Meet Local Author Tom Goodman on March 22nd

Tom Goodman is the author of a new novel called The Last Man. It is closely based on a true crime from 1927 that the press called “The Santa Claus Bank Robbery.” Tom first ran across the story when he lived in the small Texas county where it all took place. He currently lives in Austin, where he has been able to conduct extensive research on the true crime at the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. Tom is the author of several nonfiction books; The Last Man is his first novel.

Meet the Author! The Round Rock Library is hosting Tom at a Meet & Greet event on Saturday, March 22nd, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Books will be available for purchase from the author. Ten percent of all proceeds support the Friends of the Round Rock Public Library.

More from Tom about the story that inspired his novel.

My novel is closely based on a true crime from the 1920s that the press dubbed “The Santa Claus Bank Robbery.” The ringleader dressed as Santa Claus to hide his identity from his neighbors while he and 3 others robbed his hometown bank. One died in the deadly shootout at the bank, one was executed in the electric chair, and one was lynched by an angry mob. But I’ve always been fascinated with the lone survivor from the gang, and my novel is named for him: The Last Man.

Two days before Christmas 1927, four men robbed the First National Bank of Cisco. Cisco is in Eastland County, halfway between Abilene and Fort Worth. The ringleader was from Cisco, so he thought dressing as Santa Claus at Christmastime would disguise himself from his own neighbors.

The robbery was supposed to take three minutes. But news got out that the bank was being robbed. In moments the bank was surrounded by armed men.

No doubt many of them were drawn there to get a new and controversial reward. It was dubbed the “Dead Bank Robber” reward.

In that period of Texas history, an average of four banks were hit each day in the state. The Texas Bankers Association hoped to stem the tide by offering a $5000 reward to anyone who killed a bank robber. The wording on the poster added—“and not one cent for a live one.” In the 1920s, $5000 was about two-year’s pay for a working man.

So, armed lawmen and citizens began to fire at anyone who tried to exit the back door of the bank. The robbers made bank employees and customers walk ahead of them, including two fourth-grade girls. They made it to their car and drove away with the two girls as hostages. And that began the largest manhunt in Texas. It lasted 7 days.

One bandit died in the getaway, but after the other 3 were captured, they were tried separately for armed robbery and murder. The verdict in the 3 separate trials: Two of the men were sent to death row and one was given a life sentence.

Of the two who were sent to death row, one feigned insanity in hopes of escaping the electric chair. But a jury wasn’t convinced, and he was executed as scheduled.

After that, the other one on death row tried to feign insanity, too. But when he was returned from the Huntsville State Penitentiary to the Eastland County Jail on a bench warrant, he made a failed attempt to escape, and he killed a popular jailer in the process. The next day, a mob broke into the jail, dragged the bandit out, and lynched him.

Now, this is where the story usually ends. It’s been told and re-told, usually around Christmas time. It continues to appear in magazines like Texas Monthly and Texas Highways, and in newspapers and, these days, on podcasts.

But the accounts all end at the spectacular lynching.

Over the years, every time I would read one of these accounts, I would ask myself, “But what about the last man? You’ve told me about the man who died in the getaway and the man who was executed in the electric chair and the man who was lynched. But that about the one who was given a life sentence instead of the death penalty?”

He was pardoned only 15 years into his life sentence, and by the time he died in his 90s in the 1990s, he had been a married model citizen for 50 years.

My novel is about him, and that’s why it’s called “The Last Man.”

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Author’s Bio

Tom Goodman was born in 1961, and has lived in Alabama, the Philippines, Virginia, Maine, Louisiana, the Cayman Islands, and Texas. He is a graduate of Baylor University in Waco, Texas  (BA ‘82), Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas (MDiv ‘86), and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in New Orleans, Louisiana (DMin ‘92). He has been the lead pastor of Baptist churches in Louisiana, the Cayman Islands, and Texas, for over forty years. He currently serves as the pastor of Hillcrest Church in Austin, Texas, where he has served since 2003 (www.hillcrest.church). Tom is the author of a Broadman & Holman nonfiction book and he is the contributor to a Broadman & Holman Study Bible. He has written hundreds of articles for Lifeway publications, and he is the author of several independently-published nonfiction books.

The Last Man is his first novel. It is based on a true crime that the press dubbed, “The Santa Claus Bank Robbery.” He first ran across this story while serving as the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Eastland, Texas, in the 1990s, just a few blocks away from where the Santa Claus robber met a violent end in 1929. Tom has been married to Diane, his high school sweetheart, since 1980. They have two adult sons. Tom enjoys fly fishing, scuba diving, and puttering around his woodworking shop.

Copy and images courtesy of Tom Goodman and Mainsail Books.

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