GOD & TEXAS: Flapper Bandit

On Dec. 11, 1926, Rebecca Bradley, aged 22, robbed the Farmers National in Buna, Texas. She had been impersonating a reporter for the Beaumont Enterprise while interviewing employees about county agricultural concerns. Rebecca followed two tellers into the vault and confronted them with a .32 caliber pistol. She locked them in and left with $1,000 cash, or $18,500 in today’s money. So begins the curious story of an uncommon criminal whom the newspapers dubbed the Flapper Bandit.

The Roaring '20s was a time of political unrest, economic boom, and seismic social changes. Jazz was king, the Charleston was the rage, and prohibition created a black market rife with organized crime, speakeasies, and bootlegging.

One of the greatest upheavals was in the role of the American woman. When the 19th Amendment guaranteed their right to vote, many women embraced a new sense of public freedom. Some bobbed their hair, wore short skirts, drank alcohol, and smoked. Those women who publicly defied societal norms were sometimes labeled flappers, a term from the 1690s that refers to an unwholesome woman.

But Rebecca was not a flapper. She wore conservative clothes, scant makeup, and refused tobacco and alcohol. As a caregiver for her elderly mother, Rebecca held two jobs while working on her Master’s Degree in American History at the University of Texas. But due to financial mismanagement, she hatched an improbable plot to rob a bank and clear her bills.

Lacking a calculating criminal mind, Rebecca was quickly arrested by the police and brought to trial. The prosecution revealed convincing evidence of her crime that was validated with eyewitness testimony. The defense produced impeccable witnesses, including her Sunday School teachers, to attest to her integrity, morality, and strong work ethic.

Public opinion, and even juries, refused to jail Rebecca. One of the judges said that “she was so pretty that there’s no way she could be a criminal.” After three trials, Rebecca was set free through jury nullification.

Jury nullification occurs when a jury returns a Not Guilty verdict even though jurors believe beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant has broken the law. The jury in effect nullifies a law that it believes is either immoral or wrongly applied to the defendant whose verdict they are charged with deciding.

Though she was obviously culpable, her peers just could not believe that she was a bandit. She was just too nice. Rebecca later moved to Fort Worth and lived an unnoticed life with her husband and three children until her death in 1950.

It should be noted that God has another way to judge our crimes (sins). It is described in 1 Samuel 16:7 NIV, “The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” Jesus said in Luke 16:15 NIV, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts.”

Is your heart right with God?

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