Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - She Was Hypnotized Into a Crime? - The Heather Tallchief Story

Episode Date: December 18, 2025

Heather Tallchief’s life took a drastic turn in 1993, when she became involved with Roberto Solis, a recently paroled murderer whose influence drew her into one of the most successful armored-truck thefts in U.S. history. At age 21, while working as a Loomis driver in Las Vegas, she quietly drove away from her route with millions of dollars and disappeared into Europe with Solis.

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After three months, plan auto renews and 1299 a month, terms apply. Have you ever been hypnotized into committing a crime? Because this woman claims she has. Now the woman's name is Heather, and Heather is 21 when this story starts since she's living in San Francisco, and one day, around 1992, she's at a party. And she meets this guy, Roberto.

Now, Roberto, he's a lot older than Heather. She's 21, he's 48. But regardless, she thinks he is point, and he thinks she is point. And so they hit it off, and they hit it off, they fall in love and they start dating. Of course, they also start smashing. Here's the thing about Roberto, though. He's kind of a weird guy, like he's into poetry and tarot cards and fortune-telling, and like on one of their dates he gives Heather a tarot card reading. He also has some kind of

spiritual altar set up in his apartment with like crystals and candles and a goat's skull on it. So he has sort of his own brand of spirituality called, and I'm not making this up, sex magic. And he claims that sex magic is his belief system that combines orgasms and spiritual energy. I'm sure it does. And if that isn't a huge red flag to avoid dating this dude, here's the other thing about Roberto. He's actually a convicted murderer. Years before all this, he tried to rob an armored truck, and during the heist, he murdered the armored truck's guard. And so he got busted and convicted, and he got busted. And he got busted and convicted. And he he spent about 20 years in prison.

But whatever, I guess that doesn't seem like a huge red flag to Heather, because she loves him and she's going to stick by him no matter how many murders he's committed. So eventually, in 1993, this couple moves from San Francisco over to Las Vegas. And there, Roberto's plan is to scam a bunch of casinos by gambling and beating the odds. I'm sure no one's ever tried that before. Anyway, once they're living there, Roberto tells Heather to get a job. I guess he's like, get a job, bitch. So she ends up applying for a job at a company called Loomis.

Loomis is an armored vehicle company that transports cash to ATMs and banks and stuff. We've talked about Loomis before. And Heather actually gets hired at Loomis, and she starts working there as an armored truck driver. And at some point, Roberto apparently abandons his plans to beat the odds at the casinos, and instead they come up with a plan to rob her employer, Loomis. And if they do this right, this heist will make them millionaires. And so they get to work on this plan. And after only two months into Heather working for Loomis,

the big day finally comes, the day they're going to pull off this heist. So Heather goes to work that day, like normal. And she and a co-worker drive the armored truck, and they make all their normal scheduled stops. And at this point, the truck is filled with millions of dollars in cash. And she and her coworker, they pull up to Circus Circus, which is a casino that was popular during this time. And the place is busy, so there's no parking available. So Heather tells her coworker, go ahead and go inside and make the delivery.

I'll circle the block a few times and pick you up when you're done. And so the coworker goes inside and delivers the cash to a bunch of ATMs inside. About a half hour later, co-worker is done, and he comes outside, and Heather is gone. Like, she just straight up fled with the truck full of cash. Like, it was that easy.

And so Heather drives over to this storage unit that she and Roberto had rented, and he's already there waiting for her. And the two of them, they unload all the cash from the truck into a getaway car. In total, they managed to steal $3.1 million in cash. And from what I can tell, they start shipping the money to Miami in huge boxes. Then they go to the airport and they get on a chartered flight that they have reserved and they flee Las Vegas.

And from here, they hop around to different areas of the country so it's not to get caught. Meanwhile, Heather's employers at Loomis, they think not that she robbed them and ran off with all their money, but that she was kidnapped. However, two weeks later, police find the Loomis truck in. Heather and Roberto's storage unit, and then I guess Loomis is like, oh, I guess she robbed us. So then the FBI gets involved, and they start investigating and looking for these two, and they both get put on the most wanted list. And also, their story gets featured on an episode of Unsolved Mysteries and on an episode of America's Most Wanted.

So now the whole country is looking for them. Now eventually, Heather and Roberto make their way back to Miami. they collect their boxes of stolen cash and they lay low for a while. And at some point they flee the country and they head all the way down to St. Martin and then eventually over to Europe where they end up living in Amsterdam. And of course by now they've changed their names and they have like fake documents to support their story and whatnot. And so about a year goes by and it's now 1994 and they're still living in Amsterdam. And then one day, boom.

gets pregnant and she and Roberto have a son and pretty quickly after having the son Heather finally starts to realize that Roberto he might not be the best guy to raise her son around like like maybe going on the run and shacking up with a convicted murderer was a bad idea and so two months after the baby's born she leaves him and she goes and lives elsewhere in Amsterdam and she raises her son alone. And at some point, she meets someone new and she gets into a new relationship, and I guess they start to raise her son together. And it looks like she's just going to live her new life with all her stolen money, and the FBI is never going to catch her. Until. Over a decade goes

by, and it's now 2005. And Heather, she's like 33 at this point, and she's still living in Amsterdam with her son and she's still in a relationship with her new guy. But around this time, the fake passport she's using is about to expire. And honestly, she's getting really tired of all this running she's been doing for the past 12 years. Plus, her son just turned 10 and she starts to think about the life that she left behind back in the U.S. and she wants her son to be able to have a chance to live in the U.S. as a citizen. So she goes and she finds a lawyer in California. And she writes to him, and together they come up with a plan for her to turn herself in

in hopes of getting herself some kind of plea agreement for a reduced sentence. Then she leaves her son in Amsterdam with her partner, and she flies to the U.S. and she turns herself in to the FBI. And so, bam, they arrest her. Here's her mugshot. Now, during this whole process, Heather obviously wants her inevitable prison sentence to be reduced. So she starts taking the blame off of her and telling the feds that Roberto was actually the brains behind the whole heist. And that he manipulated her because, you know, she was so young and that she was so much older than her.

And also that Roberto used hypnosis on her. She claims that back when they lived in Las Vegas before she would go to work at Loomis every day, that he would make her watch these hypnosis videotapes and that she would make her watch these hypnosis videotapes and that she would be hypnotized and that she would have no idea what he made her do while she was under. Suggesting that the armored truck heist really wasn't her fault because Roberto

had hypnotized her into doing it. Okay. But, but the most important thing she says is that Roberto ultimately has the millions of dollars that they stole and she has no idea where he is or where that money is. And I don't know if they believe her or not. or whatever, I'm having trouble believing her. Regardless, she ends up taking a plea deal and she gets five years in prison.

While Roberto is still out there. Like, to this day, he has never been caught and no one knows where he is or what happened to him or all the money he took.