Lives Less Ordinary BBC World Service Podcast
Tom Justice has a wry sense of humour: "I may not look 51 but I am very immature,” jokes this middle class American boy gone wrong.
Everyone likes a little adrenalin rush in their lives.
Some of us get it with a morning espresso; others need a much stronger fix.
Tom got those in his early years when he was an elite cyclist, training for the Olympics, but there came a day when he realised that it was tough hard work with no guarantees.
He gave it up and got a regular job but that left him feeling dead inside.
“I wanted to do something extraordinary,” he said.
That's when he decided to rob his first bank.
And here, he takes us through that first, rather polite, bank robbery.
It was all meticulously planned.
“I went in, she filled the bag with money, I said thank you.”
There was this great endorphin rush as he raced off on his bike.
He gave most of the money away and kept the bank robbery thing a secret from his girlfriend.
It was his little secret.
He ended up robbing 26 banks before the FBI caught up with him.
He takes us through that day; when he was hiding in the bushes – “I was like a common thief,” well, he was one after all.
The whirr of helicopters, the police dogs so close he could hear the jingle of their dog tags.
“It’s a wake up call when police are trying to shoot you,” he says.
It’s like a film and Tom Justice loves his films – Robert de Niro and Al Pacino may have had an influence. But they were just acting. In fact a few films got under his skin, he confessed and the rest is history.
History behind bars - he got nine years in prison.
It saved his life, he said. He even re-united with the girlfriend who did not know about his heists.
This is a podcast with lots of tension and excitement, there are jaw dropping confessions.
Justice – what a name – thought of himself as an anti-hero from a film.
He admits that he’s more scared of his mum than the police.
It’s the way this true story is told … plenty of drama, a cliffhanger or two.
Definitely worth a listen.
