WEBVTT - The Gamble 0:00:15.356 --> 0:00:15.836 Pushkin. 0:00:18.276 --> 0:00:21.756 Jay Calpern. Here, before we get into this episode, I 0:00:21.796 --> 0:00:23.996 want to let you know that you can hear all 0:00:24.036 --> 0:00:28.236 episodes of Deep Cover The Family Man add free right now. 0:00:28.316 --> 0:00:32.596 By signing up for Pushkin Plus. You'll also get bonus episodes, 0:00:32.796 --> 0:00:36.476 full audiobooks, and true crime binges from your favorite Pushkin 0:00:36.556 --> 0:00:41.276 hosts and authors. Plus, your support helps independent shows like 0:00:41.396 --> 0:00:45.796 us continue making the content you crave. Sign up and 0:00:45.836 --> 0:00:49.316 save on the Deep Cover show page on Apple Podcasts 0:00:49.796 --> 0:00:54.156 or at pushkin dot fm slash Plus. Use the code 0:00:54.636 --> 0:00:59.956 DC two five for twenty five percent off on annual subscriptions. 0:01:00.596 --> 0:01:09.036 All right, let's get into it. Previously on Deep. 0:01:10.516 --> 0:01:13.676 Marissa and I were in our respective rooms when I 0:01:14.076 --> 0:01:17.636 see a flashlight coming through my window, and then I 0:01:17.676 --> 0:01:21.436 see several flashlights, and then I hear dogs. They're all 0:01:21.476 --> 0:01:24.756 like knocking really loud, like O well the door, and 0:01:24.796 --> 0:01:26.716 you could just feel the pressure, like, dude, they're going 0:01:26.756 --> 0:01:28.996 to open this door if we don't open this door. 0:01:29.796 --> 0:01:32.436 The picture that was on Fox two News, you could 0:01:32.436 --> 0:01:36.236 see into the car from this helicopter shot and there 0:01:36.316 --> 0:01:40.996 was a cup. You're like, that's Dad's Emo's cup. I 0:01:41.036 --> 0:01:43.796 realized that my dad has done something wrong. And I 0:01:43.796 --> 0:01:47.916 immediately started feeling like this is going to change my 0:01:48.076 --> 0:01:50.076 life and my family dynamic forever. 0:01:55.956 --> 0:02:00.836 I'm in a darkened, dirt road in the Ozarks. I'm 0:02:00.876 --> 0:02:04.876 going like fifteen miles an hour because I keep getting 0:02:04.876 --> 0:02:08.196 stuff caught on the undercarriage of the car that's dragging. 0:02:09.996 --> 0:02:11.116 It's totally dark. 0:02:11.476 --> 0:02:15.276 Whoa wow. 0:02:16.756 --> 0:02:20.196 This is me last winter in a rental car in 0:02:20.236 --> 0:02:24.276 a remote part of Missouri, and even with my brights on, 0:02:24.996 --> 0:02:28.156 it was hard to see. The road kept twisting and 0:02:28.276 --> 0:02:32.476 turning and climbing. And just as I was navigating all 0:02:32.516 --> 0:02:36.356 of this, my phone rang, are you okay there? 0:02:36.516 --> 0:02:39.316 Yeah, I'm fine. I'm actually I'm good. I'm almost there. 0:02:39.916 --> 0:02:43.636 That's my wife, Kasha, and she's been tracking my progress 0:02:43.716 --> 0:02:46.836 on her find My app. To her, it looks like 0:02:47.196 --> 0:02:49.516 I'm just a little too far off the grid. 0:02:50.676 --> 0:02:54.676 Okay, I'm totally fine. I'm totally fine. We're good. 0:02:54.716 --> 0:02:55.116 We're good. 0:02:55.196 --> 0:03:01.476 But I need to focus on this road. That little beep, 0:03:01.516 --> 0:03:04.516 beep beep, that's the sound of my phone dropping her call. 0:03:05.476 --> 0:03:09.916 My GPS says I'm getting close to my destination, about 0:03:09.956 --> 0:03:14.196 to arrive, so it says we're six hundred feet This 0:03:14.476 --> 0:03:23.636 is crazy. Whoa. I'm just trying to slow down here 0:03:23.876 --> 0:03:24.916 to not destroy this. 0:03:25.196 --> 0:03:30.796 I mean, arriving. 0:03:33.596 --> 0:03:37.996 How could we be arriving there's nothing here, old on, 0:03:38.076 --> 0:03:43.116 there's a driveway. 0:03:44.076 --> 0:03:46.276 I mean, I'm just gonna hope this is right. 0:03:48.116 --> 0:03:51.956 I'd pull into this driveway, but I mean, honestly, it 0:03:52.036 --> 0:03:55.076 just looks like a break in the trees, like a clearing, 0:03:55.316 --> 0:03:58.156 nothing more, with a cabin at the edge of it. 0:03:58.756 --> 0:04:01.956 And then I see a shadowy figure emerge from the 0:04:01.996 --> 0:04:03.916 cabin waving his hand. 0:04:04.596 --> 0:04:04.916 Keith. 0:04:05.876 --> 0:04:08.476 Holy cow man, you guys live out here. 0:04:09.116 --> 0:04:11.236 I don't have any outdoor lighting yet. 0:04:11.996 --> 0:04:13.036 Good to see you, Jake. 0:04:13.356 --> 0:04:14.356 Nice to meet you, Jake. 0:04:14.396 --> 0:04:18.236 He's just pulling right there, all right. This is the 0:04:18.316 --> 0:04:22.116 man that I've traveled a very very long way to see. 0:04:22.716 --> 0:04:26.956 Keith Giamanco, dad of Elise and Marissa, the twin sisters 0:04:27.196 --> 0:04:30.596 who you heard from in the last episode. They described 0:04:30.676 --> 0:04:35.036 him as a loving but kind of mysterious father, and 0:04:35.196 --> 0:04:37.956 they told me they really had no clue what he 0:04:38.076 --> 0:04:40.956 was up to until one day when he appeared on 0:04:40.996 --> 0:04:45.396 the local news being hunted down by the police. As 0:04:45.436 --> 0:04:49.236 for how Keith got here to this remote spot deep 0:04:49.276 --> 0:04:53.756 in the ozarks, well, that's a very long story, and 0:04:53.996 --> 0:04:56.676 really it's the story i'd come to hear from myself, 0:04:57.116 --> 0:04:59.156 from Keith in his own words. 0:05:00.356 --> 0:05:02.556 Yeah, likewise, major, come here. 0:05:04.676 --> 0:05:05.596 Lots of dogs. 0:05:07.236 --> 0:05:07.876 Oh you're you're? 0:05:08.836 --> 0:05:12.156 I mean, I mean, I've traveled some and you guys 0:05:12.196 --> 0:05:13.996 are you guys are back there. 0:05:15.276 --> 0:05:18.436 Sitting I'm right with you. Get an adjustment. 0:05:22.516 --> 0:05:25.756 Keith leads me towards the cabin. All around us their 0:05:25.916 --> 0:05:29.916 goats and dogs and heaps of snow. The cabin itself 0:05:29.956 --> 0:05:32.876 is very orderly. There's a set of rakes leaned up 0:05:32.916 --> 0:05:38.636 against the outside wall, perfectly aligned, arranged just so. Once 0:05:38.676 --> 0:05:42.516 we're inside, we sit down by a fire crackling in 0:05:42.556 --> 0:05:43.676 a wood burning stove. 0:05:45.036 --> 0:05:50.636 My day is pretty much spent here. I tend to, 0:05:51.876 --> 0:05:56.076 you know, the animals, and cleaning up the house, doing 0:05:56.196 --> 0:05:58.956 laundry and things like that. And I'm good with that. 0:05:59.116 --> 0:06:02.276 I mean, I did it before, you know, when I 0:06:02.316 --> 0:06:06.236 was a single parent. So it's not anything that that 0:06:06.356 --> 0:06:09.116 I begrudge doing. What do you do with the animal, 0:06:10.836 --> 0:06:15.156 Oh gosh, everything. I watch him have fun a lot 0:06:15.756 --> 0:06:20.116 that they like to have fun, especially the dogs. They 0:06:20.156 --> 0:06:23.236 go in and out a lot and play outside. And 0:06:24.356 --> 0:06:25.236 I love him to death. 0:06:26.356 --> 0:06:29.636 If Keith sounds like a jolly old grandpa kind of guy. 0:06:30.596 --> 0:06:34.556 H he kind of is. He's got this friendly Midwestern look, 0:06:35.076 --> 0:06:39.756 short gray hair, neatly combed, a bright, almost boyish smile. 0:06:40.596 --> 0:06:42.476 He looks like the kind of guy who'd stop and 0:06:42.516 --> 0:06:47.676 help jumpstart your car. But appearances can be deceiving, and 0:06:47.716 --> 0:06:50.836 I knew from speaking to his daughters that there was 0:06:50.876 --> 0:06:54.956 so much more to Keith. In many ways, he was 0:06:54.996 --> 0:06:58.156 the sphinx that drew me into this story, and I 0:06:58.196 --> 0:07:01.476 wanted to know who lived beneath that veneer. 0:07:08.236 --> 0:07:14.276 Life is about you choices and moving forward. That molds 0:07:14.316 --> 0:07:20.316 how you live your life. Those choices I personify that. 0:07:20.476 --> 0:07:26.796 I'm not immune to it, that's for sure. People say, oh, 0:07:26.876 --> 0:07:31.836 you made a mistake. No, I didn't make a mistake. 0:07:32.556 --> 0:07:35.916 Making a mistake is putting salt in your coffee instead 0:07:35.956 --> 0:07:40.676 of sugar. I made bad choices. Those things were a choice. 0:07:40.876 --> 0:07:45.516 They weren't a mistake. I purposely did what I did. 0:07:48.236 --> 0:07:51.676 These choices that Keith made, they're what brought a small 0:07:51.916 --> 0:07:55.036 army of law enforcement to his front door, and what 0:07:55.196 --> 0:07:59.036 led to that police chase with the helicopter overhead, and 0:07:59.076 --> 0:08:03.356 what many years later, ultimately ended with him here in 0:08:03.396 --> 0:08:11.116 a remote cabin in the middle of nowhere. I'm Jake 0:08:11.196 --> 0:08:16.356 Halbern and this is deep cover The Family Man, Episode two, 0:08:17.156 --> 0:08:39.836 The Gamble. Keith was raised by a single mom. He 0:08:39.876 --> 0:08:42.996 says he was always very close with her. She raised 0:08:43.116 --> 0:08:46.516 Keith and his three siblings on her own. Keith was 0:08:46.556 --> 0:08:49.316 the youngest by a lot, and in many ways, he 0:08:49.356 --> 0:08:53.996 grew up as an only child, living a very solitary life. 0:08:54.156 --> 0:08:57.236 His mom worked long hours at a restaurant, and with 0:08:57.316 --> 0:09:00.036 the other kids grown up and gone, Keith spent a 0:09:00.036 --> 0:09:03.476 lot of time alone in the house. He says he 0:09:03.556 --> 0:09:05.156 barely knew his father at all. 0:09:06.156 --> 0:09:09.956 He was a nonexistent in my childhood. He left when 0:09:09.956 --> 0:09:14.996 I was six months old, so I only knew a household. 0:09:14.476 --> 0:09:17.876 With my mother. What kind of impact did that have 0:09:17.956 --> 0:09:18.236 on you? 0:09:19.156 --> 0:09:22.476 It had a huge impact, because I made a vow 0:09:22.596 --> 0:09:26.836 to myself and to them that I would be there for. 0:09:28.116 --> 0:09:31.076 When Keith had children of his own, he wanted his 0:09:31.156 --> 0:09:33.996 girls to have the kind of storybook childhood that he 0:09:34.036 --> 0:09:38.436 didn't have, a real classic family life. At the center 0:09:38.476 --> 0:09:41.316 of this life was Keith's wife, Becky. 0:09:43.636 --> 0:09:47.196 She was a very fun, loving person. She was an 0:09:47.316 --> 0:09:52.236 excellent wife and mother, for the first seven years of 0:09:52.276 --> 0:09:55.276 our marriage. She was a stay at home mother. She 0:09:55.356 --> 0:09:58.196 was very attentive to the children. She was a wonderful 0:09:58.236 --> 0:10:01.836 housekeeper and cook, and a good friend. 0:10:02.836 --> 0:10:06.996 Though Keith was quick to add their marriage it wasn't perfect, 0:10:07.476 --> 0:10:08.996 especially as the girls got old. 0:10:10.116 --> 0:10:13.236 There was some rocky moments, of course, because our personalities 0:10:13.276 --> 0:10:15.516 classed in a lot of ways, and she was sometimes 0:10:15.556 --> 0:10:18.116 a difficult person for me to get along with. How So, 0:10:18.916 --> 0:10:20.036 I guess I would. 0:10:19.876 --> 0:10:22.356 Say her. 0:10:24.996 --> 0:10:30.276 Her love for the home life wasn't constant. 0:10:31.716 --> 0:10:35.076 Keith told me about the moment when he realized all 0:10:35.276 --> 0:10:37.076 was not as it seemed with Becky. 0:10:38.196 --> 0:10:42.876 I remember, there is a like a Founder's Day parade 0:10:43.356 --> 0:10:48.996 in my hometown of flor Sent, Missouri, and everybody gathers 0:10:49.036 --> 0:10:53.156 and you have the family over, and I wanted to 0:10:53.196 --> 0:10:57.156 pick up a few things for entertainment purposes, and I 0:10:57.236 --> 0:11:00.436 went to get a credit card out of my desk, 0:11:01.756 --> 0:11:06.236 and she broke the news to me when I was 0:11:06.276 --> 0:11:08.876 getting in my desk that every single one of them 0:11:08.916 --> 0:11:13.516 were charged to the hill. We had nothing. We had 0:11:13.556 --> 0:11:19.836 no credit of any kind because she had ran it 0:11:19.876 --> 0:11:22.476 all up with drugs and alcohol. 0:11:24.476 --> 0:11:29.276 Not long after this, Becky moved out. I kept thinking 0:11:29.316 --> 0:11:32.196 about how Keith had described his wife to me, how 0:11:32.236 --> 0:11:36.716 he'd paused and then very carefully chosen these words. Her 0:11:36.876 --> 0:11:40.916 love for the home life wasn't constant. This, as I 0:11:40.956 --> 0:11:45.636 came to learn, was a classic Keithism, a Midwestern riddle 0:11:45.676 --> 0:11:50.036 of banality whose darker and truer meaning had to be 0:11:50.116 --> 0:11:54.156 ferreted out. And I also realized that this was probably 0:11:54.156 --> 0:11:55.956 the type of thing that Keith had said to his 0:11:56.076 --> 0:11:59.676 daughters when they were growing up, a sanitized version of 0:11:59.716 --> 0:12:03.196 the truth that was so sanitized that it was no 0:12:03.316 --> 0:12:10.356 longer really the truth at all. Keith says that he 0:12:10.436 --> 0:12:13.716 quickly embraced the role of being a single dad. He 0:12:13.756 --> 0:12:16.556 cooked the dinners and did the laundry. Also put his 0:12:16.676 --> 0:12:20.796 daughters into therapy because he understood that they needed someone 0:12:20.876 --> 0:12:24.276 to talk to about what had happened. He also transferred 0:12:24.316 --> 0:12:27.116 them to an all girls Catholic school, where he felt 0:12:27.156 --> 0:12:32.276 they could get more support emotionally and academically. Without his 0:12:32.356 --> 0:12:34.996 wife around, Keith felt that all of this was on 0:12:35.076 --> 0:12:36.356 his shoulders. 0:12:36.996 --> 0:12:37.996 What's that like for you? 0:12:38.636 --> 0:12:42.996 Rewarding and fulfilling in a lot of ways, but also 0:12:43.276 --> 0:12:48.276 very stressful and a lot of anxiety, and especially when 0:12:48.556 --> 0:12:54.036 there's not the resources there to provide the way you want. 0:12:53.876 --> 0:12:54.836 To for your children. 0:12:56.316 --> 0:13:00.836 Yeah, so let's talk about his resources. Keith had started 0:13:00.836 --> 0:13:04.836 out as a regular blue collar guy. When his girls 0:13:04.836 --> 0:13:07.676 were little, He worked at a printing press, coming home 0:13:07.716 --> 0:13:11.796 each night with ink stain hands. Then, in the early 0:13:11.836 --> 0:13:14.636 two thousands, around the time that his wife moved out, 0:13:15.036 --> 0:13:19.356 Keith reinvented himself as a day trader. He cashed out 0:13:19.356 --> 0:13:23.516 his retirement plan and started buying and selling stocks at 0:13:23.516 --> 0:13:27.436 the time the market was booming. He says he did 0:13:27.476 --> 0:13:32.396 well day trading, though Keith says that sometimes he lived 0:13:32.396 --> 0:13:36.036 beyond his means. For a while, he dated a dentist, 0:13:36.476 --> 0:13:39.796 and he spent money to impress her, going on trips 0:13:39.876 --> 0:13:43.476 and dining out, trying to create an image of wealth 0:13:43.516 --> 0:13:48.276 and success. For a while, it worked. Keith attributed his 0:13:48.316 --> 0:13:52.116 financial success to how closely he studied the stock market. 0:13:52.596 --> 0:13:56.436 He prides himself as someone who understands how systems work. 0:13:58.836 --> 0:14:01.676 A lot of people like to say, well, it's like gambling. No, 0:14:01.756 --> 0:14:08.316 it's not like gambling. Gambling is a non calculated risk 0:14:09.796 --> 0:14:14.436 trading the market. Anybody who knows anything about the market 0:14:14.476 --> 0:14:17.116 and the way it moves it is a calculated risk. 0:14:18.196 --> 0:14:22.276 Keith told me there was only one real trap, wishful thinking, 0:14:22.796 --> 0:14:26.636 believing the version of things you want to be true. 0:14:26.836 --> 0:14:29.636 In the trading industry they call it you know you 0:14:29.676 --> 0:14:33.556 don't want to make a trade, and then smoke hopium on. 0:14:33.596 --> 0:14:38.076 It, smoking hopium. I hadn't heard that phrase before, but 0:14:38.436 --> 0:14:40.076 the meaning it landed immediately. 0:14:40.956 --> 0:14:41.276 Hope. 0:14:41.516 --> 0:14:44.796 It's useful, it's necessary even, It's what gets people to 0:14:44.836 --> 0:14:49.036 try things that might fail. But Keith, he was talking 0:14:49.076 --> 0:14:52.676 about something else. He was talking about the moment when 0:14:52.796 --> 0:14:57.196 hope mixes with desperation and suddenly you're no longer seeing 0:14:57.196 --> 0:15:00.156 things as they are, but as you need them to be. 0:15:03.116 --> 0:15:05.916 By the fall of two thousand and seven, the economy 0:15:05.956 --> 0:15:08.996 had begun to slide into what would become the Great Recession. 0:15:09.756 --> 0:15:13.836 The market was faltering, and so were Keith's finances. He 0:15:13.956 --> 0:15:17.036 was a forty three year old single dad and broke. 0:15:17.756 --> 0:15:21.036 He owed about forty five thousand dollars in back taxes, 0:15:21.516 --> 0:15:25.236 He was behind several months on his mortgage payment, and 0:15:25.476 --> 0:15:28.796 he couldn't afford the tuition at his daughter's private high school. 0:15:29.756 --> 0:15:33.716 He felt desperate, and he would soon act on that 0:15:33.876 --> 0:15:37.116 desperation in a way that would change the course of 0:15:37.156 --> 0:16:01.676 his life forever. When his day trading started to flounder, 0:16:02.196 --> 0:16:05.316 Keith finally decided he had to open up to someone 0:16:05.596 --> 0:16:09.276 about how bad things had gotten. Someone who had under 0:16:09.276 --> 0:16:12.956 stand the pressures of being a single parent, someone who 0:16:12.996 --> 0:16:17.516 wouldn't be too judgmental, someone who truly loved him, And 0:16:17.916 --> 0:16:22.276 what better person than his own mother, Margie, who lived 0:16:22.676 --> 0:16:28.356 right in the neighborhood. When Keith opened up, Margie listened patiently, 0:16:28.956 --> 0:16:32.476 and at some point she made a joke, kind of 0:16:32.476 --> 0:16:33.276 off handedly. 0:16:34.516 --> 0:16:37.476 She just said, well, I hope you don't do something 0:16:37.556 --> 0:16:38.876 crazy like, oh, rob a. 0:16:38.836 --> 0:16:45.476 Bank, explicitly warning you not to do this. Yes, So 0:16:45.476 --> 0:16:47.276 how do you flip that on its head and decide 0:16:47.276 --> 0:16:48.156 that that's a good idea? 0:16:48.636 --> 0:16:52.556 Because I started to do research, tell me, looking at 0:16:52.756 --> 0:16:59.876 the FBI website specifically, and looking at how people got 0:16:59.956 --> 0:17:06.596 caught and basically learning what not to do in order 0:17:06.636 --> 0:17:08.676 to get away with robbing a bank. 0:17:10.356 --> 0:17:10.916 Yeah. 0:17:11.396 --> 0:17:13.636 Around this time, when Keith was really in the hole, 0:17:14.156 --> 0:17:17.636 he decided that he should focus his efforts on learning 0:17:17.676 --> 0:17:21.716 how to rob a bank. He soon became an expert 0:17:21.756 --> 0:17:25.316 on all manner of things, including the use of die packs, 0:17:25.476 --> 0:17:29.596 the positioning of security cameras and the best getaway routes. 0:17:30.356 --> 0:17:34.196 Keith even figured out the ideal time to strike midday, 0:17:34.476 --> 0:17:38.796 right after lunch when people were a little sluggish. Keith's 0:17:38.876 --> 0:17:42.636 plan was not to carry a weapon, just a demand 0:17:42.716 --> 0:17:46.276 note saying give me all the money in both drawers 0:17:46.756 --> 0:17:52.316 and we'll all go home safe. Now you might be thinking, wait, wait, wait, 0:17:52.396 --> 0:17:55.636 hold up, there's got to be another way. Why not 0:17:55.716 --> 0:17:58.636 get a job, any job at all, working the counter 0:17:58.636 --> 0:18:02.076 at McDonald's or burger king, anything legal. 0:18:03.076 --> 0:18:04.236 I asked Keith about this. 0:18:05.116 --> 0:18:08.436 You're going to work this menial job and it's not 0:18:08.516 --> 0:18:11.156 even going to come. I'm close to covering what is due, 0:18:11.996 --> 0:18:16.556 and you're still going to lose everything and you're still 0:18:16.556 --> 0:18:20.596 going to be working at burger king. It made more 0:18:20.676 --> 0:18:26.316 sense in football terms to get chunk yardage instead of 0:18:27.396 --> 0:18:28.836 two yards in a cloud of dust. 0:18:28.916 --> 0:18:30.596 Yeah, but it's like you're going for it on fourth 0:18:30.596 --> 0:18:36.356 and seventeen. Yeah, absolutely, fourth and seventeen. That's football speak 0:18:36.436 --> 0:18:40.356 for a long shot, a big play born out of desperation. 0:18:40.956 --> 0:18:44.556 But that keeps you in the game. And that's what 0:18:44.676 --> 0:18:50.076 Keith wanted, a big payday that solved everything. Only problem 0:18:50.316 --> 0:18:54.356 was his whole life and his daughter's lives hung in 0:18:54.436 --> 0:19:01.076 the balance. Eventually, Keith settled on his first target, a 0:19:01.116 --> 0:19:05.076 Bank of America in Saint Charles, Missouri, and in November 0:19:05.116 --> 0:19:07.916 of two thousand and seven, he decided. 0:19:07.796 --> 0:19:08.476 It was time. 0:19:09.316 --> 0:19:12.516 He dressed for the occasion in a green fatigue jacket 0:19:12.596 --> 0:19:15.596 and a cameo hat with a wide brim that shadowed 0:19:15.596 --> 0:19:19.196 his face. Keith parked a safe distance from the bank 0:19:19.876 --> 0:19:22.076 and then got out of his car. Did you have 0:19:22.076 --> 0:19:23.916 any last minute doubts before you walked in? 0:19:25.436 --> 0:19:30.676 Sure? Absolutely, there were thoughts of aboording it, of course, 0:19:32.436 --> 0:19:33.836 should I or shouldn't I do this? 0:19:34.956 --> 0:19:38.276 But in the end he walked into the bank. He 0:19:38.316 --> 0:19:41.796 looked around, and he felt relieved to see that no 0:19:41.836 --> 0:19:45.236 one was paying any attention to him. So he got 0:19:45.276 --> 0:19:48.356 in line like any other customer, and he waited to 0:19:48.396 --> 0:19:49.076 see the teller. 0:19:50.276 --> 0:19:53.636 I went up and I handed her the note, slid 0:19:53.636 --> 0:19:58.156 her across a Manila envelope. She filled it with money, 0:19:59.316 --> 0:20:02.116 and I turned around and casually walked out across the 0:20:02.156 --> 0:20:06.076 parking lot to the car, which was behind the gas station, 0:20:07.356 --> 0:20:11.036 and pulled straight out onto the exit of the highway 0:20:11.076 --> 0:20:12.396 and drove home. 0:20:16.036 --> 0:20:19.916 There's something so humdrum about the way he tells this story, 0:20:20.476 --> 0:20:25.796 this total absence of drama, which is precisely what Keith 0:20:25.836 --> 0:20:29.676 had been hoping for. This was his proof of concept. 0:20:30.076 --> 0:20:33.756 When he got home, Keith counted the money, over six 0:20:33.836 --> 0:20:41.956 thousand dollars in cash. After that first robbery, Keith watched 0:20:41.996 --> 0:20:46.236 the local news and there he was captured by the 0:20:46.276 --> 0:20:50.276 surveillance cameras in the bank. Did it stress you out 0:20:50.316 --> 0:20:51.116 to see yourself? 0:20:51.236 --> 0:20:54.076 No, it would have stressed me out. If I was recognizable, 0:20:55.276 --> 0:20:58.996 that would have stressed me out. There was literally a 0:20:59.036 --> 0:21:02.516 feeling of relief when I knew that they didn't have 0:21:02.596 --> 0:21:06.076 a make on the vehicle, nor did they have a 0:21:06.116 --> 0:21:11.636 good picture of me that somebody that I knew would 0:21:11.676 --> 0:21:14.196 recognize me for the five thousand. 0:21:13.796 --> 0:21:15.516 Dollars reward or whatever it was. 0:21:15.596 --> 0:21:17.116 At that particular time. 0:21:18.596 --> 0:21:22.876 Keith felt emboldened, and so he just kept on going, 0:21:23.596 --> 0:21:28.436 robbing more banks and quickly became a middle aged Midwestern 0:21:28.836 --> 0:21:33.516 master of disguise. He kept changing his outfits and he 0:21:33.596 --> 0:21:38.956 swapped headgear, baseball hat, bucket hat, boonie hat like he'd 0:21:38.996 --> 0:21:41.876 also rob the hat store and was now trying on 0:21:41.956 --> 0:21:46.236 the whole inventory. Sometimes he wore a fleece, other times 0:21:46.276 --> 0:21:49.756 a sweater or a sport coat. And then of course 0:21:50.316 --> 0:21:51.876 there's what he did with his facial hair. 0:21:52.556 --> 0:21:57.196 I would dye my hair jet black sometimes, and then 0:21:57.276 --> 0:21:59.556 of course when I got home, I would pull in 0:21:59.596 --> 0:22:03.796 the garage and go in and wash my hair. There 0:22:03.876 --> 0:22:05.916 was even a couple of times where I would grow 0:22:05.956 --> 0:22:10.916 a beard and then shave in the car, right in 0:22:10.916 --> 0:22:12.076 the car, right in the car. 0:22:12.276 --> 0:22:15.716 Afterwards, would like an electric shaver, no. 0:22:16.476 --> 0:22:20.836 With just water and a regular razor, so I would 0:22:20.836 --> 0:22:22.476 immediately become clean shaven. 0:22:28.836 --> 0:22:32.076 By early spring of two thousand and eight, Keith had 0:22:32.156 --> 0:22:35.356 robbed half a dozen banks and taken home about sixty 0:22:35.396 --> 0:22:40.316 thousand dollars in cash, and for a while the authorities 0:22:40.396 --> 0:22:45.196 seem clueless. But after the sixth robbery, a detective for 0:22:45.316 --> 0:22:50.796 the Saint Louis County Police named John Bradley took notice. 0:22:51.076 --> 0:22:54.036 One thing that I learned about Bradley right away. This 0:22:54.116 --> 0:22:58.436 guy he plays to win. He's a competitor well into 0:22:58.436 --> 0:23:02.476 his thirties and forties. He played ice hockey, played hard too. 0:23:03.556 --> 0:23:07.756 Just being the type of detective I am, I'm confident 0:23:08.196 --> 0:23:11.236 that I will get them, and I hope I'm the 0:23:11.236 --> 0:23:14.596 one that gets them. I believe most cases can be solved. 0:23:15.556 --> 0:23:18.596 Bradley responded to the scene of one of Keith's robberies 0:23:18.916 --> 0:23:22.756 at a Bank of America in Fenton, Missouri. One of 0:23:22.756 --> 0:23:25.996 the first things that he did was talk to the teller. 0:23:26.636 --> 0:23:31.036 Her name was Shannon, and she was shaken up, frightened 0:23:31.076 --> 0:23:31.956 by what had happened. 0:23:32.876 --> 0:23:36.276 It's a very emotional experience when something like this happens, 0:23:36.916 --> 0:23:40.196 when you're a victim of this, and that's who I 0:23:40.276 --> 0:23:43.636 believe is the victim. Of course, the bank is a victim, 0:23:43.716 --> 0:23:47.236 but it's just money. The tellers are the ones of 0:23:47.316 --> 0:23:50.596 the true victims, because other ones face to face with somebody, 0:23:51.156 --> 0:23:55.436 not knowing how desperate this individual is, and not knowing 0:23:55.596 --> 0:23:59.196 if this individual, for one reason or another, would suddenly 0:23:59.236 --> 0:24:02.236 become violent and hurt them. 0:24:02.996 --> 0:24:06.476 Shannon shared a detailed account of what unfolded that day. 0:24:07.236 --> 0:24:10.236 She said the man reached out his hand and gave 0:24:10.276 --> 0:24:13.516 her a note that read empty. All the money out 0:24:13.556 --> 0:24:16.956 of the top and bottom drawers. She noticed that he 0:24:16.996 --> 0:24:21.236 had thick fingers, dirt packed under the nails, and what 0:24:21.396 --> 0:24:23.796 seemed like a freshly dyed beard. 0:24:24.716 --> 0:24:28.356 She could see that he was very nervous. He was trembling. 0:24:29.116 --> 0:24:31.876 That's a bad sign, you know, because when you have 0:24:31.956 --> 0:24:37.836 a suspect that is nervous, he's unsettled, that can lead 0:24:37.836 --> 0:24:38.796 to violence quickly. 0:24:40.156 --> 0:24:43.556 In some ways, it was an odd combination of facts. 0:24:44.356 --> 0:24:46.716 On the one hand, the robber seemed to be a 0:24:46.796 --> 0:24:50.236 savvy operator who knew all the right things to ask 0:24:50.356 --> 0:24:54.916 and say. On the other hand, he seemed wildly nervous 0:24:55.076 --> 0:25:00.276 and slightly unkempt, with his dirty fingernails and poorly dyed beard. 0:25:01.636 --> 0:25:05.356 When Bradley examined the surveillance video from the heist, he 0:25:05.436 --> 0:25:09.796 was struck by one detail in particular. After the handed 0:25:09.876 --> 0:25:13.236 over the demand note, he tucked his hand into the 0:25:13.236 --> 0:25:16.156 middle of his jacket, almost the way you'd see in 0:25:16.156 --> 0:25:20.716 those old Napoleon portraits, and he just left his hand there. 0:25:21.636 --> 0:25:26.116 And by doing that, you're implying or indicating that you 0:25:26.236 --> 0:25:29.236 have a weapon, you just are not displaying it. My 0:25:29.396 --> 0:25:32.396 thought was, well, if he wants you to believe he 0:25:32.436 --> 0:25:34.116 has one, he probably has one. 0:25:34.676 --> 0:25:38.116 How worried are you that that's going to go sideways 0:25:38.396 --> 0:25:39.996 and result in actual violence? 0:25:40.516 --> 0:25:43.596 Very worried. I mean, you have so many things that 0:25:43.636 --> 0:25:47.996 can go wrong that result in tragedy. 0:25:48.796 --> 0:25:52.556 All of which made Detective Bradley think that now more 0:25:52.596 --> 0:25:56.116 than ever, he needed to drill down and find the 0:25:56.156 --> 0:26:14.956 man who was robbing all of these banks. Detective John 0:26:15.036 --> 0:26:19.436 Bradley started digging through recent Saint Louis bank robbery reports, 0:26:19.996 --> 0:26:24.236 looking for any details that might connect them. He also 0:26:24.356 --> 0:26:29.596 starts talking to other agencies sharing info, and eventually a 0:26:29.636 --> 0:26:33.916 pattern emerges. There are a bunch of heists where the 0:26:34.036 --> 0:26:37.956 robber is a bearded, middle aged white man with glasses 0:26:38.276 --> 0:26:42.036 who uses a demand note. He always asks the teller 0:26:42.076 --> 0:26:45.996 to empty both drawers, and typically he wore a hat, 0:26:46.276 --> 0:26:50.276 either a baseball cap, a bucket hat, or what Detective 0:26:50.316 --> 0:26:54.996 Bradley called a boonie hat. Can you just describe to 0:26:55.076 --> 0:26:57.156 a Connecticut Yankee what a boonie hat is. 0:26:57.836 --> 0:27:00.276 Yeah, It's like a It's like a hat you would 0:27:00.276 --> 0:27:03.476 wear to go fishing. It's like a brimmed hat, you know, 0:27:03.876 --> 0:27:06.396 lures and things attached to the hat. Something that blocks 0:27:06.436 --> 0:27:08.196 the sun kind of blocks your identity. 0:27:09.116 --> 0:27:12.636 Detective Bradley became convinced that he was dealing with a 0:27:12.676 --> 0:27:16.796 serial bank robber. Two weeks later, there was a similar 0:27:16.876 --> 0:27:20.436 robbery in the same county. This time, the robber walked 0:27:20.436 --> 0:27:25.436 away with almost ten thousand dollars in cash. Afterward, a 0:27:25.476 --> 0:27:30.076 local paper ran the headline the Boony Hat bandit blamed 0:27:30.116 --> 0:27:34.036 for seven heists, and that nickname the Boony Hat bandit 0:27:34.556 --> 0:27:39.756 quickly caught on, turning this mysterious figure into a folk villain. 0:27:41.756 --> 0:27:44.116