Father's Day Bank Massacre
By stevetheblogger, 4th Jul 2012 | Follow this author
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Posted in WikinutWritingTrue Stories
The Father's Day massacre was a bank robbery and shooting that took place on Sunday, June 16, 1991 at the United Bank Tower in Denver, Colorado.
Father's Day Bank Massacre
The perpetrator killed four bank four bank guards and held six tellers in the bank's cash vault. An estimated $200,000 was stolen from the bank. Nearly three weeks later, on July 4, 1991, authorities arrested retired police officer James W. King, 55, for the crime. The subsequent trial was broadcast nationally on Court TV. After a highly-publicized trial and nine days of deliberation, the jury acquitted Mr. King. The crime remains unsolved and is considered a cold case. At 9:14 a.m. on Sunday, June 16, 1991, a man identifying himself as the bank's vice president, asked for entry into the bank through a side freight elevator. He called the bank's guard room using a street-level security phone. Guard William McCullum Jr. responded by riding the elevator up from the guard room. When the elevator doors opened, the gunman forced McCullum to ride to the subbasement area of the bank. There, the gunman killed McCullum, hid his body in a storage room, and took his electric pass card. The killer made his way through the bank tunnels and up one floor to the bank's basement-level area which housed the vault and guard station.
The robber set off an alarm at 9:20 a.m. when entering a stairwell. The robber made his way into the vault area where he entered the guard room. There, the gunman forced two guards, Phillip Mankoff and Scott McCarthy, into another room whare he shot and killed them.
A a third guard, Todd Wilson, went to the area when he heard what sounded like gun shots. When he arrived Wilson was shot several feet away from the room where Mankoff and McCullum laid. Police later determined the robber fired 18 shots during his killing spree.
Once he had colluded his robbery he removed all evidence so as to eliminate any trace of his identity. He also seized ten videotapes, bank keys, a two-way radio, and pages of the guard logbook.
At 9:48 a.m the start of the Robbery six vault employees were on duty processing cash deliveries. The robber demanded t the employees cover their eyes and lay on the floor. He ordered the senior vault manager, David Barranco, to fill a bag with cash. Before leaving the scene, he forced the tellers to crawl into a small room near the vault. Investigators were confused as the robber neither filled up the entire bag with money nor took bundles of cash from the vault. The robber made his escape at about 9:56 a.m, leaving the tellers locked in the small room. They were stuck there until one of the tellers found a broken and used it to open the door, they were free approximately 20 minutes after the robber left.
From the beginning the investigators suspected that the killer was associated in some way with the bank. Investigators then questioned current and former bank employees until narrowing their search to James King, a retired Denver police officer as well as a former guard at the bank building. Mr. King was arrested on the evening of July 4, 1991.
The trial started on the 19th May 1992 and was a lengthy one but after weeks the jury was unable to reach a verdict and Mr King went free. Since then the case has nether been solved and has now become a cold case.
Victims of the robbery
Phillip Mankoff, William McCullum, age 33
Scott McCarthy, age 21
Todd Wilson, age 21
In loving memory of the victims and there families.
stevetheblogger
Thank you for Wikipedia for help with actual names
Comments
5th Jul 2012 (#)
Great share but sad story. Thank you anyway.
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