July 2, 2025 • 10 mins
Dive into the gripping narrative of Thieves Like Us, also known as Your Red Wagon. Set against the backdrop of the Great Depression, it tells the story of Bowie Bowers, a young prison escapee who, along with two accomplices, sets his sights on a daring bank heist. As plans unravel, Bowie finds himself entangled in a passionate love affair with Keechie, a relative of one of his partners in crime. This classic noir tale of doomed lovers on the run has been immortalized in film not once, but twice. Originally by Nicholas Ray in 1940s They Live By Night and later by Robert Altman in 1973s rendition of Thieves Like Us. Join us as we delve into this captivating tale. - Synopsis by Ben Tucker
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter six of Thieves Like Us by Edward Anderson. This
LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by Ben Tucker.
Chapter six with its four blocks of filling stations and
lunch rooms on the north side of the widened highway
and then the intersecting one block main street. The town
of Moorhead had a business district shaped like a funnel.
(00:22):
The funnel's mouth was corroded with low buildings of stone
and wooden fronts. With Bowie driving the coop, the three
moved up it now toward the framed bandstand at the
end of the block. It was ten thirty o'clock. The
Farmer State Bank stood on the left corner near the bandstand.
It was a one story structure with two cement columns
and barred windows. There's our meat, Chickamaw, said t Dub
(00:46):
touched his forehead in a mock salute. We'll be in
to sea in a few minutes, gentlemen, don't be impatient.
Bowie made a u turn around the bandstand and then
drove motor idling past the bank. The pressing shop with
its window display of bolted goods, the Patent Medicine displayed,
the drug store, and then cut into park diagonally in
front of the variety store. In the variety store windows
(01:09):
were women's underwear. To the left of it was a
meat market, and then a grocery. Two farmer looking men
sat on cakes of salt lick in front of the grocery.
A youth in a red sweater with an m on
it came out of the pressing shop and got in
a truck. Tea Dub and then Chickamau got out of
the coop. Chickamau turned around winked ten dollars of socks.
(01:30):
Beat the giants this afternoon, he said. Bowie grinned called.
The two moved up the street, the bagging seat of
Te Dub's overalls wrinkling and Chickamauv's head bobbing on his
long neck. They turned and entered the bank. The bubble
and Bowie's stomach broke and sprayed. He pulled the car
and reverse backed out, and then moved down the street
(01:51):
toward the highway. The woman in the Savanah head stopped
paralleled in front of the post office, and Bowie turned
out and passed her. That's the way I'll be parking
in front of that bank in a minute, he thought.
There were two men in broad brim hats and boots
standing on the corner in front of the dry goods store.
They did not look up. The dog, its ribs bulging,
tried it across the street in front of Bowie, toward
(02:12):
the depot. There was a crated plow on the station's
loading platform. Bowie turned the second corner, passing the lumber yard.
One block this way now, and then another turned, and
he would be at the bank again. That dream again
last night, his dad. He could hardly remember what his
dad looked like, and yet he was as clear as
himself in these dreams, always the same thing happening him
(02:34):
in that pool hall, with his dad and another man
getting ready to hit his dad with a queue, him
hollering and his dad not hearing him, trying to shoot
the gun and kill the man, and the pistol breaking
into pieces in his hand. Bowie turned the last corner.
Maybe that dream meant bad luck coming. If he counted
to thirteen now with his fingers crossed, it would break
(02:56):
the bad luck. One, two, three, four. Bowie stopped in
front of the bank twelve thirteen, pulled the sawd off
shotgun up a little higher between his knees. Come on, Piles,
Come on, you old soldier, Come on, you Indian. We
got tall tracks to make. There were two more men
(03:17):
standing now in front of the grocery, one smoking a
pipe with a curved stem. The pipe smoker turned and
looked up the street toward the bank. All right, squire John,
that's a good way to get your eyes full and
get in trouble. The men turned back. Tea dub came
out of the bank, the front of his overall's bulging chickamall,
following two cigar boxes under his left arm. Bowie looked
(03:39):
up and down the street across to the other side.
Nobody big, eyeing or smelling anything yet. They got in
the car and Bowi had gone. The motor chickamauw slammed
the door. The two men sitting on the salt cakes
stood up, and the others turned and looked. Bowie swerved
onto the highway, the left wheels groaning. The approaching oil
truck stopped with a jerk. The driver shouted. Bowie pressed
the excel harder. The city limits dropped behind the boys
(04:03):
driving a cow with a stick turned his head and
watched them go by. Anything behind us yet, Bowie said. No.
Chicken Mall said, them guys are not going to get
out of that vault for a half hour. They don't
know the civil wars over yet. Back there in that town,
tee Dub looked back, clear as a whistle. You all
do any good, Bowie said, I think so. Teetub said.
(04:26):
He pulled a revolver from inside his overalls. I picked
me up a brand new Colt forty five here anyway,
I will you that pearl handled job, Bowie. Did you
see me get it out of that teal chickamaul, Yeah,
I saw you sacked up something else, though, didn't you?
Bowie said? It went for three or four thousand, I think,
Teetdub said. Chick a Mall turned back. No, they don't
(04:48):
know yet what it's all about. Back there, a car
zoomed over the rise ahead, hurtling toward him. It had
a California license. Four thousand. Isn't bad, is it? Bowie said,
I don't say we got that much. Teetdup said, Man,
you didn't expect us to stop and count it before
we come out of there, did you, chickamauw said. Bowie laughed.
(05:08):
The skyline of Zelton showed now fourteen story hotel, the
standpipe college buildings on the hill. We're going to be
holed up before they get out of that vault, teet
Up said, makes me half decide to go on to
the house, but I want to save that place. We'll
just go on to that wildcat. Bowie turned the coop
off the highway and onto a dirt road the side
of Zelton. They passed the filtration plant, the city mule barns,
(05:31):
and then Bowie turned back east and presently they were
on a paved residential street. They crossed the town and
cut back onto the highway by the airport. As they
neared the turn into the old oil Derrick, a car
ahead of them approached, and Bowie slowed. It was a
big sedan with a Negro driving and a man in
the back seat smoking a cigar. After it was out
of sight, Bowie turned the coop onto the Derrick road.
(05:54):
Chickamau climbed the ladder of the derrick and started to
look out toward the highway. Bowie spread the big cotton
picking sack on the ground and Tee Dub dumped the
contents of the small canvas bag on it. The pile
of currency and rubber banded packs one hundreds and twenties
and tens and fives and ones was as big as
the crown of a cowboys stetson. The two cigar boxes
were spilling silver. Chickamall whistled and they looked up. What's
(06:17):
that stuff you boys playing with down there? He said?
For Christ's sake, Tee Dub said, when nose wiping paper,
you damned Indian, Bowie said, And there's ten bucks of it.
You'll never see them giants have the socks in a
hole by now. Another ten says you're a liar. Accepted
Moss's carry out here. Tee Dub said, you guys know
(06:39):
you're talking. After a while, Well, let's pop down. Chickamauw
Bowie said. Tee Dub took four hundred and twenty five
dollars from the pile and snapped a rubber band around it.
This represented the amount he had started out with, and
he put it in his shirt pocket. Bowie took a
ten dollar bill. I'll take out six for Chickamau. He said,
that's what he had. Three piles of currency grews. T
(07:03):
Dub dealt out the bills like playing cards. Finally it
was divided and there was one and twenty five dollars apiece.
The silver, it was decided, would just be left in
the boxes and they would use it for general expenses
like gasoline and beer and cigarettes. There were three or
four hundred dollars a bit. Chicka Maull descended the latter
and joined them. I just started telling Bowie here about
(07:24):
that old banker back there. T Dub said, that old
boy like to have never got in his head that
it was a stick up. Never did put up his hands.
Did he chacka mall? Said? Tee Dub laughed. He never did.
He was sitting at a desk there, Bowie when we
went in, just pecking away at an old Oliver type rider,
and I had to almost kick the chair out from
under him. What the hell, he says, What do you
(07:45):
think this is? I had to yank him up and
knee him back into the vault. I think we had
to plays half sacked before he ever caught on. All
the mothers acted like little men. Chicken Maull said. They
couldn't get in that vault quick enough. Customers, Bowie said.
One Teetdub said, didn't you take a sack off him. Chickamau, Yeah,
(08:07):
said Chickamau. I got thirty or forty dollars here. I
think he pulled a small moneysack out of his hip pocket. No,
I don't have no kick coming about that little bank.
But we could have sacked up that bank in Zelton
just as easy and had ten or twelve a piece,
isn't that right, Tee dub. Well, well, get to them, gentlemen,
Tee Dub said. Long ranges of clouds, sticks beaten egg
(08:30):
whites moved in the afternoon sky through the riffs. The
dome was as clear as blueing water. The only sounds
were the thrumbing cars over on the highway, and they
would stop and listen to them pass When they talked,
now it was in quiet voices. As soon as it
got dark, it was decided they would return to Zelton
and then Bowie could take the coop out to the
edge of town and burn it. Chickamau would get a
(08:53):
bus and go to El Paso and come back in
a couple of days with two fast light cars and
some extra license plates. Tee dub go over to McMaster's,
get Maddie to rent a car, and they would get
at least two more houses, one in Gusherton and one
in clear Waters. We ought to have a sure enough
set up here in two or three more days, Bowie said.
Might be that kid's sister, Maddies will go along with
(09:15):
me and her to get them houses. Tee Dub said,
you know, boys, I hadn't seen that little girl since
she was in diapers. Cute as a bug. Now I
want you two to meet her. What I'd like to
have right now is something to eat. Chicken All said,
You guys realize we haven't eaten nothing since the hamburgers
last night. Funny, I'm not hungry, Bowie said. What I
could take on is a good tailor made cigarette. I
(09:39):
remember last time I was cooling off in the country
like this, we had a radio when we were getting
a ball game. Tee Dub said, check them all. Maybe
you'd better get radios put on them cars. Sure hope
to pass away the time when you're out like this
into chapter six,
Chapter six of Thieves Like Us by Edward Anderson. This
LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by Ben Tucker.
Chapter six with its four blocks of filling stations and
lunch rooms on the north side of the widened highway
and then the intersecting one block main street. The town
of Moorhead had a business district shaped like a funnel.
(00:22):
The funnel's mouth was corroded with low buildings of stone
and wooden fronts. With Bowie driving the coop, the three
moved up it now toward the framed bandstand at the
end of the block. It was ten thirty o'clock. The
Farmer State Bank stood on the left corner near the bandstand.
It was a one story structure with two cement columns
and barred windows. There's our meat, Chickamaw, said t Dub
(00:46):
touched his forehead in a mock salute. We'll be in
to sea in a few minutes, gentlemen, don't be impatient.
Bowie made a u turn around the bandstand and then
drove motor idling past the bank. The pressing shop with
its window display of bolted goods, the Patent Medicine displayed,
the drug store, and then cut into park diagonally in
front of the variety store. In the variety store windows
(01:09):
were women's underwear. To the left of it was a
meat market, and then a grocery. Two farmer looking men
sat on cakes of salt lick in front of the grocery.
A youth in a red sweater with an m on
it came out of the pressing shop and got in
a truck. Tea Dub and then Chickamau got out of
the coop. Chickamau turned around winked ten dollars of socks.
(01:30):
Beat the giants this afternoon, he said. Bowie grinned called.
The two moved up the street, the bagging seat of
Te Dub's overalls wrinkling and Chickamauv's head bobbing on his
long neck. They turned and entered the bank. The bubble
and Bowie's stomach broke and sprayed. He pulled the car
and reverse backed out, and then moved down the street
(01:51):
toward the highway. The woman in the Savanah head stopped
paralleled in front of the post office, and Bowie turned
out and passed her. That's the way I'll be parking
in front of that bank in a minute, he thought.
There were two men in broad brim hats and boots
standing on the corner in front of the dry goods store.
They did not look up. The dog, its ribs bulging,
tried it across the street in front of Bowie, toward
(02:12):
the depot. There was a crated plow on the station's
loading platform. Bowie turned the second corner, passing the lumber yard.
One block this way now, and then another turned, and
he would be at the bank again. That dream again
last night, his dad. He could hardly remember what his
dad looked like, and yet he was as clear as
himself in these dreams, always the same thing happening him
(02:34):
in that pool hall, with his dad and another man
getting ready to hit his dad with a queue, him
hollering and his dad not hearing him, trying to shoot
the gun and kill the man, and the pistol breaking
into pieces in his hand. Bowie turned the last corner.
Maybe that dream meant bad luck coming. If he counted
to thirteen now with his fingers crossed, it would break
(02:56):
the bad luck. One, two, three, four. Bowie stopped in
front of the bank twelve thirteen, pulled the sawd off
shotgun up a little higher between his knees. Come on, Piles,
Come on, you old soldier, Come on, you Indian. We
got tall tracks to make. There were two more men
(03:17):
standing now in front of the grocery, one smoking a
pipe with a curved stem. The pipe smoker turned and
looked up the street toward the bank. All right, squire John,
that's a good way to get your eyes full and
get in trouble. The men turned back. Tea dub came
out of the bank, the front of his overall's bulging chickamall,
following two cigar boxes under his left arm. Bowie looked
(03:39):
up and down the street across to the other side.
Nobody big, eyeing or smelling anything yet. They got in
the car and Bowi had gone. The motor chickamauw slammed
the door. The two men sitting on the salt cakes
stood up, and the others turned and looked. Bowie swerved
onto the highway, the left wheels groaning. The approaching oil
truck stopped with a jerk. The driver shouted. Bowie pressed
the excel harder. The city limits dropped behind the boys
(04:03):
driving a cow with a stick turned his head and
watched them go by. Anything behind us yet, Bowie said. No.
Chicken Mall said, them guys are not going to get
out of that vault for a half hour. They don't
know the civil wars over yet. Back there in that town,
tee Dub looked back, clear as a whistle. You all
do any good, Bowie said, I think so. Teetub said.
(04:26):
He pulled a revolver from inside his overalls. I picked
me up a brand new Colt forty five here anyway,
I will you that pearl handled job, Bowie. Did you
see me get it out of that teal chickamaul, Yeah,
I saw you sacked up something else, though, didn't you?
Bowie said? It went for three or four thousand, I think,
Teetdub said. Chick a Mall turned back. No, they don't
(04:48):
know yet what it's all about. Back there, a car
zoomed over the rise ahead, hurtling toward him. It had
a California license. Four thousand. Isn't bad, is it? Bowie said,
I don't say we got that much. Teetdup said, Man,
you didn't expect us to stop and count it before
we come out of there, did you, chickamauw said. Bowie laughed.
(05:08):
The skyline of Zelton showed now fourteen story hotel, the
standpipe college buildings on the hill. We're going to be
holed up before they get out of that vault, teet
Up said, makes me half decide to go on to
the house, but I want to save that place. We'll
just go on to that wildcat. Bowie turned the coop
off the highway and onto a dirt road the side
of Zelton. They passed the filtration plant, the city mule barns,
(05:31):
and then Bowie turned back east and presently they were
on a paved residential street. They crossed the town and
cut back onto the highway by the airport. As they
neared the turn into the old oil Derrick, a car
ahead of them approached, and Bowie slowed. It was a
big sedan with a Negro driving and a man in
the back seat smoking a cigar. After it was out
of sight, Bowie turned the coop onto the Derrick road.
(05:54):
Chickamau climbed the ladder of the derrick and started to
look out toward the highway. Bowie spread the big cotton
picking sack on the ground and Tee Dub dumped the
contents of the small canvas bag on it. The pile
of currency and rubber banded packs one hundreds and twenties
and tens and fives and ones was as big as
the crown of a cowboys stetson. The two cigar boxes
were spilling silver. Chickamall whistled and they looked up. What's
(06:17):
that stuff you boys playing with down there? He said?
For Christ's sake, Tee Dub said, when nose wiping paper,
you damned Indian, Bowie said, And there's ten bucks of it.
You'll never see them giants have the socks in a
hole by now. Another ten says you're a liar. Accepted
Moss's carry out here. Tee Dub said, you guys know
(06:39):
you're talking. After a while, Well, let's pop down. Chickamauw
Bowie said. Tee Dub took four hundred and twenty five
dollars from the pile and snapped a rubber band around it.
This represented the amount he had started out with, and
he put it in his shirt pocket. Bowie took a
ten dollar bill. I'll take out six for Chickamau. He said,
that's what he had. Three piles of currency grews. T
(07:03):
Dub dealt out the bills like playing cards. Finally it
was divided and there was one and twenty five dollars apiece.
The silver, it was decided, would just be left in
the boxes and they would use it for general expenses
like gasoline and beer and cigarettes. There were three or
four hundred dollars a bit. Chicka Maull descended the latter
and joined them. I just started telling Bowie here about
(07:24):
that old banker back there. T Dub said, that old
boy like to have never got in his head that
it was a stick up. Never did put up his hands.
Did he chacka mall? Said? Tee Dub laughed. He never did.
He was sitting at a desk there, Bowie when we
went in, just pecking away at an old Oliver type rider,
and I had to almost kick the chair out from
under him. What the hell, he says, What do you
(07:45):
think this is? I had to yank him up and
knee him back into the vault. I think we had
to plays half sacked before he ever caught on. All
the mothers acted like little men. Chicken Maull said. They
couldn't get in that vault quick enough. Customers, Bowie said.
One Teetdub said, didn't you take a sack off him. Chickamau, Yeah,
(08:07):
said Chickamau. I got thirty or forty dollars here. I
think he pulled a small moneysack out of his hip pocket. No,
I don't have no kick coming about that little bank.
But we could have sacked up that bank in Zelton
just as easy and had ten or twelve a piece,
isn't that right, Tee dub. Well, well, get to them, gentlemen,
Tee Dub said. Long ranges of clouds, sticks beaten egg
(08:30):
whites moved in the afternoon sky through the riffs. The
dome was as clear as blueing water. The only sounds
were the thrumbing cars over on the highway, and they
would stop and listen to them pass When they talked,
now it was in quiet voices. As soon as it
got dark, it was decided they would return to Zelton
and then Bowie could take the coop out to the
edge of town and burn it. Chickamau would get a
(08:53):
bus and go to El Paso and come back in
a couple of days with two fast light cars and
some extra license plates. Tee dub go over to McMaster's,
get Maddie to rent a car, and they would get
at least two more houses, one in Gusherton and one
in clear Waters. We ought to have a sure enough
set up here in two or three more days, Bowie said.
Might be that kid's sister, Maddies will go along with
(09:15):
me and her to get them houses. Tee Dub said,
you know, boys, I hadn't seen that little girl since
she was in diapers. Cute as a bug. Now I
want you two to meet her. What I'd like to
have right now is something to eat. Chicken All said,
You guys realize we haven't eaten nothing since the hamburgers
last night. Funny, I'm not hungry, Bowie said. What I
could take on is a good tailor made cigarette. I
(09:39):
remember last time I was cooling off in the country
like this, we had a radio when we were getting
a ball game. Tee Dub said, check them all. Maybe
you'd better get radios put on them cars. Sure hope
to pass away the time when you're out like this
into chapter six,
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