Peggy Jo Tallas (June 6, 1944 – May 5, 2005)[1] was an American bank robber who would cross-dress as a man to conceal her identity, earning her the media epithet Cowboy Bob for always sporting a white ten-gallon hat.

[2] She robbed a total of five banks in Texas between 1991 and 1992 before she was caught by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but as Tallas never used a weapon during her robberies, she received a light sentence of 33 months.

In 2005, after living quietly for the past decade, she committed suicide by cop after police caught up to her escaping the scene of her final bank robbery.

[4] Her story was theatricalized by Buntport Theater and Square Product Theatre in their 2014 play Peggy Jo & the Desolate Nothing.

Unlike her siblings, Tallas was a free-spirited teenager and dropped out of high school in the tenth grade.

In 1984, she moved with her mother Helen to a Dallas suburb to help care for her, as she had fallen ill with a degenerative bone disease.

[9] In May 1991, wearing a pair of men’s pants, a dark men’s shirt, a brown leather jacket, a fake beard, aviator sunglasses, oversized riding boots and a cowboy hat, Tallas walked into an American Federal Bank in Irving, Texas.

No marked bills or dye packs.” The teller handed her the money as her instructions stated, and she walked out with a stack of cash without anyone else noticing.

After her first success, Tallas continued to rob banks all around the Dallas area, as well as Garland and Mesquite, using the same disguise.

Don’t set any alarms.” Tallas got the money but failed to check for a dye pack, which exploded when she left the bank.