Nation's Oldest Known Bank Robber Dies

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

By BETSY BLANEY
The Associated Press


DALLAS - J.L. Hunter "Red" Rountree, the nation's oldest known bank robber, who turned to crime in his 80s and said the robberies made him feel good for days afterward, died in a prison hospital. He was 92.

A spokesman for the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Mo., said Rountree was transferred there shortly after his sentencing in January for a bank holdup in Abilene when he was 91.

He died Oct. 12, two months shy of his 93rd birthday.

The Abilene job was the last of three bank robberies Rountree began in 1998, when he was 86. In an interview with The Associated Press earlier this year, he said he walked slowly to a teller's window, handed over an envelope indicating his intent and was greeted with a surprised, "Are you kidding?"

The teller complied anyway, but Rountree was later caught and sentenced to 12 1/2 years in prison - a death sentence for a man of his age.

"You want to know why I rob banks?" Rountree said in the interview. "It's fun. I feel good, awful good. I feel good for sometimes days, for sometimes hours."

<more: http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/1-11222004-405111.html

Something that hopefully will not result in a flamefest.

[R Hickey]

1. A friend of mine died in that prison hospital in Springfield, MO

..

[Khephra]

2. The oldest man in either the nation or the world died last week too

I can't remember which record he held though, sorry.

[THUNDER HANDS]

4. world, 113 years old

From Syracuse, I believe.

Now the oldest living man is some dude in Japan, I think.

[Nevernose]

3. I think this may be how I want to go

Maybe I could blow all the money in a Reno brothel afterwards...