By: Gabriela Sundquist

Read Time: ~15 minutes

Cowboy Bob, as he came to be known, was a robber unlike any the FBI had previously encountered. Polite, calm, and completely silent, Bob would brilliantly execute robberies without leaving any evidence behind. Every clue that was left behind was an intentional red herring, leaving the FBI scrambling.

The Robberies

• May 1991 – America Federal Bank

  Irving, Texas

• December 1991 – Savings of America

  Irving, Texas

• January 1992 – Texas Heritage Bank

  Garland, Texas

• May 1992 – Nations Bank

  Mesquite, Texas

• September 25, 1992 – First Gibraltar Bank

  Mesquite, Texas

• September 25, 1992 – Mesquite First Interstate Bank

  Mesquite, Texas

May 1991 – Irving, Texas

From the first robbery in May 1991, Bob had the FBI hooked. Cowboy Bob had the clean execution of a professional, yet this is the first they had seen of him. How was he so practiced?

Nary a clue was left behind. Where most bank robbers are loud and impulsive, taking large amounts of money and threatening everyone’s safety. Bob had a quieter presence.

He’d walk in calmly, and hold a note up to the teller. It said “This is a bank robbery. Give me your money. No marked bills or dye packs.” He then would take the money, usually only a couple of thousand dollars, and calmly walk out. He’d be gone by the time the cops could get there, with nothing to go off of but the teller’s description of the robber.

An older gentleman, about 5’10”; silent and unarmed. Dressed in a leather jacket, with sunglasses, gloves, boots, and of course, the 10-gallon hat that gave him his name. A hat, that he wore backward.

December 1991 – Irving, Texas

Seven months later, Bob would strike again in Irving, Texas in December 1991. Steve Powell, an FBI agent that specialized in studying bank robbers and connecting their crimes, knew this had to be the same guy. The same outfit, execution, and unnerving calm made Steve sure that Bob had struck again.

Except for one thing. This time, the robber had gotten sloppy and cocky. He had parked his car directly in front of the bank, license plate and all. Steve couldn’t believe it. Could this really be the same guy who had pulled off the impeccable robbery in May? This gave Steve the idea that “the bank robber was either an idiot or something was up.”

The Clue

The FBI quickly hunted down the license plate owner and went ready to catch their guy. To their dismay, they found a car that didn’t match their description and a report of a missing license plate. Their only clue ended up being the first of many red herrings.

January 1992 – Garland, Texas

Again Cowboy Bob struck another small town in Texas. It was the same deal as the robbery just a month earlier in Irving. There were plenty of witnesses, and Bob parked his car right across the street from the bank.

While Steve and his colleagues were hesitant that this license would be a useful clue, they had to follow it just in case. Yet, the same problem arose. They hunted down the number just to find that it was another stolen plate. Three perfect robberies, two red herrings, and the FBI were no closer to finding Cowboy Bob than they were before.

They interviewed anyone who fit the description; men from all over Texas. Older scrawny men with varying degrees of similarities to the tellers’ descriptions. But no one ever quite fit perfectly.

September 25, 1992- Mesquite, Texas

Just when Steve Powell was starting to lose hope of ever finding a clue, Cowboy Bob struck again. This time in Mesquite, Texas. Steve drove down the robbery just to find the same disappointing lack of clues. As Steve started investigating and taking down some reports, he got a call.

Bob had struck again just a few miles down the road. Now Steve definitely knew something was up. Why would he hit two places in one day? Steve hopped in his car and raced down to the second crime scene.

While at first, it may have looked like the same pristine crime scene with the wonderful presence of the red herring license plate, Steve had a feeling. Something was off. If Bob were to slip up and leave a clue, this was going to be the time.

The Red Herring Turned Clue

Steve grabbed the description of the car and the license plate and headed on his way. The clue led Steve to Pete Tallas. And finally, Pete had some answers.

The End of the Hunt

Steve pulled up to Pete Tallas and asked him straightaway about the license plate and car. He asked Pete if he happened to have a brown Pontiac Grand Prix. Pete, puzzled but compliant said that he did, but he gave it to his mother and sister a few years ago. Steve informed Pete it had just been used in a bank robbery, and Pete just shook his head in disbelief. “Bullsh*t. That car can’t go fast enough!”

While this wasn’t too much of a lead it was far more than they had had in the past, so Steve went out to see Pete’s family.

Pete’s mother and sister, Helen and Peggy Tallas lived in a humble apartment in a complex. When Steve pulled in, he laid eyes on the car. The car that he had been chasing down all this time. The one that matched the descriptions. He pulled into the shadows of the parking lot and waited for his man.

But no man was in sight. A woman wearing shorts and a t-shirt got into the car to leave. Steve followed her out of the parking lot and pulled her over.

He had found Peggy Jo Tallas, Pete’s sister. But the question remained. who was Cowboy Bob? And how was he connected to Peggy?

Peggy was very calm and matter of fact as Steve questioned her. The two of them stayed in Steve’s car while the backup went upstairs to her apartment, expecting to find a man, possibly her boyfriend. Instead, they found much more.

Finding Bob

Steve continued questioning this woman asking where the man was that she was protecting. She was adamant that she wasn’t hiding any men. Then Steve gets the call from the agents inside her apartment.

“No men here, Powell. But we did find boots, gloves, jacket, beard, and Bob’s 10-gallon hat.”

Steve was puzzled, staring at this small woman in front of him. What was she hiding? And why wouldn’t she break? At this moment he finally noticed the flecks of white in her hair and it finally clicked. The biggest red herring of them all. Bob wasn’t a Bob at all. Bob was a woman.

They had searched and searched for a man who matched the description, all the while, Peggy was completely invisible to the FBI, simply because she was a woman. While Steve had assumed the cowboy get-up was a disguise (tipped off by Bob’s backward cowboy hat), he had never suspected a woman beneath the hat.

Peggy Jo Tallas

A new question started bugging Steve. Who is Peggy Jo Tallas? The answer to this question would be the needed missing piece to understanding the existence of Cowboy Bob.

She was calm and honest as he and his colleagues questioned her. She told the simple truth. She was Cowboy Bob and she needed the money for her mother’s medication. But she seemed to be withholding something.

She was very calm. She never lied to me. In hindsight, I realize she never lied.

Steve Powell

Before Bob

Peggy was always wild and free growing up. While her sisters went through school and did things traditionally, she couldn’t stand the dull reality of school every day. She dropped out in 10th grade because she needed more. She wanted to travel and experience life. She even ended up driving to San Francisco one day, just to see what living there would be like. Her favorite movie was Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Peggy had dreams and desires, and the drive to truly strive toward those dreams. Her lifelong friend said the following.

“She told me she was saving a little so that she could someday go to Mexico, just to live on the beach in an hacienda and wear bathing suits night and day. She was beautiful and rambunctious. She always told me that deep down she was wild at heart.”

Cherry Young

Turning Point

So what happened to this traveling free spirit? Life hit her like a wall of bricks.

She met a man and fell deeply in love, only to find out he was married. Cherry believes this sullied men for her. Her friends and sisters all moved on and got married, while Peggy didn’t date much after that.

Then her mom got diagnosed with a degenerative bone disease and Peggy took on her mother’s care full time. Medical bills were high and income was tight. Her dreams of going to Mexico seemed further and further away.

Times were desperate and she needed money now. Thus, Cowboy Bob was born.

Prison

Yet this desperate act for money pushed her dreams even further away. Peggy got charged with three counts of robbery and 33 months in federal prison. She was 48 when she got locked away.

The judge and the jury saw Peggy’s crimes for what they were. Acts of desperation. She never harmed anyone only stealing what she needed, and her sentence reflected that.

After Prison

After three years in prison, Peggy Jo’s time was up and it was time for her to get back into the world. Things got quiet again. She laid low and got a job at the marina. She jumped back into taking care of her mother, whose disease was so bad at this point she couldn’t feed herself.

Peggy was back in normal life. Job, responsibilities, etc. She lived her life as she was supposed to with friends and brunches, leaving her past of crime behind her. She was known for helping people out, whether it be with money or simple friendship. Peggy knew firsthand that everyone has a past. She would specifically reach out to the people who others turned away from. A friend to all. But, in the back of her mind, her dreams of financial freedom and Mexico still had a place. Cherry reminisced:

“This is hard to explain, but I think Peg was starting to feel… like her life was slipping away. Do you know what I mean? It’s the way women get sometimes. You get to a place in your life and you start looking back and you say to yourself that it’s not working out the way you hoped. You think everything is slipping away and you feel – I don’t know – crazy. You want to scream or something.

I think Peg missed being wild at heart.”

Cherry Young

After Peggy’s mother passed, Peggy disappeared. She bought an RV and left her home behind. While it wasn’t Mexico, it gave her a taste of the freedom she had always desired.

And Bob is Back

• October 2004 – Guaranty Bank

  Tyler, Texas

• May 2005 – Guaranty Bank

  Tyler, Texas

October 2004 – Tyler, Texas

One day in October, an odd-looking man walked into Guaranty Bank in Tyler, Texas. He had a scraggly mustache and a large (clearly fake) belly. He also wore gloves and a big ole’ cowboy hat. He entered calmly and said to the teller, “Give me all your money. No fake bills, no blow-up money,” in a strange feminine voice, then walked calmly out. No car in sight.

If Steve Powell was still on the force, he would have recognized Cowboy Bob immediately. But instead, authorities interviewed an endless list of men that fit the description, with nothing to show for it. Until seven months later.

May 2005 – Tyler, Texas

Peggy Jo came up to the same bank, Guaranty Bank in Tyler, and parked her RV across the street. The bank was the same, yet Cowboy Bob was nowhere to be found. Instead, Peggy came as herself.

Bob may not have been there, but Peggy was. and she exhibited all of the same mannerisms. Polite, calm, and professional. She demanded the bag of money with no dye packs.

This time, the young teller gave Peggy $11,000, more money than she had ever received. This must have had her dreaming about the beaches of Mexico, her dream finally in her hands. Because the teller slipped in a dye pack, and Peggy missed it. As she exited the bank, the dye pack was triggered and foiled everything. It stained all of the money and marked Peggy with the unmissable mark of a robber.

The joy in Peggy’s heart must have quickly dissipated as she assessed her situation. This was new to her. She was always in and out, without incident. A professional.

She ran out to her RV and tried to speed away. But an RV is a terrible getaway car. The cops were quickly on her tail and cornered Peggy in a cul-de-sac.

The MO Switch-up

Why Peggy changed her M.O. this time, leaving Bob behind, why she robbed the same bank, why she didn’t check more closely for the dye pack, we’ll never know the answer to these questions. But one thing that we know for sure is Peggy was absolutely not going back to prison.

Her whole thing her whole life had been the desire for freedom. School took that away from her, so she dropped out. And if school wasn’t her vibe, prison must have made her feel insane.

Peggy never could admit how much fun she had robbing banks. It may have started out as a desperate act to help her mom, but it turned into her source of freedom, both financially and spiritually. A chance to let her wild child self run free.

The Last Ride

So there Peggy was in her RV, trapped in a cul-de-sac, surrounded by cops. She was out of options. Peggy was facing the reality of going to prison for the rest of her days as a second offender. She lit up a cigarette and started pacing back and forth in her RV, while the cops stood around RV commanding her to come out with her hands up.

Finally, she does come out. Peggy, now 60 years old, stands on the step of her R.V. wielding a gun. “I’m not going back. You’re going to have to kill me,” she cries. She pointed the gun at the officers, and they shot her.

She made her choice. She decided death was better than prison. She also made her choice that she didn’t want to hurt anyone. That was her whole attitude. She was a helper of people, an unarmed robber, and a free spirit. The gun she wielded in front of the police was a toy, while a real gun sat quietly tucked under her pillow.

The End of Bob and Peggy

When Steve was asked what he thought when he found out what had happened to Peggy, he remembered thinking he didn’t want to hear that. He thought maybe if he was there he could have talked to her, maybe helped her see some other options.

Steve saw Peggy as a woman who wouldn’t hurt anyone. It was a very violent end to a non-violent woman. He had a lot of respect for her as a bank robber. She came close to being the most perfect bank robber he’d ever seen. With red herrings and perfect exits, Steve admired her skill.

He and many others, including myself, wonder what changed that last day. She could have gotten away with it if she stuck to her M.O. She could have gone on to ride again.

Maybe she was tired or she got cocky. Maybe she was ready to get her money and drive down to Mexico, finally fulfilling her dream. Or maybe Cherry was right, and Peggy felt her life slipping away. And the only way she could think to hold on was by feeling free the only way she knew how.

Sources:

Big thanks to Phoebe Judge with Criminal and Skip Hollandsworth for their time and dedication to this story.