Best Of Season 6 | TRIPLE EPISODE | The FBI Files

at a bank outside los angeles a nighttime explosion that no one hears cunning criminals no one sees [Music] it's the perfect burglary in which cash and bandits vanish without a trace with little to go on the fbi must use instinct and determination to solve a case that seems impossible to crack [Music] [Music] bank robbery is a brazen yet simple crime a mask a gun a note passed to a teller but bank burglar is different it takes skill to disable an alarm to penetrate a locked vault i'm jim calstrom former head of the fbi's new york office in 1972 the largest bank burglary in u.s history went down without a hitch 8 million dollars gone now agents must track a gang of sophisticated criminals with enough money to disappear forever laguna niguel california march 27 1972 it's monday morning at the united california bank employees prepare to open for business [Music] when the bank manager tries to unlock the bulk door [Music] [Music] a technician from the vault manufacturer arrives 20 minutes later to check the door's locking system he works for hours the combination is right the tumblers are in place but unexplainably even the expert can't get it open it's not working looking for another way in the technician climbs into the rafters above the vault [Music] he is stunned to find a hole cut in the roof below a second gaping hole leading to the vault agents from the fbi santa ana resident agency immediately respond to the bank the first investigator to survey the cluttered crime scene is special agent jim conway upon arriving and getting up on the vault and looking down at this hole we could see a pile of rubble out i would say six feet tall and expanding out [Music] once inside the vault the technician discovers a screwdriver jammed into the lock's gears [Music] agents suspect the thieves wanted to delay the discovery of the crime the place is a disaster my first impression was there was going to be a lot of time and effort needed to work this out it was something we couldn't just plow into because we had a crime scene we were able to walk in a few of us and look around and see what the extent was as best we could determine but we're walking over watches and rings and valuables and everything else because it was all piled into this big cement mess special agent frank cali begins sorting through the chaos just everything was thrown all over the place there uh the locks of hair all kinds of check statements photographs uh things that people would normally put into in the in a safety deposit box i remember seeing urns with ashes of deceased people in there the agents begin the arduous task of determining how the burglars entered the seemingly impenetrable vault they noticed dark soil and pieces of burlap mixed with the cement rubble [Music] outside they find the bank's audible alarm disabled they also find a ladder interpreting the clues investigators pieced together the burglar's intricate plan to breach the vault [Music] they disabled the alarm by injecting it with liquid styrofoam it hardened freezing the clapper in place and rendering the alarm useless [Music] then the burglars climbed onto the roof [Music] investigators find tape on a rooftop outlet suggesting the burglars use the bank's electricity and agents cannot find fingerprints on the tape they conclude the burglars wore gloves fully powered the burglars sawed a four-foot opening into the roof [Music] once inside the rafters they clearly knew how to bypass the interior silent alarm system they took a couple of the wires and that we would have normally transmitted the alarm signal and they clipped them both and soldered them together it was delicate highly skilled work knew right away they they they were smart they did the homework even with the alarm disabled 16 inches of steel reinforced concrete stood between the burglars and the contents of the vault the only way through an intensely powerful blast agents believe the bandits drilled holes into the cement then inserted dynamite and electric blasting caps [Music] the blast had to be precisely directed to blow through the cement without injuring the burglars or attracting attention [Music] agents conclude that the burlap fragments in the soil and the vault indicate that the burglars came prepared they placed the bags over the explosive not only to muffle the sound but also it would direct the charge into the into the vault itself and keep the charge going into the concrete where they wanted it rather than coming back out where they were [Music] the investigators discover burn marks on the steel rebar that reinforces the cement they conclude that the burglars knew the blast could not crack steel and came prepared with an acetylene torch agents turned their attention to assessing the total loss bank officials report fifty thousand dollars is missing from cash drawers but the thieves were not content with the cash they took the time to break into 458 safe deposit boxes investigators find tool marks on the locks of the boxes and deduce the burglars used a pointed instrument and a lot of brute force to break them open one by one they carefully sorted through every item leaving behind what they didn't want [Music] amazingly the bandits were so methodical that they got in and out without being seen or heard in 1972 most banks were closed on weekends agents conclude that the suspects took full advantage of that fact apparently they had been in there several times in and out over the weekend it probably was went in on friday night and they probably didn't get out there late sunday night not only had the burglars pulled off such a lengthy complex crime they did it without leaving a single fingerprint [Music] although investigators do find a brown cotton glove and broken drill bits neither is unique enough to be traceable agents and deputies collect the debris for further examination at the crime lab but with no apparent evidence and no witnesses agents are facing the tough challenge of identifying and locating a group of highly skilled criminals including electronics and explosives experts [Music] investigators turn their attention to determining the total loss from the safe deposit boxes it will be extremely difficult since banks do not keep records of their contents ordinarily if you had a bank burglary you would be missing cash you'd go out and say yes we got to find 350 000 worth of cash at this point we did not know what was gone it's a very affluent area and so the possibilities of a tremendous amount of money and material being lost was was evident investigators begin the arduous task of carefully sorting and cataloging every item left in the vault then by interviewing every box holder agents learn the details of missing jewelry rare gold coins and bearer bonds by a process of elimination they slowly create a list of the stolen goods the bank's loss of fifty thousand dollars in cash pails by comparison as the value of the missing items rises to over eight million dollars the heist has now become the largest bank burglary in u.s history with no physical evidence to go on investigators hope to develop leads by thinking like the bandits we felt that they would need oxygen to burn the rebar and so we canvas hospitals oxygen supply places and things like that despite checking every oxygen supplier in the area agents come up with nothing we also felt that a drill of some type had to be used obviously a large one so we can't list places to find if anybody had sold or rented a large drill as we felt that would have to be used again agents go to dozens of equipment shops checking records during the time surrounding the break-in but they find no suspicious purchases or rentals clearly the criminals in this case have masterminded and pulled off a nearly perfect heist with no witnesses no direct clues and certainly no suspects it seems impossible to solve but the fbi is determined to identify the burglars and find them wherever they are in march 1972 the professional crew of burglars blasted their way into a bank vault in laguna niguel california near los angeles over a weekend they emptied hundreds of safe deposit boxes made off with more than eight million dollars in cash and valuables then disappeared without a trace agents believe they are an experienced band of criminals the case is difficult to crack for the small santa ana fbi office needing more resources they seek the help of the larger los angeles fbi field office special agent paul chamberlain supervises the investigation at the time it was our conclusion that this was the largest bank burglary in the history of the united states we went to just about everyone in the office it was several hundred agents and that's not a typical response but it became apparent that the crime was a significant crime the santa ana agents quickly briefed the los angeles office on the details we'd not had a bank burglary like that in recorded history in in the los angeles division uh burglaries that did occur with banks involved a small effort and this was a systematic big time operation that lasted over three days since the burglars seem to be highly skilled professionals yet have not struck los angeles before agents conclude that they're probably from out of town an agent sends a teletype to all other fbi offices asking if anyone knows of similar bank burglaries they get a hit from the cleveland ohio field office where agents have been investigating similar bank heists 13 of them in fact the description of the california burglary immediately strikes a cord with them including special agent buddy nicks we knew from the modus operandi the mo the outside alarm had styrofoam spray placed in it to keep the audible alarm from activating the fact that it was a roof job the fact that the alarm system had been bypassed were all indications that the bank burglary crews in youngstown very well may have been involved the ohio agents believe the 13 ohio bank heists were committed by the youngstown erie bank burglary group a loose association of criminals tied to organized crime the california agents were right these are no small time crooks youngstown at that time was just a mecca for organized crime act activities i mean they controlled the illegal gambling businesses and they they were you know very much involved in interstate transportation of stolen property and and tracked trailer thefts and there were burglary crews that were operating and there were a lot of very sophisticated burglaries that were taking place at that time as part of earlier investigations the youngstown ohio agents have identified nearly 100 men believed to be part of the burglary group they've collected intelligence on each of them agents send the men's names and mug shots to the los angeles fbi there investigators try to narrow the list since the criminals must have traveled to california agents check airline passenger manifests from around the time of the burglary without the benefit of modern computers it is a time-consuming process done by hand after an exhaustive search they find the names of five men from the youngstown list who had boarded a recent flight to los amal angeles harry barber charles mulligan charles brockles and philip christopher arrived in california nine days before the heist the sixth man james denzio came in on a different flight the day before the burglary agents have developed suspects and his brother emil demsio [Music] agents review the intelligence gathered on the six members of the burglary group [Music] all have long records for home and small business burglaries first suspect we're gonna look and have done a little jail time aimaldenzio appears to be the brains of the gang the leader you need to pay attention to that picture he plans the jobs and handpicks the team to pull them off [Music] charles brockles is an explosives and electronics expert well versed in bank alarms [Music] agents believe philip christopher is a lookout for the gang all right he's known for his expertise in bank robbing the other gang members are all relatives of the leader and probably help with the grunt work there's older brother james and charles mulligan amel's brother-in-law here you're going to really appreciate this guy yeah there's also amal's nephew harry barbour the men are all seasoned professional criminals well connected in organized crime the youngstown ohio fbi has linked them circumstantially to many bank burglaries but never had direct evidence all right and uh the charges never stopped nobody not a heavyweight but we gotta the only information that links the suspects to the crime is that they were all in los angeles at the time of the burglary agents begin the difficult job of tracking their movements starting at the airport we then canvassed and interviewed every cab driver at lax that was working that day that was a massive project agents spend days interviewing dozens of drivers it finally pays off one cab driver recalls taking a group of five men to a home in the nearby community of southgate [Music] he remembers the trip well the cab drivers specifically remembered these folks for for two reasons one because of 100 tip but for the other reason they were tough mean looking guys agents get the address from taxi records and decide to go there but it is a risk agents fear that if the suspects find out they're investigating the burglary they might skip town they have to take the chance it is their only lead according to special agent jim conway we had to interview somebody we had to get our investigation started and we were concerned that naturally that the rest of them would be aware that we were at least that close to identifying them agents learn that the southgate house belongs to the barber family ronald barber the brother of suspect harry barber agrees to an interview but is elusive we did not have a warrant or anything at that particular time we had nothing positively to tie him to it but the more he talked the more he seemed to know and the more we were impressed that he knows a whole lot ronald barber claims the six men were never at his house agents still have no direct evidence yet they believe barbara's story may be at least partially true they note that the house seems too small to accommodate ronald and six other men staying there agents conclude that at least some of them likely stayed elsewhere so agents spread out checking one hotel after another starting with those closest to the bank we figured these fellas were high rollers they knew they're going to get a big haul so they're going to stay at a nice place so we were knocking on the doors of every fine hotel in the la orange county area it is more tedious time-consuming footwork but they do not give up on a hunch one agent decides to take a different approach there was an agent who figured that maybe they didn't stay at the best hotels and he took it upon himself to walk into a truck stop hotel and lo and behold he found out that ameldenzio had stayed there you're sure emil dinzio is the leader of the burglary group records show his brother-in-law charles mulligan also rented a room there around the time of the heist agents check mulligan's registration card and find a license plate number stenzio they trace it to the southgate address of ronald barber investigators now have seven suspects the six from ohio and the local ronald barber they still have nothing directly linking them into the crime but the investigation is finally rolling forward and the fbi is closing in weeks after a well-planned multi-million dollar bank burglary in southern california the fbi identifies seven suspects ring leader anal denzio and his brother james dencio charles mulligan philip christopher and charles brockles and harry barbour and his brother ronald barber a notorious gang of professional thieves based in youngstown ohio agents determined at least two of the men stayed at an area motel days before the heist special agent paul chamberlain is convinced the men are responsible but he has no evidence to prove it by reference in innuendo you kind of knew who was involved but you need to have the evidence in federal court agents subpoenaed the motel phone records and fined a series of calls to a local man named earl dawson our background investigation concluded he was a former military a marine guy with some training in uh munitions explosives uh and in as much as we had major explosions that occurred at the bank it became interesting to us special agent frank kelly learns of another interesting connection dawson is from youngstown ohio the base of operations for the burglary group so there's a the light goes off again and then we say well now we got another break we got the connection somehow between the boys from youngstown to denzios and and their cohorts in dawson agents decide to approach dawson at his house to convince him he should cooperate they show him pictures of amuldencio and his associates and ask if he knows them [Music] dawson is reluctant to talk i was in the core as well knowing dawson is a former marine special agent callie appeals to his sense of duty there was a very patriotic individual and i'm a former marine and we just kind of played that i said come on earl you know you're a former marine you've served your country i said what's important or also a big case and he said what is it i said heard about that bank burglary down lagoon and i callie's tactic works dawson comes clean he admits knowing three of the suspects emil dincio amel's brother james and charles mulligan [Music] he and mulligan are old friends who grew up together in youngstown [Music] dawson tells cali that the day before the laguna niguel heist mulligan came to his house with the other suspects mulligan gave him a hundred dollars to leave the house for a few hours so they could hold a meeting [Music] dawson left without hearing what they discussed the dawson adds that he does have something the agents might want to see he shows up the other day mulligan left a car in his garage it's still there it is a huge break perhaps the car holds the evidence they've been looking for but before they can check it out they're interrupted [Music] while i'm talking to him the phone rings he answers the phone and he picks it up and he points to the phone and he mouths the word mulligan [Music] thinking quickly agent cali asks dawson's permission to eavesdrop a legal requirement for using what he hears in court dawson signals that there is another phone in the bedroom mulligan comes out he says hey there is anybody the fbi been around thus it says no they they're not around i think i've almost had to laugh myself at the time listening this he's playing a beautiful role out there he's really flip flop he's on our side now mulligan explains that he knows the fbi has been asking questions about him and his cohorts and that they're getting worried and he's heading back to the los angeles area mulligan said uh i want to come out tonight and uh to see it i'm gonna move my the car in the garage agent cali seizes the opportunity to trap mulligan but he fears that he might be setting up dawson yeah and the fbi i didn't know for sure this offer seems he could be sitting across the street at the time watching us before we know with earthbay icar sitting out front cali instructs dawson to arrange a meeting with mulligan in a public place dawson tells mulligan to meet him at his favorite bar the walnut room mulligan agrees now agents have a chance to inspect the car mulligan left in the garage but it does not belong to dawson so we cannot give them permission to search it through the window they can see a pair of brown cotton gloves exactly like the one found in the vault the back seat is covered in what appears to be cement dust similar to the debris found at the crime scene it is the probable cause agents need to obtain a search warrant for the car they also obtained an arrest warrant for charles mulligan and set up surveillance at the walnut room clothes agents positioned themselves inside the bar not far from dawson we staked it out so to speak we four of us were inside waiting and we had a couple of men outside waiting for him to arrive dawson introduces agent cali to some regulars as a buddy from the marine corps the agents have to look natural while staying sharp earl dawson's safety is their primary concern didn't know what was going to happen so we had to protect earl agents devise a method for callie and dawson to communicate either one of them can signal the other by simply going to the restroom where they will meet three hours later mulligan finally arrives he appears to be alone and greets his old friend who tries to get him to talk about the heist i didn't want to be too close i was across the bar from earl was talking to him and and asked him something about you were involved in that that deal down in laguna niguel and old mulligan says well what do you think unable to hear everything they're saying callie heads to the restroom dawson follows [Music] in the men's room kelly asked for an update dawson explains that mulligan is anxious to leave and to pick up the car from dawson's garage cali tells him to go but instructs dawson not to get into mulligan's vehicle agents finally make the first arrest in the case as they take mulligan into custody they pretend to arrest dawson as well to mask his involvement with authorities mulligan is charged with bank burglary he does not resist arrest but when agents try to question him he refuses to talk they hope to find answers in the car he was trying to pick up agents returned to dawson's house and searched the car in the garage we found this large motor used as a drill and some other tools that we felt were very much probably the ones that were used in the actual committing of that crime [Music] agents recover stolen coins along with drill bits acetylene torches hammers and other items that could have been used for the laguna niguel heist and we felt very good about it felt we hit pay dirt we hit a home run evidence technicians ship everything to the fbi lab in washington dc for processing as examiners take days to analyze the evidence field agents follow up on more phone records from the motel one number belongs to a real estate agency in laguna niguel california a manager shows agents a condo she rented to suspects ronald and harry barber days before the burglary the barbers told her they planned to stay three months but left after only three weeks she was able to put the day that they got there and the day they left together for us the men moved out suddenly on march 27 the day the crime was discovered the manager gives investigators permission to search the condo which is within sight of the targeted bank agents begin processing the condo for evidence but initially find nothing the entire inside had been wiped clean with some kind of a product it seems the suspects were as meticulous there as they had been during the burglary there was no evidence recovered at the bank of any value and therefore it was not surprising to see a place that had been wiped down and appears as if they had done everything to to ensure there was no evidence they'd done just about everything right but in fact they made one crucial mistake one of the evidence persons went to the dishwasher and open the dishwasher and realize that it was loaded with dirty dishes and that someone had neglected to push the on button the dirty dishes are covered with multiple latent fingerprints at the fbi lab examiners recover the prints from the dishes and from the tools agents found in mulligan's car and match them to five of the seven suspects tool mark experts examine the damage on the safe deposit boxes and compare them to the striking point of a snout-nosed hammer from mulligan's trunk they report another match the fbi's case is gaining momentum with good circumstantial evidence and one suspect in custody all right now agents must find the other six and enough evidence to put them away for good [Music] in southern california the fbi connects a team of seven members of an organized crime ring based in youngstown ohio to a multi-million dollar bank burglary when they recover tools used in the heist from the car of suspect charles mulligan mulligan's arrest puts the investigation into high gear according to special agent paul chamberlain we did realize that with the rest of mulligan eventually and shortly thereafter they were going to figure out that we had figured who this group was and and therefore we heightened our investigation we did everything as fast as we possibly could but since most of the evidence is circumstantial the case hinges on the testimony of informant earl dawson a man the fbi must protect go ahead and leave but whatever you do whatever happens earl was probably the key witness because the case was kind of dry all along it's physical evidence it's a burglar's very dry earl was able to put all the principles together they were charged with conspiracy and burglary and they could put them all together at his house dawson begins receiving threatening phone calls pressuring him to keep quiet the caller insists on a face-to-face meeting to discuss the matter the fbi learns the meeting may have a more sinister purpose we received informant information uh that a contract was put out on earl dawson's life and we're dawson agents instruct dawson to arrange a meeting at his favorite bar the walnut room but don't tell him about the planned hit agents want to confront the men to send a message to the youngstown crime ring that the fbi is on to them agents are confident that they can protect dawson as long as he stays in a public place i told earl don't leave this bar whatever you do don't go anyplace with if you'll ever leave that room you stay right in that bar as before if either dawson or cali needs to communicate they will meet in the restroom the alleged hit men arrive he started buying earl some pretty heavy drinks earl was basically a beer drinker but then you could see they were trying to switch more to stronger drinks when dawson starts to look concerned callie heads to the restroom [Music] dawson tells the agent he's scared the hitmen wanted to leave with him i said earl you're not leaving this place with him believing you're not leaving agent cali tells dawson to wait in the restroom stay right here and i'll be right back to get you all right just stay right here okay the agents finally approach the men they say they know what they came to do to the hitman the message is clear stay away from dawson they had no problem leaving i went directly to lax where they were escorted by la's finest to an aircraft and they left southern california to keep earl dawson safe for good the fbi decides to put him in the witness protection program agents then go after the remaining burglary suspects [Music] investigators secure warrants to search their last known addresses [Music] at one house agents get their first direct link to the burglary [Music] inside a woman's purse they find a new twenty dollar bill [Music] they compare it to the list of serial numbers of sequence bills taken from the bank [Music] it's a match [Music] special agent buddy nix of the youngstown fbi office receives information from an informant indicating that these gang members had been known to bury the cash they stole until they could launder it safely we identified about a 20 or 25 acre field that we had information that some of the loot was buried in we dug in that field for days on end and using picks and shovels and probes and uh and we finally rented a bulldozer the land is adjacent to property owned by james denzio after more than a week of digging hey agents hit the jackpot they unearth several foot lockers filled with millions of dollars in cash and bonds that they're able to trace back to the laguna niguel bank burglary agents then get yet another tip the neighbor of gang leader emil dencio calls police a lot of money in there he reports finding a cooler buried in his yard it is filled with nearly thousand dollars right over there mr denzio over here investigators match their serial numbers to those taken from the bank and recover anal densio's prints from the cooler with more direct evidence against the gang agents begin making arrests they first go to ronald barbour's southgate california home they are armed with search warrants the only person they find is ronald's mother the brothers have disappeared all six remaining suspects are still at large three months after a multi-million dollar bank burglary the fbi has solid evidence against seven members of an organized crime ring with only one suspect in custody charles mulligan they set out to arrest the others amaldincio james dincio charles brockles philip christopher harry barber and ronald barber agents go to anal dencio's home near youngstown ohio and discover he's made no attempt to run because of his attitude and his era of arrogance mr denzio actually believed he was above the law and and was the kind of guy that um could make things happen his way when agents arrest denzio he is carrying 537 in cash stolen from the laguna niguel bank other gang members are also surprisingly easy to find [Music] within days authorities arrest angel's brother james denzio at an ohio airport his carry-on luggage is full of more money from the heist agents make their fourth arrest nabbing phil christopher in his apartment they discover over two thousand dollars in stolen cash hidden in his closet the three men arrogantly maintain their innocence and refuse to cooperate two months later agents nab alarm expert charles brockles and get a break they decide to confront him with what evidence they have and explain they can put him away for decades they offer him a deal in exchange for his full cooperation and outlining the burglary group in their crimes prosecutors will drop all charges against brockles and place him in the witness protection program [Music] he agrees authorities have captured five of the seven suspects everyone except the barber brothers extradite them to california and indict them on charges of conspiracy burglary and larceny of a federally insured bank while in jail anal densio brags about the heist to another inmate and asks for his help in beating the charges you don't take care of me mr denzio confided in him a great many details that were not in his best interest to confide he got this other inmate to help him buy an alibi for the time of the bank but denzio has chosen the wrong accomplice the other inmate was someone who had had contact with law enforcement on many occasions in the past and he realized that what he was being told would be of some importance to someone and he came to us hoping to receive a lenient sentence for his own burglary case the inmate tells agents of denzio's confession and the plan to purchase an alibi and that was vegas in vegas the alibi was mr duncio was going to be in a motel room a hotel room in las vegas with a prostitute and with physical evidence that would show that he was there the fbi sets up a sting agents give the inmate a contact to offer denzio the contact is actually an undercover agent who will provide denzio's alibi materials denzio takes the bait at the jail's visitation room he meets the undercover agent who plays the role of a fixer a criminal expert in solving problems mr denzio received what he asked for he got a registration card which he registered in on he put his fingerprint on it he got a listing of shows and he got the name of a prostitute who he was with and that became part of his subsequent defense in october 1972 the trials begin in los angeles ameldinsio offers his false alibi but the fbi's undercover fixer testifies about the stamp the jury convicts denzio and the other four defendants they receive sentences ranging from 15 to 20 years [Music] but it is not over two suspects harry and ronald barber are still on the run [Music] within months the fbi receives a tip that the two brothers are living in an apartment in rochester new york agents respond and ronald barber answers the door they arrest him and return him to california where a jury convicts and sentences into 15 years he refuses to say where his brother harry is for eight years harry remains a fugitive then in 1980 a woman in brookville pennsylvania contacts the fbi i knew him as brent she tells agents that her friend has been living with a man who told her he committed a famous bank burglary in california what's her name and that his real name is harry barber the woman tells the fbi that in an attempt to lead a legitimate life the fugitive is working maintenance at a local campground agents move in and [Music] harry barber is convicted and sentenced to 20 years agents can finally close the case on the largest bank burglary in united states history authorities believe emil dincio and his gang committed more than a dozen bank burglaries stealing over 30 million dollars altogether by putting them away fbi agents from ohio to california stopped one of the most sophisticated bank burglary rings of all time [Music] in virginia a bank robbery explodes in violence spraying bullets from automatic weapons of anyone in their way the robbers disappear with no reliable witnesses the police and fbi have to decipher fragmented evidence to identify the shooters and then bring them to justice [Music] [Applause] [Music] despite what you see in the movies most bank robbers come in quietly pass a note and slip away they want cash not bloodshed but in richmond virginia a pair of gunmen entered a bank with their guns blazing i'm jim calstrom former head of the fbi's new york office the raw violence of the crime shocked even the most seasoned investigators who vowed to catch them before they struck again [Music] throughout the 1990s richmond virginia averaged about 10 bank robberies a year prior to 1997 not one of them was fatal on the morning of january 30th 1997 the employees of a small bank on the east end of the city began the day's business 23 year old christine edwards one of the bank's tellers arrived for work [Music] her colleague 21 year old tracy freeman was already there alison davis a customer service representative and richard hartman the bank security guard also began their day steven reed a regular customer arrived shortly thereafter he entered the bank as the tellers finished setting up and was greeted by hartman come on no one saw the two men slipping in the bank's rear door first national bank oh yes when the men struck they did so swiftly and without mercy [Music] 80 yards away richmond police officers michael webb and dave martin were at a convenience store getting coffee for their morning shift hey hey hey something's happened in the bank where gunshots the bank right up the stairs as the officers responded richmond dispatch ordered backup units to the scene respond 929 116. [Music] at the rear of the bank the officers spotted a security guard lying in the parking lot man down [Music] [Laughter] officer martin guarded the front as webb went to check on the guard he was still alive barely webb called for an ambulance emp now then two armed men emerged from the bank stop 19 119 w [Music] the officer knew he was pinned down and out gunned they stopped shooting i stopped shooting and i just knew these two guys were going to come each side of the vehicle after me i changed magazines and sat there and waited for a couple of seconds but the gunman never came for him [Music] officer martin left his position to back up webb but the assailant surprised him [Music] with only a service weapon martin was out gunned which allowed the robbers to get away from him [Music] all the officer could do was report their position as they escaped across the cemetery got a black male running with black jackets toward divert town road two minutes the richmond officer saw a cloud of red dye the sign that the gunman had stolen a bundle of money containing a time dye pack the men left over the next wall and the officer lost sight of them the dispatcher forwarded the information to the henrico county police department officer martin searched the neighborhood knowing two men with automatic weapons could be around any corner but found no sign of the suspects [Music] 233 [Music] and henrico patrolman arrived on the scene emts arrived they tended to the wounded guard outside richmond police entered the building looking for any other gunman that might still be inside and to check the condition of the other employees [Music] they found two tellers both shot it's okay come on out man come on everything's fine allison davis had taken cover everything's okay she was not injured but paralyzed with fear taken to the hospital for evaluation [Music] after clearing the bank the officers felt it was safe to let the emts care for them [Music] for teller christine edwards it was too late tracy freeman in severe shock and bleeding heavily was stabilized and rushed to the hospital along with richard hartman the security guard at the richmond police homicide division detective tom leonard was disturbed by the robbers brutality this was our most violent bank robbery that we can remember in our history so our fear was they were in the neighborhood and we needed to get him off the streets leonard headed to the bank officers collected items dropped by the robbers when they fled including a larson 380 semi-automatic handgun and the clip to a tec-9 another semi-automatic weapon a canine officer with a tracking dog began searching for the suspects the dog followed ascent through the cemetery on art avenue the dog lost the trail henrico and richmond police canvassed the neighborhood asking the residents if they had seen any strange men fleeing the area rita but no one saw anything suspicious detective leonard arrived at the crime scene with an evidence technician okay um we immediately shut down that bank and the only people that were inside the bank was myself and forensic people so as we went through the bank looking for forensic evidence that we could pick up and look at we found a lot of spent shale casings which were fired we had some that were on fire those shells were nine millimeter likely used in the tec-9 behind the teller's counter investigators found a backpack apparently left by the robbers inside was a piece of green tablecloth a bottle of charcoal lighter fluid a box of matches [Music] and a note reading please wait five minutes we couldn't figure out what that was all about on the surface of the tellers counter investigators spotted several boot prints they preserved each print with tape which they would later compare with footwear collected from potential suspects because the bank was federally insured police called in fbi special agent wayne waddell from the richmond field office [Music] at the bank he and detective leonard checked a videotape that had recorded several surveillance cameras simultaneously but there was a problem something caused the film in our opinion to uh to not be not be working correctly it went one camera to another camera to another camera you're getting different angles from the from the front door the rear door and from different teller positions [Music] they would need to make still photos from the individual frames to get any useful details special agent eduardo alford joined the investigation he knew the fbi would not stop until the gunman were captured i'm sure if you talk to every person that was involved in this investigation they would tell you the same thing they they wanted to stay on this case around the clock which essentially is what happened evidence collection at the bank lasted for hours later on in the evening around 5 30 or 6 we received word that henrico county had received a report of a break-in i went over to the break-in site it was on art avenue across from the cemetery not far from where the canine unit had lost the trail of the suspects we didn't know if it had anything to do with the bank robbery or not a young woman that lived there with her father found the front door had been knocked open and went in the house and discovered a lot of items that appeared knocked around or perhaps taken when special agent waddell went inside a henrico officer pointed out a hole in the ceiling it appeared someone had stepped through from above [Music] he feared someone might be hiding in the attic no one was there they searched for evidence investigators found a pair of boots [Music] they also found a backpack and a coat [Music] inside was another note reading please wait five minutes they also found another green tablecloth red dye like that used in bank dye packs covered many of the items so we absolutely felt that there was a connection between the the house break-in and the bank robbery but they didn't know how the two crimes were related we had no idea why the bank robbers would come to that house was it uh an opportune moment did they know someone there uh was there something that drew them there you may have already was at happenstance we had no idea we interviewed the the owner and his daughter and the daughter's boyfriend and you interview these people because what are these bank robbers what are these suspects doing in your house and we're trying to find is there a link or is there not a link the residents were equally confused they reported that whoever broke into the house stole some men's clothing suits and jackets during questioning the boyfriend acted nervous and claimed he had no information to add what time did you get here at the hospital a richmond detective sought out the wounded victims who could provide eyewitness accounts but he was unable to see anyone [Music] the two wounded survivors were still in surgery and could not be interviewed alison davis the customer representative who had escaped injury under her desk was so distraught she had to be heavily sedated steven reed a customer inside the bank had been grazed by a bullet and had come to the emergency room on his own but he was also of no help he had alzheimer's disease and could not remember any useful information by the end of that first day we still had nothing more than what we had to begin with so we knew it was going to be a ways to go it was going to be a tough case in richmond virginia two armed bank robbers escaped with ten thousand dollars cash leaving two employees wounded and 23 year old teller christine edwards dead the community was stunned as was assistant u.s attorney nicholas altamari this girl was an angel and these guys they just walked into the bank without a word spoken and shot her dead is sick determined to find her killers richmond homicide detective tom leonard and fbi special agent wayne waddell had to pursue the case without the benefit of eyewitness accounts the problem with with the employees and the in the customer in the bank is they were all traumatized we actually could not talk to any of them for several several days the detective tried to interview allison davis the customer representative who had taken cover under her desk and escaped injury but she was too traumatized by the ordeal hospital staff had to sedate her she was unable to speak there were no witnesses available to tell investigators what actually happened inside the bank all they had to understand this offense was a flawed videotape of the surveillance cameras according to detective tom leonard that really caused us a problem trying to piece things together because we were missing little bits and pieces of the video so you didn't get to see the whole robbery occur like you normally would working with still photos captured from the surveillance video and records of the physical evidence recovered from the bank the investigators pieced the crime together moment by moment [Music] there was a complex series of events all taking place in a matter of seconds you could see where the bank had obviously opened but the only people were inside were the security guard the the bank representatives and one customer the customer was standing there at the uh the walkway area where you go through your little lines talking to the security guard the lead gunman headed straight for the tellers counter the first guy bypasses security guard without even looking at him without even noticing him in our minds we realized the front guy was not worried about the security guard he knew that the second guy was going to take him out in the photos investigators saw the second robber pointing the tec-9 of the guard the first robber reached the counter and shot both tellers killing one crack that weapon and he walked all the way down here ballistics testing showed both were shot with the larson 380 recovered outside the bank the bullet hole behind the customer representative's desk showed the gunman turned and fired at her but the shot missed investigators noted the unfired this suggested that tec-9 had likely jammed and the gunman ejected rounds trying to clear it the photos revealed there was a brief standoff while the second robert tried to clear his tec-9 the first attempted to shoot the guard with a larson but that gun malfunctioned too the larsen 380 recovered outside the bank was found with a jammed cartridge when the guns jammed the customer stephen reed fled followed by richard hartman the guard unable to clear the larson the lead gunman pulled an ar-15 assault rifle and followed them spent shell casings and bullet strikes found outside supported witness statements as to what had happened next in the bank's drive-through one witness saw a gunman chasing the fleeing customer grazed his arm [Music] the guard tried his best to stop the cure but was struck by multiple rounds the gunman returned inside [Music] hartman was still alive the witness watched as he entered the rear of the bank [Music] he pulls investigators realized hartman had risked his life trying to draw the robbers out the robbers loaded a backpack with money including one bundle that contained a die pack [Music] the guard approached fired but missed [Music] another witness saw the guard flee the rear of the bank the lead gunman pursued him into the parking lot [Music] and fired the final shot to the temple permanently blinded richard hartman [Music] moments later officers webb and martin found him there agent waddell and detective leonard now had a clear account of the crime since the robbers came into the bank shooting investigators believed their intent was to murder everyone to eliminate all witnesses at the bank the contents of the robbers backpack revealed a plan to minimize witnesses on the outside the tablecloths and the note would i think to be put over the doors uh to ward off anyone coming coming up to the bank give us five minutes we're still cleaning give us five minutes and we're not ready to open up yet something like that with the bank to themselves the robbers could take their time the piece of evidence that disturbed investigators the most was the lighter fluid they believed the robbers were planning to use it to set the bank on fire as they left [Music] [Music] investigators knew they were dealing with especially violent criminals who acted with no remorse we needed to get him off the streets our fear was these people were going to get out in the community and commit some more murders because they'd already been bold enough to come into the bank and start shooting people and we'd have to gun fight with these people to try to catch them later and the criminals were well armed they still had an ar-15 the civilian version of the military's assault rifle and a tec-9 a nine millimeter semi-automatic pistol the one weapon recovered the murder weapon was a larson 380 semi-automatic a records check revealed it had been stolen weeks earlier investigators released details of the guns to the press and asked for the public's help in tracking down the weapons it worked according to assistant u.s attorney nicholas altamari we got lucky we got very lucky there was a there was a person who was out there that overheard a woman that she worked with say that she thought that her husband sold those weapons the fbi and the richmond pd followed up on that lead and in fact did locate a a gentleman who was a legitimate and licensed gun dealer [Music] at first the dealer was reluctant to talk to authorities he didn't want to incriminate himself by admitting that he might have sold weapons used in a murder after agents assured him he could not be held liable since the guns were sold legally he admitted he had sold a tec-9 and an ar-15 a few days before the robbery he located the atf forms filled out by the purchaser investigators now had a name to move on the gun dealer told us that he had sold the weapons to jermaine sims and we got hold of all of our all the units all the guys working the case everybody was out trying to locate him they finally ascertained that sims was out of town while the search for sims continued investigators kept following their only other promising lead the art avenue house that the robbers had broken into we started checking everything we could find out about the owner and his family the girl that lived there had a boyfriend we started checking him out so we started from scratch with just basically an investigation on every person in the house the boyfriend who had acted nervous during interviews consented to a polygraph the test examiner asked questions about the robbery and murder while special agent waddell observed after an hour of questioning the polygraph results were inconclusive did you rob that bank the boyfriend could not be eliminated as a suspect special agent waddell knew he needed to re-examine the house and went back with a search warrant this time he returned with an fbi evidence response team he was determined that a more thorough search would reveal a connection between the bank robbery and the break-ins the ert technician scoured the attic [Music] behind a wall board they found a tec-9 semi-automatic pistol and an ar-15 assault rifle precisely the type of guns used in the crime [Music] they were still loaded and their serial numbers were intact special agent waddell proceeded to check if these were the same guns purchased by jermaine sims we wanted to verify that they were in fact the weapons that had been bought from the gun dealer and using the bank robber so we called back to the office we read off the serial number make and model of these weapons and they were compared to the atf firearms form [Music] they were the same weapons [Music] a ballistics expert compared slugs recovered from the bank to slugs fired from the recovered ar-15 [Music] they matched connecting that weapon to the fatal bank robbery it seemed certain that jermaine's sims had indeed bought the weapons used in the robbery and murder now the fbi and richmond police needed to find him in richmond federal agents determined two weapons used in a deadly bank robbery were purchased by a man named jermaine sims agents could not find sims but a background check revealed he was receiving government assistance they followed up on that lead at the social services office an administrator confirmed that sims regularly came in to pick up food stamps she flagged his name on their computers and agreed to page the fbi the next time the suspect showed up agents went to the address listed on the atf forum and spoke to sims mother she hadn't seen her son since she kicked him out the previous week days later richmond agents received a page from the social services agency sims was there [Music] okay it's just a matter of pulling a check up the administrator stalled sims until the agents arrived [Music] they hoped he didn't suspect anything when the agents arrived the suspect seemed calm excuse me special agents fbi i need you to come with me they asked sims to come in for questioning [Music] reluctantly he agreed go ahead [Music] they and him to a nearby police station where investigators tried to get him to talk about the guns but interviewing the suspect was no easy task according to assistant u.s attorney nicholas altamari sims was a difficult uh person to deal with he was um he was a person who was filled with hate and hostility he didn't want to be there he didn't want to certainly cooperate with us we were dragging bits and bits of information out of him and he was really only providing us information that we already knew we were having a lot of trouble bringing him to the table so to speak sims denied any involvement in the crime stating he was at his girlfriend's apartment at the time of the robbery over several hours altamari kept pressuring him until finally sims admitted he had bought the ar-15 in the tec-9 with the intent to sell them later for a profit he said he stashed the weapons at a friend's house a man named ra but claimed he couldn't remember the address instead he gave directions now who else is this guy the interview continued while special agent wayne waddell tried to confirm sim's story sims told us where this house was located and described the house to us we went to the locations we could not find the house determined altamari confronted sims with his deception do you think you deal with a bunch of amateurs here but sims maintained his story that he still knew nothing about the bank robbery you've already told me that by then authorities had located sims girlfriend who supported his alibi but investigators had strong evidence connecting him to the crime you're going to jail for the rest of your life he was informed that he was under arrest for bank robbery [Music] there's nothing like the silence of a of a jail cell to focus somebody on on their problem and he had a huge problem he had his name um on the title to these weapons that were used in this in this robbery and we thought that if we gave him a little time to think for himself that he would eventually come to the conclusion that it was in his best interest to cooperate with us after a week of incarceration and repeated interviews sims decided to tell me about the guns he said after he bought the guns he left them with two friends rasheed jones and lafond bobbitt [Music] he still denied having any involvement in the robbery but investigators continued to work on him he admitted that that of course he knew that they had robbed the bank he still claimed that he was surprised that they had used his guns to do it and expressed his outrage that they would have they would have done this to him and gotten him sim said that after the robbery bobbid and jones came to his apartment wearing clothes he had never seen them in before they told him about the botched robbery the gunfight and their escape they explained that they had broken into the house on art avenue choosing it at random they stole some clothes and stashed their guns behind the wall board in the attic [Music] as they were leaving jones accidentally stepped through the ceiling they then slipped out avoiding the patrolling officers [Music] they had the money with them but it was stained red from the dye pack police records revealed that lafond bobbitt had 11 prior convictions and was free on bond from charges related to grand theft auto rasheed jones had seven prior convictions including grand larceny and was on parole investigators reduced the charge against sims from bank robbery to conspiracy now with the identity of the killers in hand the real chase could begin after a 1997 bank heist that left one teller dead richmond virginia authorities believed they had identified the gunman as lafon bobbitt and rasheed jones they had no idea where to look for jones but they did set up surveillance at bobbitt's last known address assistant u.s attorney ken melson was determined to apprehend these men as quickly as possible we had to get these two cold-blooded killers off the street as soon as we can so we would eliminate the possibility that they could do the same thing again and someone else would get killed and yet we had a lot of work to do collecting the physical evidence getting it analyzed by the lab [Music] they needed more time to build the federal case but could not afford to have two killers on the loose a prosecutor's office in henrico county to charge bobbitt with the burglary the breaking and entry of the art avenue address with respect to jones he was in violation of his parole so we got a warrant for parole violation special agent wayne waddell received the go-ahead to bring in the fugitives on those charges we had two agents watching lafon bobbitt's house the two agents were paul messing and eddie alford call went down and we finally get authorization to arrest lefon bobbitt i get hold of messing and alfred they tell me that bobbitt has just left his house the agent told the surveillance team to follow bobbitt then headed off to back them up the agents followed the suspect into town where he boarded a bus [Music] they kept in contact with special agent waddell updating him on their location soon adele caught up they decided to arrest bobbitt at the next bus stop bus is right in front of me all right then four i'm getting ready to come around you right now riddell pulled around front to get into position the other agents pulled in behind [Music] when the bus stopped the agents were ready [Music] [Music] within moments suspect lafond bobert was in custody investigators executed a search warrant on bobbitt's home in his bedroom they discovered a manual for a 380 lorsen pistol the same model used in the murder they also found several spent 380 shells for fbi special agent eduardo alford this circumstantial evidence suggested it was bobbitt who fired the fatal shot it was actually the weapon that one of the tellers was killed with finding that shell casing was very helpful as far as determining which one of the subjects or suspects might have had possession of this weapon on this particular day the fbi lab identified bobbitt's fingerprints on items left at the bank by the robbers the first evidence directly linking him to the crime technicians at the fbi's question documents unit compared the boot impressions found at the bank with boots recovered from the art avenue house and from bobbitt's home one of the latent footwear impressions was consistent with a boot that was left at the art avenue address another layton was found to be consistent with a boot found at bobbitt's house at a later search and so that circumstantially again not conclusively but circumstantially placed bobbitt in his apparel in that bank [Music] the boots found in the attic likely belonged to bobbitt's alleged partner in the crime rashi jones federal prosecutors now charged lafon bobbitt with the bank robbery and murder but investigators still needed to find rashid jones three months after the crime authorities received a tip from a store clerk he reported a customer had attempted to pay with die stained bills the clerk refused to accept them mr jones uh had been in that particular area in the south end of richmond trying to exchange some of this money so the future task force pieced that information together and they were really able to hone in on that particular area based on the proximity of this particular merchant's store the fbi focused on that neighborhood working all of their contacts the effort paid off the information that came in uh was from just a reliable source of information somebody that was aware of this crime and knew mr jones and was able to pinpoint a location where he was hiding jones was staying in a run-down apartment building frequented by transients agents were able to obtain the cooperation of a man living there the arrest was planned for 5 a.m when jones would likely be asleep they called the location and spoke to their contact inside he said jones was there sleeping and he had a gun the contact also warned there were other people in the apartment and most of the lights did not work as the arrest team approached the building they went through a final briefing reviewing photos of their target they anticipated a dangerous confrontation jones was armed desperate and surrounded by innocent bystanders in 1997 the richmond fugitive task force swat unit closed in on rasheed jones suspected of bank robbery and murder they'd received a tip that jones was hiding out in an apartment from their contact inside they learned jones was armed and most of the lights did not work there were several innocent people in the apartment [Music] the building was dark and foreign complicating an already difficult challenge in which swat had to take down an armed fugitive while protecting innocent bystanders the team decided to sneak up on jones silently they hoped he had not been tipped off when they reached the target apartment an agent phoned their contact inside right here the contact was escorted out of the building [Music] [Music] when they made it to the room where jones was said to be sleeping he was gone so was his gun tension mounted as swat began searching the rest of the apartment [Music] get your hands up man your chain is up come on get up get up [Music] they found and removed two other residents every room was cleared except one a bathroom jones i know you're in there come out put your hands up jump that's him let's go to the team's relief jones was unarmed and surrendered the manhunt was over agent searched for his weapons they discovered it in a closet its firing pin broken [Music] had the gun been functional the arrest might not have gone so smoothly jones was immediately charged with probation violation and later for the bank robbery on february 25th 1998 the trial of rasheed jones and the fawn bobbitt began but it would not be an easy case assistant u.s attorney ken melson and his prosecution team were unable to use any of the people in the bank as witnesses none of them could really testify for us because the guard was blind as a result of being wounded one teller was dead another one had never had the opportunity to even turn around to see anything and a third a third employee was unable to testify because she didn't see anything she was under a desk during most of the robbery nelson found a way to deal with the lack of witnesses by commissioning a digital recreation of the crime we had to stand in for them digitally and show the jury what happened inside that bank we were the witnesses voice to the jury during the trial so they could be involved and experience the agony of the victims experienced the moment of the bank robbery and that would give them not only the true feeling of what went on in the bank but the true carnage and intent of the defendants after hearing six days of testimony the jury convicted both gunmen on all charges assistant u.s attorney nicholas altamari in the trial they sat there smugglers all get out and it wasn't until after they were convicted that you could really see them start to worry because then it was about them then they were worried bobbitt and jones were each sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole jermaine sims who purchased two of the weapons used in the robbery was convicted on conspiracy accessory before the fact of murder and several weapons violations he too was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole as the victims and their families continue to heal they and the city of richmond know that jones bobbitt and sims will never be a threat to anyone again [Music] [Applause] [Music] on the glittering streets of las vegas ruthless gunmen overpower defenseless victims and haul away a motherload of cash following a trail from exotic dance clubs to the tranquil suburbs authorities finally put down the reckless robbers but a daring jailbreak leads the fbi to a violent showdown with a man so desperate he'll risk his own family to get what he wants [Music] [Applause] [Music] in las vegas a gang of robbers target an atm repository and hit the jackpot they take over a million dollars in cash the largest heist in las vegas history i'm jim calstrom former head of the fbi's new york office the robbery was well planned and precisely executed the fbi and local police struggled to identify and track a desperate criminal whose tendency for violence turned a robbery into a case of murder las vegas a gambler's paradise where even criminals sometimes try their luck on the night of december 21st 1998 a las vegas couple and their 18 year old sister-in-law prepare to go to work the family owns a janitorial service that cleans commercial buildings [Music] suddenly two masked gunmen rush up and force them inside their own van an ordinary work day has just become a night of terror the gunmen blindfold and tie up their three captives [Music] they can hear the gunman talking to a female accomplice on a radio let's go cartoon are you in position [Music] the gunman seemed to know the janitor's routine [Music] they drive around until 11 p.m the time they are scheduled to begin work at the bank of america building the gunmen even park where the janitors routinely park their van let's go defeat now let's go girl the building is bank of america's central atm repository in las vegas cash from 1200 automated teller machines often totaling more than a million dollars is delivered there each night the gunman forced the janitors to use their key card and access code to unlock the door this bypasses the bank's alarm system come on [Music] the gunman released the couple and ordered them to clean the building as they normally would [Music] they keep the wife's sister hostage to ensure the couple complies with their orders she is dead you hear me she's dead act like you clean get out now get out at 11 30 p.m an armored car arrives to pick up the night's cash deposit following a standard security protocol the two guards first call the bank security company to ask if there have been any unauthorized entries the alarm company reports that the only people inside are the janitors the only vehicle the guards see in the parking lot is the janitor's van inside everything seems completely normal the janitors are too terrified to say anything the life of an 18 year old girl is at stake [Music] the guards open the vault containing 1 million 88 000 shrink wrapped and ready for pickup [Music] one of them accidentally discharges his weapon [Music] the bullet ricochets off the floor and hits one guard in the chest [Music] hang on oh one of the guards calls for an ambulance my partner's down he's been shot i need an ambulance quick please please fbi special agent henry schlumpf arrives at the scene he heads the investigation everybody was very scared and you know it took a little while to calm everybody down and to get a story as to what exactly happened and the descriptions that we got because the subjects were masked were very general in nature we were looking for two males who were either white black or hispanic six foot six foot three and about 200 pounds that was basically all the description that we had with little to go on every detail is important the janitors told us that when the subjects first entered the bank they were a little taken aback at the number of video cameras that were in the bank that indicated to us that they had not been inside before this suggests that the robbery may not have been an inside job [Music] agents interview a truck driver who witnessed the robbers leaving the depository the truck driver was making a late night delivery to a nearby store he saw two men run out of the depository and throw some bags in the back of a white chevy s10 pickup truck authorities begin searching for the getaway truck i put out the announcement for all responding units to look for a white chevy s10 pickup truck it wasn't very long after that the vehicle was found about a quarter of a mile from the depository and just parked on a residential street investigators run the truck's plates ironically the truck is a police maintenance vehicle that was stolen from a las vegas metro police lot one week earlier [Music] investigators begin questioning neighbors including a woman whose home is closest to where the truck is parked she hadn't seen anybody get out of the pickup truck but earlier in the evening there had been another truck parked in the same place and she described that as a white gmc dually which is a pickup truck with four wheels on the back axle agents believe the woman saw the robbers switch vehicles a common mo for bank robbers they issue an apb for the white gmc truck hours later they receive the welcome news that the wounded guard has undergone surgery and will survive [Music] the next day the bank determines that a total of 1 million 88 000 has been stolen to date it is the largest bank robbery in las vegas history [Music] although fbi agents believe this was not an inside job they cover all their bases by interviewing the armored car guards and all bank employees we didn't have a lot to go on we ended up interviewing everybody who worked at the branch and everybody who worked at the armored car company i'm polygraphing some of them although agents do not find any new information they do rule out the employees as suspects thank you the subjects who committed the robbery could have found out everything they needed to find out by following the armored truck around and following the guards around and we surmised early on that that's probably exactly what they did with the investigation running out of leads executives from bank of america and the armored car company decide to offer a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the robbers agent slump advises them on how large the reward should be and i said 50 000 which was quite a lot for a bank robbery but we were going to need to generate some public interest in this case agents asked local authorities for their cooperation we notified the airport that we were looking for someone carrying large amounts of money we notified all the jails uh to advise us if anyone tried to bail someone out with large amounts of cash a week after the million-dollar robbery the fbi receives a call from security at las vegas mccarran airport they got a telephone response from someone asking if large amounts of currency would set off the metal detectors and they took the number down on caller id and gave it to us investigators use a reverse telephone directory to find the caller's address agents set up surveillance on that address a home in the suburbs of las vegas there were people going in and out of the house about every half hour someone would arrive and someone else would leave but it's curious and you know i kind of like to know what's going on after several hours agents decide to interview the people in the house hello how are you i'm investigator davis the las vegas police fund special agent reed it was just a piano teacher who was giving half hour lessons and she was going to be going to utah with about three thousand dollars and so she had called mccarran airport to find out if that would set off the detectors the lead is a dead end agents are back where they started but later that day a woman responding to the reward poster calls the las vegas metro police she claims to have key information about the bank robbery so tell me about this stripper friend of yours the tipster tells agents about a dancer she knows who works at a local strip club her name is jennifer arden she says jennifer has been spending a lot of cash lately he was able to give us a telephone number we traced that number to a rented trailer the fbi sets up surveillance on the trailer agents watch for any clue to the identity of the two gunmen or the location of the stolen million dollars [Music] in a matter of minutes a white gmc truck pulls into the driveway it's the same make and model the robbers used as their getaway vehicle agents run the license plates according to the department of motor vehicles the truck is registered in las vegas to timothy blackburn [Music] the driver enters the house and leaves minutes later the surveillance team immediately notifies agent slump the sighting of the gmc pickup gave us enough probable cause to get a warrant for the trailer [Music] moments later the swat team surrounds the trailer to serve the warrant we brought a lot of people with us because we knew we were looking for armed and dangerous subjects they had already shot one person we knocked on the door of the trailer and nobody answered so we kicked the door open and served the search warrant the swat team finds one man in the trailer he identifies himself as riley bates he reveals that jennifer is his girlfriend one team of agents begins searching the trailer for evidence while another heads to the strip club to question jennifer fbi i'd like to ask you questions about what you can spend the exotic dancer told us that the money was her money that she had made over the past four years dancing and that she didn't know anything about a robbery or anything else back at the trailer agents continue to search for clues in the bedroom they find a heavy-duty combination safe it looks brand new the trailer was filled with trash and it was not the kind of place where you would expect anybody with any money to be living and yet here they had this brand new safe they had bought what's the combination riley claims the safe belongs to his girlfriend and only she knows how to open it we'll find out [Music] hey jeremiah what's the number to the combination of safety the agent asks jennifer for the combination it's not my fault it's my boyfriend but she says rhyming do you hear that she said she doesn't know what the combination to say that she so we go back to ryan tell him that his girlfriend said he had the combination so then he told us the combination yep that's it inside the safe the fbi finds thousand dollars in cash and bags of marijuana riley insists that he made the money by selling marijuana and claims he knows nothing about the robbery agents strongly suspect he is lying but with over a million dollars missing where is the rest of the money las vegas december 1998. [Music] a team of violent bank robbers shoot an armored car guard and flee with more than a million dollars the tip leads the fbi to a rented trailer and a brand new safe containing 50 thousand dollars [Music] much cash jennifer arden an exotic dancer claims she earned the money dancing her boyfriend riley bates says he made the money selling marijuana [Music] now agents must find the rest of the money over a million dollars in cash [Music] the fbi calls in one of their top interviewers special agent brett shields to try to get the truth from riley [Music] we tried to remove him from his comfort zone and took him out to my car where he's a little bit more on edge rather than at the comfort of his own home yeah you're gonna get in a lot of trouble here yeah riley bates was a shifty little guy he knew he was in a tough position because we found the money in the trailer what about you he tried to maintain that it was profits from the marijuana that was found in the safe it wasn't believable that uh he was that successful and he's still living in a single wide trailer you're gonna be in a lot of trouble here you know that i don't know convinced that we can help him out on the marijuana charges and he doesn't want to get tied up into the million dollar bank robbery he said i didn't commit any robbery so now agent shields and i know you know we're probably about two questions away from finding out who did so we said okay riley you didn't commit the robbery but i believe you know who did commit the robbery and he said my brother robert and his friend tim he's my brother really yeah well where is tim right now i don't know where they are right now riley claims that he doesn't know where his brother robert is but inside the trailer agents find gaming chips and receipts from the luxor a casino on the las vegas strip [Music] so we sent a couple agents to the luxor and they contacted management and sure enough robert bates was staying [Music] [Applause] there hotel's head of security tells agents that robert bates has been spending heavily paying for everything where sir that's in the southeast town to see the types of items that they're uh judging from his guest portfolio at the luxor robert bates had been just partying constantly since the night of the robbery the two agents stake out bates's hotel room until he returns he was on some kind of drugs there's no point in trying to interview someone if they're if they're stoned on whatever he was on bring back inside bates's hotel room agents find drugs a gun and five thousand dollars in cash with nearly a million dollars still missing agents now concentrate on the second suspect named by riley bates brother's friend tim blackburn we set out surveillance on timothy blackburn's house so we had police and fbi agents surrounding the house they decide to approach blackburn but proceed cautiously he's been investigated for armed robbery in the past and is considered highly dangerous tim blackburn was about 26 years old six foot three 230 pounds he was a martial arts expert and he liked fighting and he liked guns he was an accomplished marksman the fbi's criminal apprehension team moves into position special agent castle nishimoto is a member of this elite tactical unit my job was to watch the streets i knew he was armed uh but i wasn't particularly scared at that point because i felt confident that i would be able to spot him from where i was watching the agents were just approaching the house to make contact with the people inside when a car comes driving down the road the suv suddenly accelerates towards the wages the driver loses control the vehicle stops and a man jumps out and runs away we assumed it was blackburn who would run out of the car he was jumping the fence the walls in the back of the house and so forth and trying to get away and so from that point on we began to search the area [Music] the driver of the vehicle is blackburn's sister-in-law authorities take her into custody the fbi and las vegas police launch a house-to-house search for [Music] blackburn two blocks away a canine unit picks up the fugitive scent was found by a k-9 unit hiding under a deck in someone's backyard he had a mask and he had an ankle holster fortunately for the k-9 officer the holster was empty blackbird had lost his gun jumping over fences [Music] investigators searched the suspect's home while agents questioned tim blackburn and his wife sophia because i know that you know what's going on i know that you know where the money is can you tell us where the money is now they offer blackburn a reduced sentence if he will admit to the robbery i don't have anybody you don't see it it's not here he refuses investigators continue to search the house an evidence response search is very methodical it's not just everybody running around to where they think something might be hidden everything is photographed first and then the search progresses room by room and then the outside is usually done at the end they find some flex cuffs like were the same type that the janitors had been bound with and they found some walkie-talkies and some other surveillance equipment [Music] i got something here early that morning in blackburn's backyard they find several duffel bags inside the doghouse i just couldn't believe that he put the money in the doghouse and then on second thought i thought well maybe that might not be a bad place to put the money since nobody looks there it's just an innocuous place investigators recover more than 900 ninety percent of the stolen money it took about ten hours to count it so by four o'clock that afternoon we knew we had the money from the bank of america robbery the u.s district court charges tim blackburn and robert bates with bank robbery kidnapping carjacking and using a firearm in the commission of a violent crime they are held at the north las vegas detention center but the fbi's work is unfinished they believe that blackburn and bates were not working alone we knew that there was probably someone else involved in the robbery that it was too much logistically for only two people to do you know agents suspect sofia blackburn might be involved because her story does not seem credible i was at the house several times to talk to sophia blackburn sophia claimed to have no knowledge of the robbery and in fact she provided an alibi for tim blackburn on the night of the robbery she said she was with him the whole night she couldn't account for the money that they found or the other items that were in the house she was worried because her husband was in jail and she had two young daughters to raise herself so she was claimed to be cooperative but she would have these stories that were in no way even close to plausible but that's what she was going to stick with and you know there was not going to be really any way to talk her out of them there was no way that she was ever going to give us any information that would implicate tim blackburn on august 11th 1999 seven months after the million dollar robbery sophia visits her husband in jail she secretly uses a tiny tool on her keychain to loosen the screws securing the divider window that's good so my babies are doing all right [Music] as the visiting room guard leaves to escort a prisoner blackburn removes the bulletproof glass tim blackburn climbed through the window and dived into the sally port the one door closed and the second door opened before anybody realized what he had done as soon as the second door opened he was just climbing over everybody in the sally port and he ran outside sophia retrieves a gun she had hidden earlier and tosses it to blackburn all the alarms are going off and guards outside knew that there was a jailbreak as the blackburns tried to get away they face startled guards in a violent shootout august 11 1999 timothy blackburn accused of the biggest bank robbery in las vegas history breaks out of jail with the help of his wife sophia fbi special agent henry schlum they try to to arrest blackbird but he shoots at them this pickup truck that's sitting in the lot was going to be his escape vehicle but the guards are returning fire blackburn is forced to abandon the truck suddenly his wife sophia roars up in an isuzu rodeo in a matter of seconds they are out of range it was hard to believe that blackburn had actually escaped from the jail because although a lot of people a lot of people want to escape from the jail and many attempted very few actually get away but it just pointed out again how unpredictable blackburn was looking for leads fbi agents henry schlumpf and brett shields tracked down the suspect's relatives blackburn was going to have to go someplace to get some help agents check out an apartment building where blackburn's sister-in-law lives parked out front they find the same isuzu rodeo used in the jailbreak they run the plates and discover it belongs to blackburn's wife sophia we see the truck in the parking lot so now our heart's racing just a little bit more adrenal is pumping since he was in federal custody it falls under the u.s marshal's jurisdiction as well so i call it some martial friends of mine we're sitting on this truck not knowing if he's going to come out back out to this truck and we're going to have a confrontation right there before the marshals get there after a few tense moments u.s marshals arrive to help fbi agents raid the apartment agents ask the fugitive sister-in-law where tim blackburn is she says she doesn't know this could be she claims it's in the shop but her story does not check out agents suspect blackburn is on the run with her pathfinder the vehicle can you tell us where it is no i i have no idea where it's at for the next week the fbi searches for blackburn his wife and their two little girls they come up empty then nine days after the jailbreak a las vegas police helicopter spots a nissan pathfinder parked in the desert a family of four is nearby [Music] the fbi and las vegas police arrive in force special agent castle nishimoto leads the fbi swat team we were located on a ridgeline quite a bit above them and there was a valley between us we can see some people about half a mile away too far away to identify them if law enforcement tries to move any closer they will have to move through an unprotected open space we had to keep our distance from these people because if it was blackburn he is a marksman nevertheless agent slump daringly volunteers to drive down for a closer look it did take some courage because the only coverage he had would have been the snipers and they had at least three or four hundred yards shot as i recall [Music] as agent slump gets nearer he can finally make out faces i could recognize that it wasn't blackbird it wasn't anybody who we were looking for authorities have hit another dead end but agent slump also realizes that authorities cannot continue to respond on such a massive scale there must have been a hundred vehicles in this valley all the swat vehicles and evidence response team vehicles and police cruisers and i'm thinking to myself you know we we can't be doing this every time someone says tim blackburn i mean nobody's got the resources and we're going to burn ourselves out [Music] the next night law enforcement pursues the dangerous fugitive with every available resource we had about 40 agents police marshals henderson police department detention center people we got everybody together we divided up into teams and what we were going to do was interview every one of blackburn's associates search every house find every vehicle that he could possibly have access to u.s marshals tell the fbi they have spotted the fugitive we arrive right as they're taking down what they believe is tim blackburn i could tell right away it wasn't in blackbird it was his brother his brother is a younger slightly smaller version of tim blackburn very similar in appearance as we're iding him what we notice is that his driver's license was brand new he had just gone there the day before so we asked him what happened to your old license blackburn's brother claims he lost his license but agents suspect he gave it to the fugitive to use as a fake id in the car agents find a note from tim blackburn in it he asks his brother to get him some money a man who once had a million dollars in his possession now needs a loan to survive we decided to arrest him for aiding and abetting a fugitive so that's what we did we arrested tim blackburn's brother authorities also arrest blackburn's sister-in-law for lying to federal authorities when she said her nissan pathfinder was in the shop with two of his family members in custody agents develop an ingenious plan to lure tim blackburn into the open in las vegas a violent bank robber breaks out of jail with the help of his wife after three days of eluding authorities agents decide to turn up the heat on the dangerous fugitive one of the people we wanted to talk to that night was a close friend of blackburns who worked as a bouncer at a local gentleman's club most people who knew blackbird either liked him or were afraid of them and neither opinion was really conducive to providing information to us his friend was really no exception he didn't want to tell us anything but eventually what he told us was that tim blackburn had called him at the time he was escaping blackburn had called up and said i'm out i'm out and this friend could hear the sirens and stuff in the background so i told this friend you are the last person who tim blackburn talked to that we know about and i think he's gonna call you again and when he does we want you to tell him that we've arrested his brother and that the people who have assisted him are gonna have to pay for what they did to help him this putting pressure on blackburn was an effort to try to get him to realize he couldn't really escape to get him to turn himself in wherever he was at the next morning this friend called me up and told me that sure enough tim blackburn had called him again and that he had told him that i'd arrested his brother and his sister-in-law and you know i asked him what what did black prince say he just said he was mad two and a half weeks after the jail break fbi agent henry schlumpf learns that blackburn may have returned to las vegas i got a phone call from a las vegas swat officer he had just met someone who gave him some information regarding blackburn's whereabouts in las vegas which to my mind was doubtful i doubted blackburn was in las vegas but i told the i asked the officer to ask this fella if he knew the names of blackburn's daughters and sure enough this informant did know the names so at least we knew he did know blackburn the informant claims blackburn is staying at a motel that caters to long-term guests agent slump and two las vegas swat officers rushed to the location [Music] you seen these two before the manager says he's never seen the blackburns before and they are not registered at the motel still agent schlumpf decides to rent a room so he can surveil the facility [Music] swat officers call in the license plates of every vehicle in the parking lot none of them are reported as either stolen or owned by any of blackburn's relatives the motel tip is beginning to look like another false lead the fbi does not give up they begin checking every apartment so what we decided to do was to perform a ruse we would have a complex security guard just start knocking on doors and notifying the residents of noise complaints i'm there watching and the door opens and sophia blackburn comes out to talk to the guard i couldn't believe it there she was she looked happy and smiling and well-rested better than i'd ever seen her she did not look like she'd been on the run for 17 days [Music] suspecting that blackburn is hiding in the apartment agent slump calls for immediate backup the criminal apprehension team in las vegas swat arrive within minutes swat responded right away more agents came and a lot of patrol units the marshals came and what we did was we started evacuating the complex every apartment was evacuated except of course for the one where we thought blackburn might be and then we did what we do in 99 of our fugitive cases our criminal apprehension team placed a call into the apartment i need to talk to timothy blackburn what they do is they tell the person in there look we know you're there you're surrounded there's no way that you can get out so come on out we just want to find a nice peaceful way to end this whole thing so i'm waiting for blackburn to come out and i'm deciding you know where are we going to take him back to the jail he escaped from or to a different facility and that's that was my mindset you know if he was in there he was going to come out but he doesn't agent sloan apprehension team person was on the phone and she says he wants to talk to you [Music] hello tim and sure enough it was tim blackburn and my job was just to keep him talking on the phone because as long as he's talking on the phone he's not shooting anybody [Music] when i first started talking with blackburn i was kind of commiserating with them telling them you know must have been hard being on the run for the last three weeks hey i uh took the kids to san diego so here he was maybe 10 minutes from mexico and uh he didn't go there he came back to las vegas [Music] agent slump cannot understand why blackburn has returned but is even more concerned that his children may be with him why don't we uh why don't we just talk about then his worst fears are realized he hears the two little girls laughing in the background two kids inside the room there's children inside repeat there's children inside the room the swat team set up outside the apartment and they were there to initiate a hostage rescue if blackburn turned violent and started hurting any of the people in the apartment sophia and their two little girls he says henry i don't suppose you can just let us go and you know i told him you know you know i can't do that i'm not going back to jail man i'm not going back to jail look i don't want my kids to visit me in jail tim was set on not going back to jail he he said he just wasn't going to go back and you know after shooting a guard i mean there's no way any of that is going to go away schlump worries that blackburn may be suicidal [Music] hey tim you know it's time to come in buddy authorities now face a dangerous scenario a hostage barricade situation involving an armed man his wife and two small children look i'm not going back man that's just it i'm not going back to jail i'm not going back the fbi and police swat team surround a motel just off the strip in las vegas a violent bank robber has barricaded himself inside one of the apartments [Music] [Music] tim blackburn is armed and emotional inside the room with him are his wife sophia and his two daughters oh you came back fbi agent henry schlumpf tries to talk the desperate man into surrendering come on now although negotiators are present blackburn refuses to talk with anyone but agent schlump who months earlier had arrested him for bank robbery i'm not going back to jail man i don't want my kids to visit me in jail agent slump pleads with both blackburn and sophia to let the children leave the apartment sometimes i talk with sophia and sometimes with blackburn it seemed like maybe we were getting a little farther ahead talking with sophia but then when we take a break and she talked to blackburn we kind of have to start over again he had a lot of influence with her i mean because he's her husband she was afraid that if she were to leave with the children that blackman would kill himself and you know she certainly didn't want that to happen we'd take breaks and then i'd call in again you know there were highs and lows sometimes it seemed like we were making progress other times you know we took a couple of steps backwards the best place to shoot myself in the head huh he asked me what i thought would be the best place for him to shoot himself and i told him that we had a lot of other things that we could talk about and try to work out before it came to that how are the kids doing blackburn says he put his daughters in the bathtub to protect them for their own protection but the swat commander is concerned confining them could also be the prelude to a murder-suicide pact [Music] the swat team prepares to blow the door in case they need to rescue sofia and the children the swat team placed a explosive charge on the door and entry charge to be able to breach the door very quickly if they needed to after four long hours of negotiation they had to go clear to the back into the bathroom to try and rescue the children and in this case seconds fractions of seconds count they got there just in time to see blackburn falling down from a self-inflicted gunshot wound [Music] they find sophia dead both the children have been shot in the head and are barely alive i saw them running very quickly to try to save the children the swat team got them to the paramedics but they died in their arms [Music] i felt quite quite saddened that my fellow swat uh officers tried their best and uh yet wasn't able to save the children our mission was to save lives and we were not able to accomplish that it was just devastating it was like the worst possible outcome [Music] the coroner later determines that the shots that killed blackburn sophia and their two little girls were all fired by blackburn himself [Music] a few months later in federal court in las vegas riley bates and his girlfriend plead guilty to possessing stolen money because of their cooperation they are sentenced to only a year blackburn's sister-in-law is sentenced to one year for lying to federal agents and impeding their investigation robert bates pleads guilty to bank robbery and is sentenced to 24 years in prison today agent henry schlump has made his own peace with the tragic events caused by tim blackburn he's ultimately responsible for everything that happened he came back to las vegas to do exactly what he did he came back to die i don't think he was gonna ever come out of that apartment or let anybody else come out of it either las vegas law enforcement will never forget the deaths of two innocent children for them the blackburn case is all about lost hope and the tragedy of a desperate agenda [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: The FBI Files

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Keywords: FBI, FBI Files, FBI Documentary, Documentary, Crime, Crime Documentary, Crime Patrol, True Crime, True crime daily, Unsolved, Crime Stories, Crime Documentaries Full Episodes, Full Episode, unsolved true crime, fbi files full episodes, we got him, mystery, solved, investigation, police, criminal, prison, jail

Id: 6Qdaz6oXo14

Length: 148min 55sec (8935 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 04 2022