bank robber conl ,rom pa9e 8-i
some money’,” he says matter-of-factly.
At first it was the same “thrill” of com
mitting crime that he felt as a youth. “Then,
of course, it became the money. It’s like
Willie Sutton when someone asked him why
do you rob banks, he said: ‘That’s where the
money’s at’.”
Forsberg tells anecdotes about bank jobs
with a wry smile. It’s as if he is proud of the
planning and execution of the job, though he
admits “I was caught for almost every bank
job I committed.”
“We had this little bank cased.” Forsberg
doesn’t say where this bank was. He may not
remember. It really doesn’t matter. "It was go
ing to be $100,000,” he adds. The amount of
money thought to be in the bank, or actually
taken from the bank is the bank robber’s
method of ranking. The greater the amount of
money the greater the status of the robbery
and the more daring of the bank robber.
“We had everything planned... knew the
teller’s names. After weeks of studying, the
best time to hit it was a Tuesday afternoon at
2:30. So, man, we zip in there. I jump out of
the car and I got to run across three feet to
get into the bank. I’m first, then the driver’s
coming in. There was only one customer and
he looked up and saw me running in the door
and he turns and yells: ‘You’re going to be
robbed!’,’’ Forsberg laughs.
“We run in. We’re not even going to take
the teller cages. We want the vault,” he leans
forward, explaining. The bank’s vault had a
safe in the wall with the $100,000. One woman
teller had the combination.
“We’re looking for her and we can’t find
her. The bank’s not that big. We know she's
in there. So finally, we just scoop up the teller
cages — $20,000 — and leave.”
Forsberg can’t maintain a straight face
when he says they found out later, through
FBI reports, that the 60 year-old teller slid
under her desk when he ran in. She was
hiding under her desk throughout the entire
robbery. Forsberg calls that "element X.” Ele
ment X has proved to be his undoing many
times.
“It’s funny... all these years and all
these pros used to tell me: ‘You got to figure
element X.’ I never knew what element X
meant until I started taking algebra — the
unknown variable,” he pronounces deliberate
ly, as if it were mystical.
So we came to jazz it up.
We never loved the shovel.
Break your back to earn your pay,
and don’t forget to grovel.
“I’m one of the few guys in America that
ever robbed a bank and the FBI watched me.
Thoy set it up as a publicity stunt,” Forsberg
says, pausing, hoping to convey a sense of
incredibility.
"They knew we were going to rob the
bank. They got authorization from J. Edgar
Hoover (then director of the FBI) to film it.
“We did the perfect robbery, ski masks,
everything. We’re back at the house just
counting the money up. Dick’s wife (Dick
Hedges, Forsberg’s accomplice) comes run
ning in and says: ‘My God there’s cop^ and
people all over.’ I look out the window. They
A*
UNivmsri
Graphic by Shawn Bird
start saying: ‘FORSBERG AND HEDGES, THIS
IS THE FBI.’ They got TV cameras — it’s a big
publicity stunt. I didn’t know that at the time.
They start shooting tear gas in the house.
There’s a big picture of me in the Oregonian
being drug out with a Portland State sweat
shirt on.” He laughs loudly. “The next day
Portland State said: He's not enrolled’.”
Forsberg learned his bank robbery
lessons well from the pros in prison.
“There are different degrees of bank rob
bery. Some people think that casing a bank
robbery is driving around the block and you
don’t see a highway patrol car so you run in
and do it,” he says derisively. “I can tell you
the name of every teller I’ve ever robbed."
“Most people, they don’t plan a job.
They’re not even going in the vault in the first
place,” scoffs Forsberg. “They just run in.
They pass a note across the counter. ‘Give
me your money. This is a robbery.’ So she
(the teller) hands him that packet of dummy
bills. They’re all marked. Some will use the
exploding dye one. Now they even got them
with a little transmitter. If you don’t break
open that money until you get home, they’re
going to be right there — real quick.”
More than technique, Frosberg disdains
the strong-arm style of some bank robbers.
“Violence... that’s another thing that
separates the pros. I’ve never used any
violence in a robbery. When you go in, like
these guys go in and stick somebody up, they
never have to shoot them or hit them,”
Forsberg’s voice slows, lowering almost to a
growl. “When you have to resort to violence
you are showing that you weren't planned.
What if a guy starts to do something? What’re
we going to do — shoot him? Hell, no, we
ain’t going to shoot him.”
In the Reno robbery Forsberg carried a
gun, but that wasn’t his most effective
weapon.
“I carried an iron bar about two feet long
with a hole drilled in it with rawhide I had
around my hand. I mean, you hit somebody
across the knee with an iron bar they go
down (snaps fingers) like that. That was in
case anybody got out of line. We got guns of
course, but we’re not going to shoot
anybody."
Daddy was a bank robber,
but he never hurt nobody.
He just loved to live that way,
and he loved to steal your money.
Bankrobber Dub
Strummer, Jones, Campbell
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