Gerald Chapman: America's First Public Enemy Number One - Roaring Twenties Gangster Who Met the Hangman
⚠️ OLD FORMAT EPISODE - New listeners should start with Season 1, Episode 1 Before Capone. Before Dillinger. Gerald Chapman was America's original Public Enemy Number One—the outlaw who pulled off the largest mail heist in U.S. history. THE STORY: Gerald Chapman (1887-1926) | Brooklyn-born, orphaned young | WWI draft dodger (alias George Chartres) | 1921: $2.4M mail truck heist NYC (over $40M today) - largest in U.S. history | Lived lavishly as fugitive | 1922: Captured, Atlanta Penitentiary ...
⚠️ OLD FORMAT EPISODE - New listeners should start with Season 1, Episode 1
Before Capone. Before Dillinger. Gerald Chapman was America's original Public Enemy Number One—the outlaw who pulled off the largest mail heist in U.S. history.
THE STORY: Gerald Chapman (1887-1926) | Brooklyn-born, orphaned young | WWI draft dodger (alias George Chartres) | 1921: $2.4M mail truck heist NYC (over $40M today) - largest in U.S. history | Lived lavishly as fugitive | 1922: Captured, Atlanta Penitentiary | 1923: Escaped with smuggled hacksaw | 18 months on run | 1924: Killed police officer during CT robbery | Caught via fingerprints (new technology) | 1925: Convicted murder | April 6, 1926: Hanged Wethersfield Prison, age 38 | Final words: "Death itself isn't dreadful, but hanging seems awkward" | Called himself "gentleman bandit" | Press: "Count of Gramercy Park"
WHAT WE EXPLORE: America's first "Public Enemy" | Gentleman bandit image vs. killer reality | Identity shifts | Psychology of charismatic criminals | Fingerprint breakthrough | Media fascination | Philosophical final words
THE PSYCHOLOGY: Jung's Persona - mask consuming self | Nietzsche's Übermensch - above morality | Cognitive Dissonance - compartmentalizing | Attachment Theory - emotional detachment | Protean Self - trauma-driven reinvention | Psychopathy - charm masking coldness
THE CONTEXT: 1920s Prohibition crime wave | Fingerprinting still new | Media creating criminal celebrities | Chapman inspired FBI's "Public Enemy" designation
SOURCES: Buffalo News (1925) | The Republican (1926) | Springfield Daily Republican | CT Judicial Archives | WWI Draft Card | U.S. Census | Atlanta/Auburn Penitentiary logs | National Archives | CT State Library | Burrough "Public Enemies" | Jung, Nietzsche, Festinger, Bowlby, Ainsworth, Lifton, Cleckley, Hare research
VIEW MUGSHOT: https://dc.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/index.php/Detail/Object/Show/object_id/160
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DISCLAIMER: For educational purposes only. Based on historical records and psychological research. We are not psychologists. Views explore criminal psychology, not endorsement. Chapman was convicted and executed. We respect the police officer killed and all victims. This examines how charisma masks violence.
He stole millions. Killed a cop. Died quoting philosophy. America's first Public Enemy.
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