Woodrow “ Woody ” Harris had no rationality to think it was not give out to be a great Christmas . Woody was just 14 but alreadydrivingaround West Texas . On December 23 , 1927 , he and his house — his parent and grandmother — were busyfinishingtheir vacation shopping , Woody head their brand - new Oldsmobile around township .
At a brake light , Woody look out his window and saw something that must have caused him a brief moment of entertainment . There in the road was Santa Claus — nottheSanta , plain , butaSanta — and he appeared to be come toward the Harris fomite .
Before Woody could process what was happen , Santa brandished a gunman . So did the two men with him . They ordered the Harris house out of their car , screaming for them to travel rapidly . The men promptly loaded their belongings from a nearby Buick into the Oldsmobile , including a giant and cumbersome sack like the sort Santa toted for gifts . Santa also produced a moaning and bleeding man from the back seat of the Buick , who was summarily stuffed into the Oldsmobile . Two children were with him , but they did n’t appear to be there of their own volition . Down the road , twelve of workforce were running toward them , most bearing a piece of some variety .
Woody Harris did not know why Santa had a gun , why he was accompanied by a badly bruise humanity , why a mob appeared to require to belt down him , or why he had carjacked his house . He and his relative run away , gunshots ringing in the air .
Maybe it would not be a great Christmas for the Harris family after all .
The human being in the Santa Claus suit was Marshall Ratliff , a 24 - year - erstwhile Texan who was not precisely filled with seasonal spirit . apparently a born troubler , Ratliff prefer offence gravid and small over steady employment . A few years earlier , he and his brother , Lee Ratliff , hadrobbeda cant in Valera , Texas . throw the money around freely and jactitation of the heist while ingest large amounts of alcohol , the Ratliffs were eventually foot up and sentenced to prison house before beingpardonedby Governor Miriam Ferguson , who was well - known for issuing pardon , after a class .
The brothers digress West Texas searching for work on an petroleum field , but failed to set ashore anything . They soon find themselves in a boarding house in Wichita Falls operated by a woman key out Midge Tellet . With no occupation prospects — at least , none that were appealing for two men who favored easy money — the siblings decided to tackle another bank robbery , this prison term in Cisco , Texas , a modest townspeople in Eastland County with a population of about 7000 .
Marshall Ratliff ’s program was simple . He intended to take up a Santa Claus suit that Tillet had sewn for her married man to wear . Well - mask — having expend clip in Cisco , he feared he would be recognized — and disarming due to his presence as St. Nick , he would enter First National Bank with Lee and accomplices and collect the cash .
Marshall Ratliff recruit two men he knew — Henry Helms , 31 , and Robert Hill , 21 , who were both unforced to commit armed robbery . Ratliff also draft a safecracker in the hope he could acquire access to the bank burial vault , but the man fell ominous . Worse , Lee Ratliff could n’t make it : After committing another burglary , he had been halt and remand .
That left Marshall Ratliff to finish the job on his own . To fill the lieu left by his blood brother , Ratliff invited a relative of Helms , Louis Davis , a 22 - year - sure-enough Father of the Church with no felonious phonograph record . Desperate for money , Davis agreed to assist , but only if there was no shooting .
Louis Davis would not get his wish .
The four man drove 200 miles from Wichita Falls to Cisco . By the metre they pass their destination , it was previous morning on December 23 . Ratliff donned his Santa outfit , including a beard and cherry-red cap , and was have out a few steps away from the bank building . Hill drove to an alley near the bank ’s back door and parked .
Ratliff walk down the street , flourish and greet frantic nestling who border on him . It ’s not entirely exonerated why Ratliff preferred to do this over simply kick the bucket the fomite closer to the cant , though he might have wanted to provide a beguilement for the Buick as it entered the bowling alley . As he strolled , a 6 - year - old girl , Frances Blassengame ( sometimes Blasengame ) , saw him and start tug on her female parent ’s hand . She wanted to take after Santa as he walked into the bank . Rather than acting as an effective disguise , Ratliff would find that Santa ’s hold on a child ’s resource would show to be the crew ’s undoing .
Ratliff play up with the others in the bowling alley and all of the adult male head inside . The bank was populate with 16 hoi polloi , including teller and customer . When “ Santa ” walked in , he was greeted with grinning . Ratliff did n’t keep up the pretense .
“ Reach for some sky ! ” hescreamed , brandishing a gun .
As Ratliff ’s cohort covered the nervous bunch , Ratcliff acquire a sack and told tellers to begin pour money into it . That catch totaled $ 12,000 . He also drive an employee to launch the bank hurdle , taking notes deserving $ 150,000 along with hitch , bonds , and some valuable .
As Ratliff madly filled his sack , Frances Blassengame and her mother entered the banking concern . There , they picture Santa wave a torpedo , skirt by crumple broadside . Both Frances and her mother tried to abscond for the front door , but one of the bandits had blocked it . No one , however , had thought to cover the rear exit , where they design to escape to the Buick .
The Blassengames sprint out , ignoring calls to stop , and ran straight to the police station , where they informed Chief of Police G.E. Bedford that First National was in the eye of an armed robbery led by Santa Claus . Bedford toss away riot guns to his officers , George Carmichael and R.T. Redies , and stormed out .
Surprisingly , the cops would be the least of the robbers ’ worry . The Blassengames ’ feed and shrieking had drawn the populace ’s attention , and before long a gang began to gather outside the bank . Owing to a spate of bank robberies across the state , the Texas Bankers Association had just begin offering a $ 5000 advantage to any civilian who could dart and kill a bank robber , and “ not one cent for a hundred alive ones . ” This Old West - style protocol , dubbed the “ dead robber reward , ” did n’t give out for wounding — only a dead military man would do .
Whether Ratliff and his mankind knew this or not is n’t absolved . If not , they before long found out . Hill noticed a face peering inside the windowpane . He fired his weapon . To his surprisal , those outside retrovert flame . Hill adjudicate to shoot up into the ceiling to show to the crowd that they had weapons . The crowd did the same , and before long the depository financial institution was engulfed in bullet . ( A count by law enforcement would later put the full number of shots give the axe into the construction at 200 . )
Residents were out in force , perhaps as many as 100 , some armed with shotguns being passed out by a local hardware storage . With the hope of $ 5000 , or roughly $ 73,000 in today ’s dollar , the crowd was out for Santa ’s blood .
To get to the Buick would involve some improvisation . Ratliff order the 16 people deep down to stick with them out the back door , create a human shield that could stand between the robbers and the angry mob . In the fire , Davis — who had not wanted to see anyone offend — was shoot and badly injure . Ratliff was also pullulate in the pegleg and jaw , though he remained ambulatory . At least six townspeople were shot , including cashier Alex Spears , but it ’s not clean which side had done the shooting , as the ring appeared to be dismiss freely into the human barrier Ratliff had reconstruct .
Piling into the Buick with Hill , Helms , and an offend Davis , Ratliff grabbed two girls from the bank gang — Laverne Comer , 12 , and Emma May Robertson , 10 — to employ as hostages . During the chaos , the robbers open up flack on cops Bedford and Carmichael , fatally wounding both . ( Bedford would die out several hours later ; Carmichael would conk on January 7 . )
With Davis wounded and surety in tow , things looked forged — and they were about to get worse . A bullet had punctured a tire . Worse , owing to the 200 - mile cause from Wichita Falls , the Buick was blue on gas . They would want a fresh fomite , and soon . The pack was still following on animal foot .
That ’s when Ratliff saw the Harris folk ’s Oldsmobile . After force the Harrises out , the man conduct the scantily - conscious Davis to the fresh car and put him in the back seat . The money went in front . The two girls were thrust to follow .
When one of the men went to go the car , they realise that the now - long - departed Woody Harris had not entirely comply with their demand . He had hand over the gondola . He did not hand over the car keys .
fierce , Ratliff , Hill , and Helms abandon the Oldsmobile and draw back back to the Buick , the young woman in tow . By now the mob was close and another shootout start , this one result in Hill being pip in the weapon system . Davis , a indebtedness , was left in the Oldsmobile . He would die that evening in Fort Worth . In their panic , the robbers left the money in the railway car with him . The only payoff now would be to escape a prison house sentence .
The robber were able to progress only a few miles in the Buick before it broke down , pull them to flee on metrical unit ; at some compass point , Ratliff discarded the Santa courting . The girl were left in the car and discovered by authority .
On foot , the three remain thieves managed to temporarily parry their pursuers , steal another car the next morning and by and by engage book binding in the woods outside of Cisco . But the promise of a financial bounty remained motivation for townspeople , who refused to abandon their trail . The ensuing manhunt involve civilian , an plane , dogs , and at least one instance of a constabulary officer incidentally discharging his own weapon and wounding himself .
Days later , the three was cornered by authorities near the Brazos River and another shootout get down , this one bruise Ratliff further . He was conquer . Helms and Hill escaped and remained at large for three more day before being captured in the townsfolk of Graham on December 30 , 1927.Accordingto Captain Tom Hickman , the men were “ literally riddled with heater . ”
Because they ’d been brought in alive — and because there were so many shooters at the bank it was impossible to determine who had killed Davis — no one collected the depository financial institution reward .
All three men stood trial for their crimes , which had resulted in a number of civilian injury and two dead police officers . Helms was identify as shoot Cisco constabulary officer Bedford and Carmichael and was given the end penalty . He was executed on September 6 , 1929 , despite affect insanity . Hill plead shamed to armed looting , beg for mercifulness , and receive a sentence of 99 year , move on to escape from prison house at least double before being paroled in the mid-1940s .
The fate of Ratliff , the gang ’s malevolent Santa , was far more sensational . He was charged with robbery and abduction ; young hostage Emma May Robertson , who had see him without his Santa camouflage , made a positive designation of him in motor lodge .
That conviction , which was handed down on January 27 , 1928 , netted him 99 years . He was also charged with the dying of Bedford in a separate trial on March 30 , 1928 , despite no one being able to place him as the shooter . For this , he was given a last time .
Like Helms , Ratliff decided that plead insanity would be his good option . In fact , he seemed to be gripped with mental illness beginning the very mean solar day Helms was executed . await a opinion on his appeal in an Eastland County jail , he end eating and talking , forcing jailers Tom Jones and “ Pack ” Kilborn to assist him . After serve him a meal one Nox , the two unexpectedly left Ratliff ’s cell unbarred . Far from catatonic , he bound into legal action , grabbing a pistol from a nearby desk and tear Jones multiple metre before Kilborn cope to subordinate him .
The multitude of Eastland County were not feeling particularly hospitable toward Ratcliff , who had just severely hurt another police officer . As Jones was being tended to in a infirmary — where he would soon succumb to his hurt — the bunch kept vigil around the slammer , growing to 1000 to 2000 the great unwashed who were becoming more and more crotchety by the hour . add up evening , they decided justice had been too long delay . They force the jailhouse and immobilize Kilborn to the flooring , seize his cell keys .
They freed Ratliff , then tied his workforce and feet and dragged him outdoors , where a utility pole stood . Using a length of rope , they string him up by his neck .
The first rope broke . The second did n’t .
Today , First National Bank is still in business , though in a different placement ( and with a different name : It ’s now First Financial Bank ) . Where First National originally stand is a historical markerplacedby the Texas State Historical Survey Committee in 1967 . After a brief retread , the lettering on the repository make right to the gunpoint : “ by and by , a mob lynched ‘ Santa ’ when he broke out of poky . ”
