* The only woman to ever break out of the Sarasota Florida county jail
* The number one crime story in Sarasota in 1955
* In November, 1953, Mom left the family and ran away
with her boyfriend William Howard (Bill) Gaskell.
At the time, we lived in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood at 5400 S. Ridgewood court.
They embarked on a coast-to-coast armed robbery spree, suspected in
over 27 separate incidents from Oak Park, IL to Los Angeles CA and back to Miami FL.
* My book about this is called "THE HOUSEWIFE LOVED A BANDIT"
The book is available for purchase now on Amazon.com
Here is the link. Click it!
* My screenplay about this is called "THE HOUSEWIFE LOVED A BANDIT"
If you are a producer and want to see the screenplay
CLICK HERE to send an email for more info!
* If you are just curious, let me know what you think.
CLICK HERE to send an email for more info!
* LOGLINE........
* This true story is set in the baby boomer years 1953-59.
* A 35-year-old housewife is enticed by a 26-year-old ex-con, to leave Chicago to get their kicks on route 66.
* After her jailbreak, the FBI called her "a fighter with a taste for raw garlic";
* the 6 kids left behind, called her "mom".
* WGNTV MORNING NEWS anchor, Larry Potash with the lovely Sarah Jindra
got me in the studio for a live interview August 4, 2022.
We discussed my book THE HOUSEWIFE LOVED A BANDIT.
and the subsequent screenplay"
CLICK HERE to watch the video.
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* A follow-up article to the story appeared in the Sarasota Herald Tribune February 2018.
The staff writer, Billy Cox, interviewed me in a Sarasota coffee shop
to announce the completion of the book.
It is titled "His mother, the only woman to break out of the Sarasota county jail."
CLICK HERE to read the story from the Sarasota Herald Tribune website.
You may have to scroll down.
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* Veteran documentary filmmaker David Hoffman recently held a ZOOM interview with me.
The YOUTUBE video created from that interview tells how and
why I wrote the book THE HOUSEWIFE LOVED A BANDIT.
It is titled "His Mom Robbed Banks & He Didn't Know It"
CLICK HERE to watch the video.
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* My mother wrote a bouncy little tune. In 1985, we made a simple demo of it.
Years later I realized the song was about
her little fling..
It is titled "THE WALKAWAY BLUES"
CLICK HERE to listen and view pictures from the book on YOUTUBE.
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* NEWSFLASH--- ---MARCH 7, 2020. 2-4PM * I think CARLA GUGINOwould be a good choice to play my mother. Yes? No?
Click on the dates to read articles from Florida newspapers, 1954-57 MAY 31, 1955 (PICTURE ON PAGE 1 AT THE BOTTOM) Jan 1, 1956. Scroll left on the page to #5.
Florida Case Law
LONG v. STATE, 92 So.2d 259 (Fla. 1957)January 23, 1957.
On January 26, 1955 an information was filed by
William M. Smiley, State Attorney of the Twelfth Judicial Circuit of the State of Florida
for Sarasota County, prosecuting for the State of Florida in the County of Sarasota,
containing allegations "that Dewey Long late of the County and State aforesaid,
on the 21st day of January the year of our Lord One Thousand Nine Hundred and Fifty-five,
in the county and state aforesaid did unlawfully and feloniously convey into a
cell block of the Sarasota County Jail, a place of confinement, an instrument,
to-wit: a piece of wood, commonly referred to as a 2 X 4, which was a thing
useful to aid a prisoner in making her escape, * * *."
Website and content copyright 2023, LARRY BARAN
I was in Hyde Park for a presentation.
Hyde Park Historical Society
5529 S. Lake Park Ave
Phone: (773) 493-1893 CLICK HERE
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