| How much does four and a half million dollars weigh? Ray Bowman and Billy Kirkpatrick found out in February, 1997, when they committed the largest bank robbery in American history. After restraining onlookers with electrical ties, the pair jammed three hundred and fifty-five pounds of cash into duffelbags, then absconded in a stolen Jeep. They wore hats that said “F.B.I.” as they carried out the crime. In 2002, The New Yorker published a detailed account of Bowman and Kirkpatrick’s lengthy career, which they conducted across a large swath of the United States. With a notable exception, the duo operated largely without violence, distinguishing themselves by their good manners toward their victims. (The writer Alex Kotlowitz reports that Bowman once bought a bank manager’s son a 7 UP—during a heist.) But polished etiquette couldn’t compensate for sloppy mistakes, nor could a growing interest in domestic life as the men reached middle age. “I just felt,” one of their girlfriends later recalled, “he had a whole other life outside of me.” | 
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