WEBVTT - #61 The Bank Robber 0:00:15.210 --> 0:00:23.610 Pushkin. How's it going, doctor Jackie Cohen? 0:00:23.930 --> 0:00:27.729 Yeah, how about this Jacke co win, doctor Jackie co 0:00:27.970 --> 0:00:31.090 When So okay, So, now that I am officially in 0:00:31.130 --> 0:00:32.890 my late fifties, what do you think I could do 0:00:32.930 --> 0:00:34.090 to start improving my health? 0:00:34.409 --> 0:00:36.570 You can build up that little little body of yours. 0:00:36.650 --> 0:00:38.170 Get some meat balls on the spaghetti. 0:00:38.690 --> 0:00:40.370 Yes, yes, Oh you're laughing? 0:00:41.129 --> 0:00:43.530 Is that a medical term? Why aren't you doing any weightlifting? 0:00:43.849 --> 0:00:45.530 Because I don't live near a gym. 0:00:45.849 --> 0:00:46.489 You don't have to. 0:00:48.209 --> 0:00:49.849 Like where I just go around the house and I 0:00:49.970 --> 0:00:52.210 like lift a couch or try to pull a toilet 0:00:52.250 --> 0:01:05.410 out or something. Yeah, not from Pushkin Industries. I'm Jonathan 0:01:05.490 --> 0:01:11.850 Goldstein and this is Heavyweight today's episode the bank Robber. 0:01:16.010 --> 0:01:29.890 Right after the break, Hello, Hello, how are you hi? 0:01:30.010 --> 0:01:30.250 Good? 0:01:30.290 --> 0:01:33.130 How are you doing really well? Thank you good? 0:01:33.370 --> 0:01:34.289 Are you comfortable? 0:01:34.970 --> 0:01:35.610 I am. Yes. 0:01:36.410 --> 0:01:38.690 The story you're about to hear is from someone who's 0:01:38.730 --> 0:01:41.490 still figuring out how to tell it, or even if 0:01:41.490 --> 0:01:42.690 he should tell it. 0:01:42.690 --> 0:01:45.130 It just seems very crazy and it's it's kind of 0:01:45.130 --> 0:01:46.410 hard for me to talk about it. 0:01:47.130 --> 0:01:49.570 At this point, he's only shared the story with a 0:01:49.570 --> 0:01:52.130 couple of people, and he only agreed to share it 0:01:52.130 --> 0:01:54.930 with me after I promised not to use his real name, 0:01:55.450 --> 0:01:59.210 so we'll call him X. My communication with X began 0:01:59.290 --> 0:02:01.730 with an email he sent me over three years ago. 0:02:02.330 --> 0:02:05.250 It contained a lot of nervous preamble and throat clearing, 0:02:05.650 --> 0:02:09.809 but eventually he came to the point. In nineteen ninety two, 0:02:10.010 --> 0:02:13.970 he said, I committed an armed bank robbery. I was 0:02:14.090 --> 0:02:22.570 just one month past my fourteenth birthday. X begins this 0:02:22.690 --> 0:02:26.130 story by telling me about his family. He was raised 0:02:26.130 --> 0:02:29.450 on a dairy farm, the son of immigrant parents. He 0:02:29.530 --> 0:02:32.889 was one of seven children, all brothers. X was right 0:02:32.890 --> 0:02:33.850 in the middle, Right in. 0:02:33.810 --> 0:02:36.050 The middle, Yeah, three, older, three, younger. Yeah. 0:02:36.610 --> 0:02:38.450 X's home life wasn't an easy one. 0:02:38.970 --> 0:02:43.889 Well, you would call it abusive today. You know. The bell, tour, 0:02:43.970 --> 0:02:47.570 brunstick or whatever was handy was used as a corrective measure. 0:02:48.650 --> 0:02:51.610 My mom was a little more creative in the implements 0:02:51.650 --> 0:02:54.290 she would use, but it didn't hurt as much as 0:02:54.330 --> 0:02:55.290 one my dad said it. 0:02:56.290 --> 0:02:58.930 To illustrate, X tells me about the night he snuck 0:02:58.970 --> 0:03:01.890 out to the local junior high He noticed an open 0:03:01.930 --> 0:03:05.290 window and broke in. The police caught him and brought 0:03:05.370 --> 0:03:07.410 him home where his parents were waiting. 0:03:08.530 --> 0:03:13.690 They told me to remove all my clothing. So I did, 0:03:14.530 --> 0:03:19.570 minus my underwear, and then I just got like the 0:03:19.570 --> 0:03:23.450 beating of my life with a belt. But I just 0:03:23.530 --> 0:03:25.410 remember it hitting me all over my body. I remember 0:03:25.450 --> 0:03:28.970 it hitting my penis like it was. It was pretty brutal. 0:03:30.210 --> 0:03:32.130 X says there were other nights like that. 0:03:32.890 --> 0:03:36.890 I remember crying and lights are out and my younger 0:03:36.890 --> 0:03:38.770 brother trying to say something to comfort me, and me 0:03:38.930 --> 0:03:42.290 saying something like I hate them and I don't want 0:03:42.290 --> 0:03:43.010 to be here anymore. 0:03:44.010 --> 0:03:47.730 School offered no respite. X was small for his age 0:03:47.730 --> 0:03:50.970 and had a high voice. The bullies took notice. 0:03:51.010 --> 0:03:53.370 When they'd see me in the halls. They'd ask me questions, 0:03:54.330 --> 0:03:57.250 you know, kind of vulgar, like I heard you like 0:03:57.290 --> 0:03:59.330 giving head or something like that, and I didn't even 0:03:59.370 --> 0:04:03.090 know what that meant. Or I remember once they asked me, 0:04:04.330 --> 0:04:06.090 is it true you like to choke the chicken? And 0:04:06.250 --> 0:04:10.570 again I was like what, but I said not really, 0:04:10.930 --> 0:04:13.530 and they really keyed in on that not really, because 0:04:13.530 --> 0:04:15.210 it was like, oh, so you kind of like it. 0:04:16.370 --> 0:04:18.969 My strategy with him was just curl up at a 0:04:18.969 --> 0:04:21.929 ball and hope that they'd leave me alone, and that 0:04:22.130 --> 0:04:23.930 I think made them want to pick on me more. 0:04:24.890 --> 0:04:27.330 Between school and his home life, it felt like there 0:04:27.369 --> 0:04:30.690 was no safe place to be, so X retreated into 0:04:30.690 --> 0:04:33.610 a fantasy world. He'd come home from a day of 0:04:33.650 --> 0:04:36.489 being bullied and lye in bed, playing out scenes in 0:04:36.529 --> 0:04:39.770 which he was the powerful one, the one to be feared. 0:04:40.289 --> 0:04:43.729 As an example, one of these guys makes fun of 0:04:43.770 --> 0:04:46.930 me in class, and I get up and I push 0:04:46.969 --> 0:04:48.969 them down and beat them up, like you know, le 0:04:49.089 --> 0:04:50.650 Stephen Sagal movie or something. 0:04:51.890 --> 0:04:54.809 X found himself drawn to movies like that about tough 0:04:54.849 --> 0:04:59.089 guys and outlaws, young Guns, Point Break, a favorite was 0:04:59.130 --> 0:05:03.249 actually called Tough Guys. At around this time, he discovered 0:05:03.250 --> 0:05:06.929 a book titled The Encyclopedia of Crime in the school library. 0:05:07.570 --> 0:05:10.929 He'd spend lunchtime there hiding from trouble and reading about 0:05:10.929 --> 0:05:15.210 criminals like al Capone, Babyface Nelson, and Pretty Boy Floyd. 0:05:15.969 --> 0:05:17.530 No one bullied them. 0:05:18.210 --> 0:05:26.930 So I started to fantasize daydream about robbing a bank. 0:05:33.330 --> 0:05:36.289 I had this image of going into a bank and 0:05:36.369 --> 0:05:39.849 getting a big bag of money, and the place that 0:05:39.890 --> 0:05:42.650 I dreamed about going to was New York. I thought 0:05:42.650 --> 0:05:44.810 of New York as being synonymous with the mafia, and 0:05:44.849 --> 0:05:47.890 I thought, well, maybe if I could go there. Somehow 0:05:48.289 --> 0:05:51.729 I could ingratiate myself to someone in that family, and 0:05:51.849 --> 0:05:53.650 that would become my new family as supposed to this 0:05:53.690 --> 0:05:55.570 family doesn't seem to want me, and who I can 0:05:55.609 --> 0:05:56.650 do nothing right for. 0:05:57.890 --> 0:06:01.010 It was all just a child's fantasy until one day 0:06:01.049 --> 0:06:04.450 in class when ex witnessed something that made him realize 0:06:04.450 --> 0:06:07.890 it might be time to act. A quiet, smaller kid 0:06:07.969 --> 0:06:11.690 said something to a bigger, tougher kid. The bigger kid pounced. 0:06:12.169 --> 0:06:15.529 He started kicking him and including kicking him in the face. 0:06:16.849 --> 0:06:21.770 That really shook me. On my way home on the 0:06:21.810 --> 0:06:25.970 bus that day, I remember thinking I got to get 0:06:25.969 --> 0:06:26.529 out of here. 0:06:26.690 --> 0:06:28.730 Like you're gonna you. Felt like there was more of 0:06:28.770 --> 0:06:30.810 an imperative, like you were next. 0:06:31.450 --> 0:06:37.370 Yeah, because I saw myself as that powerless kid. And 0:06:37.450 --> 0:06:43.089 I even this is like years and years and years ago, 0:06:43.130 --> 0:06:46.249 and it still get so emotional about it. It's like, 0:06:46.289 --> 0:06:48.609 what a horrible way to, you know, go through a day. 0:06:48.650 --> 0:06:51.050 And I just thought, I don't want that to be me. 0:06:52.089 --> 0:06:54.490 And so he came up with a plan. There was 0:06:54.529 --> 0:06:56.969 a bank down town where his mom was a customer. 0:06:57.609 --> 0:07:00.690 In the movies, there was always a silent alarm, which 0:07:00.729 --> 0:07:02.689 meant he'd only have a few minutes to do what 0:07:02.729 --> 0:07:05.609 he needed to before the police arrived. He'd have to 0:07:05.609 --> 0:07:09.250 move quickly. He'd also need to hide out. It was 0:07:09.250 --> 0:07:12.050 a hotel about a block away from the bank. After 0:07:12.090 --> 0:07:15.010 the robbery, he could rent a room. Once the coast 0:07:15.090 --> 0:07:17.330 was clear. He called a taxi to take him to 0:07:17.369 --> 0:07:20.570 the airport, and then it was off to New York. 0:07:21.610 --> 0:07:23.970 And this is the part of the story that feels 0:07:24.050 --> 0:07:25.210 hardest for X to tell. 0:07:26.170 --> 0:07:33.690 Okay, I my dad owned a shotgun which he had 0:07:33.770 --> 0:07:39.170 used to hunt. It was in a closet and the 0:07:39.210 --> 0:07:41.850 first thing I did when I got home was I 0:07:41.890 --> 0:07:44.010 took that gun. I took it into my bedroom and 0:07:44.130 --> 0:07:46.689 with the hack saw, I saw the barrel off so 0:07:46.850 --> 0:07:56.970 it would be easy to carry. I remember, once the 0:07:57.010 --> 0:08:00.530 barrel came off and I had removed it, I thought, Okay, 0:08:01.530 --> 0:08:03.050 I don't really know if I want to do this. 0:08:03.290 --> 0:08:07.170 I'm kind of terrified. But now I'm in like I 0:08:07.489 --> 0:08:10.809 can't on this track. Now that I can't back up on, 0:08:10.890 --> 0:08:13.929 I have to go forward because I've now destroyed. My 0:08:14.050 --> 0:08:21.530 Dad's gone, and eventually that will come to light. I 0:08:21.570 --> 0:08:26.249 didn't sleep very well that night. I got up in 0:08:26.290 --> 0:08:28.930 the morning you know, after staring at the ceiling for 0:08:29.010 --> 0:08:34.010 what seemed like ours. I remember going out and my 0:08:34.090 --> 0:08:36.370 mom was putting breakfast on the table. The television was 0:08:36.410 --> 0:08:38.449 on and they were talking about the nineteen ninety two 0:08:38.530 --> 0:08:42.850 presidential campaign and the governor Bill Clinton, and I just 0:08:42.930 --> 0:08:46.290 remember thinking, like, this is a world I'm no longer 0:08:46.330 --> 0:08:51.610 part of. I don't none of that means anything to me. Today, 0:08:51.690 --> 0:08:54.970 I'm going into a whole different world and I'm leaving 0:08:54.970 --> 0:08:55.690 this one behind. 0:08:57.610 --> 0:09:01.010 It was October, the beginning of ninth grade. Ex it 0:09:01.210 --> 0:09:10.690 just turned fourteen years old. Xpact suitcase with some clothes 0:09:10.730 --> 0:09:14.050 and books and a few favorite CDs, iced tea. They 0:09:14.130 --> 0:09:16.770 might be giants. He stole a pair of his mother's 0:09:16.810 --> 0:09:20.370 pantyhose to pull over his face as a disguise. He 0:09:20.410 --> 0:09:22.490 put on a trench coat and hid the sod Off 0:09:22.490 --> 0:09:25.929 shotgun inside. As he got on the school bus, the 0:09:26.050 --> 0:09:29.929 driver asked about his outfit. It's for drama class, he said. 0:09:30.930 --> 0:09:33.210 When the bus arrived at school, he was the last 0:09:33.210 --> 0:09:36.530 to get off. All around him, kids were streaming out 0:09:36.570 --> 0:09:40.570 of buses and parents' cars, filing into school, going about 0:09:40.570 --> 0:09:41.530 another normal day. 0:09:42.570 --> 0:09:46.170 And there was a moment of standing there and if 0:09:46.210 --> 0:09:49.250 I turned left, I would be the crowd of kids 0:09:49.290 --> 0:09:52.530 and heading towards the entrance to the school. And if 0:09:52.570 --> 0:09:55.730 I turned right, I'd be off school grounds and walking 0:09:55.730 --> 0:09:56.850 towards where the bank was. 0:09:57.770 --> 0:09:59.810 Maybe it still wasn't too late to give up on 0:09:59.890 --> 0:10:00.650 his plan. 0:10:01.010 --> 0:10:04.810 Like I could just go to school and life could 0:10:04.850 --> 0:10:06.410 just go back to what it was yesterday and the 0:10:06.490 --> 0:10:10.929 day before. But I turned the other way, and I 0:10:10.970 --> 0:10:11.970 walked towards the bank. 0:10:16.250 --> 0:10:19.170 When X arrived, the bank was still closed. So at 0:10:19.170 --> 0:10:21.610 the back of the bank's parking lot, he waited behind 0:10:21.650 --> 0:10:25.490 some trees, and then at ten point fifteen he took 0:10:25.490 --> 0:10:29.650 a deep breath. Okay, he thought, here we go. 0:10:30.090 --> 0:10:33.130 And so I pulled stalking over my face and I 0:10:33.210 --> 0:10:36.970 ran through the parking lot and I entered the bank 0:10:37.050 --> 0:10:40.010 with the gun raised in the air, and I yelled 0:10:40.050 --> 0:10:42.810 something to the effect of everybody get on the floor, 0:10:42.850 --> 0:10:49.370 and this is a robbery. It was like a dream, 0:10:49.530 --> 0:10:52.570 or like watching someone else go through these actions, like 0:10:52.610 --> 0:10:55.890 I was a passenger and they were doing the driving. 0:10:56.650 --> 0:10:56.929 Yeah. 0:10:57.770 --> 0:11:01.690 I remember there was a guy, the first person who 0:11:01.770 --> 0:11:05.130 was standing in line, and he turned toward me and 0:11:05.610 --> 0:11:08.970 started laughing. I don't know if he thought it was 0:11:08.970 --> 0:11:11.050 a joke, or he just couldn't believe that this little 0:11:11.170 --> 0:11:14.130 pipsqueak voice kid was holding up a bank or something. 0:11:15.250 --> 0:11:17.890 But that really made me mad. I felt like I 0:11:17.930 --> 0:11:21.370 was being laughed at, and so I pointed the gun 0:11:21.410 --> 0:11:24.050 at him and said this isn't a joke, and he 0:11:24.090 --> 0:11:26.090 got down, and I remember feeling kind of a surge 0:11:26.130 --> 0:11:28.010 of like, Okay, this is power. 0:11:29.170 --> 0:11:30.690 Had you ever used a gun before? 0:11:31.330 --> 0:11:33.250 No, I was actually kind of scared of him, Like 0:11:33.530 --> 0:11:35.490 I didn't load this gun because I was scared that 0:11:35.610 --> 0:11:37.410 I would get hurt or somebody would get hurt. I 0:11:37.410 --> 0:11:39.450 didn't want to hurt anybody. 0:11:39.770 --> 0:11:41.410 X knew that most of the money would be in 0:11:41.450 --> 0:11:44.330 the vault. He forced two bank tellers to bring him 0:11:44.330 --> 0:11:46.770 in there and told them the stuff stacks of bills 0:11:46.770 --> 0:11:49.970 into his bag. When the bag grew full, he picked 0:11:49.970 --> 0:11:52.730 it up and walked past all the customers still lying 0:11:52.770 --> 0:11:56.210 on the floor. Then he exited out the front door 0:11:56.370 --> 0:11:58.690 and made his way to a dumpster, where he threw 0:11:58.770 --> 0:11:59.929 away the shotgun. 0:12:00.250 --> 0:12:03.410 And I entered the hotel just a teenager with a 0:12:03.450 --> 0:12:09.650 green and yellow sports bag of over forty thousand dollars. 0:12:10.810 --> 0:12:16.050 Unbelievably, the plan had worked. Now X just had to 0:12:16.090 --> 0:12:19.250 wait out the police who would be responding to the scene, 0:12:19.290 --> 0:12:22.650 and then he'd be off to New York. He marched 0:12:22.690 --> 0:12:25.130 up to the hotel clerk and asked for a room. 0:12:25.330 --> 0:12:28.410 And she kind of looked at me, like what, and 0:12:28.450 --> 0:12:30.730 she said, I'm sorry. All of our rooms are rented 0:12:30.730 --> 0:12:32.970 by the month. This isn't like that kind of hotel 0:12:32.970 --> 0:12:34.850 where you can come and just get a room for 0:12:34.890 --> 0:12:35.210 a night. 0:12:35.930 --> 0:12:40.170 Daily versus monthly raids the one thing movies hadn't prepared 0:12:40.250 --> 0:12:44.250 him for. Ex panicked, he couldn't just hang out in 0:12:44.290 --> 0:12:47.850 the lobby. A kid playing hooky would draw attention, So 0:12:47.890 --> 0:12:49.610 he headed out the hotel door. 0:12:49.930 --> 0:12:51.929 And right on the corner of the street as a 0:12:51.930 --> 0:12:53.650 police officer. 0:12:54.050 --> 0:12:57.370 X had two options walk away from the officer, which 0:12:57.490 --> 0:12:59.970 might look suspicious, or walk towards him. 0:13:00.370 --> 0:13:02.170 And so I decided to walk towards him and try 0:13:02.170 --> 0:13:03.370 to act as cool as I could. 0:13:04.370 --> 0:13:07.530 Just after passing the officer and crossing the street, he 0:13:07.530 --> 0:13:14.690 heard the policeman cry out freeze. When X turned around, 0:13:14.850 --> 0:13:22.730 the cops gun was pointed right at him. X was 0:13:22.810 --> 0:13:26.929 arrested and from there things moved quickly. At the police station, 0:13:27.170 --> 0:13:29.330 he confessed to the crime and a date was said 0:13:29.370 --> 0:13:32.610 in juvenile court. X spent the next few nights in 0:13:32.690 --> 0:13:36.450 jail because his parents couldn't afford a lawyer, one was 0:13:36.490 --> 0:13:40.050 appointed to him. After the court proceedings, he was allowed 0:13:40.050 --> 0:13:42.570 to see his parents. It was his first time seeing 0:13:42.570 --> 0:13:44.970 them since breakfast on the morning of the robbery. 0:13:45.690 --> 0:13:49.090 They were just destroyed, Like I've never seen them cry 0:13:49.130 --> 0:13:53.690 as much and be so like it was hard for 0:13:53.730 --> 0:13:57.450 me to look at they were so upset, and yeah, 0:13:57.450 --> 0:13:58.410 they just looked broken. 0:13:59.370 --> 0:14:03.050 A few days later, X was sentenced to twelve years. 0:14:03.610 --> 0:14:07.090 I remember hearing that big, long number and thinking, Okay, well, 0:14:07.090 --> 0:14:08.410 I guess they're not going to let me off because 0:14:08.450 --> 0:14:10.730 I was a kid. And I remember going back to 0:14:10.770 --> 0:14:13.570 my cell and crying because it was like, Okay, this 0:14:13.610 --> 0:14:15.730 is really sinking in now, like I'm going to be 0:14:15.730 --> 0:14:16.730 here for a long time. 0:14:19.170 --> 0:14:21.090 X was sent to a youth facility, where he was 0:14:21.130 --> 0:14:23.650 one of the youngest inmates. He spent a lot of 0:14:23.690 --> 0:14:28.090 time reading, mostly the classics Dickens, Moby Dick, the Bible. 0:14:28.930 --> 0:14:32.530 He underwent an intensive treatment program of daily therapies and 0:14:32.610 --> 0:14:36.930 took his rehabilitation seriously. After three years, when his case 0:14:36.970 --> 0:14:39.730 came up for review, he was released at the age 0:14:39.770 --> 0:14:50.650 of seventeen. From here. Ex's story, and I mean this 0:14:50.690 --> 0:14:54.330 in a good way, is unremarkable. He went to college, 0:14:54.450 --> 0:14:56.570 he got married, and has had good jobs. 0:14:56.970 --> 0:14:58.810 I ended up at one point working in the bank, 0:14:58.850 --> 0:15:01.050 which wow, yeah, kind of funny. 0:15:01.690 --> 0:15:04.610 It's been over thirty years since the day of the robbery, 0:15:05.170 --> 0:15:08.530 and in many ways xis turned his life completely around. 0:15:09.410 --> 0:15:11.610 And yet when he thinks about that day. 0:15:12.090 --> 0:15:19.330 I really feel so ashamed and so regretful. 0:15:19.690 --> 0:15:22.530 So much so that it's almost like he's divided himself 0:15:22.570 --> 0:15:25.850 into there's the boy who is capable of committing that 0:15:25.970 --> 0:15:29.130 crime and the grown man to whom that boy is 0:15:29.170 --> 0:15:32.250 a stranger. A part of the reason it's been so 0:15:32.410 --> 0:15:35.490 hard for X to tell the story is because, in 0:15:35.530 --> 0:15:38.610 a weird way, it's like he's telling someone else's story, 0:15:39.290 --> 0:15:42.130 and it's a story that all his life he's been 0:15:42.170 --> 0:15:43.650 told no one wants to hear. 0:15:44.530 --> 0:15:46.810 My parents, in particular, just want to pretend like it 0:15:46.850 --> 0:15:51.810 never even happened. And they were very embarrassed and kept 0:15:51.810 --> 0:15:53.050 a very secret. 0:15:53.570 --> 0:15:55.250 It wasn't a matter of just don't tell anyone, it 0:15:55.290 --> 0:15:57.850 was if anybody asks. He went to go live with 0:15:57.850 --> 0:15:59.770 one of your older brothers. 0:15:59.650 --> 0:16:02.770 I spoke to several of X's six brothers to hear 0:16:02.850 --> 0:16:04.650 how the crime impacted the family. 0:16:05.370 --> 0:16:09.290 My mom, I think, was really embarrassed by this. The 0:16:09.290 --> 0:16:12.010 community would judge her. For years, I didn't tell people 0:16:12.010 --> 0:16:14.010 about it, like well into my adulthood. 0:16:14.850 --> 0:16:18.170 It wasn't until maybe my sophomore year of high school 0:16:18.250 --> 0:16:21.410 that I shared it with some very close friends. 0:16:21.610 --> 0:16:23.290 Yeah, and how did that feel? 0:16:25.410 --> 0:16:25.930 It was weird. 0:16:25.970 --> 0:16:28.170 I remember being really nervous, like, oh my gosh, are 0:16:28.170 --> 0:16:28.930 they going to judge me? 0:16:29.490 --> 0:16:29.970 Yeah? 0:16:30.330 --> 0:16:31.930 You know, when you're told as a nine year old 0:16:31.930 --> 0:16:35.170 that this thing is really embarrassing and shameful, you almost 0:16:35.210 --> 0:16:36.330 absorb it as like your own. 0:16:36.730 --> 0:16:40.090 You take it on, you know, to feel compelled to 0:16:40.210 --> 0:16:42.290 keep up a lie, to feel shame. 0:16:42.970 --> 0:16:47.850 That's that's difficult for a nine year old. 0:16:48.770 --> 0:16:50.810 And it can remain difficult. 0:16:51.730 --> 0:16:55.570 I didn't feel comfortable breaking about silence. 0:16:56.290 --> 0:16:59.690 This is another of X's brothers, now a middle aged man. 0:17:00.210 --> 0:17:02.650 Even you know now my wife, I've been married to 0:17:02.650 --> 0:17:05.330 her for over twenty years. I've never told her about it. 0:17:06.649 --> 0:17:11.090 You've never you've never told your wife about your brother? Yeah, 0:17:11.129 --> 0:17:18.090 that's right, until even now. Yeah, Wow, did you feel 0:17:18.090 --> 0:17:20.290 compelled to share it with her at any point. 0:17:21.169 --> 0:17:23.090 I could say, I don't know. Over the last couple 0:17:23.090 --> 0:17:25.969 of decades, it's probably been one or two instances where 0:17:26.050 --> 0:17:30.289 I thought about mentioning it. But after this interview I 0:17:30.330 --> 0:17:33.890 may tell her. Probably probably will, but it hasn't come 0:17:33.970 --> 0:17:34.649 up yet. 0:17:40.169 --> 0:17:43.810 Shame can be silencing, and so for thirty years X 0:17:43.889 --> 0:17:47.369 has kept quiet, but it hasn't prevented him from thinking 0:17:47.409 --> 0:17:50.090 about the people in the bank that day, which is 0:17:50.129 --> 0:17:51.050 why he's come to me. 0:17:52.970 --> 0:17:55.729 The people that were there, I was hoping that I 0:17:55.850 --> 0:17:57.850 might be able to at least let them know in 0:17:57.889 --> 0:18:01.529 some fashion that I'm really sorry that I destroyed their 0:18:01.570 --> 0:18:03.370 peace and left them with a lot of trauma. 0:18:04.250 --> 0:18:07.009 In all those movies X love to watch, after the 0:18:07.050 --> 0:18:11.129 crime is committed, the camera remains on the criminal, the star. 0:18:12.129 --> 0:18:16.449 It never follows the customers, the employees. They're just extras. 0:18:17.010 --> 0:18:20.050 But X wants to know what became of them, how 0:18:20.090 --> 0:18:23.129 that day fits into their lives, and most of all, 0:18:23.570 --> 0:18:25.649 he wants to apologize. 0:18:25.810 --> 0:18:27.570 I tried to imagine what the rest of their day 0:18:27.689 --> 0:18:31.290 was like. I'm guessing they went home early and spouses 0:18:31.330 --> 0:18:34.289 were called, their children were called, and they had to 0:18:34.290 --> 0:18:37.490 tell that story, probably multiple times to police. To family 0:18:38.689 --> 0:18:41.690 and relive it, and how do they sleep that night 0:18:42.290 --> 0:18:47.810 and for the nights to come. It is just horrific 0:18:47.889 --> 0:18:54.170 to me. And I talked earlier about the students at 0:18:54.169 --> 0:18:58.129 the school who I saw get beat up. I empathized 0:18:58.169 --> 0:19:01.050 with the guy on the floor getting his face kicked. 0:19:01.970 --> 0:19:03.810 It never would have occurred to me that I would 0:19:03.810 --> 0:19:07.210 have been the bully in that scenario, that I would 0:19:07.209 --> 0:19:09.729 be the one metaphorically anyway, doing the kicking. 0:19:15.330 --> 0:19:19.050 After the break the day of the robbery. From the 0:19:19.090 --> 0:19:42.930 perspective of the victims, when X thinks about apologizing, there 0:19:42.929 --> 0:19:47.129 are three people he wants to apologize too. First, the 0:19:47.169 --> 0:19:49.969 bank tellers, the two women who led him into the 0:19:50.010 --> 0:19:50.770 vault that day. 0:19:51.490 --> 0:19:54.369 That vault was a very small room, and they were 0:19:54.369 --> 0:19:56.529 in very close proximity. 0:19:56.449 --> 0:19:59.649 To me, so close in fact, that at one point, 0:19:59.850 --> 0:20:03.530 while opening his gym bag, X unthinkingly leaned the shotgun 0:20:03.609 --> 0:20:05.010 against one of their thighs. 0:20:05.409 --> 0:20:07.650 They didn't know it wasn't loaded, they didn't know how 0:20:07.730 --> 0:20:11.090 unstable I was. They didn't know any and to feel 0:20:11.090 --> 0:20:14.330 the weight of that against their leg is just horrifying. 0:20:18.970 --> 0:20:21.850 The other person X wants to apologize to is the 0:20:21.929 --> 0:20:23.649 officer who arrested him that day. 0:20:24.129 --> 0:20:26.609 There's some stuff that's fuzzy, but I remember this very well. 0:20:27.290 --> 0:20:29.570 After the policeman yelled for him to drop the money, 0:20:30.169 --> 0:20:32.490 X reached into his back pocket where he had kept 0:20:32.490 --> 0:20:35.490 a few bills, dashed for his cab to the airport. 0:20:35.490 --> 0:20:41.530 Not thinking how a police officer might perceive someone reaching 0:20:41.649 --> 0:20:47.450 behind their back and pulling something out. I found out 0:20:47.530 --> 0:20:51.689 later that he came very close to shooting me, and 0:20:51.770 --> 0:20:56.209 that the cop was very distraught thinking that he almost 0:20:56.250 --> 0:20:57.530 shot a teenage kid. 0:21:00.970 --> 0:21:04.530 Team nabbed for bank theft, reads a local newspaper the 0:21:04.609 --> 0:21:08.570 day after the robbery. The article names the arresting policeman 0:21:08.770 --> 0:21:13.289 as Officer Roy Tupin. Our search for Officer Tupin is 0:21:13.290 --> 0:21:17.090 a few years too late, though. In twenty nineteen, Tupin 0:21:17.129 --> 0:21:20.810 died in a diving accident. My name is Nick Tupin. 0:21:21.409 --> 0:21:23.289 I'm the son of the arresting officer. 0:21:23.330 --> 0:21:24.370 On the day of the robbery. 0:21:25.330 --> 0:21:27.850 Nick says his dad told him stories about that day. 0:21:28.330 --> 0:21:28.930 It's mine all. 0:21:29.250 --> 0:21:33.050 That was the closest that he'd ever gotten to shooting anyone. 0:21:33.970 --> 0:21:35.530 It shook his world. 0:21:36.330 --> 0:21:38.570 He took some time off of work, you know, he 0:21:38.689 --> 0:21:42.730 wasn't sure that that was his career path anymore. 0:21:43.490 --> 0:21:44.210 I know that. 0:21:46.369 --> 0:21:48.129 It messed with him, you know what I mean? 0:21:49.290 --> 0:21:51.850 One thing Tupin never shared with his son was what 0:21:51.970 --> 0:21:55.410 kept him from shooting acts when he reached into his pocket. 0:21:55.530 --> 0:21:56.889 But Nick has a theory. 0:21:57.090 --> 0:21:59.769 Fourteen years old. Yeah, I'm forty three now. 0:21:59.770 --> 0:22:01.929 I was born in seventy eight, So you do the math. 0:22:02.609 --> 0:22:05.570 Huh, Yeah, you would have been about the same age. 0:22:06.090 --> 0:22:08.570 I'd imagine he looked at that kid like he was 0:22:08.570 --> 0:22:09.090 looking at me. 0:22:09.169 --> 0:22:13.250 He kind of do. When I tell Nick about X's undertaking, 0:22:13.609 --> 0:22:15.810 how he's been hoping to make amends for that day, 0:22:16.449 --> 0:22:17.450 he offers this. 0:22:18.169 --> 0:22:21.649 I think Dad would have forgiven him a long time ago. 0:22:23.090 --> 0:22:23.649 I really do. 0:22:24.490 --> 0:22:25.690 What makes you think that. 0:22:26.810 --> 0:22:29.129 As he got older, just some of the rhetorics that 0:22:30.290 --> 0:22:35.690 you know, people make mistakes and you just hope, like Hill, 0:22:35.810 --> 0:22:38.689 that they don't have life changing consequences. 0:22:39.649 --> 0:22:51.810 For what it's worth, After speaking with Nick, I turned 0:22:51.810 --> 0:22:55.769 my attention to the bank tellers. They aren't identified in 0:22:55.810 --> 0:22:59.010 any of the articles, and the police reports have redacted 0:22:59.050 --> 0:23:02.490 their names, And since the courthouse records have been sealed 0:23:02.609 --> 0:23:05.689 and the bank itself no longer exists, I decide that 0:23:05.730 --> 0:23:07.969 my best bet is to post a sort of missing 0:23:07.970 --> 0:23:12.090 person's notice the local paper. I ask if there's anyone 0:23:12.129 --> 0:23:15.250 who might remember the bank robbery from over thirty years ago, 0:23:15.770 --> 0:23:19.889 or the bank employees from that time. One person responds, 0:23:20.689 --> 0:23:23.129 she doesn't know the tellers, but she does know about 0:23:23.169 --> 0:23:26.530 the robbery. Even though my ad didn't mention X by name, 0:23:26.970 --> 0:23:30.889