Santa Claus Robbery

What’s Juicy?

The story of the Ranger oil boom is fact although, the shipments of coal to the North Pole was an obvious addition. The location of the JH McKleskey No 1. has a “park” and it looks like there may be some old equipment still there. I wonder if they ever plugged the well. The facts about the growth of the field are staggering and true. All of the towns around Ranger would be transformed from small towns to boom towns.

The account of Conrad Hilton is supposedly true. No one ever says which bank he was coming to buy. I like to think it was the one that got robbed. I don’t believe the hotel had a Santa Claus in the lobby though, so they probably weren’t charging for that.

The story of the robbery is pretty high-level to not bore people with the details. It is what I thought was relevant from a few accounts of the story. People differ on the facts, like always. I did make up the part about the Ho Ho Holdup.

The building at the end of the alley was a vacant lot during the time of the robbery. Frances and her mom ran across the alley and got to the police station quickly. This is why they were able to respond before they left. The rest of the robbery account is true although ridiculous. Robert Hill got a full pardon from Governor Connolly in 1964. He supposedly changed his name and went to live the rest of his life in West Texas. He died in 1996. The story of the insanity… well insanity is true. It appeared like he might get out of the death penalty, so the mob took things into their own hands.

The story of the play and the noose are true. There is a monument behind the theater that commemorates the lynching. The museum in the old jail has inscriptions on the wall from Helms and Hill as well as Ratliff’s pistols. They even have the rope from the lynching.

Conrad Hilton was born on Christmas Day and he liked to be charitable with his money. That is why he has “Christmas is forever” written on his tombstone. He probably did not have anything to do with the bank robbery. It just goes to show you how you can find conspiracies anywhere.

Keep it Juicy!