[Ads-l] Quote: We specialized on banks because that's where the money is. Paul Perritt (1923)

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

The January 20, 1951 issue of "The Saturday Evening Post" credited
bank robber Willie Sutton with the statement "I rob banks because
that's where the money is".

Now, Yoni Appelbaum who is Deputy Executive Editor @TheAtlantic has
notified me via X-twitter of a fascinating newly discovered citation
for this type of remark delivered by a bank robber in 1923. An article
titled "Youths Admit Bank Holdups" published in "The Detroit Free
Press" quotes Paul Perritt, a 26 year old who confessed to a series of
robberies. The slang term "iron" in the following excerpt referred to
a gun.

[ref] 1923 December 19, The Detroit Free Press, Youths Admit Bank
Holdups, Quote Page 13, Column 3, Detroit, Michigan. (Newspapers_com)
[/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
Perritt, neatly dressed and evincing no little education, made his
statement with unruffled composure.

"We specialized on banks," he said, "because that's where the money
is. I used my head and went about the work systematically. Things were
planned beforehand. Usually I carried the iron myself, but never meant
to kill anybody. We used to say to ourselves: 'If it comes to tough
stuff, we’ll lay off.'"
[End excerpt]

The Quote Investigator article on this topic has been updated and
changes should be visible within 24 hours.
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/02/10/where-money-is/

[Begin Acknowledgements]
Thanks to Jason Zweig of the Wall Street Journal whose inquiry about
this saying provided the impetus for QI to construct this question and
perform this investigation. Many thanks to Yoni Appelbaum who is
Deputy Executive Editor @TheAtlantic who located the important
citation dated 1923. Also, thanks to Barry Popik who found the
citations dated March 9, 1952 and March 15, 1952.
[Begin Acknowledgements]

Feedback welcome
Garson O'Toole

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