This episode is a little different, we have a theme going on here - Bank Robberies. We will feature not one, but two Elizabeths from different historical periods, with bank robberies in common.

Part One is about a Gilded Age con woman named Elizabeth Bigley, but she used many different names and personas in order to accomplish some pretty impressive scams. Many scammers take money from regular folk, but Bigley set her sights on tougher targets like Lawyers and Bank Presidents. Bigley's biggest scam was pretending she was the illegitimate daughter of Steel magnate and extremely rich guy, Andrew Carnegie.

If you hate banks and extremely rich people, you will love Elizabeth Bigley, a/k/a Cassie Chadwick, a/k/a Madame Lydia DeVere, a/k/a Madame Marie LaRose.

Part Two of this episode involves a bank robbery and an Elizabeth, but she didn't commit the crime, she inspired it. In 1973, John Wojtowicz, a Viet Nam veteran, attempted to rob a Chase bank in Gravesend, Brooklyn. The robbery went completely off the rails, and turned into a hostage stand-off that lasted hours and became a mass media event. The reason Wojtowicz robbed the bank - he needed the money to pay for his lover's gender reassignment surgery. His lover, Ernest Aron, later became Elizabeth Debbie Eden.

If this story sounds familiar, that's because it was later turned into the blockbuster film "Dog Day Afternoon" starring Al Pacino, John Cazale, and Chris Sarandon. Sarandon - who was nominated for an Oscar for his performance as Al Pacino's love interest - joins Kathy & Gideon as our special guest.

Sarandon tells us what advice director Sidney Lumet gave to him that helped portray this unprecedented - at the time - character for a mainstream film. We also talk to Sarandon about some of his other amazing roles and film experiences, including working with the late Rob Reiner making "The Princess Bride." Sarandon has played so many great roles including the lead of the beloved vampire film "Fright Night," and voicing the character of Jack Skellington for the Tim Burton holiday classic, "The Nightmare Before Christmas."

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SOURCES:

The Imposter Heiress: Cassie Chadwick, the Greatest Grifter of the Gilded Age by Annie Reed

https://a.co/d/0hzudhMF

The High Priestess of Fraudulent Finance by Abbot Kahler

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-high-priestess-of-fraudulent-finance-45/

Dog Day Afternoon

https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B000GOXGO2/ref=atv_dp_share_cu_r

The Dog (documentary)

https://youtu.be/npe6yTYmTiM?si=nSD4vfIdhxQQd9jA

The Princess Bride

https://youtu.be/JtVRCmWm2lA?si=kdEwlvha6acPqZ5d

Fright Night

https://youtu.be/JtVRCmWm2lA?si=kdEwlvha6acPqZ5d

Nightmare Before Christmas

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107688/

Jump cut - Real Dog Day hero tells his story

https://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC15folder/RealDogDay.html

The Center - Liz Eden Papers

https://archives.gaycenter.org/repositories/2/resources/18