The two struck up a relationship that ultimately lasted beyond Nussbaum’s capture, parole, and release. At the time, Marlowe knew his new acquaintance only as Carl Fischer, and when the FBI came knocking on his door months later, demanding an explanation for the extensive phone calls he'd been on with Albert Nussbaum, he didn’t know who they were talking about.

By then, Nussbaum was behind bars. He was arrested in November of 1962, just a few weeks shy of two years after his first bank robbery. By that time, Nussbaum and Wilcoxson had knocked over some eight banks, raking in $250,000 dollars; which amounts to a little over $2 million in today’s money. Nussbaum was visiting his wife and infant daughter at a hotel when FBI agents—alerted by his mother-in-law—sprang a trap.

Related: Hands Up! 10 Heists that Netted Millions (and Billions)

After a high-speed car chase, some thirty FBI agents ultimately brought Nussbaum in, with a similar number capturing Wilcoxson and his young “paramour” Jacqueline Ruth Rose in Baltimore, Maryland just a few days later. It was then that the FBI searched Nussbaum’s phone records and contacted Marlowe.

Marlowe and Nussbaum continued to correspond while the latter was in prison, serving a sentence of 40 years, with eligibility for parole in 1971. While he was behind bars, Marlowe encouraged Nussbaum to start writing for real, providing the crook with mentoring and, eventually, passing Nussbaum’s completed stories on to venues like Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.

How Albert Nussbaum Went From Criminal To Crime Writer

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