A Trip: Serendipity and the Santa Clause Robber

One morning while visiting with my brother I put on my Huntsville, A Gated Community Since 1849 t-shirt. For those not familiar with Huntsville, that is the location of the Texas State Prison—the referenced “gated” community. My sister-in-law mentioned that she had a relative buried in the cemetery at the prison, a cousin of her father. Apparently he was the getaway driver for the Santa Clause Robber and had died while in prison. She went on to tell me what she knew of the Santa Clause Robber, so named because he dressed in a Santa Clause costume. The cousin had relatives with deposits in the first bank they chose to rob and refused to participate in stealing his relative’s money. As a result they switch to another bank in Cisco, Texas.

In Eastland we were talking with a gentleman that mentioned that he did not exactly know why but about a block from where we were standing was a marble slab telling about the Santa Clause Robber. I thought it was serendipitous that after Billie telling me the story about her distant cousin that I end up in a town that was connected with the Robber.