Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Greed Destroyed His Life | 45 Years for a Bank Robbery
Tue, 01 Apr 2025
Sean Marshall shares his evolution into becoming a bank robber.Main website:emarshallsmith.wixsite.com/iamseanFacebook: Sean MarshallIG: artist_seanjmarshallMain website:emarshallsmith.wixsite.com/iamseanFacebook: Sean MarshallIG: artist_seanjmarshallFollow me on all socials!Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insidetruecrime/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mattcoxtruecrimeDo you want to be a guest? Fill out the form https://forms.gle/5H7FnhvMHKtUnq7k7Send me an email here: [email protected] you want a custom "con man" painting to shown up at your doorstep every month? Subscribe to my Patreon: https: //www.patreon.com/insidetruecrimeDo you want a custom painting done by me? Check out my Etsy Store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/coxpopartListen to my True Crime Podcasts anywhere: https://anchor.fm/mattcox Check out my true crime books! Shark in the Housing Pool: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0851KBYCFBent: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BV4GC7TMIt's Insanity: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KFYXKK8Devil Exposed: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TH1WT5GDevil Exposed (The Abridgment): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1070682438The Program: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0858W4G3KBailout: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bailout-matthew-cox/1142275402Dude, Where's My Hand-Grenade?: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXNFHBDF/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1678623676&sr=1-1Checkout my disturbingly twisted satiric novel!Stranger Danger: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSWQP3WXIf you would like to support me directly, I accept donations here:Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/MattCox69Cashapp: $coxcon69
Chapter 1: What led Sean Marshall to become a bank robber?
I would pray to God before these robberies and be like, God, just let me get away with this robbery. I'm done after this. I promise. This is it. And at this time, mind you, I'm all in the news. They have no idea who I am. They're talking about the get down and count bandit. The feds had dubbed me that after I started robbing the banks. And I'm wearing different disguises now.
It started off where I'm fully masked up and gloved up to now I'm putting on, gluing on fake beards. Wearing sunglasses and these crazy disguises, I've experienced various highs in my life. But when you do something like that, the terror, exhilaration, however we're going to label that rush. Right. Bro, it doesn't matter how much you change or reform. I can't forget how to do crime.
Like that shit is ingrained in me. I know how to rob. I know how to sell dope. I know how to get fast money. That is in me. So for the rest of my existence, no matter how much I change and become a better human being, when hard times hit, I, like a drug addict, am constantly having to tell myself like, nah, don't take that drink. Don't go down that path.
Cause all it takes, all it takes is for that one slip and then you're back in it, bro. So they're trying to get me to serve 30 years in prison before I'm even eligible to be a free man. And the judge said that during the session, he was like, your choice today is a matter of choosing between dying in prison or getting out to your grandchildren and
And living out your golden years, my daughter had been born. She's an infant. And my mom had brought my daughter up to see me. And in solitary confinement, there's no physical contact. You have these visiting booths. There's a plexiglass window separating you, phones on either side of the window to where you can communicate with your loved ones. And I remember my mom coming into that booth.
I'm shackled to this desk. And I remember my mom placing my daughter down on this desk. and allowing her to try to call towards me. And she finally comes across that window, bro, and starts patting on it and trying to get to me. And in that moment, I immediately, I mean, instantaneously had some major paradigm shifts.
Hey, this is Matt Cox, and I am here with Sean Marshall. Sean Marshall received clemency. He is a former robber. I appreciate you guys watching. Check out the interview. Whether it's true or not, and more often than not, I would say there's typically things that led to in your childhood that maybe helped contribute.
to, you know, however you ended up, you know, incarcerated and sometimes not, you know, in my case, I had, you know, raised upper middle class. Like I was just a, it's just a bad seed. But in some people's instances, like you, I've heard their stories and it's like, wow, bro, like you didn't have a chance. So I don't know what yours is, but can we start there?
Can we start with like, where, where were you born? Your parents? Yeah.
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Chapter 2: How did Sean's childhood experiences shape his criminal behavior?
We ended up getting caught for that role. And it was just my co-defendant, Walter, and I at that time. The rest of them got away scot-free.
Is this like robbing the cashier, the head desk?
The head desk, yep, the front desk. What do they have? Peanuts. Okay. stupid right right who has cash anymore other than a convenience store in a bank crazy i mean they dealt with a lot of cash back then it's a whole different era right so you know back then those drawers were full of money but nothing worthwhile i mean come on get real maybe at most a couple thousand um
But for us, that was enough. We're like, shit, that's a good score for the night. We could go party off of that, do whatever. And then tomorrow, go hit another score. That's how ridiculous our mindset was. So we get caught for that.
How do you get caught? I mean, you rob the place, you run out, you jump in a car.
So we rob it. Mind you, the plan was... We had a friend of ours that was gonna be the getaway driver. He didn't even know he was gonna be the getaway driver, but this guy we used to party with, he stayed up the street from there. This guy that we sold Coke to, we didn't have a car at the time. So as we're sitting in this hotel room, we both come up with this idea to rob this place.
And everyone agrees at some point, like this is feasible, like this is doable. Let's go. So the plan was to go rob them, come back to the room, change clothes, call our friend, like we're just going to hang out, have him come pick us up. Then we're going to leave the place. Boom, done deal. Now, keep in mind on this particular night, it's snowing like crazy.
Well, it's beginning to snow like crazy. So the ground is covered in snow and it's two separate buildings. So you're the building where we're at. And then you have the front desk in the check in area where all the guests come and do their thing. So we're like, all right, we're just going to creep down to the front desk, do our thing, run back to the room. Boom.
So everything goes according to plan. We mask up. We get the little sawed off shotgun. We go down there, run in the spot, do what we do, jet back to the room. And as we're jetting out of the lobby, a thought occurs to me. I'm like, bro, it's fucking snowing out. I was like, we're about to leave tracks everywhere, leading right back to the fucking room. Now, granted, they would end.
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Chapter 3: What was Sean's life like in prison?
If they make it out of the halfway house. We had one guy show up at the halfway house and within two hours of being there, he was in the bathroom smoking meth. Made it three days, I think, before they sent him back.
I hate to laugh because it's really not fun, but I don't know what else to do. I can't cry about it.
It's like, I don't know the person, but it's just like, what are you fucking thinking, bro?
Like, how good is that drug?
I don't know. I don't want to find out now. But yeah, they're definitely out there. And, you know, I work in recovery work now. I'm a certified peer support specialist. Right. Which is like kind of like a low level entry level counselor type person. Basically, what they do is they use their life experience.
that they've overcome to help support others that are going through the same kind of stuff. Yeah. So I've seen this. And one of the things that we talk about a lot is how until somebody's ready, there's nothing you can do for them. You can plant some seeds, let them know that you're there when they're ready.
Yeah.
But until they're ready, they can't do anything. It was the same way with me. I was drinking every day. I was waking up and drinking every day. Everybody tried to talk to me. My parents, they tried to talk to me and my friends tried to talk to me, but until I was ready to do it, nobody was going to get through.
Well, let's, let's go back to, so you were, let's go back to, you know, the genesis of that, which was, you know, you were in school, you went to high school, where'd you go to high school? Um, Went to high school. South Carolina somewhere.
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Chapter 4: How did Sean's perspective change during solitary confinement?
I need to be in this RDAP, whatever. He starts getting on the phone and making arrangements to get me into RDAP. And it ended up the morning, one Monday morning, I was on the call out to go to R&D to pack out to go to Oakdale. And I was on the call out to go over to move to the RDAP building. So everybody's kind of freaking out a little bit, figuring out what to do with me.
This guy stayed on the phone all day to get me to be able to stay in that RDAP program. So I just thought it was funny when you were talking about that earlier. I meant to mention that, but...
No, it's the same thing. You're lucky you didn't end up on a bus. Man, you ain't even kidding. You ain't even kidding. Because very seldom do they stop a transfer. They have to make the phone. They have to go to, shoot, what is it? Grand Prairie. Grand Prairie, thank you. They've got to go to Grand Prairie. Even on the phone there is hard, even for them. So you got lucky.
But that was the same thing. I was supposed to be transferred. It hadn't gone through. But they were saying, we're going to transfer you. And I said, oh, no, no, no. I'm going to NARDAP. Can't do that. So I go over there immediately, talk to Dr. Smith, which was the... Ph.D. woman that runs the program, you know, the word that you're saying, their coordinator, you're calling.
Yeah, they call it DAPC. Right. Yeah. DAPC.
DAPC.
I was like RSA. I ain't heard that shit in a while. So same thing. She she she got me in there. And then, of course, six, seven months later, I drop out again. Yeah. And she just she thinks I'm there because I want the one year. I never told anybody. Right. I mean, like my buddy Pete knows I drop out because I figure I got the I've got a management variable on me. Can't move me now.
It's good for a year. Six. No, about three months later, they call me and they go, OK, we're going to transfer you. And I went to a camp because I had like, listen, when I went to the medium, I had like I like three points. I don't have any violence at all. It kind of surprised me when I heard you were even at a medium. Because I had 26 years. Okay. At the time. Right.
So I was like, what are you talking about? I was like, no, no, no. I got a management variable. She said, I know, but they're pushing people to go to camps. And so I'm going to call and have it removed. And I'm like, I didn't know it was that easy. You guys made it sound like you couldn't remove it. And they were like, well, I mean, in this case, man, we got to get people to camps.
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Chapter 5: What challenges did Sean face after being released from prison?
Yeah.
So, well, look, I mean, you know, it's obvious the government's failed us in a lot of ways. Right.
You know, you can, you know, look. Here's the problem. It's that could you make it? You could make it, but it would take someone who is extremely resourceful, manipulative, and someone that is super humble and super appreciative. I mean you would have to change your mindset so fundamentally. And the truth is by the time you get out of prison, you're probably pretty fucked up.
You know, I mean, there's definitely some of that. Yeah, right.
So so if you haven't had some kind of a life altering experience inside prison to get you your head right, you got a long road ahead of you and probably you're just going to get reincarcerated.
I mean, the way the way it works now, you almost have to be like the perfect candidate to turn your life around and be able to really do it. Right. You know, you know, all those things you said, resourceful, smart, driven, humble, all those things have to be there. But there's a lot of people that are falling through the cracks just because it's so freaking hard to do. Not a lot of people.
What is recidivism? That's a massive – that's not cracks. That's people falling into a swimming pool. It's not like a little – it's really a few people. The people that are falling through the cracks are the ones that are succeeding because almost nobody succeeds. If you look at recidivism, it's –
It's nuts. Absolutely it is.
And I've seen people who have gotten out who seem like they were going to do the right thing. They were going to do the right thing. And then one or two things go wrong. And the next thing you know, they're in such a jam. And what do they do? They rob a bank or they do something like that. I know guys that robbed banks while they were in the halfway house. Yeah. Within a few months. Yeah.
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Chapter 6: How does Sean Marshall mentor youth today?
You'll figure it out.
Like, OK. Yeah. And I'll admit I'm probably smarter than the average bear. But what about the average bear? What about the average bear? You know, like and luckily for me, I didn't I don't think much about that because I'm solely thinking about myself. But now that things are going OK, now it's like, well, no wonder the average guy keeps coming back. And that's why you're saying figure it out.
Yeah. Yeah.
that's that's exactly what it is um my probation officer was awesome uh she came out the first time she told me she said look i'm not here to try to set you up i'm not gonna try to surprise you and trap you unless you give me a reason to i want to see you succeed and by every count her and i had a great relationship all the way through it so i think the and i've dealt with state probation officers too and and there seemed to be a little bit of a difference there you know to me um
But so anyway, while I was in RDAP and I was able to help people, I was actually a senior guide through the last three months. And then they asked me to stay over as a mentor and teach classes. So I stayed over and taught classes. And that was just what I had a passion for. You know, I always had a problem with a regular job before in a corporation or something, trying to make somebody else rich.
Here's something I can do and actually contribute to society and help. So let me look at going that path. I got out. I got a job at some plastic injection molding and whatnot. Worked on getting my peer support specialist. Did the work. Went and interned for Sunrise Community for Recovery and Wellness, which is where I work now.
And did some volunteer work for them and got an opportunity to go to work full time for them. And I tell you what, the difference that it made when I went from that corporate, you know, whatever job to this job was monumental. I mean, it was you're not going to make somebody rich now. You're going to try to help people. Right. And that just made me happy in a way that I'd never, never had before.
And that fueled me just pushing harder on Phoenix because I want to be able to help the guys in there. And I know enough about how the system works to to possibly be able to really do that. So I brainstormed with a bunch of people. I've talked to a lot of people on Facebook and connected with groups, you know, from people from FAM and a couple of the other groups that are out there.
And I've got a newsletter that goes in to the federal prison But the project that I'm really excited about is Sunrise is the company that I work for. They're a peer-led organization, which means that it's all peer support specialists that run it. It's all people with this lived experience. So the person who's struggling, they're able to relate to that person because they've kind of been there.
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