Herman Lamm

Who was Herman Lamm?

Herman Karl Lamm, known as Baron Lamm, was a German bank robber. He is widely considered one of the most brilliant and efficient bank robbers to have ever lived, and has been described as "the father of modern bank robbery". Lamm's techniques were studied and imitated by other bank robbers across the country, including the infamous John Dillinger.

A former Prussian Army soldier who immigrated to the United States, Lamm believed a heist required all the planning of a military operation. He pioneered the concepts of meticulously "casing" a bank and developing escape routes before conducting the robbery. Using a meticulous planning system called "The Lamm Technique", he conducted dozens of successful bank robberies from the end of World War I until 1930, when Lamm committed suicide when surrounded by a law-enforcement party in Sidell, Illinois, after a botched heist.