In police custody |
She waved a hypodermic syringe filled with a colored liquid over her head, announcing to everyone that the place was surrounded and insinuated Al Capone was her partner in crime.
photo from The Des Moines Register - Jan. 23, 1947 |
When an elderly man next to Opal started to turn, she told him, "Just stand still, Mister. One squirt of this and you will be a dead stiff in a second."
She hadn't gone far. She walked to her dentist's office to pay an outstanding bill in the amount of $75 for some false teeth. Opal borrowed the key to the ladies' restroom where she hid the rest of the money in both the toilet paper dispenser and waste paper basket. She disposed of the hypodermic syringe, bought herself a magazine and headed back outside.
Opal was one of many women wearing a grey fur coat that afternoon so she blended in quite easily but it was her lack of a hat that made police spot her.
photo from The Globe Gazette - Jan. 23, 1947 |
Opal was taken to the police station where she said, "I suppose you are suspecting me of the St. Louis bank robbery, too." Well, if they weren't before they certainly were now.
On that day, Opal Dixon walked away with $582 in singles. Not a bad haul considering she did it all on the spur of the moment.
On December 26, 1946, mother and daughter were waiting at the St. Louis bus station for a return trip to Des Moines when Opal disappeared for a bit. She later claimed she simply got it into her head that she would rob a bank and so she did.
She claims the inspiration came to her in a dream; days before robbing the bank she had a dream in which she was a wealthy woman.
When Walden hesitated, she told him "I'm not kidding, hand it over." Opal was given an envelope bulging with one dollar bills and Walden helped the next customer before sounding the alarm. Not even the man standing on line behind Opal knew there had been a robbery.
Opal rejoined her daughter at the bus station, said nothing about where she'd been and both of them boarded the bus.
Suspicion quickly fell on Walden especially after the results of his lie detector test proved inconclusive. I believe there's a good chance Walden was merely unwilling to admit an unarmed woman managed to rob him. Opal's version of events makes no mention of a handgun.
Opal later told police all the money from the first bank theft had been spent on "steaks, a radio, electric clock and other gadgets."
The morning of the robbery, Opal filled a hypodermic syringe with a little bit of Listerine. This would serve as her phony liquid dynamite.
Photo from Des Moines Register - Jan. 23, 1947 |
Opal showed very little remorse for her crime nor did she seem overly concerned about the stiff penalty for such an act. If found guilty, and she had already confessed to not one but two robberies, Opal would receive the mandatory sentence of life in prison. A sympathetic district attorney offered her a plea deal but Opal refused to plead guilty in court to the lesser charge of robbery with aggravation which would have resulted in a maximum sentence of 25 years. She would take her chances with the all-female jury and a charge of robbery with intent.
photo from The Des Moines Tribune - Feb. 7, 1947 |
Opal would claim that she only robbed the banks so that the FBI would be alerted to her terrible situation and lend assistance. She testified that she wanted to scare everyone "real bad, the way I have been scared for the past eight years." Both of her daughters, Louise, aged 18, and Jewell, aged 16, would back her up with regards to abuse Opal had suffered at the hands of her husband, Jesse Dixon.
Just a few of the gems included "I was simply tired of living without having money - that's why I did it." "I robbed two banks because I wanted my family to enjoy the thrill of having lots of money" and "If I had gotten by with that job today, my family would be eating nice juicy steaks."
photo from The Des Moines Tribune - February 14, 1947 |
Nobody had to come out of the woodwork to expose Opal. She took the stand in her own defense, told all and came across as impetuous, forthright and sympathetic.
photo from The Des Moines Register - Jan. 23, 1947 |
Unfortunately, Robert E. Couillion was not the answer to her problems. "Robert was my French and Spanish husband, and there was trouble almost from the start. I hit him on the head with an alarm clock because he beat the children, the police came, and I was taken to the hospital all banged up, with several fractured ribs."
While Robert Couillion was being deported and divorced, Opal was being arrested for kidnapping her own daughters from the custody of Illinois juvenile authorities. These charges would eventually be dropped.
Things couldn't have always been bad between Robert and Opal because according to an article in the January 23, 1947 Des Moines Tribune, Opal admitted the name "Robert" had been tattooed over her heart.
Opal married for a fifth time, as early as 1938 or as late as 1943, depending upon which statement you read.
Her new husband, Jesse Dixon, was 25 years older than her and, like Opal, had four previous marriages behind him. After 7 months of marriage, most of the family relocated to Peoria, Illinois. Oldest daughter Louise stayed behind in St. Louis and although Jewell did accompany Opal and Jesse, she was placed in a children's home.
Opal spent 2 years working as a prostitute but quit because of arthritis. Opal sought treatment at a hospital for her ailment then returned to St. Louis. She tried to put some distance between herself and her husband but wherever Opal went, Jesse followed.
During one such reunion, much to Opal's disappointment, Jesse handed over only $500 of the $4,000 they had made while in Peoria after promising her an equal cut. Jesse then insisted repeatedly that Opal return to working as a prostitute or perhaps help with a blackmail scheme he'd devised.
According to Opal, Jesse said "you're not going to be young always and ought to make some quick money while the sun shines." She refused because her health had been ruined by her "work in the underworld" and this angered him.
photo and caption from the book "Des Moines"
written by Craig C. McCue
|
The hotel had a questionable reputation and was the subject of many a police raid.
Jesse was employed by the Watson Freight Company as dispatcher while Opal worked occasionally as a practical nurse at the Wilden Osteopathic Hospital and as a waitress at a downtown restaurant.
Jewell was a student nurse at the same hospital and apparently seeking a divorce. Louise, who had been working alongside her mother as a waitress was currently unemployed.
All four of them were taken in for questioning. Jesse was ultimately released because police believed he was not involved although he did admit to having knowledge of his wife's first robbery.
Upon her return from St. Louis in December 1946, Opal had showed him a sack full of $1 bills. Jesse's statement also included the fact that he had sent Opal $37 while she was in Des Moines visiting Jewell but only $18 of that had been repaid.
photo from The Daily News - Feb. 20, 1947 |
photo from The Des Moines Tribune - Feb. 28, 1947
|
Once incarcerated at the Rockwell City Reformatory, Opal had some difficulty adjusting and was twice transferred to the Cherokee State Hospital for observation after suffering "attacks of hysterical frenzy," first in July 1947 and then in September 1948.
Cherokee State Hospital, photo from the website EveryBody:An Artifact History of Disability in America |
Women's Reformatory, Rockwell, Iowa -
photo from State of Iowa, Dept. of Social Services |
After 6 1/2 hours of hiding in a cornfield, Opal walked back to her cottage and turned herself in. Opal's hands and legs were reddened and chapped from exposure. Opal told them "she couldn't stand it any longer. But she'll try again next summer - when it's warmer." Opal spent the next 30 days in solitary confinement and did not make good on her promise of a second attempt.
In 1953, Prison Magazine published an article about Opal and described her as model inmate:
On August 21, 1957, Opal was paroled after spending 10 1/2 years in prison. The Des Moines Tribune reported that Opal would be living in Michigan where both of her daughters reside.
Making the most of her freedom, Opal had found time for romance. That's right - Opal married for a sixth time.
It was a whirlwind courtship; they had only known each other about a week. Opal proposed on their second date. She told him "she could cook, bake and be a good homemaker." James found her to be "a charming, witty, white-haired woman."
James was stunned into silence, "I drove her to Woodward Ave., dropped her off and I haven't seen her since." On January 2, 1958 he would granted an annulment.