Ep. 63: Santa Claus is Coming to Town…and Robbing the Bank!

Wise About Texas

Ken Wise

History, Education, Texan, Culture, Places & Travel, Texans, San, Cowboy, Texas, Jacinto, Society & Culture

4.9 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 22 December 2018

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

December 23, 1927 was a typical day in Cisco, Texas. People going about their Christmas shopping, ready for holiday time with family and friends. The kids even saw Santa Claus walking down Main Street! He engaged with the kids, wishing them Merry Christmas. Then he walked to the First National Bank, and into history, in what would be one of the most sensational gunfights and manhunts in Texas history. Hear the story of the Santa Claus Bank Robbery in the latest episode of Wise About Texas.

Transcript

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0:13.6	Howdy and welcome to another episode of Wise about Texas. This is your host Ken Wise. I want to thank you for tuning in for some Texas history today. Before we get started, I want to
0:17.4	mention and thank my friend Dr. Greg Jackson. Dr. Jackson hosts a great history podcast called History
0:25.1	that Doesn't Suck. He's a professor of history at Utah Valley University and
0:30.1	we share the philosophy of taking sound research and telling the stories of history and hopefully
0:37.1	interesting ways and I know Dr Jackson accomplishes that with his podcast.
0:41.6	He's covering the Texas Revolution right now and he asked me to
0:44.6	consult with him on it, which I did. It's out there now and really give some good
0:48.7	perspective on the period immediately before the actual Revolution revolution which is important to
0:54.4	understanding the Texas Revolution so check out the podcast history that
0:59.1	doesn't suck. I also want to thank my good friend Justice Jeff Brown of the Texas Supreme Court for writing a profile about Texas for the Houston Bar Journal.
1:07.5	You get the Houston Bar Journal if you're a member of the Houston Bar Association or you can go to their website HBA.org. I appreciate it, Justice Brown.
1:17.0	Well, this episode is being released right before Christmas 2018, so yes, it's a Christmas episode sort of
1:26.6	Except it's not really a particularly happy story. This is not a Hallmark Christmas episode in fact
1:36.2	more I think about it, it's actually pretty sad. There are no reindeer, no North Pole, no presents under the tree, but there is a Santa Claus. In Cisco, Texas, 1927, there was most definitely a Santa
1:48.4	clause. So let's go back to 1927 and get Wies about Texas. The date is December 23rd, 1927 in the town of
2:04.8	Cisco, Eastland County, Texas, two days before Christmas.
2:09.3	You can imagine the folks running around town, finishing up their Christmas shopping, visiting friends and family,
2:15.4	excited for the next couple of days.
2:18.1	Cisco was founded in the late 1800s and it grew rapidly thanks to the railroads. And in the early 20s the population was over 10,000 people, which was a big town for the area.
2:28.0	Later, the Mobley Hotel would actually be the first hotel owned by Conrad Hilton.
2:34.8	So Cisco had a big impact on the hospitality industry.
2:38.9	Well December 23rd, 1927, everyone's going about their Christmas business.
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