THE GIRL WITH THE BOB


The 1920s roared with jazz, booze and shorter skirts and hairstyles for ladies. Prohibition caused economic hardship and a rise in crime. A married couple expecting their first baby went on a short-lived robbery spree and captured New York City's attention. Celia Cooney, "The Bobbed Hair Bandit," and her husband Ed predated Bonnie and Clyde as bank robbing sweethearts.

Celia and Ed Cooney were not criminal masterminds.  In fact their crimes spree lasted only three and a half months and netted barely enough money to eke out a meager survival.


Sylvia Roth was born in poverty in New York City, in 1904. She and her eight siblings were neglected by their parents. Celia left home at 16 and found work in a laundry. She married Ed Cooney, a mechanic five years for senior, in 1923. The couple soon found they had a baby on the way. Ed and Celia hatched a plan to attain the money they would need for proper furniture and baby gear.

January 5th, 1924 Celia entered a Park Slope grocery store and ask for a dozen eggs. When the clerk turned to Celia to present her request, Celia told him this was a stick up. At 5 feet tall Celia was not at all threatening, but with a snub nose revolver aimed at him, the clerk did as Celia said. She and Ed took $680. They robbed two more stores and the New York newspapers had new headline makers.

New York City Police Commissioner Richard Enright was ridiculed for being unable to catch a girl robber. The press named Celia "The Bobbed Hair Bandit," in honor of her short hairstyle. The Bob signified freedom and flapper-dom - two things the older generations feared. Women with short hairstyles were stopped and interrogated by police ; F Scott Fitzgerald often said Zelda had been questioned by the police, as her stylish bob haircut made her a suspect.

Enright jailed a woman named Helen Quigley, insisting she was the bandit. Celia wrote a letter copied in New York City newspapers ridiculing Enright for this arrest. When she and Ed robbed another store while Quigley was in jail, Enright was forced to free Quigley. The humiliation of an erroneous arrest fed Enright's fire to catch the bandit. Ed and Celia continued to evade capture.

Ed and Celia's crime spree ended April 1st, 1924. They planned to rob an NaBisCo Warehouse of its payroll (and maybe some Lorna Doones.) The clerk made a grab for Celia. The pregnant Celia stumbled ; Ed drew his weapon and fired, injuring clerk. The two fled, leaving $8,000 behind in a safe. Ed and Celia made their way to Florida.


On April 10th Celia gave birth to a girl, Katherine. The baby died two days later. By April 15 the entire nation knew the names Ed and Celia Cooney. Newspapers all across the country covered their story. They were caught April 21, 1924. When they arrived back in New York they were met by cheering crowns. Ed and Celia were given 20 years in prison, but were paroled after 7 years.


Ed and Celia remained married and had two sons. Ed was injured in an accident with prison machinery, resulting in the amputation of one arm. They filed a lawsuit and won $12,000. Ed died of tuberculosis in 1936. Celia faded into obscurity and raised her sons with her second husband. She died in 1992 ; her sons never knew their quiet, churchgoing mother was a bank robber who inspired songs and poems - "the girl with the Bob" was indeed "right on the job" of being a wife and mother who left her bank robbing past behind.


SOURCES :

Celia Cooney. Wikipedia.

Young, Lauren. How We Forgot the Bobbed Haired Bandit. Atlas Obscura. 26, January 2017.


FURTHER MEDIA :

BOOKS : 

The Bobbed Haired Bandit: A True Story of Crime and Celebrity in 1920s New York ~ Stephen Duncombe / Andrew Mattson

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