Reading

 J.R. Moehringer
“Sutton”

In his first historical novel, Sutton, Moehringer writes about the life of Willie Sutton, whom he calls the “greatest American bank robber.” Stealing from scores of banks over three decades without ever firing a shot, Sutton began his career in the late 1920s at a time of soaring unemployment, bank panics and depressions.

John Joseph “J. R.” Moehringer, Jr. (born December 7, 1964), is an American author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.

Moehringer began his journalism career as a news assistant at The New York Times. In 1990 he moved to Breckenridge, Colorado to work at the Rocky Mountain News. In 1994, he became a reporter for the Orange County bureau of the Los Angeles Times. In 1997, the paper sent him to Atlanta to report on the south as a national correspondent. His work as a correspondent later took him to Denver, Colorado.

Moehringer’s memoir The Tender Bar was published in 2005. It details his childhood through his early twenties. Moehringer’s memoir recounts his coming of age experiences at a local bar, Dickens (later renamed Publicans), which served as a sanctuary from his chaotic family life.

After retired tennis star Andre Agassi read The Tender Bar, he asked Moehringer to collaborate with him on his own memoir; the result, Open, was published in 2009. During the two years it took to create the book, Moehringer spent much of the time in Las Vegas, living at a house that Agassi owned as an investment.

His novel, Sutton, based on the life of bank robber Willie Sutton was published in the fall of 2012.