Bad Hair Bandit Perfect Candidate For Movie Of The Week

A women thought to be Cynthia Lynn Van Holland, 47, from Idaho, has been labeled The Bad Hair Bandit for her habit of wearing a variety of very unattractive wigs while she committed at least 20 robberies in four states over the last several months.

The bad tressed serial robber was on the FBI's most-wanted list since June.

Not only is this story noteworthy because it involves a woman with very bad hair, it's even more interesting because of her back story.

The suspected robber is a licensed practical nurse who has been licensed since 1986 in Idaho.  During the 25 years she's been a nurse, she's worked at a variety of correctional institutions and jails.

Family members have confirmed that the suspected Bad Hair Bandit was from a good Christian family and she was not the type of person who would ever be suspected of being a serial bank robber.  It was so completely unexpected that some of her family members couldn't really believe it was her until they saw the photos.

So what drove a hard working licensed nurse to go bad after over 20 years working in the system?  Most probably the reason is love.  During her employment at a jail in Southern Idaho her family confirmed she met 26-year-old Christopher S. Alonzo who had been in incarcerated of forgery and fraudulent use of a credit card.  The two married in Kootenai County in March of 2011.

Although it's no longer unusual for a 47 year old woman to marry a 26-year-old man as The Hair Bandit did, all of the other circumstances of their relationship triggers questions.  Why did a nurse who had worked in prisons for so many years suddenly start robbing banks?  Was it due to the influence of her new and much younger husband?

Her family told the media she made good money working as a nurse in jails and prisons, was not a drug addict and had no obvious reason to be robbing banks.  So why was she doing it?  "I would never think that she would do anything like this honestly, and I’ve known her my whole life,” the cousin told the media.

The FBI believes Van Holland started robbing banks as a result of her connection and marriage to Alonzo.   The Bad Hair Bandit was arrested earlier this week after a bank robbery northeast of Sacramento. Her husband, was also taken into custody. The two remain in the Placer County Jail in Auburn, Calif and no explanation for the Bad Hair Bandit's string of bank robberies has been released.

The newlyweds reportedly attended a family reunion three weeks ago in Lake Tahoe. Van Holland's cousin noted that the couple seemed happy and relaxed.  “She was happy to introduce her new husband to everybody,” Van Holland's cousin said.

Did love turn the Hair Bandit into a bank robbing criminal?  And why did she draw attention to herself by wearing such bad wigs?  Finally, will we ever know the role her much younger husband played in sparking her bank robbing spree?  Like I said, this is a perfect plot for a movie of the week.  In cases like this reality can be much more intriguing than fiction.

And of course there's the matter of the wigs.  I want do know where The Bad Hair Bandit bought them and what brand they were so I can warn people to stay away from purchasing similar models.  Especially if they plan on robbing any banks in the near future.

More Information

Please follow me on Twitter at: http://Twitter.com/HairBoutique. I look forward to meeting new people from all walks of Twitter and learning from their Tweets. Visit us at Hairboutique.com located at: http://www.HairBoutique.com, on Facebook, MySpace and YouTube.

Thank you for visiting us at The HairBoutique Blog and for leaving your comments. They are very much appreciated. We apologize in advance but must remove any direct advertisements or solicitations.