Area author shares true-crime story
Santa Claus is not someone we usually expect to find on the naughty list, but Austin pastor and author Tom Goodman is coming to the Taylor Public Library to talk about his book spotlighting the Jolly Old Elf’s part in a 1927 Texas bank heist.
Goodman, author of “The Last Man: A Novel of the 1927 Santa Claus Bank Robbery,” starts his talk at 5 p.m. Nov. 5 in the library, 801 Vance St.
The account of a bank robbery in Cisco where one of the criminals dressed as Saint Nick took Goodman 20 years to research and write.
“In the 1990s, I served as a pastor in the county where it all happened…I heard many stories from residents about their town’s most infamous crime,” Goodman said.
He was even able to interview family members of three of the four holdup men. While uncovering more details about the fourth man has proven elusive, the culprit — who dressed as Santa Claus — is the focus of Goodman’s story.
Recently, Goodman found a lead on a possible relative for the last man.
Even though the book has long been completed, “I hope to reach out soon,” Goodman said.
The author described his work as “a novelized version of true crime.”
“I enjoyed ‘fleshing out’ the bandits with dialogue and internal motivations that we can only guess at from reading the newspaper accounts,” Goodman said.
He noted he has always been struck by how very differently each bandit’s life ended.
“One died in the getaway, one was executed by the state, one was lynched by an angry mob and one turned his life around,” Goodman said.
It was the “last man” that captured Goodman’s attention as both a writer and a pastor, and a part of the story not revealed in newspaper or magazine articles or podcasts.
“He had a religious conversion in prison, which changed his life so significantly that the governor granted him a conditional pardon,” Goodman said. “(The last man) did something with his second chance, and by the time he died in his 90s in 1996, he had been a married, model citizen for 50 years.”
Goodman will have copies of books to buy after his presentation at the library.
“A cover featuring a gun-toting, bank-robbing Santa Claus should make for entertaining Christmas gifts,” he said.
For anyone who signs up for Goodman’s free monthly newsletter at ThomasGoodmanWrites. com, they will have access to a free book, “The Santa Claus Bank Robbery in Photos.”
The book is a 26-page download featuring actual photos of the real characters from the story: the bandits, police officers, hostages and more.
To find the truecrime novelization online, go to https:// www.amazon.com/ Last-Man-Novel-Santa-Robbery/dp/ B0C5TS1JJX.
