprints walked away.

Speaker 3 (27:20):
Why we keep talking about all these people who crash
planes and then just stroll off.

Speaker 2 (27:24):
It's making me. It's giving me ideas, Elizabeth, it's giving
me idea. So I guess he was good enough pilot
to land on the plane's belly and just and not
nose dive into the earth. That's usually what will kill you.
I think you can kind of nose dive.

Speaker 3 (27:36):
And you and then your feet come through the bottom
and the bottoms of your shoes get skidded all.

Speaker 2 (27:41):
Too exactly Flintstone saw. You know, it's like I'm going
to duck Lands on water, That's what I picture, but
with the plane on grass. Anyway, he grasses the plane.
In this case, it was snowy ground because it was
Vermont and it's February. So he lands in snow and
he just walks away.

Speaker 4 (27:55):
Then sweet powder walk.

Speaker 2 (27:56):
He continues walking through that fresh pow pow, and he
gets to share a plane Vermont, and he gathers himself
up and he walks all this, as I said, through
the snowy woods for a while. So he's got to
be like pretty darn cold and sweaty and just all raggled. Anyway,
follows the road reaches the.

Speaker 4 (28:11):
Town two roads diverged in a wood.

Speaker 2 (28:14):
Thank you, missus Frost, Yes, exactly. Do you ever hear
of the town Whinosaki?

Speaker 4 (28:20):
What's the state Vermont?

Speaker 2 (28:21):
Vermont Winnessaki? No, I maybe pronouncing it incorrectly.

Speaker 4 (28:26):
It sounds like Rhode Island kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
Yeah, I may be wrong. I actually I'm pretty sure
he's Winnasak. Anyway, that's where he walked into a used
car lot. He finds the night attendant there working at
the used car lot. We guess he's just left in
charge of sales. I'm imagining like some fail sun there
or like no, like a cousin of the owner. Anyway, charms.
This guy tells him he was in the market for
a used car. Guy who goes, oh, sure, it's kind
of late, but are you sure. He's like, oh, yeah,

(28:50):
I'm a traveling salesman or whatever. Right, He manages to
convince this guy he just needs to take the used
car for a test drive. See this baby's reliable, right,
Guy's like okay and lets him go. He's gone that yeah,
one of the twenty nine cars he steals. After that,
the local press reported quote the police had no further
information of his whereabouts at this time, so once again
he's in the wind now, Elizabeth, do you know about

(29:13):
boarding houses kind of stay in one year familiar?

Speaker 3 (29:16):
I actually when my senior year in college, I lived
in like a converted boarding house, just like rooms, and
you had like a prison sink in the corner of
the bedroom, and then there was like a communal bathroom
in the hall.

Speaker 2 (29:26):
But did you also do the communal dining room where
everybody from no come down for meals. That's part of
the boarding house. It does all come down and eat whatever.
We did not have that, the matron or the whoever
owns the place.

Speaker 4 (29:39):
Yeah we didn't have that. But I'm familiar with that kind.

Speaker 2 (29:41):
Okay, well yeah, have you ever seen old movies, You've
probably familiar. So that's that's pretty much how I'd want
to travel free at Airbnb, freet hotels, motels. I want
to be in someone's home and they just make all
these meals, their home cooked meals. I have a bed.
I mean that to be is amazing.

Speaker 4 (29:56):
I hate that.

Speaker 3 (29:56):
I hate going to like B and b's, like pre airbn,
those are precious, no, because first of all, like you
have to wake up at a certain time.

Speaker 4 (30:04):
I'm generally a very early riser.

Speaker 3 (30:06):
Sure, but like especially like if you're in somewhere like
Scotland where they're like it's seven am, get up.

Speaker 2 (30:11):
Yeah, like people at breakfast?

Speaker 4 (30:13):
Yeah, but am I'm not.

Speaker 2 (30:15):
What's the problem here?

Speaker 4 (30:16):
You know you're on vacation. You want to just chill?

Speaker 2 (30:19):
Oh okay, yeah, sure, whatever you eat, you can get up,
eat breakfast and go back to bed.

Speaker 4 (30:23):
I don't like people looking at me.

Speaker 2 (30:24):
Oh that's what it is that too. Yeah? Also, and yes,
I'm with you. I don't you know me, I don't
want to go down and sit around a table and
make small talk. Hell no, but then I can just
I found that you can avoid that. You just act
like the mystery stranger. You just have one word answers
and eat your meal. Then they'll tell stories about you.

Speaker 4 (30:40):
Yeah. That's actually a really good tactic.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
Become the mystery stranger of any event. One word answers.
That's all you do. Anyway, So Franko's friends, he's doing
my move. He's being the mystery stranger. He's hanging out
in boarding houses. He's trying to lay low. So basically
a picture him like an Hitchcock film. And he finds
a phone book. I guess his recommendation from a local
any ray, it doesn't matter. I don't know what his

(31:04):
story is. He phones the promenade in the proprietor of
Missus lv Raddle. She had just returned home from church.
She was busy doing her duties in the hotel boarding house,
and according to the April eleventh edition of the Press
Herald of Portland, Maine, at ten am, Missus lv Raddle
receives a call. It's from a strange man. He wanted
to let her room, whereas we would say book a room, right.

(31:25):
She told him that she did indeed have a few vacancies.
She had a room for him. He said, I'll be
right there. Hey, a couple words. That's the exception.

Speaker 4 (31:33):
He's a couple of the mysterious strangers.

Speaker 2 (31:35):
At eleven am, the stranger walks into her boarding house
and missus lv rattle recalled to the press. I didn't
even have to show him the room. He just took it.
I'll take it. See once again, the changer said he
had to name. His name was Jerry Bona of Burlington, Vermont. Bona, Hey,
Jerry Bona, you know. And he explained that he'd been
traveling for a long time. He hadn't slept in two days.
He was real, real tired. So she took him to

(31:56):
the room and then she didn't see him again. Ever.
He slept all Sunday afternoon and all not Sunday night.
He woke up on Monday, so he sleeps the whole
day away.

Speaker 4 (32:04):
She wasn't banging on the door at seven, like, come
down house.

Speaker 2 (32:08):
They don't want to rash you like that. Yeah, they
do well maybe in Scotland. So he wakes up Monday afternoon,
he tries to sneak out of the boarding house. He
takes the backstairs and you know, as if someone were
looking for him, you know, the old like, hey, I'll
take the musicians entrance exactly. So it turns out the
stranger Frank al Sprints is on the FBI's most wanted list,
so that's why he would take the backstairs. Someone was

(32:30):
looking for him, all of Jaegger's boys. So the daughter,
missus Donna Lafleur, she's the only one to spot him.
She happened to be in the kitchen in the back
of the house. She hears footsteps on the backstairs. Nobody
ever uses the backstairs, so she's like, oh, what's that.
Being a good busy body, she gets up from where
she's like snapping green beans or whatever. Yeah, and then
she goes and she goes to look to see who

(32:51):
it is. She sees the guy that she only knows
as they're one lodger that nobody's talked to. She finds out, yeah,
that it's this guy, you know, mister Boner.

Speaker 4 (33:00):
And because he has a speech impediment, that's.

Speaker 2 (33:02):
What he's saying no. So she she basically makes some
noise at the glass or where maybe like moves some
something in the sink, and he hears the.

Speaker 3 (33:13):
Noise up and she puts her face on the glass
and then blows out so you can see all her teeth.

Speaker 2 (33:17):
Yes, like the blowfish. But look at my grill.

Speaker 4 (33:19):
Yeah, totally.

Speaker 2 (33:20):
So she does that and he looks and he's like, wow,
nice grill. And then they catch eyes and she notices
that he's got this like look in his eyes. She
doesn't recognize it, but she recognizes it's trouble. And then
he looks at her. He sees that she sees a look,
and he takes off right. He's like, I'm out of
here now. The daughter, she she grows mad, suspicious, So
what does she do? She phones the local police. The

(33:41):
police come over. They listen to her version of events,
and then they ask her if she'd look at some photos.
They show her. It was called a rogue's gallery, which
is basically a bunch of mugs shots right. She agrees
to look them over. She picked out Frank Alsprind's boom
right out of the bat. That's him. Officers. Now turns
out she had just spent the you know, a couple
nights with number two on the top ten most wanted list. Yeah,

(34:02):
we'll not like a couple of nights that way. But yeah, Anyways,
the good news for the FBI was he paid in
advance for multiple nights. Oh, he'd also left a bunch
of his stuff behind. It was likely he was headed
back and he had no reason to be super suspicious
other than that one weird look from the daughter.

Speaker 4 (34:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (34:17):
So the FBI they called in reinforcements, Elizabeth, and they
set up a trap.

Speaker 4 (34:21):
Did they hide under the bed, Yes.

Speaker 2 (34:23):
They did, and they said he's coming back. Nobody say
anything that means you, Tony. So let's take a little break.
We'll see if Tony can be quiet and not jinx.

Speaker 6 (34:33):
Frank al sprinds sounds good?

Speaker 2 (34:55):
All right, Elizabeth, we're back, Yes we are. We got
the FBI under the bed for Frank l. Sprints. Now,
at this point, the local cops, you know, they've been
chasing their tail, and they'd also been chasing any leads
that they got because they know the FBI. There's a
little competition but amongst law enforcement, right, so now they
know they've heard that the FBI guys are in town.
They're not supposed to tell anybody, but they're trying really

(35:16):
hard to catch this guy on their own. So Burlington
Daily News they ran a story of February eighteenth, nineteen
fifty nine, about in Saco, Maine, the state troopers pulled
over a yellow car with New York plates. There was
one man driving, and when the main state troopers threw
on their lights, the man of the yellow car floored it.
He led the police on one hundred mile long high
speed chase. Wow, eventually he did, ed the police. Yes

(35:38):
he makes it way, Yes, he he's still good cars. No,
well just listen. So the state police are diligent, though,
so they go scouring everywhere they can, and they finally
catch up to this yellow car because there's not a
lot of yellow cars at the time apparently, and they
find one hiding out in Sacho, Maine or Saco Maine.
They find the driver and it's not Frank al Sprinds.
It's just some panic to New Yorker who were like,

(36:00):
who were these crazy redneck cops chasing after me? So
he'd take an off on one hundred mile long chase,
That's what he said.

Speaker 4 (36:06):
I don't know if that's true, filthy.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
I think yeah, I think he was like, you know,
maybe with the bent nosee. I'm with the thing, you know,
our thing, our special things. So back to missus Raddle's
boarding house, FBI they set up they have a steak
out going or I don't know, raid, I don't know
what you'd call it a trap.

Speaker 3 (36:24):
Missus Raddle's boarding house is like a Lost Beatles track
and they're like.

Speaker 2 (36:31):
Anyway, it sounds like something Paul would write to explain
the sudden presence of a bunch of well groomed square
jobs special agents. The FBI agents had booked a bunch
of rooms in the boardinghouse, and they're gonna pretend to
love it. Other people in the boarding house, they decide
that they're going to be traveling musicians.

Speaker 4 (36:47):
Stop, yes, didn't we have an another story?

Speaker 3 (36:51):
We got the Tommy fit stuff. Oh wasn't it Bumfardo.
They all pretended they were in like a karate tournament.

Speaker 2 (36:57):
Oh yeah, that's right.

Speaker 4 (36:58):
So I'm seeing a past.

Speaker 2 (37:00):
So these guys pretend like they treated like their al
Capones boys. They're going to show up with musical instrument
cases loaded with guns. That's why they pretend to become
traveling musicians. They need to get away to get their
guns into the boarding house, so they have pistols, revolvers,
submachine guns. So they're coming in. This is a big band.
This is what I'm saying. They've got a lot of instruments.
So as I remember, also Sprints, he's got a reputation

(37:21):
is being a very dangerous man. So yeah, the FBI
agents they've investigated what Sprints has left behind in the room,
and they found a dozen different car keys. He has
one that's a master key for a particular model. I
think it's for Chevy's based on some of the car Z.

Speaker 3 (37:36):
Steel so like, you know the kind of security flawed
that a Chevy would have.

Speaker 2 (37:40):
Oh shots fired, huh, you know, whatever fix or repair daily. Now.
He also left behind clothing, a top coat, jeans, boots,
a cap, and there was a newspaper that was left open,
and it was left open on a page about him.
He was reading his own press. He's like, yeah, that's right,
look at that. So the FBI agents they hunker down,
they're hoping he's gonna reach turn. They got their walkie talkies.

(38:02):
They're keeping in contact with each other, Like Tony, you're
there Ye, this is a moon moondiver over stat Now
they end up staying at this boarding house.

Speaker 4 (38:10):
For a week to the other guy's moondiver.

Speaker 3 (38:14):
Tony doesn't get a no expect for Tony or is
Moondiver like early hippie parents.

Speaker 2 (38:19):
You know me up the good point high with hippie
parents before hippies existed, Agent Moondiver, he got like og
nineteen thirties hippie parents. They're like just old socialists or
you guess young socialists at then. Anyway, so oh, in all,
there are thirty FBI agents hidden in around the Portland
main area, and there's a bunch in the boarding house.
They're there for a week and none of them, not

(38:39):
a single one of them spot frank als friends because
he's long gone. He got that look from the door.

Speaker 4 (38:45):
He's like exactly.

Speaker 2 (38:48):
So he stole a car, drove down to Salem, New York,
ditched it, stole another car in Portsmith's, New Hampshire, and
then after he bummed a ride from a small like
a sawmill worker, he met this guy named Robert the Air.
He also that guy he picks Frank el sprends out
from a Rogues gallery. So we know it was him.
Then the sawmill worker dropped him off at a garage

(39:09):
in Kennebunk, Maine. He asked the garage man, this is
Frank el Sprinds. He asked the garage man if he
could borrow a wrench. The guy's like, oh, sure, buddy.
He never returned the round over the head. No, no, he's
not like that kind of violent. But the garage man's like,
and he never returned the wrench, right, So he used it,
of course to steal a car and drive off. Then
he ditched that car in Sanford, Maine. So he's just
moving like yeah, as fast as he can. According to

(39:31):
the February twenty first edition of the Boston Globe, Quote,
state police set up roadblocks from the Massachusetts line to
the Canadian border last night in an effort to capture
Frank L. Sprinds, public Enemy number ten. At some point
he stole another car, because that car gets left behind
in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He's just zig zagging across the
sleepy towns of New England, and for traveling money, he'd

(39:53):
stop and rob a bank. So in Hampden, Connecticut, he
robbed a bank for twelve grand and then just like
always disappears, and then he's the surfaces again the next
month in a Hamelin, Ohio. He's moved west. Now he
robs a bank there for twenty five nine and fifty
five dollars. The FBI hears about this bank job. They're like, wait,
he's not in New England anymore. They go racing out

(40:13):
to the first National bank and Trust company the description
of the bank robber. They go, that's him, that's our man,
that's Frank. Al Sprins Now to the agent says, he said,
there was little doubt that it was Frank. Now, how
do they know it was him? Because he was so
damn polite? Oh that the FBI. They've been telling the
public the whole time that he's this violent, gun collecting,
gun trading, desperate man. But the FBI agents know for

(40:36):
a fact from all the reports that he's actually super
nice and kind. He's been going along. Yeah, he thanked
his bank robbery victims and then he wished them a
good day. And that's how they knew it was him.
They're like, it has to be him. He's the only one.
He's doing this.

Speaker 4 (40:49):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (40:50):
So, yeah, you can take the boy out of the Midwest.
You can't take the Midwest out of the boy. So hey,
Frank al sprands number ten most wanted. He's feeling the
heat at this point. He knows he needs to get
out of the out of this area of Ohio, and
he also knows he needs some gas money, so he
robs the bank, as I told you. Then he heads
out to the Ohio Municipal Airport steals a plane. He

(41:10):
flies at one hundred and sixty miles north until I
assume he ran out of gas, because yet again, he
crashes a plane and the small craft slams into the
ground near someplace called Cooshockton, Ohio. Okay, so yet again
he walks away unscathed. Again, my man, he walks into
downtown Kashockton, Ohio or Cashington, and he walks to a

(41:31):
used car lot. Four hours later, fifty five miles north,
the car he just bought was found abandoned.

Speaker 4 (41:36):
Right, so he actually bought Oh yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:39):
He's not always stealing cars. He only stealshim with. But
he's desperate. If he's robbed the bank recently, then he'll
give money to somebody. He's like, look, I canna even.

Speaker 4 (41:45):
To make it deals true, you need to be true.

Speaker 2 (41:47):
So he leaves that car parked behind a bar, then
hes he's seen removing the dealer plates. He goes into
the bar with a paperback filled with money. At this
point it's about twenty five thousand dollars, but I assume
about twenty to maybe he spent a couple grand for
the car. So he tells the bartender he needs to
wait for a friend. He said, is that cool? Is
that cool if I wait here? And the guy's like,
oh yeah, of course. He's got to be bleeding and

(42:09):
bruised from the plane crash. He's survived, right. The bartender's like, sure, buddy,
you just sit down right. So he takes up residence
in the phone booth. He starts making calls, and he's
got a lot of dimes because he makes a lot
of calls. Like a half hour later, an old Nash
Rambler pulls up outside of the bar. Sprince walks out,
gets in the car, disappears. That's it. Doesn't say anything.
Nobody knows anything. This is all the FBI get. He

(42:31):
showed up and an old Nash Rambler. That's what she
got for us. Thanks. So the FBI, once again, trail
has ended. He has ghosted yet again, crashed a plane
and all of it. They were pretty close on him,
and then he gets to Ohio and makes his escape.
So at this point, what does the FBI do, Elizabeth.
They they've got to explain all this to Jagger Hoover.
He is not a patient man. This is now making
headlines across the country. They are looking like fools on

(42:53):
a Monday morning. Every Monday morning.

Speaker 4 (42:56):
Don't even catch number ten.

Speaker 2 (42:57):
No, exactly, he's not even in the top.

Speaker 3 (43:00):
Five, Like the lower part of the list should just
be rotating really quickly.

Speaker 4 (43:04):
As that's the thing.

Speaker 2 (43:07):
And so anyway, the Cleveland Field Office they are put
in charge of running this investigation, right, They're like, look,
you're he's he's come back to his home state. We're thinking,
maybe he's gonna something will come of this. He's yes.
So they're also at this point they're working with Canadian authorities.
They're like, if he comes down, if he goes up
to you guys, please let us know. They contacted Mexico.

(43:27):
They look, if he goes he steals plans. So he
may come in on a stolen plane. He may not
just cross the border, he may fly over it. They're
like Okayota, we'll look out for it. So its essentially
at this point he's uh. He's also given officially the
new criminal moniker, the flying bank robber.

Speaker 4 (43:44):
The flying bank rubber.

Speaker 2 (43:45):
Still tell you the flying bandit anyway. So with all
this newfound notoriety and is much cooler nickname, he knows
it's time to get out of the country. It'll only
be so long until somebody says something helpful to the FBI.

Speaker 4 (43:57):
Yeah, sure so.

Speaker 2 (43:58):
And it's also getting harder and harder for him to
walk in and rob banks and then go and steal planes.
Both the airports and the banks are catching on to it.
Decides time to make a run for it. Where does
he make a run for it, Elizabeth, No, he's already
been there.

Speaker 4 (44:11):
Mexico, Maico.

Speaker 2 (44:13):
Time to steal a plane. So now he's smarter than
this about than U just going and stealing a plane.
He's done the bank jobs, and now he has cash.
He goes he buys a plane. Oh wow, less attention.
So he gives gets himself a plane for the low
low cost of twenty eight hundred dollars.

Speaker 4 (44:28):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (44:29):
And this point he's in Carrington, North Dakota, Okay. Because
he's trying to lay low and by a plane where
nobody's going to talk. Okay, So it almost works except
for for the FBI catches win that Frank L. Sprinds
has been spotted in North Dakota. So at this point
he's posing as a highway engineer. That's what he's telling.
Everybody's his cover story. And because he open once again,
as he said in the fifties, freeway building is big business,

(44:52):
and it makes sense that he would be anywhere that
he is. He's like, Oh, I'm scouting and I need
to get a plane to look for places to build
the freeways and stuff. Everyone's like, all that's great, we're
gonna get a freeway. He's gonna go to Fayett Town
or whatever. Anyway. So he also looked like what people
expected of an engineer. He's youthful yet balding, so you know.
And also he's like, you know, college student up front
and college professor up.

Speaker 3 (45:13):
Well, and they said that he's like the fancy lad.
So he's well dressed, and it's like he has like
the air the authenticity of it, and he also has
the credibility of like an office job, but he can
be out and about because like he said, you know, he's.

Speaker 2 (45:27):
This totally and he's nutty as a fruit kick, so
he's always going to say whatever he has to do perfect,
so it really works. It's like, oh, what do you
think I am? Yeah, I'm a professor of theology. Yes,
so yeah, sorry. Anyway, so the highway engineer at this point,
the FBI, they don't know this, so they've put out
a fifteen state alert just hoping anybody will tell them anything,
because they're like, he's in North Dakota, he could be

(45:49):
anywhere then, So they get a call from Mississippi that
they've spotted him. They going to call in Indiana they
spotted him. They get a call from Texas that they
spotted him. All of them have spotted a small red
and white plane. It's a piper paste that he had
purchased in North Dakota. Now, these are likely law enforcement
and not normal citizens at this point because they're working
off of like a very close circular. The FBI is

(46:10):
putting it out saying look for a red and white plane.
It was recently blah blah blah. So he makes his
way all the way down to a small Texas town
where he lands just long enough to gas up. Then
he makes his run for the border. He next touches
down in a little town called Tekalutla. Now that's just
over the border in Mexico. He'd made it. He'd crotten
into Mexico. He's almost good. He hit out there for
a while. In fact, he hit out there long enough

(46:32):
to make friends with a hotel owner of the nicest
hotel in town. He offers to take that dude up
for a flight, and his playing like, you say thank
you for letting him stay in the nicest hotel in town.
So he's up there in his pleasure flight with his
new friend as his passenger, and they're actually, I say,
up there. They haven't taken off yet. He's on the
ground and he's about to go and like taxi on
down there like makeshift runway, and a cow walks onto

(46:52):
the runway. He swerves to avoid the cow because there's
got a propeller in the front and he'll just turn
that cow into like beef. And he also'll probably handed
him damage. You know, you can damage the plane. So
he swerves avoid the cow. And what does he do.
He hits a palm tree, wrecks his plane. Oh no,
so now he can't fly out of there, and he's like, oh,
this is bad news, all right, this bad business in Mexico.
Authorities are gonna come around asking questions. So at this

(47:13):
point he's in a town out just outside of Veracruz
if you know Mexico. He's about one hundred miles east
of Mexico City. He's on the Gulf side.

Speaker 6 (47:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (47:21):
Now he knows he can't say there long. So what
does he do? Frank El sprinds he keeps it moving.
So he travels six hundred miles south and east down
to the Yucatan Peninsula.

Speaker 4 (47:29):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (47:29):
There he goes to the capital city of Marida, and
he rents a room at the best hotel in town.
Because once again he's got money. He says, always where's
the best?

Speaker 4 (47:35):
Yeah, exactly, you're down Mexico way.

Speaker 2 (47:37):
Oh it up, exactly. He books a flight out to Cozamel.
Then this time he wouldn't fly the plane because it
was a commercial flight. Right, this is a mistake. April six,
he's in Cozamel town, small little spot home to about
two thousand people, laying low things. He's cool, he's been
hiding out. Once again, it's hold your rich highway engineered,
not too many people asking questions, and true to his role,
he's like, I want to go take in some sport fishing.

(47:57):
They're like, okay. He rans a boat, takes a crew
out to go deep sea fishing, living the good life.
Once again. He's made it, Elizabeth. He's out there, look
at the wide expanse of ocean. What is that a
boat on the horizon. Oh no, well it was a
boat on the horizon. It was actually two boats on
the horizon, and it was the Mexican Security Police approaching.
They get to the boat at six pm and they're like,

(48:18):
are you Franco Springs. So they board the boat, they
arrest Franco Sprids and Mexican security apparatus. They contact the FBI.
The FBI is like, hold them, We'll be right down
the Jagger Hoover boys. They get down there. Remember at
this point they failed for almost a full year. Yeah,
it's mid April the fourteenth, to be exact, it's almost
one year to the day that he escaped April sixteenth.

Speaker 4 (48:42):
So is this fifty nine fifty nine that we are now.

Speaker 2 (48:44):
So we started fifty eight two days shy of a
year on the lamb. He'd escaped from the Ohio jail
April sixteenth, nineteen fifteen. In that time, in that one year,
he had learned to fly a plane. He'd seen Canada,
he'd seen Mexico, he'd seen multiple US states. He'd stolen
at least three p lanes, twenty nine cars, used thirty
five fake identities, which just goes to show we all
have the same three hundred and sixty five days in

(49:06):
a year, which what.

Speaker 4 (49:08):
You choose to do with them.

Speaker 2 (49:10):
It's the Beyonce principle, it's what are you doing here
your three hundred and sixty five days. So by June nineteenth,
nineteen fifty nine, Frank el Spriends, he's back in America.
He's in custody. He's already had his day in court.
He's pleaded guilty on quote, three counts of auto theft,
one of jail break, and two of armed robbery. They
don't load all the charges against him. He gets sentenced
to a total of forty two to one hundred and

(49:31):
ten years in federal prison.

Speaker 4 (49:33):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (49:33):
Those terms were to run concurrently with his twenty year
state sentence in Ohio and the twenty five year term
he already had for bank robberies.

Speaker 4 (49:40):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (49:41):
So On June fifth, nineteen fifty nine, the Pittsburgh Sun Telegraph,
covering the mini trials of frank El's friends across all
of the various states, reported that quote Frank Eusepriends, who
says he wanted to join Fidel Castro's rebel forces when
he held up a bank here last March. Has been
sentenced to two more prison terms.

Speaker 3 (49:56):
Wait, so when he held him up, he's like, hey,
by the way, like, so, what's a fun fact about you?

Speaker 4 (50:00):
Guys? They all say something like, you know, I just
really got into knitting.

Speaker 2 (50:04):
Was great.

Speaker 4 (50:04):
Guess what I want to go help Castro.

Speaker 2 (50:06):
We have to remember this is like there's probably like
June June, nineteen fifty nine, and Fidel is all the top. Sure,
he's the coolest revolutionary. This is before he's gone commune.
So America is in love with him.

Speaker 4 (50:16):
Right in the midst of a bank robbery. How does
he share just one cool it on a T shirt?

Speaker 2 (50:21):
No, No, this is just one cool guy saying I saw
that other other cool guy's work and like I was
headed his way because we were to get our powers together.

Speaker 4 (50:28):
Who did he tell to some reporter or the cops.

Speaker 2 (50:31):
Either way, I think it's I think it's BS, but
I think he also is just like you know.

Speaker 4 (50:34):
But there's a truth sun Like he said it in
the middle of a robbery.

Speaker 2 (50:38):
Well, there's some truth. When he was first in Mexico,
he told the guys in the hotel that he was
flying to Cuba. So he his original plan was to
fly to Cuba. Who was he going to go join
the revolution? I don't know about that. I think he
was going to go hide out in Fidel's cast in
Fidel's Cuba.

Speaker 4 (50:52):
Yeah, could be anyway. Whatever, it was.

Speaker 2 (50:54):
Indeed true, he'd been ready to go. I said, go
fly to Cuba. Whatever. He refueled his red white and piper,
red white piper, and he did not. You know, if
weren't for that cow, he would have been in Cuba.
So really it was that cow that ended his crime spree.
He was not taken down by the FBI. He was
brought low by a Mexican cow, and like so many others,
you know, he was glad it was all over when

(51:16):
he was caught and he could now finally sleep peacefully.
So we hear this over and over again. Yes, as
Frank's friends said it once he was arrested. Quote. Ever
since I made the list, I felt like I was
walking down a glass sidewalk that might break it any minute.
I'm glad it's over. Frank. I think you need to
work on your analogies. If you were walking on a
glass sidewalk and it broke, you'd fall what three four inches?

Speaker 4 (51:37):
If it's over the sky.

Speaker 2 (51:39):
That's a skywalk. Is it skyway? I don't know, but
it's not a side. If I was walking on a
glass sidewalk, I would not worry about a dark bridge.

Speaker 3 (51:48):
Well, Ankles, sure, I'm you a glass sidewalk, Yeah, sure, okay, and.

Speaker 4 (51:54):
The ankle injury magnet.

Speaker 2 (51:57):
Before we say good bye to frank Cal's friends, can
I just say that his ex wife was a stone
cold piece of work. When he was finally caught, the
press caught up to her for a comment, and she
was only too happy to oblige them. She gave the
news reporters like a quote and a half and now
let me just set the scene. Quote. The family of
acron bank robber Frankel Sprinds sat waiting for each news
broadcast through a long Tuesday evening, huddled around the television

(52:19):
set where the ex wife, children, and mother in law
of the man whose story of crime and escape made
him one of the FBI's most wanted criminals. Now the
face of the captured fugitive, it flashes on the TV
news before these reporters, and then when we were writing
about it, the kids are thankfully out of the room
when this happens. The reporters dutifully note, because there is
David Sprands five and his sister Debbie four, or, as

(52:40):
a paper calls, are pretty little Debbie who played happily
with her pet dog Rusty.

Speaker 4 (52:44):
Wait those are his kids, Yeah, he's got kids so
and a family pet.

Speaker 2 (52:48):
Yeah. Yes, So. After the reporter noted that the kids
missed the image of their daddy's capture in Mexico, missus
Alberta May Sprinds, quote attractive twenty six year old ex
wife of the fugitive, said that the last time it
appeared on the screen, the boy recognized his daddy. Thank god,
Debbie has already forgotten him, said Missus Sprinds. The brunette
sacclad ex wife. Oh yeah, now, don't get it wrong, Elizabeth.

(53:11):
She argued that she was heartless as she's about to
sound now, missus Sprind said quote, I'm happy Frank wasn't
killed or didn't kill anybody when he was captured, But
it would have been easier in years to come to
tell the children their father is dead. Now I will
just have to wait until they are grown up enough
to explain everything, which has been so much easier if
he was dead, Elizabeth, But that was not all the

(53:33):
young mother had plans to protect her kids. She go
back to her maiden name. I am changing our name
to Hall. I've been correcting the children when they say spriends,
and they'll soon forget I hope. I'm glad it happened
before David starts school in the fall. This is the
end of that chapter. Wow. She also wondered if the
FBI guys had informed her ex husband that she was
divorcing him. As for her dating future, in case you

(53:55):
were wondering about that, the Exmasi's friends said, one thing
is certain. I'm not even thinking about another man or
another marriage at this point. I haven't even met another
man i'd want to marry, though I've been on a
few dates. So she's looking fun and flirty, single, still
under thirty. I don't want to tell you what this anyway.
You see that hope springs eternal always and for my

(54:16):
man frank Al's friends, he hopes eternally. But eventually he
got caught and then he was staying in bars and
he would have a terrible future that I don't even
want to get into. And that's when he's stopp being
my man. But until that point, I'm with this cat.
When he comes back out of prison, things I don't
want to know. He goes let's just say he goes
back to prison again.

Speaker 3 (54:34):
Okay, So we're just talking about the ridiculousness up until.

Speaker 2 (54:36):
I like him when he's young man, I like anyway.

Speaker 4 (54:39):
So it's a ridiculous takeaway here, Elizabeth.

Speaker 3 (54:41):
My takeaway is that you should be really wary of
people who are desperate to know how to fly.

Speaker 2 (54:47):
Wait a minute, shots fired again.

Speaker 3 (54:50):
So what's your ridiculous takeaway? Thanks for asking. I have
to race and get it in there.

Speaker 2 (54:56):
Ridiculous takeaway is how hard is it to get a
pilot's license? Anyway? As always prided this online Ridiculous Crime
on Twitter and Instagram. We have our website ridiculous crime
dot com. Check it out. We also would like to
talk back. Those are on the iHeart app and email
us if you want a Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com.

(55:16):
As always, thanks for listening. We'll catch you a next crime.
Ridicos Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton, M's Aaron Burnett,
produced and edited by the co pilot of This Flying Circus,
Dave Cousten. Research is by Marissa the FBI's Top ten
Most Wanted Badass Brown and Andrea j Edgar Hoover Only

(55:39):
wish he could find what I find song Sharpened Tear.
Our theme song is by Thomas the hero of Macho
Grande Lee and Travis Stewardess I Speak Jive Dutton. The
host wardrobe provided by Botany five hundred. Executive producers are
Ben Captain, Clarence over Bolan and NOL First Officer Roger
Murdoch Brown.

Speaker 6 (56:04):
Ridicous Crime, Say It One More Time Ridiquious Crime.

Speaker 1 (56:10):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts
from my Heart Radio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.