27.12.10

Bank Robbery And Old Timers Disease

J. L. Hunter "Red" Rountree , is believed to have been the world's oldest active bank robber in America. After the death of his wife of 50 years on August 12, 2003, Red walked into the Abilene, Texas  First American Bank and handed a large envelope to the teller with the word "robbery on it." Soon after,  Red Rountree fled in a 1996 Buick Regal with some $2,000.00 in small bills in a bag. In a short time he was arrested when a restaurant witness took down his license plate number and gave it to police
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This was not Red's first bank robbery, but the third in five years. His first robbery took place at the young age of 86 in 1998. That's when he robbed South Trust Bank in Biloxi, Mississippi. It didn't take long for him to get caught and convicted. Red got a sympathetic judge who gave him three years probation. The 2nd robbery he did was in Pensacola, Florida was at a Nations Bank. Guess what? Again he was caught and convicted. This time he didn't get off so easy. Red was sentenced to 3 years in prison.

His 3rd and final robbery, the one at the First American Bank, landed the 91 year-old 12 years in a federal prison. Red Rountree died at US Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri October 12, 2004. Red claimed the loss of a considerable fortune from a machinery company he owned and the loss of his wife and son led to his. He was mad at a  Corpus Christi, Texas bank that he believed drove him into  bankruptcy.

"Red" Rountree was born on December 16, 1911 in Brownwood, Texas and died in a prison hospital on October 12, 2004. He was asked if he thought he would go to heaven. He said he was sure of it. Then he was asked if God liked the fact the he stole. He said I never saw anything against it in the Bible. The interviewer then said " Thou shall not steal" and Red said "It's fun to steal"!

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