Das was für die deutsche Sprache der berühmte Brecht-Spruch ist, ist im us-amerikanischen Kontext die Willie "The Actor" Sutton zugeschriebene Antwort, warum er denn Banken ausraube: "Where the money is ..."
Ein amerikanischer Journalist beschreibt auf der Webpage "ABA - Banking Journal" seine Recherchen über dieses Zitat. Ihmzufolge habe Sutton dies nie gesagt. Auch interessant, die Akribie, die einer reinsteckt um das zu beweisen. Als ob es darauf ankäme. Der Mythos braucht nicht die Wahrheit, sondern er richtet sich nach dem Bedarf aus.

The bank robber, THE QUOTE, and the final irony

In search of Willie: A reporter's odyssey finds that 20 years ago, the noted bank robber and prison escape artist locked himself up for the last time
By Steve Cocheo, executive editor

This is the story of what became an obsession. Sometime last fall, I slit the last of the Monday mail and found the text of an executive's speech. I skimmed the document for news. There it was, a few pages into the text, "it" not being news, but "THE QUOTE," which I have read and heard, even borrowed, hundreds of times in 18 years of writing about banks.

If you've ever been to a banking conference, you've heard, or even used it, yourself. With many variations, it goes like this:
"As Willie Sutton the bank robber said when asked why he robbed banks, 'because that's where the money is'."
I can't say what triggered the two questions that morning, but neither would leave me alone:

1. Who the heck was Willie Sutton, anyway, and why did people keep quoting him?
2. Did this Sutton ever really say this quote--or was this just one more in the long line of myths and legends of banking?

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