Willie Sutton on why he robbed banks.
According to longstanding belief, famed bank robber Willie Sutton was asked by a reporter why he robbed banks and the thief responded, “That’s where the money is”. This statement which is obvious, led to the development of Sutton’s Law, used in medical diagnosis to direct students when considering a diagnosis that one should use the obvious before looking at less readily available signs. There is a similar theory in concept used in accounting known as the Willie Sutton rule. The idea that a notorious bank robber’s quote was influential in both medicine and accounting would be intriguing except for the fact that Sutton never made the remark.
Sutton was a bank robber for four decades, stealing over $2 million using the techniques of armed robbery and breaking and entering to clean out vaults across the country. Although Sutton did carry weapons, often including a Thompson submachine gun, he never used them other than to threaten, never shot or killed anyone, and developed a reputation of being informed on legal issues. Just as he broke into banks he also broke out of prisons and jails. Once when asked if the guns he carried were loaded he replied that they weren’t, explaining that if they were someone might get hurt.
On March 14, 1950, the FBI created the Most Wanted Fugitives list, with Sutton, who was at the time an escapee from the Philadelphia County Prison, placed eleventh. In 1952 Sutton was locked up for what would be the final time in Attica State Prison, he remained there until the remainder of his sentence was commuted for good behavior. After his release, he capitalized on his notoriety by making commercials, consulting with banks on security issues, and lecturing on the issues of sentencing and prison reform. He also wrote his autobiography, which he entitled, Where the Money Was: The Memoirs of a Bank Robber.
Despite the similarity in the title, Sutton used the memoirs to deny he had ever made the statement, “That’s where the money is.” According to Sutton, a reporter named Mitch Ohnstad asked him why he robbed banks and evidently displeased with the answer created the quote long attributed to the bank robber. Wrote Sutton, “The credit belongs to some enterprising reporter who apparently felt a need to fill out his copy…I can’t even remember where I first read it…” Sutton claimed that credit for the so-called Sutton’s Law belongs to the long-forgotten reporter rather than to him.
In his autobiography, Sutton provided a much lengthier explanation of why he robbed banks than the previously reported five-word reply. “Because I enjoyed it,” he wrote. “I loved it. I was more alive when I was inside a bank, robbing it, than at any other time in my life. I enjoyed everything about it…” Perhaps that is not an easily remembered or as blatantly obvious quote as the earlier one so long misattributed to him. It is a fuller explanation of why Sutton continued the practice for so long, at so much risk, and with so much loss to his personal freedom.