Member-only story
My Friend Helped Rob a Bank
Then visited his accomplice in Prison!
Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction, and the following is one such story. Excerpts are from “Against All Odds, the Donnie Hixon Story: Burt Reynolds’ Stunt Double in The Longest Yard.”
Some of the best times of Donnie Hixon’s life were the three months he spent at Georgia’s Maximum Security Prison at Reidsville in 1973.
I kid you not!
In the Spring of 1970, Hixon was assistant manager of a finance company in downtown Augusta. His life and the lives of five others hung in the balance the day a robber disguised as a woman entered.
The gunman ordered all six employees to move in back of the counter and onto the floor. Then, he knelt on one knee and pressed the barrel of his pistol between the eyes of the store manager.
Wired a bit differently than the rest, Donnie told the man holding the gun, “No disrespect, but I’m not going to lay down on the floor.”
Instead, after “pissing in my britches,” says Hixon, “I told the burglar, ‘Look mister, we just work for this company and don’t give a shit about them losing money — I’ll help you rob this place, just don’t hurt nobody.’ ”
