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The Bearded Bandit and His Bank Heists · FBI Files

0:00
Speaker 1: Some scenes in this show have been recreated. In the 1990s,
0:07
Speaker 1: a costumed serial burglar terrorizes the Chicago area.
0:11
Speaker 2: Hmm.
0:13
Speaker 1: A debt for the weapons. Knowledgeable about police procedure and fearless,
0:17
Speaker 1: he strikes hard and disappears quickly. Police and the FBI
0:24
Speaker 1: realize the only way to stop him is to catch
0:27
Speaker 1: him in the act. But his desperate violence proves impossible
0:31
Speaker 1: to predict. Evidence mounts no obvious suspects. Serial killer on
0:41
Speaker 1: the run. Ed Kaczynski is arrested. Fugitive on the run.
1:00
Speaker 1: The FBI files. The average bank robbery nets about $ 3, 000. However,
1:10
Speaker 1: some criminals risk everything for the money. In suburban Chicago,
1:14
Speaker 1: a gunman in a costume goes on a series of robberies,
1:16
Speaker 1: growing more violent, with each successive one with each... He
1:20
Speaker 1: is Jan Kostrom, former director of the FBI in New York.
1:24
Speaker 1: By tracking the burglar's movements, agents discover he is not
1:27
Speaker 1: alone and will... Anything to avoid capture. Deadly pact. March 5, 1990. Chicago, Illinois.
1:48
Speaker 1: At a bank on the city's south side, employees began
1:51
Speaker 1: what they thought would be a normal workday. The neighborhood
2:00
Speaker 1: was quiet. Until 10 a.m. Take out the cash. Both drawers.
2:11
Speaker 1: Put us on the counter and don't sound the alarm.
2:15
Speaker 1: The costumed robber threatened to kill anyone who didn't follow
2:19
Speaker 1: his orders. The tellers decided not to interfere. It was
2:33
Speaker 1: over in seconds. When they were safe, they called the police.
2:43
Speaker 3: Yes, we've just been robbed.
2:49
Speaker 1: The Chicago police cruisers closest to the bank responded first.
2:55
Speaker 1: He walked up and put the gun in my face.
2:57
Speaker 1: Witnesses reported the robber was a white male, about six
3:00
Speaker 1: feet tall, but they... didn't describe his features because of
3:04
Speaker 1: his disguise. He was wearing gloves and had a police scanner.
3:12
Speaker 1: The man was aggressive and handled his semi-automatic pistol with confidence.
3:19
Speaker 1: He left no fingerprints and security cameras revealed no other
3:24
Speaker 1: immediate clues. Police canvassed the area in hopes of finding
3:32
Speaker 1: additional witnesses. A woman who lived near the bank reported
3:36
Speaker 1: that she thought she saw the robber. She said that
3:43
Speaker 1: around the time of the robbery, she saw a man
3:45
Speaker 1: who appeared to be wearing a fake beard get into
3:48
Speaker 1: a small four-door sedan. She couldn't make out the license plate.
3:56
Speaker 1: But she gave officers a description of the car. After
4:06
Speaker 1: checking every similar vehicle in the area, they soon found
4:10
Speaker 1: what they believed to be the getaway car. Abandoned a
4:14
Speaker 1: few blocks from the bank, the officer approached cautiously in
4:24
Speaker 1: case anyone was still inside. But it was empty, except
4:32
Speaker 1: for a paper towel covering the ignition switch. A check
4:38
Speaker 1: of records revealed that the car had been stolen from
4:41
Speaker 1: a shopping mall parking lot four days earlier. Further investigation
4:46
Speaker 1: yielded no leads on the robber. Bank robbery is a
4:52
Speaker 1: federal crime, so police contacted the FBI in Chicago. Supervisory
5:00
Speaker 1: senior resident agent Bill Keefe had handled dozens of bank
5:04
Speaker 1: robbery calls with At that time, we were very busy
5:09
Speaker 1: with bank robberies. We'd had two in one day. Sometimes
5:14
Speaker 1: we'd have three robberies a week. I want you to
5:18
Speaker 1: handle this. Most of them were amateurs who came in
5:21
Speaker 1: without a plan and were caught very quickly. The filmmaker
5:25
Speaker 1: was already here. But when the bank robbery squad reviewed
5:29
Speaker 1: the reports on the Southside robbery, they noticed how clean
5:32
Speaker 1: the heist was from the second. Very well planned, for sure.
5:37
Speaker 1: The description is of a white male with a beard
5:38
Speaker 1: and very tall. They figured this wasn't the bearded robber's
5:41
Speaker 1: first robbery, and it wouldn't be his last. Two months later,
5:50
Speaker 1: the robber with the fake beard robbed a bank in
5:52
Speaker 1: suburban Libertyville. Give me the money in the drawer. Not
5:57
Speaker 1: satisfied with the cash drawers, this time he ordered a
6:00
Speaker 1: teller to open the vault.
6:03
Speaker 4: Don't try anything!
6:05
Speaker 1: Come on, move. He said the police can't let him
6:08
Speaker 1: know if someone pulled the Klaimal Ladish alarm. Hurry up.
6:12
Speaker 5: Put it here. Let's go.
6:27
Speaker 1: The robber got away with thousands of dollars in cash.
6:36
Speaker 3: Getting in a car, the license plate number of which is.
6:38
Speaker 1: But this time, Teller wrote down the license plate number
6:41
Speaker 1: of the getaway car. While Libreville police were searching for
6:47
Speaker 1: the car, agents with the Jingakago FBI questioned employees. Special
6:53
Speaker 1: Agent Hank Smith found that the robber was more aggressive.
6:57
Speaker 1: This time, he controlled people with the weapon. He intimidated
7:02
Speaker 1: them by putting the gun in their face. He pointed
7:06
Speaker 1: the gun directly at someone while talking to them, which
7:09
Speaker 1: intimidated tellers and customers. Although the questioning turned up no clues,
7:15
Speaker 1: police found the getaway car abandoned a few blocks from
7:18
Speaker 1: the bank. Again, the car had been stolen from a
7:23
Speaker 1: shopping mall three days earlier. As before, the robber used
7:30
Speaker 1: a towel to hide the broken ignition. FBI Special Agent
7:38
Speaker 1: Dave Childry was part of the robot squad. The squad
7:44
Speaker 1: uncovered a previous robbery in Wemmett, Illinois that they believed
7:47
Speaker 1: was committed by the same man. A surveillance camera photo
7:52
Speaker 1: provided a chilling clue.
7:56
Speaker 2: There was a really good photo of the robber showing
7:59
Speaker 2: him in what's called a weird stance. It's a shooting
8:02
Speaker 2: stance that's taught to police officers and FBI agents. And
8:06
Speaker 2: if you've been taught to shoot like that, you'd recognize it.
8:08
Speaker 2: This guy could have had some law enforcement training.
8:14
Speaker 1: If he had, he would know how these investigations work,
8:16
Speaker 1: and he could be very difficult to catch. Bearded robber
8:24
Speaker 1: robs three area banks. The local press called him the
8:28
Speaker 1: bearded bandit. Investigators use the coverage to ask citizens for help.
8:36
Speaker 1: but released enhanced photos of the robberies, hoping someone would
8:39
Speaker 1: recognize him despite the disguise. We put his photo in
8:45
Speaker 1: the news. He had a beard, a fake beard, a mustache,
8:49
Speaker 1: and a cap on a cap. But after we released
8:52
Speaker 1: those photos, we didn't get any leads from the public.
8:56
Speaker 1: Now the money in the vault! In November 1990, the
8:58
Speaker 1: elusive bandit robbed a bank in Willing, Illinois. The teller
9:04
Speaker 1: raised the alarm before I could tell him not to.
9:11
Speaker 1: On his scanner, the robber heard the police respond. He
9:14
Speaker 1: did not leave the bank, which is a normal reaction
9:18
Speaker 1: for bank robbers. They're there to rob the bank. They're
9:21
Speaker 1: not there to engage in a gunfight with the police.
9:27
Speaker 1: He remained in the bank while the police responded, all
9:29
Speaker 1: the while pointing his weapon at the teller. He counted
9:33
Speaker 1: from ten. Ten, and you seven. Six, five, four, three, two.
9:48
Speaker 1: It seemed like he knew how much time he had
9:50
Speaker 1: before the police responded. More evidence that he might be
9:54
Speaker 1: a cop. He started moving a little further away. As
10:00
Speaker 1: the robberies continued, it appeared that the outlaw was purposely
10:03
Speaker 1: choosing targets in different jurisdictions to complicate the investigation. Believing
10:08
Speaker 1: that the robber would Not rob a bank a second time.
10:12
Speaker 1: The robberies would take place on the other side of
10:15
Speaker 1: the lake, Michigan suburbs, and then would occur in Shambour
10:19
Speaker 1: or Elk Grove Village or in northern Lake County like Leville. Yeah.
10:25
Speaker 1: Those communities. When he struck in the new suburbs, the
10:27
Speaker 1: FBI had to coordinate with a growing number of police departments. Palatine, Illinois,
10:36
Speaker 1: police chief. John Kessel, a detective sergeant at the time,
10:39
Speaker 1: learned of the case and that the assailant's getaway cars
10:42
Speaker 1: belonged to mall employees who had been stolen at the
10:45
Speaker 1: start of their shifts. He stole one of the employees'
10:49
Speaker 1: cars knowing that it wouldn't be reported stolen for about
10:53
Speaker 1: eight hours, so he knew he had that many hours
10:55
Speaker 1: to get the car to where it needed to be
10:57
Speaker 1: placed before someone reported missing and the system alerted him
11:01
Speaker 1: and the system alerted him. In disposing of the cars,
11:08
Speaker 1: the thief did everything he could to interfere with the
11:11
Speaker 1: ongoing investigation. He wiped away any fingerprints and left no
11:17
Speaker 1: trace of himself. It was very clear that he was
11:27
Speaker 1: familiar with police evidence gathering. Techniques be... At the end,
11:35
Speaker 1: agents found nothing of property value in any of the cars.
11:43
Speaker 1: With cars failing to identify the bandit, investigators pursued every
11:47
Speaker 1: possible lead they could. They visited theater stores around the city,
11:53
Speaker 1: hoping a salesperson might recognize the man with the fake
11:57
Speaker 1: beard as a customer. Not at all.
12:01
Speaker 4: No, not at all.
12:02
Speaker 1: Again, nothing. Thank you very much for your time.
12:05
Speaker 5: You're welcome.
12:05
Speaker 1: Have a nice day.
12:06
Speaker 3: Same to you.
12:08
Speaker 1: The Bearded Bandit committed seven armed bank robberies in the
12:11
Speaker 1: Chicago area between January 1990 and February 1991. Then the
12:14
Speaker 1: robberies stopped. We reviewed what we had done up to
12:28
Speaker 1: that point. We looked for things we might have missed.
12:32
Speaker 2: Maybe he had been incarcerated somewhere. Or maybe he had
12:35
Speaker 2: moved to another state or was dead.
12:40
Speaker 1: The Bandit's Trail went cold for nine months. On November 4, 1991,
12:48
Speaker 1: Palatine Police Officer Kevin Hacker was working his shift to Higgum.
12:59
Speaker 1: A dispatcher in training drove by to learn the procedure.
13:11
Speaker 6: I was headed south on Quinton Road when I saw
13:14
Speaker 6: a car heading north.
13:15
Speaker 1: And I looked in my side mirror and thought I
13:17
Speaker 1: saw an expired tag. So I made a U-turn.
13:25
Speaker 6: And told my passenger that we were going to go
13:28
Speaker 6: see if this vehicle had expired tags. And if he did,
13:33
Speaker 6: I would conduct a traffic stop and show him how
13:36
Speaker 6: we did it and how we ran all the numbers
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Speaker 6: in the computer.
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Speaker 1: It was supposed to be a routine stop. The person
13:49
Speaker 1: driving the car pulled off to the side of the
13:52
Speaker 1: road and slammed on the brakes. He had a gun?
14:00
Speaker 1: Mager's first instinct was to protect his passenger. The bearded
14:14
Speaker 1: outlaw was back. In November 1991, a routine traffic stop
14:23
Speaker 1: in the Chicago area erupted into violence when a man
14:27
Speaker 1: shot Palatine Police Officer Kevin Mayer.
14:34
Speaker 2: He was shaken as it was broad daylight, 11 a.m.,
14:37
Speaker 2: and it was a quiet residential street.
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Speaker 1: It was a basic ambush. And after I made the
14:44
Speaker 1: first round, a bullet went through the windshield and... runny
14:48
Speaker 1: in the shoulder, and shards of windshield glass hit my
14:52
Speaker 1: left ear.
14:54
Speaker 2: Shots were fired.
14:55
Speaker 5: Officer down.
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Speaker 1: Euclid and Smith. Officer down. What's your location? I'm in Euclid-Smith.
15:01
Speaker 5: Euclid-Smith.
15:03
Speaker 1: My pulse is dropping. I'm down.
15:04
Speaker 5: I need an ambulance.
15:06
Speaker 4: Okay.
15:06
Speaker 1: Smith and Euclid. Eye to all units. The officers made
15:11
Speaker 1: a call, went out to the Illinois State Police Emergency
15:14
Speaker 1: Radio Network.
15:15
Speaker 2: 8144 Shambo on route with his K9 unit.
15:20
Speaker 1: Police and emergency personnel responded to the scene from over
15:23
Speaker 1: a dozen surrounding suburbs. McGregor realized that one of the
15:30
Speaker 1: shots that went through the windshield was meant to kill
15:33
Speaker 1: and could have hit his head if he hadn't moved
15:35
Speaker 1: to protect his passenger and put the car in reverse.
15:42
Speaker 1: The Arlington Police Department is asking if you would like
15:44
Speaker 1: any aircraft, helicopter, or.
15:48
Speaker 7: Plane.
15:48
Speaker 1: 104 Central. As paramedics said, three of the MAGA officers
15:53
Speaker 1: questioned him. As a police officer, he was a perfect witness.
15:58
Speaker 1: He was able to identify the type of weapon. Trying
16:00
Speaker 1: to recall details, he gave them a description of the shooter,
16:03
Speaker 1: the license plate number, the type of weapon, and the
16:07
Speaker 1: direction in which he fled. Bearded, we have a white male,
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Speaker 1: about 80 inches tall, 200 pounds. Beard, cop, last seen
16:17
Speaker 1: heading south from the scene. We'll split up and search
16:20
Speaker 1: for the car. Which way are you going, Pat? Police
16:23
Speaker 1: have fanned out to find the shooter. Okay, we're going
16:26
Speaker 1: to head south. Know if the car took a... Over
16:30
Speaker 1: 100 officers joined the search.
16:32
Speaker 4: Via from 40 southbound to the left-handed.
16:37
Speaker 1: Repeat. What do we have here?
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Speaker 4: Southbound, I said 45. Thank you, please.
16:43
Speaker 1: That's a match. Three blocks from the location of the shooting,
16:47
Speaker 1: police found the shooter's car.
16:50
Speaker 3: Central AE-144 requesting all K-9 units to Flomgro and Pont.
16:54
Speaker 1: 104, message received. The car was reported stolen from a
17:04
Speaker 1: shopping center parking lot five days prior. Palatine Police Chief
17:09
Speaker 1: John Cussell was aware of the grave danger. When someone
17:15
Speaker 1: is willing to shoot a police officer during a traffic
17:17
Speaker 1: stop or a routine stop, we all know they are
17:20
Speaker 1: willing to shoot anyone. Their determination to escape is far
17:24
Speaker 1: greater than their concern for the safety of anyone, whether
17:27
Speaker 1: it be a law enforcement officer or a citizen on
17:29
Speaker 1: the street. When you are willing to shoot a police officer,
17:33
Speaker 1: you are willing to shoot anyone. He helped coordinate the
17:41
Speaker 1: search for the deadly shooter. We immediately established a perimeter
17:46
Speaker 1: with the assistance of state, county, and local officials in
17:49
Speaker 1: the area. We had canines on the scene. There's a
17:54
Speaker 1: helicopter in the air. We asked schools in the area
17:56
Speaker 1: to remain on lockdown. Evidence technicians began processing the car.
18:07
Speaker 1: The ignition was broken. The damage covered by a paper towel.
18:15
Speaker 1: They searched for fingerprints that might help them identify the perpetrator,
18:18
Speaker 1: but they came up empty. The gay nine hand litters
18:28
Speaker 1: brought in their dogs, which are trying to remember the
18:31
Speaker 1: scent of a specific location. They then followed that scent alone,
18:35
Speaker 1: ignoring all others. But the trail ended not far from
18:43
Speaker 1: the car, Despite the massive effort, the suspect somehow slipped away.
18:58
Speaker 7: You could notify through the system that we are releasing
19:01
Speaker 7: all units other than Cook County, Roley Meadows, Arlington Heights units,
19:06
Speaker 7: and state units that are securing the perimeter.
19:14
Speaker 1: In addition to making it personal, when one of our
19:16
Speaker 1: officers is shot, we all knew that it was much
19:18
Speaker 1: more likely that a citizen would be injured or killed,
19:21
Speaker 1: and we worked that much harder to bring them to justice.
19:24
Speaker 2: Yes.
19:28
Speaker 1: For added support, they called in the FBI and Supervisory
19:31
Speaker 1: Special Agent in Charge, Bill Kaya Yeef. The Palatin police
19:38
Speaker 1: chief asked me to come to the police department. They
19:42
Speaker 1: had a complete sketch and everyone was reviewing the circumstances
19:46
Speaker 1: of the shooting. For almost two years Kif and his
19:51
Speaker 1: squad worked on the case of the bearded bandit. Do
19:55
Speaker 1: you think this is ours? I wondered if we could
19:57
Speaker 1: check out the car that was found and as soon
19:59
Speaker 1: as I looked at the ignition I knew this was
20:03
Speaker 1: our bank robber. Get in, have a seat. After being treated,
20:09
Speaker 1: Officer Maker came into the station to look at surveillance
20:12
Speaker 1: photos of the bearded bandit. Check out these photos. He
20:18
Speaker 1: said the bank robber looked like the man who shot him.
20:24
Speaker 1: We knew he was probably going to rob another bank.
20:27
Speaker 1: He knew once the officer ran the license plate that
20:29
Speaker 1: the car would be listed as stolen. He also knew
20:32
Speaker 1: that with those weapons in the car, he wasn't going
20:33
Speaker 1: to be able to hide them, and the officer was
20:35
Speaker 1: getting to the vehicle... The bearded bandit had escalated his
20:40
Speaker 1: level of violence. This guy wasn't going to go either.
20:45
Speaker 1: We had to find a more innovative way to identify
20:49
Speaker 1: and charge him or we were going to have to
20:52
Speaker 1: catch him in the act. Chief Khan was able to
20:58
Speaker 1: pull off several investigators. After the initial search, we formed
21:04
Speaker 1: a multi-jurisdictional task force Here at our police department, we
21:09
Speaker 1: had the FBI, the state police, the Cook County Sheriff's Police,
21:12
Speaker 1: and all the local agencies in our area, and those
21:15
Speaker 1: involved in the muted man's bank robbery spree. Since their
21:21
Speaker 1: suspects seemed to know police procedure, they decided to adjust it.
21:27
Speaker 1: When it became clear that we had a violent bank
21:29
Speaker 1: robber who was using a scanner, we decided not to
21:31
Speaker 1: give out the bank location over the radio, but instead
21:34
Speaker 1: to use a code number for each individual bank. Progress,
21:38
Speaker 1: proceed and give us the code. The task force hoped
21:40
Speaker 1: that patrol officers in the area would be able to
21:43
Speaker 1: use the codes to respond to robbery calls without the
21:46
Speaker 1: outlaw being the wiser. The undercover officers. Confident that the
21:53
Speaker 1: bearded outlaw would resume his crime spree in short order,
21:57
Speaker 1: police began conducting bank checks throughout the region. On November 18,
22:04
Speaker 1: two weeks after the shooting, police officers... In Elchar Village, Illinois,
22:08
Speaker 1: saw nothing suspicious at a bank on their list. But
22:18
Speaker 1: later that morning, a woman leaving a nearby location did.
22:22
Speaker 1: Two people wearing very obvious disguises entered the bank. Two
22:38
Speaker 1: weeks after a police shooting in the Chicago area linked
22:42
Speaker 1: to the bearded bandada, the gunman reappeared in Elgrove Village, Illinois,
22:46
Speaker 1: this time with Anma Sumung, this time with an accomplice.
22:50
Speaker 3: 911, can I help you?
22:54
Speaker 1: As a witness outside the bank called the police. Happening here.
22:59
Speaker 1: The robbers attacked. Sit right there. The bandit demanded money
23:03
Speaker 1: from the vault while his accomplice stood guard. What do
23:08
Speaker 1: you mean?
23:09
Speaker 5: Open it.
23:09
Speaker 1: The 911 operator, aware of the bearded bandit, used a
23:14
Speaker 1: preset code to alert officers.
23:16
Speaker 3: 32, code green, location 52.
23:19
Speaker 1: Come on. No telltale information on the police scanner. They
23:24
Speaker 1: also alerted the FBI. Special Agent Hank Schmidt became aware
23:29
Speaker 1: of the new danger. Our biggest concern is that the
23:33
Speaker 1: robber will, in some cases, fire the weapon when using
23:36
Speaker 1: it to target employees... So the potential for violence is
23:39
Speaker 1: always there. The numbers go up if we have two
23:41
Speaker 1: people who are armed. At the bank, the manager explained
23:48
Speaker 1: that they could not enter the time-delayed vault. The operator
23:53
Speaker 1: warned the witness to leave in case shots were fired.
24:00
Speaker 1: With the cash in the drawers, the robbers fled. Unaware
24:06
Speaker 1: that the police had been called, the employee raised the alarm.
24:14
Speaker 1: Elgrove Village officers approached with sirens off silently, surrounding the bank.
24:24
Speaker 1: If the robbers were still inside and heard the police,
24:27
Speaker 1: they could take hostages. The officers were in even greater danger,
24:34
Speaker 1: according to Paladin Chief John Cuzzle. For the first time ever,
24:39
Speaker 1: we had two bearded individuals robbing a bank. That, of course,
24:42
Speaker 1: increased our sense of urgency even more. But we had
24:46
Speaker 1: two armed men to deal with when the police arrived
24:48
Speaker 1: at these banks. 2600, you can call the bank. Find
24:52
Speaker 1: out who the robbers are. Through the operator, the police
24:55
Speaker 1: spoke to the bank employees.
24:57
Speaker 3: The robbery.
24:58
Speaker 1: The manager said the robbers were gone.
24:59
Speaker 3: They just got out.
25:02
Speaker 1: The officers had to be safe. The robbers could be
25:05
Speaker 1: holding a gun in front of the manager, forcing her
25:08
Speaker 1: to lie.
25:10
Speaker 3: Listen, we're going to need someone to come out.
25:12
Speaker 1: The operator asked them to send an employee outside to
25:15
Speaker 1: talk to the police. The manager gave them a description
25:20
Speaker 1: of the woman. It was not chosen to come out.
25:24
Speaker 3: Female subject 25. About 5'11, major tall, thin, 5'6.
25:30
Speaker 5: Ask her to come out.
25:36
Speaker 1: Okay, I see her coming out. Hello? Are you aware
25:39
Speaker 1: there was a bank alert here? Is anyone hurt inside?
25:42
Speaker 1: The employee assured them that the robbers had left and
25:45
Speaker 1: that no one inside was hurt. The bank is clear.
25:49
Speaker 1: Come in. The officers entered and secured the bank. One
25:58
Speaker 1: of the witnesses told us he believed the second person,
26:00
Speaker 1: the smaller one, was possibly a woman disguised as a man.
26:08
Speaker 1: After the Elk Grove Village robbery, police recovered two cars
26:11
Speaker 1: with the robber's signature. The ignition was broken. It was
26:16
Speaker 1: more evidence of his criminal sophistication. to disassociate himself. After
26:21
Speaker 1: leaving the bank, he would abandon one about a block
26:24
Speaker 1: away from the bank he had just entered and from
26:26
Speaker 1: which all witnesses had seen him exit. He would then
26:31
Speaker 1: walk a few blocks from there to get into the
26:33
Speaker 1: other vehicle he had left earlier in an attempt to
26:36
Speaker 1: disengage from the first getaway car. All of the cars
26:41
Speaker 1: were similar, according to Special Agent Dave Choudhury. You were
26:46
Speaker 1: able to categorize the cars by type, make, size, and
26:49
Speaker 1: their near-zero visibility. They were just regular cars. Here you
26:55
Speaker 1: can see him stealing them, then leaving them somewhere for
26:58
Speaker 1: several days before using them as getaway cars. The task
27:01
Speaker 1: force requested that they be notified of similar cars stolen
27:05
Speaker 1: from area shopping centers.
27:08
Speaker 2: We were successful in obtaining information on a Catholic of
27:12
Speaker 2: Halifax sign on cars that were stolen in the northwest
27:15
Speaker 2: suburbs and the city of Chicago, and we update that
27:18
Speaker 2: information weekly.
27:19
Speaker 1: So we understand that you are... Agent Scott Bacon of
27:24
Speaker 1: the FBI, Sergeant Steve Peterson of the Chicago Police Department.
27:29
Speaker 1: They went through all the vehicle rosters of about 50
27:31
Speaker 1: to 60 law enforcement agencies and talked to each and
27:35
Speaker 1: every officer about the need to find these cars. Those
27:39
Speaker 1: visits meant a lot more than just putting information on
27:42
Speaker 1: a teletype. Somewhere in the metropolitan area, they were hoping
27:47
Speaker 1: to find the getaway car after the bandit stole it,
27:50
Speaker 1: but before he used it on a robot. Weeks later,
27:56
Speaker 1: Officer Tom Polinski was checking the parking lot of an
27:58
Speaker 1: apartment building in Niles, Illinois, when he saw a stolen
28:02
Speaker 1: car from his roster. It looked like the work of
28:10
Speaker 1: the Bearded Bandits. The agreement was that if they found
28:15
Speaker 1: one of those and it showed up stolen, when they
28:18
Speaker 1: ran the license plate, they would pull out and let
28:20
Speaker 1: us know. And so it happened. We set up surveillance
28:23
Speaker 1: on that vehicle. FBI agents, Niles police officers, and detectives
28:30
Speaker 1: watched from a vacant apartment overlooking the stolen car 24
28:34
Speaker 1: hours a day.
28:38
Speaker 2: On December 13th, we learned that Rolling Meadows Police had
28:41
Speaker 2: located another stolen car that may have been one of
28:45
Speaker 2: the Bearded Bandit's cars.
28:49
Speaker 1: Chief Kalei was certain they were right. These two particular
28:54
Speaker 1: vehicles were stolen from large strip malls. Both were owned
28:58
Speaker 1: by employees of those malls. So the M.O. was perfect.
29:07
Speaker 1: They set up surveillance on a second car. Also at
29:10
Speaker 1: Rolling Meadows. Rolling Meadows police stepped up their efforts. They
29:15
Speaker 1: pooled time, detectives, intelligence. They sat with our agents 24
29:20
Speaker 1: hours a day. To further ensure that the bandit didn't
29:32
Speaker 1: get away, the FBI wanted to install tracking devices on
29:36
Speaker 1: the vehicles. but they couldn't do it in the parking lots.
29:53
Speaker 1: Late one night, the agents removed both cars. and replaced
30:03
Speaker 1: them with lookalikes for a few hours. It was a
30:10
Speaker 1: risky move. The thief could return at any time and
30:16
Speaker 1: spot the agents or the decoys. In the FBI garage,
30:25
Speaker 1: technicians installed remote tracking devices on each vehicle. They also
30:31
Speaker 1: equipped the cars with remote control switches that would officers
30:35
Speaker 1: to turn off the engines remotely. They returned the cars
30:41
Speaker 1: and waited. Days passed.
30:48
Speaker 2: We had a nagging doubt in our minds that perhaps
30:51
Speaker 2: he had discovered us, that perhaps he had seen one
30:54
Speaker 2: of us or a police officer going in out of
30:56
Speaker 2: the apartment they were using to watch the car in Niles,
30:59
Speaker 2: that he had seen someone near them. on Romerados and
31:03
Speaker 2: was just going to leave these cars there and never
31:06
Speaker 2: come back and never come back.
31:10
Speaker 4: We weren't sure.
31:11
Speaker 1: We didn't know.
31:12
Speaker 2: But we were committed to watching these cars until something
31:18
Speaker 2: told us otherwise.
31:23
Speaker 1: After a week, the vigil paid off. A van pulled
31:27
Speaker 1: up and a man approached one of the cars. This was,
31:33
Speaker 1: I thought, a life-or-death effort. This is our only... If
31:38
Speaker 1: we miss it, he'll know we're onto him. He's walking
31:41
Speaker 1: toward the car. They had hoped to end the outlaw's
31:44
Speaker 1: crime spree in peace, but no one had forgotten the
31:47
Speaker 1: last time the gunman had been cornered. In 1991, while
31:58
Speaker 1: Chicago-area investigators were looking at two stolen cars that could
32:02
Speaker 1: be used in the bearded bandit's next heist, a man
32:06
Speaker 1: got into one of the cars. Special Agent Hank Smith
32:12
Speaker 1: believed that was their suspect. He matched the general physical
32:17
Speaker 1: description of the person we were looking for as the
32:20
Speaker 1: bearded bandit.
32:23
Speaker 5: Got him.
32:24
Speaker 1: I can see him. He's in the... Driving a van
32:27
Speaker 1: had dropped the man off near the vehicle. The small
32:32
Speaker 1: car and the white van headed south on the alley.
32:38
Speaker 1: When he drove off, the van followed him. Investigators were
32:45
Speaker 1: unable to identify either driver. They had to be careful.
32:52
Speaker 1: If the bearded bandit and his accomplice saw them following him,
32:55
Speaker 1: they might open fire. But FBI technicians had installed a
33:02
Speaker 1: tracking device on the car, allowing agents to follow them
33:06
Speaker 1: from a distance. The suspect parked the stolen car near
33:13
Speaker 1: a suburban bank. This small car is parked. The van
33:17
Speaker 1: is behind it. When given the information, Supervisory Special Agent
33:20
Speaker 1: Bill Kiff believed they had finally found the target, the
33:25
Speaker 1: When that vehicle showed up near a bank, our adrenaline
33:27
Speaker 1: started pumping really hard, and we knew we could catch him.
33:34
Speaker 1: This was probably the first getaway car for the robbery
33:37
Speaker 1: the next day, Guy. The agents believed the two suspects
33:44
Speaker 1: would take the second car stolen in Rollings Meadows, Stato's.
33:48
Speaker 1: I'm waiting. We have a male, a white male. That
34:04
Speaker 1: vehicle was also equipped with a tracking device.
34:10
Speaker 5: Starting to move now.
34:15
Speaker 4: Looks like the van is coming back.
34:21
Speaker 1: The surveillance agents followed that car, believed to be the
34:24
Speaker 1: second getaway car to a hardware store. about 20 miles
34:28
Speaker 1: from the bank where the couple left it.
34:30
Speaker 4: It looks like the van is coming back. The unit
34:46
Speaker 4: proceeded and followed it.
34:54
Speaker 1: With the two suspects in the van, the agents no
34:57
Speaker 1: longer had the benefit of a tracking device and were
35:01
Speaker 1: to remain close by. They followed the van to Hanover Park, Illinois,
35:07
Speaker 1: and watched it stop hot at home. Now, Special Agent
35:16
Speaker 1: Dave Childry could identify the people in that house, We.
35:21
Speaker 2: Had a license plate and vague descriptions of two people,
35:23
Speaker 2: a man and a woman.
35:24
Speaker 1: A records check.
35:28
Speaker 2: That license plate told us that that van belonged to
35:30
Speaker 2: Jeffrey and Jill Erickson.
35:32
Speaker 1: The FBI and the police worked through the night to
35:37
Speaker 1: find out more. We had done a lot of research
35:43
Speaker 1: calling police departments to see who these people were. We
35:47
Speaker 1: were looking for a previous arrest record that we couldn't find.
35:51
Speaker 1: During this process, we obtained information that Jeffrey Erickson had
35:55
Speaker 1: been a police officer. In 1986, Jack Wajoloran worked as
36:01
Speaker 1: a patrol officer on the Chicago Suburban National Assembly. He
36:06
Speaker 1: distinguished himself as an expert marksman. But he wasn't interested
36:11
Speaker 1: in the daily requirements of the job, traffic stops, paperwork.
36:17
Speaker 1: He was on the verge of being fired when he resigned.
36:22
Speaker 1: Records also showed that Jeffrey Erickson opened a used bookstore
36:26
Speaker 1: in early 1991 while the Bira Bandit was on hiatus. Apparently,
36:34
Speaker 1: he and his wife Jill, a college chemistry major, were
36:37
Speaker 1: leading a double life using money from bank robberies to
36:41
Speaker 1: appear middle class. He might not have seemed threatening on
36:46
Speaker 1: the surface, but Special Agent Smith knew he was. Hopefully
36:51
Speaker 1: they were the right size. Since he was a trained individual,
36:53
Speaker 1: he knew how we were going to react. He could
36:55
Speaker 1: plan ahead because he was trained with weapons, all Maoist weapons.
37:00
Speaker 1: He would be more professional in the way he handled
37:03
Speaker 1: it and would pose a greater threat to us. Investigators
37:08
Speaker 1: considered waiting until the Ericssons approached the bank the next
37:11
Speaker 1: day but decided not to risk shooting in close proximity
37:15
Speaker 1: to employees and customers. We had enough to avoid having
37:20
Speaker 1: to catch him in the vicinity of a bank. The
37:23
Speaker 1: safest approach would be to either get to the car,
37:26
Speaker 1: the stolen car, or arrest him. While surveillance units were
37:34
Speaker 1: watching the suspects whose was whom. The SWAT team was
37:39
Speaker 1: positioned near the car in the hardware store parking lot.
37:47
Speaker 1: Police Chief John Clee The SWAT team who were stationed
37:52
Speaker 1: in the vehicles were very aware of his past and
37:54
Speaker 1: knew that he might shoot first, so they had to
37:57
Speaker 1: take that into account. By morning, they were ready for
38:03
Speaker 1: when the Ericssons made their move. By mid-morning, surveillance units
38:18
Speaker 1: had informed us that the van was indeed moving from
38:21
Speaker 1: the residence with at least two people in it. They
38:25
Speaker 1: were headed in the direction where we were seeing the
38:27
Speaker 1: stolen car, Yingaki. Over here. Surveillance units informed us that Mr.
38:38
Speaker 1: Erickson had exited the vehicle from an adjacent parking lot.
38:44
Speaker 1: He's driving away.
38:47
Speaker 2: The driver is still in the van, heading west.
38:50
Speaker 1: The FBI had installed a kill switch in the stolen
38:53
Speaker 1: car that they could use to remotely turn off the engine.
39:01
Speaker 1: We saw him come around the corner from the parking lot,
39:03
Speaker 1: go to the vehicle, get in. Get in and start
39:07
Speaker 1: the engine.
39:07
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
39:17
Speaker 1: Turn it off. Erickson was distracted by the problem with
39:24
Speaker 1: the vehicle. Okay, let's proceed. The SWAT team went into action.
39:29
Speaker 5: Back out of the car.
39:39
Speaker 1: Of the car.
39:39
Speaker 5: Get out of the car.
39:40
Speaker 3: Put your hands where I can see them.
39:42
Speaker 5: Do not touch the press. Get out of the car.
39:45
Speaker 1: I know the pressure to shoot or not to shoot
39:47
Speaker 1: is a split-second decision.
39:49
Speaker 5: Get out of your bank. Put your hands in the air.
39:51
Speaker 5: Get out of the car.
39:53
Speaker 1: And most police officers don't want to have to shoot
39:57
Speaker 1: a person if they have to. They don't want to
40:01
Speaker 1: take a life that way. Get out of the car slowly. Slowly.
40:05
Speaker 1: After reaching for his bag twice, Erickson finally complied with orders.
40:11
Speaker 1: If he had taken his gun out of his bag,
40:12
Speaker 1: the situation would have been very different. As we were
40:22
Speaker 1: transporting him to federal prison after his arrest, I asked him, quote,
40:26
Speaker 1: As a former police officer, did you know that a
40:29
Speaker 1: move like that could have gotten you killed? And he
40:31
Speaker 1: looked at me and said, I thought you were going
40:33
Speaker 1: to shoot me in the head. And it would have
40:34
Speaker 1: bent over quickly. In the car, officers searched Erickson's bag
40:43
Speaker 1: and found the bearded bandit's rolls loaded guns. A police scanner,
40:49
Speaker 1: Grakar Andars, who's a bandit coming.
40:53
Speaker 2: His bank robbery gear in that bag came in handy
40:55
Speaker 2: in the case.
40:57
Speaker 1: Without that information or evidence, we would have only arrested
41:00
Speaker 1: a car thief. Having Jeffrey Erickson in safe custody was
41:07
Speaker 1: only half the job. In the adjacent parking lot, the
41:13
Speaker 1: SWAT team approached the van. Erickson could be inside.
41:17
Speaker 4: Now get out of the car.
41:28
Speaker 1: Officers raced after it.
41:30
Speaker 8: The chase wound through 11 suburban jurisdictions, reaching speeds of
41:40
Speaker 8: 106 mph.
41:40
Speaker 1: A roadblock malfunctioned. He had fired multiple rounds from that
41:57
Speaker 1: van at pursuing officers or at other people in traffic
42:01
Speaker 1: at key. Officers were very concerned that he might hit
42:04
Speaker 1: an innocent civilian. Officer shot out the vans, rear tires.
42:23
Speaker 9: But the driver would not give up.
42:36
Speaker 1: In 1991, a suspected bank robber led police and FBI
42:39
Speaker 1: agents on a dangerous chase through the Chicago suburbs. The
42:47
Speaker 1: fleeing van entered an area where investigators knew there would
42:51
Speaker 1: be no exit. They blocked the road. Since the van
43:11
Speaker 1: had hit them, they had to shoot. They saw movement inside.
43:31
Speaker 1: Get out of the van. An FBI agent approached cautiously.
43:49
Speaker 1: The driver was wounded by a single self-inflicted gunshot wound.
44:00
Speaker 1: It was Jill Erickson. Later that night in the hospital,
44:09
Speaker 1: special agents died. We thought it might have been a
44:13
Speaker 1: deal they had both made that they wouldn't be arrested,
44:17
Speaker 1: but she had carried out her part of the deal
44:19
Speaker 1: that day, and he had decided for some reason not to.
44:29
Speaker 1: Inside the van were shells, blood, fibers, other ammunition.
44:33
Speaker 2: There was a rifle with several hundred rounds of ammunition.
44:37
Speaker 2: That whole neighborhood became an evidence nightmare. There were bullets
44:43
Speaker 2: that Jill had fired, ironed, lodged in the sides.
44:53
Speaker 1: Of houses and cars in the street. the FBI obtained
45:01
Speaker 1: a federal search warrant for the Erickson home, Thackton home.
45:05
Speaker 1: Some gloves. Another pair.
45:10
Speaker 2: We found some loose change, but what really impressed us
45:13
Speaker 2: was the amount of firepower in the house. An arrest
45:17
Speaker 2: at that home would have resulted.
45:20
Speaker 1: Eh, shoot how.
45:24
Speaker 2: There was a gun in that home where there might
45:27
Speaker 2: be a picture or a statue or a piece of.
45:30
Speaker 1: Candy in any other home. Among the weapons found was the.
45:39
Speaker 1: 223 semi-automatic assault rifle used in the attack on Officer
45:42
Speaker 1: Kevin Maher. Chief John Castle understood that a shootout would
45:48
Speaker 1: have been deadly for both sides. The guns in his
45:54
Speaker 1: home were as good as any police force has. In
45:57
Speaker 1: terms of firepower, most of the long guns he had
46:00
Speaker 1: would go through an officer's body armor. Another discovery in
46:07
Speaker 1: the home showed the mindset of the couple. One of
46:11
Speaker 1: the things we found quite ironic was that the television
46:13
Speaker 1: was on and the VCR was on and there was
46:15
Speaker 1: a movie of Bonnie and Clyde and it was at
46:18
Speaker 1: the point where Bonnie and Clyde were... being shot and killed,
46:22
Speaker 1: and it was obvious that it was something. They watched
46:26
Speaker 1: before they went out and did their bank robberies. Turn
46:31
Speaker 1: your head to the right. Although one robber was dead
46:34
Speaker 1: and another in custody, the violence was not over yet.
46:42
Speaker 1: Jeffrey Erickson's trial began on July 13, 1992. The evidence
46:44
Speaker 1: against him was and was strong. In every conversation with
46:53
Speaker 1: the United States Attorney's Office, the trial was going very well.
46:56
Speaker 1: They were very optimistic about the trial, and the evidence
47:00
Speaker 1: was sufficient to convict him. But then after the court adjourned,
47:07
Speaker 1: on July 20, 1992, two deputy United States Marshals loaded
47:12
Speaker 1: Erickson and several other inmates from the jail into an elevator.
47:21
Speaker 1: Erickson was still dressed for court. The prisoners were headed
47:28
Speaker 1: to a van that would take them to the Metropolitan
47:31
Speaker 1: Correctional Center. By the time the elevator reached the parking lot,
47:38
Speaker 1: Erickson had somehow freed himself from his handcuffs. Erickson shot
47:46
Speaker 1: Deputy Belfrakes in the back and head, killing him. Ambushed,
47:52
Speaker 1: Frakes did not have time to draw his weapon. As
47:57
Speaker 1: the gunman ran down the street, a court security officer
48:00
Speaker 1: and former Chicago police officer, Harry Bellomani, confronted him. Erickson
48:08
Speaker 1: shot the police veteran in the chest. But before Bellomani died,
48:13
Speaker 1: he fired four rounds, fatally wounding Erickson. The criminal was
48:19
Speaker 1: 40 feet from the busy streets when he died. The
48:23
Speaker 1: thing is, all of these resources were applied to an
48:26
Speaker 1: individual who was captured and was tried in a court
48:29
Speaker 1: of law. You would think the case was over, but
48:32
Speaker 1: unfortunately the only person who was able to stop this
48:34
Speaker 1: individual happened to be a very brave police officer named
48:38
Speaker 1: Harry Belluomani who, as he lay dying, shot and killed
48:41
Speaker 1: Jeff Erickson. Newly married Bill Frakes was a young and
48:47
Speaker 1: promising law enforcement officer with only nine months of experience.
48:52
Speaker 1: Harry Biloani was a 31 minus year veteran. Two of
48:59
Speaker 1: his sons are also Chicago police officers, continuing his legacy.
49:25
Speaker 5: We'll be right back.