{"id":29448,"date":"2025-05-07T00:01:01","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T07:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=29448"},"modified":"2025-05-04T20:05:30","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T03:05:30","slug":"exnotes-review-norco-80","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2025\/05\/07\/exnotes-review-norco-80\/","title":{"rendered":"ExNotes Review:  Norco &#8217;80"},"content":{"rendered":"<h6>By Joe Berk<\/h6>\n<p>I moved to southern California in 1979 and settled in what we call the lnland Empire, which is the area that includes the Pomona Valley and extends east to San Bernardino.\u00a0 Basically, it&#8217;s everything south of the San Gabriel Mountains and east of the 57 freeway.\u00a0 How I ever missed the 1980 Norco bank robbery is beyond me.\u00a0 It was, as the cover of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Norco-80-Spectacular-Robbery-American\/dp\/1640093885\/ref=nosim?tag=exhaustnotes-20\">Norco \u201880<\/a> states, the most spectacular bank robbery in American history, and it went on to include a police pursuit up into the San Gabriels and the northern side of Mt. Baldy, which is just to the north of my home today.\u00a0 More than a dozen police officers were injured by the five bank robbers, a police helicopter was shot down, nearly 40 police vehicles were disabled or destroyed, and two of the robbers were killed during the pursuit.\u00a0 \u00a0The remaining three were charged with 46 crimes including murder, murder with special circumstances, kidnapping, bank robbery, resisting arrest, and more.\u00a0 Found guilty, they received life without parole prison sentences.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Armed Bank Robbery Goes Wrong (understatement) - The Norco Shootout (1980)\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/N1Z11ixFE1o\" width=\"853\" height=\"480\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I first heard about these events only a few days ago when good buddy Paul sent a YouTube link to me summarizing the crime.\u00a0 I was astounded I had not heard of it and I Googled for more info.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Norco-80-Spectacular-Robbery-American\/dp\/1640093885\/ref=nosim?tag=exhaustnotes-20\">Norco \u201880<\/a> came up in that search.<\/p>\n<p>Peter Houlahan wrote <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Norco-80-Spectacular-Robbery-American\/dp\/1640093885\/ref=nosim?tag=exhaustnotes-20\">Norco \u201880<\/a>, and I couldn&#8217;t put it down.\u00a0 It&#8217;s true crime drama at its best.\u00a0 I read all 387 pages in three sittings.\u00a0 It&#8217;s that good.\u00a0 What made it even more compelling for me is that I am very familiar with all the locations described in the book and in the chase scenes that followed.\u00a0 The chase went right past the West End Gun Club, into the little village of Lytle Creek (where Gresh and I enjoyed a few cold ones last year), and on and up the dirt roads running through the San Gabriels (roads I explored on my RX3 and KLR 650 motorcycles).<\/p>\n<p>At the time, police were armed with .38 revolvers.\u00a0 The bad guys had semi-auto handguns and assault rifles, and the effects of this imbalance resulted in the police not being able to stop these guys.\u00a0 This episode, posits the author, is what directly led to police departments nationwide equipping their patrol officers with military-style weaponry.<\/p>\n<p>If you enjoy a good crime story (and a true one), check out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Norco-80-Spectacular-Robbery-American\/dp\/1640093885\/ref=nosim?tag=exhaustnotes-20\">Norco \u201880<\/a>.\u00a0 You can thank me later.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Join our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/528366535451405\">Facebook ExNotes page<\/a>!<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Never miss an ExNotes blog:<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Help us keep the lights on:<\/span><\/h3>\n<style>\r\n        .wpedon-container .wpedon-select,\r\n        .wpedon-container .wpedon-input {\r\n            width: 171px;\r\n            min-width: 171px;\r\n            max-width: 171px;\r\n        }\r\n    <\/style><div class='wpedon-container wpedon-align-center'><form target='_blank' action='https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/cgi-bin\/webscr' method='post' class='wpedon-form'><input type='hidden' name='cmd' value='_donations' \/><input type='hidden' name='business' value='ExNotes@ExhaustNotes.us' \/><input type='hidden' name='currency_code' value='USD' \/><input type='hidden' name='notify_url' value='https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-admin\/admin-post.php?action=add_wpedon_button_ipn'><input type='hidden' name='lc' value='en_US'><input type='hidden' name='bn' value='WPPlugin_SP'><input type='hidden' name='return' value='' \/><input type='hidden' name='cancel_return' value='' \/><input class='wpedon_paypalbuttonimage' type='image' src='https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/en_US\/i\/btn\/btn_donateCC_LG.gif' border='0' name='submit' alt='Make your payments with PayPal. It is free, secure, effective.' style='border: none;'><img alt='' border='0' style='border:none;display:none;' src='https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/en_US\/i\/scr\/pixel.gif' width='1' height='1'><input type='hidden' name='amount' id='amount_63fa879f961db4ba7f76e676d75dca32' value='' \/><input type='hidden' name='price' id='price_63fa879f961db4ba7f76e676d75dca32' value='' \/><input type='hidden' name='item_number' value='' \/><input type='hidden' name='item_name' value='' \/><input type='hidden' name='name' value='' \/><input type='hidden' name='custom' value='23447'><input type='hidden' name='no_shipping' value='1'><input type='hidden' name='no_note' value='0'><input type='hidden' name='currency_code' value='USD'><\/form><\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Don&#8217;t forget: Visit our advertisers!<\/span><\/h3>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.britishmotorcyclegear.com\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-23940 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/BritishMotorcycleGear400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/BritishMotorcycleGear400.jpg 400w, https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/BritishMotorcycleGear400-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/BritishMotorcycleGear400-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 85vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Joe Berk I moved to southern California in 1979 and settled in what we call the lnland Empire, which is the area that includes the Pomona Valley and extends east to San Bernardino.\u00a0 Basically, it&#8217;s everything south of the San Gabriel Mountains and east of the 57 freeway.\u00a0 How I ever missed the 1980 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2025\/05\/07\/exnotes-review-norco-80\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;ExNotes Review:  Norco &#8217;80&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[235,392],"tags":[4526,4525],"class_list":["post-29448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amazon","category-back-in-the-day","tag-1980-norco-bank-robbery","tag-norco-80"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Norco80.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29448"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29762,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29448\/revisions\/29762"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}