1. Elderly bank robber back in custody for new string of heists
2. 83-year-old criminal arrested again for robbing banks.
Accident – Death – Obituary News :
An octogenarian who spent more than three decades behind bars for a series of bank robberies in the 1980s has once again found himself in custody, as per federal authorities.
The 83-year-old man, Donald “Doc” Bennett, who was once known as the “leaping bandit” by the FBI for his acrobatic escapes while committing bank heists in his youth, was apprehended shortly after allegedly participating in a robbery at a Chase bank in Hickory Hills, Illinois, on Valentine’s Day. His alleged accomplice, 55-year-old Edward Binert, was also arrested in connection with the incident, as outlined in a federal criminal complaint filed against the duo.
Both Bennett, hailing from Campbellsville, Kentucky, and Binert, residing in Oak Lawn, Illinois, have been charged with armed robbery. They are slated to appear at a detention hearing at the U.S. District Court in Chicago on Thursday.
Bennett had been released from prison in 2020 after serving 31 years of a 50-year sentence following his conviction in 1989 for a string of bank robberies carried out in the Chicago area, according to information from the FBI.
Upon his arrest, Binert reportedly confessed to FBI investigators during a video-recorded interview that he had participated in the robbery at the Chase branch in Hickory Hill on February 14, as detailed in the criminal complaint.
Binert disclosed to investigators that he had met Bennett for the first time in 2006 while both were serving time in a federal penitentiary in Michigan, as per the complaint.
The arrest of Bennett and Binert took place at Binert’s residence in Oak Lawn, Illinois, where authorities seized various pieces of evidence linking the pair to the robbery. These items included weapons, a brown wig, two sets of Illinois license plates, and a bundle of shrink-wrapped U.S. currency believed to be the proceeds from one of the heists. The robbery on Valentine’s Day netted nearly $7,000, according to the complaint.
The FBI suspects that Bennett may have been involved in at least seven bank robberies that occurred in the Chicago suburbs since June 27, with one of the incidents involving a theft of $11,400 from a Chase bank in Oak Lawn, according to the complaint.
“Based on my personal involvement in this investigation, including my review of police reports and other evidence, I know that six of the seven bank robberies have the following similarities: the robber was a single older white male wearing a face covering, who brandished a handgun; the robber demanded bank funds from a teller; and a rental vehicle was used as the getaway vehicle,” wrote FBI special agent Cassandra Johnson in the complaint.
One of the robberies that Bennett is suspected of committing took place on August 25 at a different Chase bank in Oak Lawn, where $30,886 was stolen.
Investigators were able to identify Bennett and Binert as suspects because they had used their real names and identification to rent getaway cars for the robberies, including the one on Valentine’s Day.
Bennett’s arrest follows closely on the heels of another elderly bank robbery suspect, 71-year-old Bruce Edward Bell, who had spent 40 years in federal prison for a series of bank heists and was recently apprehended for allegedly robbing a bank in Sun Valley, California. Bell had been released from prison in July 2021.
The title of the oldest convicted bank robber in the nation belongs to J.L. Hunter “Red” Rountree, who admitted to robbing a bank in Abilene, Texas, in August 2003 at the age of 91. Rountree was sentenced to 151 months in prison and passed away in October 2004 at the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri.
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– 83-year-old convicted robber back behind bars
– Bank heists series.
