Chaz Williams on Robbing 60 Banks, Doing 15 Years While Still Bank Robbing

where did you grow up exactly in uh Jamaica Queens I was born in Harlem you know and left there uh you know when I was a little kid too young to remember and moved to Queens okay now when you were growing up in Queens like when did you start getting kind of mixed up with the whole street life and everything uh probably around the age of 12 I would think that's uh pretty accurate I think I went to the uh youth house when I was 12 years old it was a youth detention center in the Bronx okay what actually got you into the the youth detention Detention Center it was a um a drugstore you know we drug little drugstore robbery that we did arm robbery yeah it was a direct arm robbery okay you said at 12 years old yeah I was with some over you know I was always tall for my age plus I was with some older you know older individuals okay so 12 years old you start actually robbing robbing stores well was it before then I mean did you just get caught at 12 did you start a little earlier no it was about then you know it was about that age and um you know it was a well it was a like you know between TR and seas and all of that you know then they committed me to you know the the youth house and I was later sent it to a Upstate facility for use okay and when you got back you continued to to to do crimes yeah my back PR okay and what what did the you know what did it escalate to after that yeah well it was a progression and and and um between uh you know some of the the New York stuff I was sent south you know to live in in Tampa Florida with my grandparents and uh you know between shling back and forth you know it's still you know kind of you know progressed into um you know more serious offences okay yeah I mean at one point you started actually rob banks yeah that was uh later that was when I was a little older you know I was 12 when I did that but I was I was a little older you know like uh probably around 16 15 16 yeah at 16 years old you started robbing banks yeah might have been when I was about 15 turning 16 okay still a teenager yeah okay what made you want to rob banks cuz that where is the money is that's where the money was yeah that's where the money was and you know and plus like what I really felt was that you know at the time you know I came up in a a conscious era you know and basically you know black Consciousness was on the rise you know and black power and uh it was a crime that I felt wasn't against people it was so sort of against the government you know the FDIC which is a federal Insurance Corporation that you know it they they ensure the money in Banks so I really wasn't taken from no individuals I felt okay you know I I've heard you know I've actually did a an episode of American Gangster which you you know featured on as well I did that the M Dre episode right is a good friend of mine yeah it was a good friend of mine absolutely I mean I mean and I know the bank robberies sometimes you get a lot of money sometimes you don't get very much money like how much did your you know bank robberies ranging in terms of how much you got well we did takeover see I think that when people hear bank robberies because you know that they just think bank robbery is generally just one type of robbery and it's not you know you have no passes who don't get a lot of money you know because they go to one tell and they pass a note we were known as takeover Bank Robins we took over the whole entire bank and went into the Vault so you know our our takes usually was consistently more than the average you know bank robbery that's just going in there and pulling a gun on the one teller you know like I said it's different stages like you know you got guys that pass no to one teller you got guys that run in with one gun and pass a bag to a teller you know we took over the whole entire bank with the managers and took the managers into the Vault okay like how big was was the crew that usually went into a takeover Bank well it was usually three to four depending on the size of the bank you know like one or two would do the counter one was definitely the floor man who had to stabilize the situation and uh you know clock the time and let us know when it's time to get out of there and uh you know two one or two over the tellers depending on how long the tellers cages were you know um and one to take the The Vault okay and and what is the the time limit for a a takeover bank robbery for you guys at what point minut we can you know we try not to be in there more than a minute a minute 60 seconds 60 seconds so so can you explain to me that the step by step for a takeover uh well depending on the the configuration of the bank uh you know and the um it depends on the configuration of the bank actually you know but the first man in is the floor man who controls the floor put everybody down um you know the The Next Step really is the guys jump over the counters and back people back off you know back to tellers up off to the counter so they won't press the alarms you know and basically you assume that the alarm is going off anyway because you never know because it's silent you know the only Advantage we had that we had you know police scanners in the banks you know with us so we could hear you know the address you know and the robbery call for the the bank we in um and you know uh one guy takes the manager or the assistant manager into the Vault area you know so basically that was the the routine okay you know and what was your biggest take when you look at all the robberies you did I mean uh we've been in you know in the 300 you know 300,000 yeah we've been up in there okay what was the smallest take you think when you look at what you guys did you know sometimes you know depending on the the the nervousness of the uh well that's one one well one of the reasons that we also did the counters was in case there was a problem with you know the system manager the manager they may be too nervous to open the vault you know um you know so we we we would be guaranteed money by doing all the counters you you know especially the head teller cage and uh so I mean you know 50,000 40 I mean you know at that time still was a good good piece of money you sure and was there ever any violence involved when you guys were doing it uh I mean I mean obviously you're pulling out guns on people telling everyone to get down but did anyone ever ever get hit get shot anything else like that no not in the bank not not in the bank okay maybe the other times okay and um by the time you got caught like how many banks had you hit uh um over you know like I said I started young so that my count is you know around UH 60 as they estimated you know that that they was I was I wasn't charged with 60 but that they you know suspected me of or whatever that's what they thought so what led up to your first arrest for bank robbery oh wow uh the first arrest for bank robbery uh came with uh I think it was a person that was um actually we never got arrested in a bank so you know the first really cases for you know uh serious bank robberies was it was a guy that was uh doing something else and basically providing information about you know us you know what I mean yes cuz we never got you know we used to train for you know we used to do trainings for bank robberies and a lot of other things to prepare ourselves to be able to not be caught in the bank or to take care of any kind of confrontations that we would you know happen to run in so it's basically as a result of an informant you know that we we got case so so someone got caught for something else and they agreed to cooperate with the authorities to infiltrate what you guys were doing correct and then testify against you right and when that happened what did you get sentenced to uh at the first the first time uh I didn't get convicted I got convicted for conspiracy okay they couldn't get the the subsequent accounts and uh my first sentences were uh 10 10 years for 10 years for conspiracy well yeah was a um uh it was two conspiracies I got 10ed then later one got thrown out and I ended up doing five for the one conspiracy okay uh so you doing five years essentially yeah the First Federal sentence was I ended up doing five years okay but then you got out and you continued to rob banks no no no I continued while I was in right I mean I remember hearing the story how what they they let you out on a release and you continue to to rob banks yeah they let me out on a um on a a work study release program that was really was a pilot program you know for uh the federal system and the institution I was serving the federal sen in was uh the first of the institutions to have the pilot program I happen to get you know that information prior to it coming to the facility prior to the program coming to the facility so I ended up preparing myself and a couple of other guys to qualify to be perfect candidates for that program and um when it came we were perfect candidates among other people and uh we went to uh washingon Community College and then we went to uh washing Community College in the evening and then eventually we made it to the University of Michigan in the University of Michigan we had plenty time on our hands so while you were still technically in prison you were going to college right and robbing banks right it was the best Alibi in the world cuz you're still in jail still in prison they're not looking for you no and that's where we that's where we hide out at okay uh I mean was there a reason why you decided to do that as opposed to like okay I got a few more years let me just write it out and then then I'm out well you know part of part of the plan was that you know we were going to be released to the Michigan area you know to finish school that was part of the whole pilot program was to reintegrate You Know M into society you know and you know have them something to do positively so we were going to be released to the Michigan area and continue to do our pursue our college degree so in in my mind you know uh I I I my plan was to basically have enough money that I would never have to commit a crime again you know once I got out and and graduated so I figured while I was still in to accumulate that money when I come out I don't have to do anything just go to school so by the time you got you know convicted for conspiracy did you you didn't have a ton of money put aside at that point no not no we was like you know we was spending like basically you know falling out yeah yeah we spend money so so so the plan was okay now that you're in you're actually trying to stack your money up right when we was in like basically you know that was just part of the plan that you know um you know once we can get out to the study release program you know and I mean it was little it's not just getting it was a lot of other planning and and and stuff cuz we had to meet people that could do our scheduling to schedule us where we could be out and be in classes that required only lecture hall appearances you know so lot went a lot went into that you know which I you know it's just hard to put into this one interview but um you know so we had to have a schedule set up that where we got out that we got to the the student dropped off at the Student Union building that we can go and perpetuate what we do okay right um so in in the course of those planning like remember we in for year you know we we was in you know about 3 years before even getting to that point so um you know we we met people from the every days to come in you know uh people from the black student Psychological Association they used to come in once a month you know and other people that used to come in from the surrounding Community we was 40 miles outside of Detroit you know we met people from Detroit you know so and people from Detroit was in the facility so we knew a lot of people in the area um and like I said it went you know it wasn't just like it I'm just cutting through it because you all of it's a long story but you know that was initially our you know our plan was that we get out we be banked up we don't have to do nothing we go to school you know get college degrees and then invest our money you know in fact during the course of the town we was out we were looking into invested into you know was a nightclub there that we was talking to some people about you know obtaining so mhm yeah how many bank robberies did you do while you were technically in prison uh well they said six six bank robberies mhm okay maybe in a couple more though we're not going to talk about that they say they say six okay how did you get caught for those bank robberies well that's that's kind of you know a little story too uh well during the course of the time that we were going out you know one of one of the guys which was my codefendant he um uh kind of made friends with the the work release driver and you know basically that was because he would be the one that need to get us back to the facility on time so sometimes we wouldn't get back to the Student Union on time and he would pick us up at other locations you know and basically we had by the time everything started taking form and and we had Apartments all through the town you know we would have other clothes we had jewelry we had cars you know we had a lot of stuff outside of the facility and so what we have to do we have to go back to our apartments and change our clothes and get back into the work release clothing that they purchased for us from Montgomery Wards which is like the equivalent of Sears yeah and Robux so uh we would change back into those outfits to go back in and uh one time uh I happened to have a a very expensive watch on and we were kind of late I didn't even realize it when I changed my clothes and I was coming I came back and got on the bus and he saw it and he said yo that watch you know and the guy said that he was you know stashing on the bus for me until the next day I had no choice but to trust him for it and I did that so one of my other Cod Defenders thought that that he could be trusted you know beyond that point and he couldn't actually but he did and um you know we had met his brother his brother was from Detroit and you know he was supposed to be into the street life world deep and he had did some things for us and um basically it was a car make a long somebody sure because it's a big story and it was a car that was involved that the brother had given us well had given his brother and one one it was used not in the bank robbery but it was used to to steal a car that was going to be used in the bank robbery and that particular car was when that when the the car theft was going on the plate number was taken down of the the good car that we had and um they eventually came you know through their investigation eventually ended up coming to the facility to to question the brother because his brother when they went to him his brother said oh the my car my brother had my car and told him where he was at when they eventually came to him you know he basically said that oh that car was used on that particular day by you know these individuals and and I do know other information on them about their apartments and stuff that they have so so that's how it kind of unraveled unraveled yeah you now have this was it was it a federal penitentiary that you Federal penitenti y you now have Michigan the warden of a federal penitentiary that set up this this wonderfully Progressive you know school program only to have the inmates go and Rob more banks in the process right was very embarrassing for very embarrassing for the warden for the Bureau of Prisons yeah the Bureau of Prisons overall right what what was the what was the get back okay yeah was okay so first uh when they and they you know kind of came and got us they uh put us first they put us in three uh separate jails in throughout Michigan and um you know first they put us in you know solitary confinement then they took us and put us in three separate jails and then they took us to court and arraigned us on the uh the bank robbery charges um but prior to the first hearing uh the work with these driver said that he had a change of heart and that was one of the main you know witnesses to tie us to anything you know and he said some guys came to visit him and that he had a change of heart and you know his testimony he would not testify so uh approximately I guess that the hearing was like probably 21 days or so 20 days or so after the after we were first arraign and they dismissed the charges at the hearing so now when they dismissed the charges they took us and put us at the time what they called the merry go round and on that all they do is put you in a a car Marshall vehicles and they just ride you all over the country and drop you off at different jails all over the country different holding Federal holding places and which were in different you know County jails so they would ride us you know and drop us for three days and come pick us up take us to another so we would never be stable we never could call anybody you know we would remain in the lockup of the jail and they they did us had us on a merry go around um for probably about I guess about 3 months you know and then we had to kind of take start taking some action to kind of get out of that so we would you know Buck we refuse to go into the jails when we get there we refuse the process we refuse to fingerprint take any picture you know with no mug shots no nothing and uh you know CA would cause a problem at the jail basically and um then when the Marshall come get us we refuse to go so they would have to you know wrestle with us to Cuff us up and put us in the car So eventually they put us in um Lewisburg penitentiary in the hole in Lewisburg Penitentiary solitary confinement and we stayed in there for about another four months in in solitary confinement then they put us in Lewisburg population at the penitentiary and then eventually we we made parole okay we got out no I'm maxed out you maxed out and how long were you in there total time by the time you got out probably uh 5 years forign chains you know so you never really I lost all my good time and all that you know so yeah I did I maxed it out but you technically didn't get any new time for the new bank cover no not not not then they eventually came back they eventually came back some you know some you know because the statute of limitation is five years yeah yeah they eventually came back with that case I mean we you know the guy that I'm talking about his name is uh Jeffrey Rockman uh Jeffrey Rockman eventually you know cooperated I don't know if he got in trouble again or what possessed him to cooperate later but he agreed to cooperate and go into the witness protection program and I think it was just starting at that time you know the real one that they got now that they use and um he agreed to go into that you know to get his name changed and all that and he went to the grand jury and we get later got indicted for that bank for one of the bank Robbies okay and how many more years did you get for that 25 25 years yeah so then you got sentenced to 25 years for One bank robbery right and how long did you have to serve out well you got convicted for that yeah I got convicted for that and you were given 25 years I was given 25 years and how long did you have to serve two weeks I escaped [Laughter] you escaped after two weeks yeah I had a uh attempt murder of uh I had attempt murder of two police officers so they say and um I was I was going to court for that I had they brought me back to the Queen's house of detention to to you know go on trial for that and um I uh got hold of uh a inmate that was doing seven days and you know for you know some I don't even know what he was doing it for basically but I know he had seven days and he was uh you know some some you know smaller smaller offense or whatever he was sentenced to and uh when it when it got overcrowded they they would place you know those kind of individuals near where the maximum security Wayne was and you know um the day he was supposed to go out I went out in his place okay you know so I basically walked out out of there and you know asked him and he later went downstairs after I was gone and and and just said he didn't you know he he's there for release and basically uh the the the alarms went off yeah basically The Lawns went off and then they eventually let him go that day because he he didn't cooperate and do it he he basically didn't have a choice in the matter so so you essentially threatened him well something like that I I left early that morning okay all right so you so you escaped yeah and then but you're still what happened to 25 years I still had it I was on I was on the uh the most wanted list for you know the FBI Most Wanted the US Marshalls Most Wanted and New York New York State and New York City most wanted list I was on the run for how long Point uh I was out for some months actually I didn't get a year out you know but because I was working basically again you know yeah Robie Banks again I was back at it back at it back at it hard harder than I was before okay yeah and how but you eventually eventually got caught yeah I eventually got caught going to a Stash House in in in New York it was a robbery that uh in it was a bank that we had targeted in monacello New York you know because it was around the racetrack and basically uh um we uh I came back to New York for that but somehow it was it was another informant lurking somewhere that got that information and but the information that he provided uh to the to the police was that I was coming back to to to retaliate on the police officer that arrested me for the state case you know because that was a shootout was two guys that got shot two our guys that got shot and you know they they beat me up pretty badly and broke my not so somehow the information was translated that I was back to you know seek revenge and I think with the um you know with the history of my family some of my family history and that you know as being you know on more on the militant side you know the resistance side you know of the the the Civil Rights Movement I guess mhm you know then they it was believable you know in their minds and uh they was at one of the safe houses when I they stayed there for 2 days you know when they heard I was coming there and that's how it was a shootout and then they captured me okay so there was a shootout you got captured yeah again I got hit you know I got a graze it wasn't even okay you went to court and you were sentenced to how long at that time uh I got another well I had the 25 and uh before I got to that that particular I was just captured so the first trial I had after that was the trial for the state case for the attempt to murder of the two police officers and I was sentenced I got found guilty and I was sentenced to 25 years consecutive to the 25 that I had okay originally for the Michigan case and um so that was 50 at that point you know 50 years yeah then and then I went to trial on the additional robberies that happened while on Escape because I was later charg with that you know um actually a guy uh while I was in it's alleged that you know I was sending orders out to guys that were with my crew to rob banks you know to pay for my defense to pay for my lawyer fees and all that and um the Monella bank that I never got to get to they went to rob that bank and uh once uh they were in that bank so they they got away with it but somehow the the switch went bad and a police chief in the town happened to be riding by and saw the suspicious switch up and you know the bank Robbie came over the I guess his his uh scanner and then he gave Pursuit and you know asked for you know help and assistance and they were captured after you know hos Chase [Music] um after that one of the guys the guy by the name of Curtis King he contacted the FBI and said they had information on me which I was very known to the FBI at that point and he said that he had information on me and bank robberies you know that I've done all across the country and so he went to the witness detection program and so I was charged at that point with the additional robberies that that happened while I was on escape and and after that uh I went to trial again was found guilty and I got another 45 years you know another 25 and another 20 which is 45 running consecutive and running consecutives to what I had already so that that came up to 95 years between all the sen n so you you've been sentenced in 95 years yeah but it was all consecutive right which 25 years sentences and a 20e sentence running consecutive so it's really 25 years no not until they it it eventually became running concurrent concurrent oh okay consecutive concurrent consecutive right is one after the other concurrent sorry misunderstood okay how long out of those 95 years did you end up serving well again like you said it eventually you know one sentence was stolen out because it was illegal another couple of sentences were uh ran concurrently so by the time everything was run concurrent I served 15 I was under the Old Law the old federal law I served 15 years and then was released on parole supervision how old were you when you got out after that that 15E sentence how was that uh I was uh what I was it 39 38 or something like that I let me do the math on that yeah I was in my late 30s okay actually late 30s yeah okay so you get out in your late 30s MH when did you at that point did you say okay no more bank robberies I got to go do something else yeah at that point I had actually you know while I was that's one of the reasons I got Paro like I believe is because you know what of the stuff that I was doing while I was incarcerating I was kind of preparing myself for the release you know I earned two you know bachelor's degrees you know and numerous other stuff in some programming and you know that went well with the parole you know with the parole Bo and with the facility that I was in and I they you know the recommendations went in you know cuz my stuff had to be approved in Washington and I was eventually role so when I came out though I was uh still under what they call intensive supervision you know because basically if you have a certain amount of time or done a certain amount of time or your organized crime or something like that you know your cases big they put you with these Special parole officers whose job is really not to keep you out but to get you back as soon as possible okay you know and uh so I had to figure out a way to uh not allow them to do that and you know it's like a catch 22 they tell you as a condition of your perole that you had to be gainfully employed you know so when you report in whether it's every week or every two weeks you got to tell them that you or show them that you have been running around looking for jobs and you give them they always ask you uh oh yeah so where you where did you go you know and then they'll go verify that when they go verify it depending on who you are you know they'll come with their badge hanging out with the flat jackets on and ask the guy did he interview you or did you apply for the job so you know you wasn't going to get the job so basically I had to figure a way around that so I said I had to get into my own business and that way you know I could you know avoid those pitfalls you know so uh my my uh son was actually working with like as a roie for uh Naughty by Nature and one day you know he I was in the in the house and he had I looked at his itinerary for the tour and when I looked at the itinerary for the tour he had I saw the cities that they were doing and I knew people in all of those cities basically from my concervation I was concervation and the federal prison system and you know people from all over the countryes there I made a lot of friends and while I was in there in a lot of states and you know a lot of us kept in touch with each other you you know you know or if you ever get out holl at me or whatever whatever so I started calling some of them guys that were that I saw in different cities on that tour and asking them about the clubs in in the city you know you know clubs the U uh you know security people that do security you know who does promotion Street teams and basically I I went back to uh uh actually kg's brother and made the cut a deal to do the After parties for all of their uh the cities that that were on the intinerary the official After parties and that's how I basically started I understand that mindset cuz I like have that like cuz you don't believe in somebody so much you just joke on them like I'm going to joke on you I don't believe you so I understand it but you know I want hipop period like to stop the shenanigans with that type of [ __ ] like yo [ __ ] rap go rap my monthly uh overhead for my household and employee just household employees was somewhere in the ne neighborhood of like a million dollars a month I was spending [Music]

Channel: djvlad

Views: 617,854

Keywords: VladTV, DJ Vlad, Interview, Hip-Hop, Rap, News, Gossip, Rumors, Drama, Chaz Williams, Bank robbery, jail, prison, work release

Id: ADPksXztbXg

Length: 34min 49sec (2089 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 19 2016