The Allure Of Crime

Julia Sweeney moved from Spokane, Washington to Los Angeles to pursue her dream of being an accountant. When her job at MGM fell through, she began working at a hotel bar as an assistant bartender. She was upset that the hotel wouldn't pay her parking fees, so she began to steal the three dollars it cost to park. Soon this escalated into her stealing as much 1000 dollars on her most prolific night. Throughout this she was very religious and donated a lot of money at mass. She said god was like her "pimp," she had to pay him off since he was the only one that knew about her crimes. She says she got a "high" from the thefts, she became a slave to the rush. It got so bad that she would park her car in a dark spot in a dangerous neighborhood just so she would have to run fearfully through downtown L.A. and she would risk dangerous roads to get back to her minimum wage job just to steal. This story was intriguing because she seemed to be a fairly innocent person. I was surprised that it got so bad so quickly, but it shows that even small crimes can be dangerous roads that lead to bigger things.

Joe Lawya was a bank robber. He claims to have robbed upwards of thirty banks. Joe grew up in a very religious family, his dad was very well read in the scriptures and had even learned Latin and Hebrew to better interpret them. Joe's mother died when he was nine, and his father soon became violent even going so far as to put joe in the hospital after he told his girlfriend that he beat his kids. These frequent beatings eventually lead Joe to stab his father in the neck and then he was placed into foster care. Once Joe got older, he started stealing cars and went to jail for a couple of years. When he got out, he began to rob banks. He talked about how different types of tellers were easier to rob, stating that "Asian and Black women were the hardest to rob" and "middle class White women were the easiest to rob." He said that he was sometimes even embarrassed by how easy it was. His story surprised me less than the Julia's, as this seems like more of the stereotypical "criminal upbringing." The troubled family and a lack of a good role model being major things that are often connected to criminals.