Denver's Infamous Father's Day Bank Massacre

0:00:35 - Speaker 1
Hi Cassie, hi Caitlyn, hi creepy people Hello. 

0:00:48 - Speaker 2
Hello, this is PNW Haunts and Homicides where we, Caitlyn and Cassie, chat about true crime, the paranormal and all things spooky ookey-dookey in the Pacific. 

0:01:02 - Speaker 1
Northwest And sometimes Father's Day. 

0:01:06 - Speaker 2
Sometimes Father's Day. 

0:01:08 - Speaker 1
And other holidays. We are going to give you the full-length story that we talked about in our Father's Day collaboration, because there's enough to unpack there for a full episode There sure is, without fail, and we will, of course, include the Tarot reading, as we always do, at the end of the episode. 

0:01:30 - Speaker 2
So stick around if you'd like to hear that. 

0:01:33 - Speaker 1
The Father's Day bank massacre took place on Sunday, June 16th of 1991. 

0:01:43 - Speaker 2
Nineties crimes Yup. 

0:01:45 - Speaker 1
At the United Bank Tower in Denver, Colorado. It was only three weeks after the commission of the deadly bank robbery that retired police officer James King would be arrested on July 4th of 1991. 

0:02:03 - Speaker 2
Oh, another holiday. Cool Yeah, Super cool. I mean they do like Father's Day more than 4th of July. 

0:02:11 - Speaker 1
Kind of a coin toss, i feel like for me. Sorry, dad. James King would later be tried and acquitted of the infamous crime. But let's talk about the crime itself a bit more. At the United Bank that day, an alarm went off at around 4 am in a basement storage room. One of the guards working at the time reportedly turned off the alarm without acting on any other security measures. 

0:02:45 - Speaker 2
So an alarm was going off and he just turned it off. 

0:02:49 - Speaker 1
He hit the snooze. Basically, it's probably fine. It's probably fine. I don't think it was fine, is it? Yeah, we don't know if this particular detail is specifically related to the crime, but it sort of seems like it could be. 

0:03:09 - Speaker 2
Yeah, unless you're just like that, yeah, lazy at your job. 

0:03:13 - Speaker 1
I guess, as an unarmed guard at a bank, why would you disable the alarm without following the security protocol, without alerting any other employees or authorities? Yeah, it's weird. Yeah, looks real bad when the bank then is eventually robbed like that same day. 

0:03:40 - Speaker 2
Yeah, that looks really bad. 

0:03:43 - Speaker 1
It's a spish Hours later, just after 9 am 9.14, to be precise a man claiming to be Robert Bardwell, the vice president at the bank, requested access to the freight elevator from outside the building. Hmm, he was calling from a security phone that anyone on the street had access to. 

0:04:11 - Speaker 2
Oh well, okay, So it probably wasn't this guy. 

0:04:16 - Speaker 1
I'm guessing. We'll never know for sure, but probably not. They didn't have ring doorbell cameras. That's true. The United Bank Tower had previously allowed its guards to be armed, but had changed their policy less than a year before the robbery, requiring the guards to be unarmed. 

0:04:40 - Speaker 2
Okay, i don't know. It's a tough situation. I don't know the answer to that. 

0:04:47 - Speaker 1
Now, if that little tidbit doesn't let you in on what's about to happen, then you may want to take a seat, you know, just in case, before I get into the timeline of events related to the crime that morning. Because if you really thought this was just about a bank robbery, Oh, okay, hold on, i'm standing, let me take the seat that. 

0:05:09 - Speaker 2
You just kidding, i'm sitting. 

0:05:12 - Speaker 1
It was William McCollum Jr that responded to the request from outside by writing the elevator up from the guard room. To deal with the situation which I don't love that you have to ride an elevator up And that just puts you out at street level And with the guy who says he's the VP of the bank Yeah, i don't know, he might be up to no good. Yeah, it's hard to say. He clearly had no idea what he was walking into. When the elevator doors opened, he was met by an armed assailant that forced him to ride back down to the sub basement area of the bank, which is exactly what I picture happening. 

0:06:02 - Speaker 2
So neat Basements are fun. 

0:06:06 - Speaker 1
Yeah, Said no one ever. Sadly, the first guard, William McCollum, was killed upon arrival. Oh So I don't think. He probably thinks basements are fun Ugh. His body was hidden in a storage room and his killer took his electronic pass card, using it to pass through the bank tunnels up to the bank's basement level area where the vault and guard station were located. It was during his subterranean travels that the robber turned murderer set off another alarm when entering a stairwell. This was at 9 20 am, So we are for those keeping track six minutes into the robbery. 

0:06:54 - Speaker 2
Right? Did you see my face trying to think of like what time did she say I did? 

0:07:01 - Speaker 1
From there, the intruder made his way into the area where both the vault and guard rooms were. Of course, mccollum hadn't been the only man on duty, which probably a good idea, right. Most of the vault systems, at least in the modern era, have like a two key. It's almost like the two factor authentication for like your Gmail, but it means two people have to have keys in order to open the main vault. That's a good idea. 

0:07:35 - Speaker 2
Yeah, i think you should get like a team, like seven people, maybe 13 people, to hold keys. 

0:07:43 - Speaker 1
That would really make closing down at night as a teller a real fucking nightmare. 

0:07:48 - Speaker 2
Yeah, i'm not going to lie, i was just thinking of, like, harry Potter and the Horcruxes. 

0:07:52 - Speaker 1
Yeah, it's just like that. 

0:07:54 - Speaker 2
It would be that hard to break into the vault. Isn't that what you? 

0:07:57 - Speaker 1
want. Both Philip Mankoff and Scott McCarthy were forced into a battery room where they were shot and killed. The fourth and final guard, todd Wilson, was believed to have returned either during or shortly after that took place. It seems like a reasonable conclusion, given the fact that he apparently had a sandwich in his hand, so it seemed like he'd been caught unaware. Oh, he was also found shot by investigators, but he was reportedly several feet away from both Mankoff and McCarthy when he was shot. I cannot stress this enough. If I were to be murdered prior to finishing my sandwich whether we're talking the actual physical meal itself or the break period I will full blown Liam Neeson style huh, the motherfucker who shall dane to disrupt my precious me time. That makes total sense. It's a special kind of monster that would fire upon a man mid sandwich or, in my case, a woman, right, a woman with a sandwich. 

0:09:12 - Speaker 2
It is so sad, like just let him finish the sandwich, you know. 

0:09:15 - Speaker 1
Seriously, literally man, woman, neither, neither both or any possible combination thereof. Like just don't. 

0:09:25 - Speaker 2
Yeah, I mean let them finish all the sandwiches forever and like don't kill them. 

0:09:30 - Speaker 1
Also that, but I don't think we're going to get that. 

0:09:33 - Speaker 2
Anyway, that is all. 

0:09:35 - Speaker 1
During the investigation, it was determined that the shooter had fired 18 shots, only one of which missed its intended target. Impressive in terms of Markmanship, and I hate to admit that, but in any case, the result was that the four bank guards were all sadly killed. 

0:09:56 - Speaker 2
Was it kind of close, though, like they weren't killed from that far away, so Relatively close range. So I feel like it wouldn't be that unusual that they. 

0:10:06 - Speaker 1
Cassie, have you fired a gun before? 

0:10:08 - Speaker 2
I have Yeah, What kind No regular one A handgun. I don't have a target at home. I can show you a picture of it. 

0:10:20 - Speaker 1
Well, so here's. The thing is, i'm a really good shot with a shotgun, but there's less recoil with a handgun. Someone who's like, got a smaller frame like that, like us, and doesn't have a ton of upper body strength, there's far more recoil and it's a lot harder to to get off an accurate shot. Before leaving the guard room, the man seized 10 videotapes, bank keys, a two-way radio and certain pages of the guard logbook to thwart any future attempts to verify his identity. In regards to the logbook, i'm not exactly sure how many, but that's hardly the headline, so I don't know how many pages He took them from the logbook. He's got them. 

0:11:16 - Speaker 2
Interesting. Do you know if he had been like casing out the joint beforehand So they had like him on the security cameras or logged in that book? Is that why? 

0:11:26 - Speaker 1
That is a really excellent question. As far as the security footage, i would say most certainly the logbook. I don't know. 

0:11:37 - Speaker 2
Good question, i'm just wondering why he took so many, like if he was only there the one day. You know what I mean. 

0:11:44 - Speaker 1
Yep, there's no way to know. 

0:11:45 - Speaker 2
Or just throw him off the set. Uh-huh, i don't know. 

0:11:50 - Speaker 1
James King had retired from law enforcement as a police sergeant in Denver at the time of the infamous crime. He was accused of killing four unarmed bank security guards in the commission of a bank robbery. The four slain men were 41-year-old Philip Lee Mankoff, 21-year-old Scott Raymond McCarthy, who was a literal first day trainee. 

Oh, no, on his first day, uh-huh 33-year-old William Rogers McCollum junior and 21-year-old Todd Allen Wilson. Beyond the death of the four men that day, there are some facts we know with a relative level of certainty, like aspects of the timeline For those keeping track. This all started at 9.14 am. By 9.48 am the assailant was opening the vault Dang. So I don't think he was just an okay-ish marksman, right Or yeah, kind of seems like mm. I don't know, this may not have been his first time. 

0:13:08 - Speaker 2
Professional bank robber. 

0:13:09 - Speaker 1
I mean professional something with a gun. There were six vault employees processing cash. 

0:13:17 - Speaker 2
Does that mean they were counting it or? 

0:13:19 - Speaker 1
Typically, or they brought in more cash that day, because this sounds really weird, but banks actually have money delivered. Oh, that's yeah in those trucks, yeah, but it sounds weird like when-. 

0:13:36 - Speaker 2
Yeah, it does kind of sound weird It just hits your weird like delivered, like is it money? 

0:13:41 - Speaker 1
Money delivery, yeah like doesn't it just appear at the banks like magic? You know, as a kid, you're like what do you mean? Cause we just print our own money. like it's not some sort of a higher power, like it's weird. It's weird. We literally just print the money and we make up how much there is What. 

0:14:02 - Speaker 2
I mean, i know that, but still it seems insane when you say it Fucking blows your mind right. 

0:14:09 - Speaker 1
It's almost like the debt ceiling isn't real because money isn't real. 

0:14:17 - Speaker 2
My brain, it hurts now. 

0:14:21 - Speaker 1
He instructed the employees to get down on the floor and also not to look at him, which, okay. David Barancaro was the senior vault manager. He filled the man's bag with cash taken from the workstations in the area. When there was easily $2 million up for grabs. This dude left with less than $200,000. Oh Mm-hmm, an amount that reportedly didn't even completely fill the bag he'd brought. 

0:14:56 - Speaker 2
I was gonna say did he run out of room because that could be heavy, right? 

0:15:02 - Speaker 1
I mean it's heavy, but it's a large bag. 

0:15:05 - Speaker 2
Or maybe he just couldn't carry it, maybe, maybe it was too heavy for him. Who knows, i'm gonna go with that. It's weird, it's real weird. I like to picture him filling it and then not being able to pick it up, and then removing as much as he can until he can pick it up. 

0:15:25 - Speaker 1
Honestly, just pretend You just pulled up to your apartment with a car full of groceries. Yeah, i've never carried more than when I think I have two trips with a grocery bag that I need to take from my car Wonderfully Might I die on the way, maybe Worth it. At least I didn't make two trips like a booge. Yeah. Now here's where we circle back to another teaser from our collaboration episode. Before fleeing the scene of the robbery, the man had the teller crawl into the infamous man trap. 

0:16:08 - Speaker 2
Oh, the man trap. I remember this. 

0:16:10 - Speaker 1
I thought you would, Which I would have assumed was a room equipped with a gaming chair, beer and Doritos, but apparently it's just a small room near the vault that's designed to be a trap. You forgot the boobies. 

0:16:25 - Speaker 2
Boobies Wait, so is it a trap for robbers Kind of. 

0:16:33 - Speaker 1
So not exactly sure how this is supposed to work, but given the fact that one of the employees used a broken spoon to break free just 20 minutes after the robbers' 9.56 AM exit, it seems like the emphasis should be on man and not on trap. 

0:16:52 - Speaker 2
Yeah, it doesn't seem like a very good trap. Just don't try to trap a man. everybody, Yeah. 

0:17:00 - Speaker 1
I did actually do quite a bit of research into this one and it is kind of a complicated system where it's a series of kind of levered doors and it requires more than one person and it can only be opened from this side, but not that side. It's a whole thing. But again, to reiterate, does it even fucking matter if you can use a broken spoon to get out? Yeah, i would argue no. 

0:17:30 - Speaker 2
No. 

0:17:31 - Speaker 1
Uh-uh. Good thing they have that spoon on them, though I think it was just in there because I don't think this person had a broken spoon on them, so they literally put them in this room, which happened to have a broken spoon in it. Oh my God. 

0:17:47 - Speaker 2
Is that like in case someone puts you in here? only the employees know that the spoon works. 

0:17:53 - Speaker 1
I mean, who fucking knows? It's like a key in disguise. Seriously, that's funny. I Oh, it's a lot. All right, and here's where I straight-up lift a good two to three paragraphs from Wikipedia, because frankly, i'm just not that interested in trying to put this information into my own unique words. How unique or clever would they be Really? 

0:18:21 - Speaker 2
Anyway, i think you're so unique and clever with everything that you say. 

0:18:27 - Speaker 1
I mean Hyperfocus did not engage here, but it is really interesting and I was glad to finally be able to answer some of the lingering questions that we had about the contraption without breaking open my own bag of Doritos. 

0:18:45 - Speaker 2
Mmm. 

0:18:46 - Speaker 1
Mmm. A Mantrap, security, mantrap Portal, airlock, salliport or Access Control Vestipule is a physical security access control system comprising a small space between two sets of interlocking doors, such that the first set of doors must close before the second set opens, so only one set of doors can be open at a time. Okay, in a manual Mantrap, a guard locks and unlocks each door in sequence. An intercom and or a video camera are often used to allow the guard to control the trap from a remote location, which would be bad news for these people, because the guards are going to need you to contact them with a Ouija board. 

Oh, in an automatic Mantrap, identification may be required for each door, sometimes even different measures for each door. Fire codes require that automatic Mantraps allow exit from the intermediate space while denying access to a secure space such as a data center or research lab. Oh, a manually operated Mantrap may allow a guard to lock both doors, trapping a suspect between the doors for questioning or detainment. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say this one was probably a manual one And in any case it makes more sense. 

0:20:26 - Speaker 2
now. I was picturing, like you know, like a little dog crate, but it's probably just like a hallway with two doors on each side. My brain is weird. You say trap, i picture, you know, like a cage. 

0:20:42 - Speaker 1
Yeah, Anyways, from 914 to 956 am, this man moved with a precision I'll almost certainly never quite grasp, at least not with a steady hand. Think about it just for a second. He's killed four guards prior to holding six other employees as captives, briefly, as they helped him carry out what he intended. Throughout all manner of chaos that he was perpetrating against these unsuspecting people, he also managed to be calm, cool and definitely collected enough to pick up his shell casings, swipe other identifiers from the guard station, and it was all done without leaving any other physical evidence like fingerprints. And he did it with a 38 Colt trooper. The Colt Trooper was, at the time, a police-issued revolver. Hmm, what's remarkable about it is that it only holds six rounds, so it would have required multiple reloads. Oh shit, yeah, you still think you can pull that off. 

0:22:02 - Speaker 2
Oh no, i never said I could ever pull it off. 

0:22:05 - Speaker 1
No, i'm just saying You're like he made 17 out of 18 shots. What Like, it's hard. We're talking about a very short period of time where he's firing, reloading, firing, reloading, covering more ground and controlling scared bank and security employees. Wow. 

0:22:28 - Speaker 2
That is a lot. Yeah, he's definitely a pro. 

0:22:32 - Speaker 1
But of course there's more. Much like another douche canoe. All of us know and love to hate Randall Woodfield. For some reason this dude bro felt like the bandage on his left cheek really accentuated his mustache. Mirrored sunglasses and fedora Oh fancy, it's the entire checklist that comes with the douchebag kit, the starter kit, you know. 

0:23:01 - Speaker 2
You said he had a bandaid on his cheek. Is that like a style, or was it just hard to say, oh, okay, do you think he had a tattoo? 

0:23:13 - Speaker 1
Could be. Could be Or he had some other type of identifying mark on his face. 

0:23:20 - Speaker 2
Yeah, or a scar, or maybe, like a woman, scratched him in the face Could be. 

0:23:26 - Speaker 1
I'm not saying that Randall Woodfield did it, because I don't think he did, but Yeah, that would be kind of crazy. No. 

0:23:35 - Speaker 2
I mean this is. 

0:23:36 - Speaker 1
It's a little too sophisticated for him if I'm being honest. Now let's talk about the trial and some of the evidence that was presented. This case is really bizarre in that nothing is really quite as simple as it seems on the surface. Even though the perpetrator went to great pains to hide his identity in some regards, surprisingly there were living witnesses. That's good. Yeah, and they broke out with a broken spoon. 

0:24:06 - Speaker 2
Oh, those were the witnesses Right, that makes sense. I know Record scratch, i feel like I should have, like I should have put that together Right, but it. 

0:24:17 - Speaker 1
There were witnesses. People lived, i know, but it's like it kind of like hits you in these waves because it's kind of so bizarre. Yeah, in fact, five out of the six surviving bank employees that had interacted with the killer in the money counting room identified James King as the robber slash killer. Now, if you started listening to this as part of the collaboration episode, you may recall that I mentioned this was one area where we saw some what's that place with all of the goofy shit all over the walls. 

0:24:57 - Speaker 2
Shenanigans Uh-huh. 

0:25:02 - Speaker 1
Well, let me elaborate, because his defense team conducted a simple experiment with these witnesses on the stand that quickly illustrated just how unreliable at least their witness testimony can be. Oh, okay, now these people all knew James King, but do you know who else they knew? very well, because he's like a major, super, mega movie star, harrison Ford. 

0:25:33 - Speaker 2
Oh, you did say something about Harrison Ford. 

0:25:39 - Speaker 1
A picture of Harrison Ford was shown to the witnesses, with an overlay of a similar hat, sunglasses and mustache, and guess what? Not a single one of them could identify Harrison Ford at that point. 

0:25:54 - Speaker 2
No way, oh, that kind of makes sense. That is a lot of cover up on your face, freaking lawyer, you guys. Wow, i can't believe they showed them a picture of Harrison Ford. 

0:26:08 - Speaker 1
I know It was a display that would have made Marshall and Lillipad truly proud. King also shaved his mustache shortly after the crime occurred, which looks bad, but if he had nothing to do with it, he's just a guy who's sick of looking like Ron Swanson, right. Which? who would be sick of that, though, i don't know, but either way, big whoop right. Well, he also admitted that he was no longer in possession of his retired .38 caliber service revolver Right. His story was that there had been damage to a key component of the weapon, at which point he destroyed the weapon and thus it was no longer in his possession. Could be totally true. Seems kind of weird, but okay. 

0:27:02 - Speaker 2
Two coincidences is just one too many. 

0:27:06 - Speaker 1
I mean, maybe one thing that was truly impressive was the fact that there was no trace left behind at the crime scene. Yeah, that that's really impressive, because that doesn't it. just it doesn't happen often. 

0:27:24 - Speaker 2
Even in the 90s, like I feel like they didn't have the best CSI or whatever, but like it was still pretty good. 

0:27:32 - Speaker 1
Based on the timeline, i feel like leaving no trace. On top of everything else we've already talked about, i mean the number of shots that he fired, accurately, everything that happened in such a short period of time. It really illustrates the level of either expert Markmanship or just, i mean, the level of precision for maybe a career criminal, i don't know. But whoever was behind the heist was, i mean, they knew what they were doing in some respect. Right Simply summarized, the killer retrieved all of the shells and they wiped away all of the fingerprints on them. It doesn't seem like a big deal on the surface, but think about how many casings. That is, 18 casings and those shots were fired in different parts of the building. So in this period of time he's got to shoot and fatally wound four different people, retrieve each of those casings, and then he's still got to make his way to the vault, get all of the money into his bag, trap those people in the man trap, make his way back up and get the hell out of there. It's not a lot of time. 

0:29:03 - Speaker 2
No, it's not. It makes me, it really makes me think that he practices like he has like an in obstacle course in his backyard. 

0:29:16 - Speaker 1
I cannot believe you said that. Why did you say that? I've scrolled further down at one point and I feel like I say something like kind of well, we'll see. 

0:29:26 - Speaker 2
I mean, i could see how you could get there. Yeah, it's not like an amazing thought that I had. 

0:29:33 - Speaker 1
No, it's just. I mean not a lot of people. 

0:29:35 - Speaker 2
We're on the same wavelength, i know How many things did you mention today from my episode? Yeah, it's freaky, my dude. It is Okay. We spend too much time together. Yeah, no. 

0:29:48 - Speaker 1
That was very quick. No, I was like I don't like the implications. 

0:29:53 - Speaker 2
Not enough. 

0:29:57 - Speaker 1
Prosecutors made a big show of the fact that King had often videotaped crime scenes, which seems like literally the most unremarkable thing in his position. His alibi had holes, though. So this is a retired police officer and I'm like, okay, yeah, i don't think it's that weird that he takes an interest in crime scenes. 

0:30:21 - Speaker 2
Yeah. 

0:30:22 - Speaker 1
If you tell me that, like whether he's active duty or retired, that a former or active law enforcement officer videotaped crime scenes, like that's supposed to be some bombshell, i'm going to be like Jesus Christ, where did you go to law school? An unaccredited university on an island nation that doesn't exist by chance, so I can avoid that particular one. Jesus Christ, better call Saul. About that alibi though Yeah, he'd stated he was playing chess with the club in downtown Denver. It sounds like police were actually able to track the group down, but they refuted certain aspects of his alibi, rendering it all but useless in court. They're like, yeah, we definitely play chess with that guy, but basically beyond yes, we know this man and play chess with him. 

Like nobody nobody could agree on the details Damn. 

0:31:23 - Speaker 2
Yep. 

0:31:25 - Speaker 1
The shaky alibi is definitely a problem that some people have just never been able to look past, but to which I say um, which alibi? Because he actually kind of had two like relatively shitty alibis. 

0:31:43 - Speaker 2
Oh, okay. Well, too shitty is better than none, I guess. 

0:31:48 - Speaker 1
Or it just makes it look like you're trying too hard. 

0:31:51 - Speaker 2
Yeah. 

0:31:52 - Speaker 1
The Lady Doth protest too much. His neighbor testified that they had seen James King mowing that day and wished him a happy Father's Day. So maybe it's just a case of like he's remembering the wrong day, maybe the chess club is, maybe the neighbor is. Who fucking knows It was Father's Day, though? I mean, it's pretty memorable, you would think. So it is possible that two things are true, and James simply misremembered because it was a fairly unremarkable day. But did he really have an alibi? I don't know, even though his alibi honestly, both of them were pretty shaky and unverifiable. This certainly sowed seeds of reasonable doubt, which is all you need. Yeah, it only takes one. 

0:32:48 - Speaker 2
That's true I do. As much as I kind of hate that, i agree with that. 

0:32:53 - Speaker 1
Yeah. 

0:32:53 - Speaker 2
You kind of have to. 

0:32:54 - Speaker 1
Blessing and a curse, if you will. Yeah, the ammo was probably some of the more compelling evidence in the minds of the jurors as well as in public opinion. Supposedly, according to the prosecution's theory, james had pilfered the ammo from ammo buckets, which, if you're like me, required a little bit more research and elaboration Over the years. police departments buy ammunition from a number of brands and it all gets mixed together. The bullets taken from the bodies of the victims were from four to five different brands. reportedly, in most instances, law enforcement would really be the only ones. loading a gun with a mixture of different brands of ammo like this Wouldn't be hard to make your own ammo bucket, though. Probably just buy three to five boxes of ammo and put them in a bucket and load the gun with bullets. you pulled like you were selecting raffle winners. 

0:34:00 - Speaker 2
Do you kind of like stir it around and shake it? 

0:34:04 - Speaker 1
If you want kind of dealer's choice here. 

0:34:07 - Speaker 2
really I feel like that could be semi-dangerous. 

0:34:09 - Speaker 1
Yeah, it would be weird, but there also have to be plenty of people in and outside of law enforcement that are aware of this practice. This could literally be a tactic used by somebody else to make it look like a cop did this. 

0:34:28 - Speaker 2
Unless they didn't know about that either and they were like well, i know they're going to look at the bullets. That's going to be one of the only evidence things they're going to find. Let me use different ones. 

0:34:41 - Speaker 1
But to what end? 

0:34:43 - Speaker 2
Just to confuse them, because she cleaned up everything else. That was kind of like the only thing he would have to worry about, i guess. 

0:34:51 - Speaker 1
I guess I mean he picked up his shell casings, but it's not like he can pick up the bullets. 

0:34:56 - Speaker 2
Yeah. 

0:34:56 - Speaker 1
I don't know, just a theory. Yeah, i mean, i kind of thought about that as well. Maybe this is just someone who didn't know, but who fucking knows? Yeah, james Prado would become the star witness when he testified that, because of changes to the bank's security protocols that came after King was no longer employed, he would not have been familiar with how it all worked and how to thwart those newly enacted security measures like the man trap. 

0:35:31 - Speaker 2
Oh, so the man trap wasn't there when he worked there. 

0:35:36 - Speaker 1
The man trap had been installed or enacted after King's tenure at the bank had ended, and this guy was kind of a big muckity muck at the bank and he knew all about the security. So, oh, interesting, if you want anybody to testify on your behalf, it would be this guy, and he has no reason to lie for somebody that potentially robbed the bank. Yeah, that's true. 

0:36:05 - Speaker 2
So Yeah, that's a big seed of doubt. 

0:36:09 - Speaker 1
Then, on the flip side, james King also upgraded his safety deposit box shortly after the robbery, as in the next day, But later, when authorities checked it, nothing incriminating was found. Also, if you didn't know this, you can't put cash in a safety deposit box. They kind of frown on that. It's a thing. Why would he do that? 

0:36:34 - Speaker 2
though. I don't know If he was the one who stole it. Yeah, you want to put it back in the same bank. 

0:36:40 - Speaker 1
I mean this may have been at a different bank. Oh, okay, but in any case, people thought it was odd, because if you get a larger safety deposit box, like okay, so what's in there, it doesn't really fucking matter, as long as it's not cash that you stole. 

0:36:57 - Speaker 2
Right, i was, so he didn't move it to a different bank, or you don't know. 

0:37:03 - Speaker 1
We just know that he upgraded his existing safety deposit box. 

0:37:08 - Speaker 2
Oh, okay, i don't know why I was thinking he was a member of that bank that he worked at, i guess. 

0:37:14 - Speaker 1
I just assumed. Oh yeah, I don't know what bank it was at. To be fair, Okay. 

0:37:19 - Speaker 2
So like that makes sense if he changed boxes because he didn't want it at the bank that got robbed. 

0:37:26 - Speaker 1
Totally. Robert Bardwell, who was the bank VIP whose name had been used by the robber, testified he had previously lost his bank access card, which he had reported missing on August 13th of 1990. So this is just a few months before the robbery Right, james King, had resigned from the bank on August 12th of 1990. 

0:37:59 - Speaker 2
So he couldn't have gotten to steal that guy's card, or I mean he could have. 

0:38:07 - Speaker 1
I mean, i think the way that a lot of people look at it is like wait a second. So this guy ex-police officer who kind of looks fishy, he looks like potentially guilty for this bank robbery, he quits and then a day later the VP loses his access key. 

0:38:28 - Speaker 2
Hmm, or that's just when he reported it missing. Maybe it did go missing that same day. 

0:38:35 - Speaker 1
He might have been. I mean, can you trust your memory? I don't know, let's ask that jury of his again. Oh boy. 

0:38:43 - Speaker 2
Which one is. 

0:38:43 - Speaker 1
Harrison Ford. 

0:38:46 - Speaker 2
The hot one Right. 

0:38:53 - Speaker 1
All this being said, there was another suspect that law enforcement looked at pretty seriously. This man's name was Paul Yocum, and he's an interesting character. He'd previously been tried and acquitted in the case of the 1990 Memorial Holiday Weekend ATM theft that topped out at $30,000. Oh them holiday thefts, mm-hmm. This was a much smaller bank job that was pulled off mere weeks prior with a much smaller purse for the take home 30,000 versus what was it 200,000? 

200,000,. Yeah, maybe it was practice Hard to say, but Paul also lived less than a mile from the bank. Perhaps more compelling than his close proximity was the fact that he didn't have an alibi and also owned a 38 as well. Oh, paul died of a heart attack at the age of 52, just four months after the verdict in James King's case. So, either way, if he had the money, he didn't have much time to enjoy it. 

0:40:12 - Speaker 2
Damn. 

0:40:14 - Speaker 1
Speaking of. After his acquittal, james King lived out the remainder of his quiet life in the same home he'd lived in previously. He died after succumbing to dementia, following 21 years of fierce speculation and doubt being cast on his name. He spent his days largely in solitude, engaged in a thoroughly mundane hobby building model train sets. I mean, what else are you gonna do really? I think most of us. If we were suddenly 197,080 dollars richer, we'd probably show some sort of outward sign. But then again, maybe not. 21 years later, the prosecutor still believed in the absolute guilt of the man, despite presenting what some considered a fairly flimsy case in court all those years ago. So the FBI kept a watchful eye on him for years, but none of the stolen money has ever been found In all that time. The murder weapon never was either Shit dude. So honestly, i'm dying to know what you all think. Do you think it was James King that pulled off the Father's Day bank massacre, or was it Paul Yocum? or neither or both, i think it was DB Cooper. 

I'm just gonna throw that out there. Why did I know? Oh my God, that's so weird. 

0:41:59 - Speaker 2
I mean, they didn't leave a trace. They never found the money. This guy, they think, did it. He would. There's no way. He would live his whole life and not try to escape. He could have gone to a different country. He didn't enjoy his money in any way. 

0:42:17 - Speaker 1
Honestly, he barely even left his own home After the robbery because so many people did think that he did it. he basically lived out the remainder of his life as kind of a hermit, a little bit of an outcast, yeah. 

0:42:33 - Speaker 2
I would just get away. You still could get away without making it seem like you're living lavishly, but at least just moved towns or something, Jesus. But he didn't. so I don't know, And that makes me think maybe he didn't do it. 

0:42:49 - Speaker 1
Yeah, definitely looking to the cards to send us some added insight today, because I am so ready to claim the $100,000 reward for information that Bernie Hart, chairman of the bank, announced shortly after the crime y'all. In addition to the reward, the bank established a fund for the friends and families of the guards, depositing $50,000 into that account. Why is that the smaller number? I was gonna say that's it. Anybody else notice that? 

0:43:26 - Speaker 2
I would at least give them $200,000. 

0:43:28 - Speaker 1
There's a $100,000 reward and the fund set up for the families of the guards is literally half that. One person gets $100,000 for having information about a crime which maybe you had nothing to do with it, but you know informants. They occasionally have been known to get their hands dirty one way or another. $50,000 split between four men's families Yeah, anyway, to the tarot. Tarot, tarot. 

0:44:04 - Speaker 2
Well now I'm sad. I know It's a bummer. 

0:44:11 - Speaker 1
You shut up, oh Wow. 

0:44:18 - Speaker 2
It is the five of Wands Wands. It looks like two kitty cats cuddling or fighting or making love. They're fighting, we don't know. 

0:44:28 - Speaker 1
They're fighting Five of wands are. keywords are competition, ego battles, disagreements and confusion. 

0:44:39 - Speaker 2
Right, i have like a conflict or a fight or argument, mm-hmm. 

0:44:44 - Speaker 1
When the five of wands appears, it suggests a struggle for power, money or recognition. Hmm, ego battles may interfere with the smooth flow of life. In some cases, it shows competition for resources or control. Confusion and disagreements exist, which is basically just the entire case in a nutshell. Yeah, i think so. I would say arguably Okay. 

0:45:14 - Speaker 2
Yeah, there was a lot of conflict, even if the person they caught did it or not. 

0:45:19 - Speaker 1
Yeah, I mean Not even just the crime, but Yeah definitely Bickering and self-interest cause irritation and you need to concern yourself with getting matters back on track. Discontent may arise from differences in philosophy or personality. When this card shows up, you may be defending your territory, putting up a fight to hold on to what you think is yours Hmm, money, yeah, yeah, arguably. Try to assess this situation objectively. This may be a mock battle or a conflict of egos that lacks genuine substance, which I would say that sounds like the prosecutor. 

Hmm, he's very set in that, like this, is He's guilty? Well, but based on what? Not the case you presented in court. Right, right, cause I don't know I remain unconvinced. 

0:46:23 - Speaker 2
He was very convinced. 

0:46:24 - Speaker 1
He was so convinced. In a reading about money. This card may show your financial situation is unstable or competition is cutting into your take. There were some whispers about maybe that there was a person from the inside that was involved, whether it was James King himself, or that there was like the robber who turned off the alarm. Oh right, that's right, competition is cutting into your take. 

0:47:00 - Speaker 2
Hmm. 

0:47:00 - Speaker 1
Interesting thought? Certainly nothing, you know. Conclusive Arguments about money and spending cause tension, yeah. 

0:47:12 - Speaker 2
I'd say Money. 

0:47:12 - Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah, okay. In a reading about work, the five can represent competition in the marketplace. In-house conflicts or stubbornness may also cause problems. Perhaps you're confused about your direction or you lack self-confidence. 

0:47:31 - Speaker 2
I'm confused. Yeah, yeah, in-house, is that what you said? 

0:47:37 - Speaker 1
In-house conflicts. Yeah, in a reading about love, this card suggests you're letting your ego rule. You may stubbornly refuse to compromise or make necessary changes. The five can also reveal differences of perspective that cause problems. I could see all of that. Yeah, yeah, i feel like. I mean, I don't know how we could get a kid like a card. That would more closely relate to this case. 

0:48:07 - Speaker 2
Yeah, You said only four people passed away, right, mm-hmm? Okay, yeah, those are bobcats. By the way, bobcats, and from the description of the card, yes, they are probably fighting. Yeah, not making Louvre. 

0:48:26 - Speaker 1
Making Louvre. Sweet bobcat love. That's probably not how they do it anyway. Yeah, i've seen the animal planet, I know. I don't think that's how that works. 

0:48:40 - Speaker 2
Uh yeah, do you guys want? do you want the interpretation? Let's just read it. Let's just fucking do it. We do. We love to hear Cassie read. This would not stand. The old Tom checked the scent markings again. They were on the same trees and patches. He always put them, but there was a new scent mixed in as well. Another bobcat, some yearling, no doubt Tired of tangling with porcupines and looking for softer prey in this part of the forest. When the old Tom what do they call it an old Tom? 

0:49:17 - Speaker 1
I don't know. 

0:49:19 - Speaker 2
Because I keep wanting to say Tom, bob, tom. 

0:49:20 - Speaker 1
I keep wanting to say Tomcat after it, but it doesn't say Tomcat. 

0:49:24 - Speaker 2
Yeah, i'm confused, ok, when the old Tom tracked him down, he was crouched silently just beyond leaping range of a fat beaver. He's trying to attack a fat beaver. He's an old Tom, leave him alone. The yearling was quick And in one blink they were nose to nose, eyes locked. The Tom wasn't as fast as he used to be, but he was bigger and smarter And this was his territory In any case. This would not stand. Interesting He wanted that beaver and he would do nothing. 

He would do anything to get it. He would do nothing to get it, you guys. No, yeah, he would do anything to get it. The beaver is the money. 

0:50:12 - Speaker 1
Could be. 

0:50:14 - Speaker 2
It could be That big sack of beaver money. 

0:50:18 - Speaker 1
Beaver money. 

0:50:19 - Speaker 2
It was a fat beaver too. Oh, fat sack, did you have anything to say to your case I? feel like I'm just talking about beavers. 

0:50:28 - Speaker 1
No, this is incredible. 

0:50:30 - Speaker 2
I have nothing of note to add, if you absolutely loved hearing that terror read but you want to see it with your eyeballs. You can become a member of our Patreon, where a video of every terror read is uploaded with the ad, free version of the episode every week, And those sometimes have extra things in them, like the video from last week's terror read has a special story in it, just for Patreon And it's fucking hilarious. So just so you guys know, it's not in the episode, it's only in the terror video on the Patreon And just in case you are wondering what the fuck is a Patreon? 

0:51:14 - Speaker 1
Patreon is a monthly subscription with a range of price points and benefits. Banner plans. 

We have multiple tiers and every member gets a personalized welcome card, a shout out in an upcoming episode which is new, and we'll just see how it goes. We're going to work through everybody that's a current member And I don't know, like maybe if you joined too late, we just cut you off. Oh snap, she's making threats. Watch out everybody. That's always a strong strategy, just like threats and fear, manipulation, Exactly. Anywho, it's what we're all about. We do have exclusive bonus episodes and lots of other fun content, behind the scenes type stuff We do live stuff. 

0:52:05 - Speaker 2
That's true Sometimes. Sometimes We'll plan another one, don't you worry, i've got ideas. If you cannot support us monetarily, no worries, because the easiest ways to support are absolutely free. 

0:52:20 - Speaker 1
That is correct. Tell everyone and anyone that you come into contact with about us. Probably PNW Haunts & Homicides should just be your new form of greeting Right. Don't say hello, not hi, not hey, not whassup. 

0:52:40 - Speaker 2
Just come at them with ghost and murder immediately, absolutely. That's how you weed out the people you don't want to be friends with anyway. 

0:52:48 - Speaker 1
Honestly, it works Or you can leave us a five star review on any platform, or, or even better, do all of that. 

0:53:00 - Speaker 2
If you have any true crime, paranormal or witchy stories to submit for our listener appreciation episodes, creepy people chronicles you can send them to pnwhauntsandhomicides@gmail.com or use our handy dandy Google contact link in the episode description. 

0:53:18 - Speaker 1
You're always welcome to remain anonymous. We really only ever use first names, so Right, or we'll just call you a non-Amy's. 

0:53:29 - Speaker 2
Oh, that's from like one of our first episodes, is it Yeah? 

0:53:33 - Speaker 1
That just makes me think of that Britney Spears song If you see Kami, if you seek Amy. 

0:53:41 - Speaker 2
I get it, i get it. And remember they don't have to be stories from the Pacific Northwest, literally anywhere in the world, anywhere except the East Coast, because we're sick of hearing about that. I mean, yeah, kind of. 

0:53:55 - Speaker 1
Antwerp, deutschland. What did you say first? Antwerp, what is? 

0:54:01 - Speaker 2
that It's a place I have never heard of this place. 

0:54:05 - Speaker 1
Somebody, please send a story from Antwerp. 

0:54:09 - Speaker 2
Please, i need to get better at geography. Yeah, ok. 

0:54:14 - Speaker 1
And probably also you're going to need to learn how to say Antwerp, Antwerp. 

0:54:19 - Speaker 2
OK, that was pretty good, so I thought you were saying twerk, antwerp, antwerp, antwerp, antwerp, antwerp. Follow us on all of the socials if you don't want to miss out on photos of all of our tarot cards that we pull, the beautiful altar setups that Caitlin and sometimes me put together, and a lot of backstage shenanigans. 

0:54:42 - Speaker 1
I mean, i would say emphasis on shenanigans, definitely Yeah. 

0:54:48 - Speaker 2
We're doing a lot of festivals coming up soon, so we will be sharing a ton. 

0:54:52 - Speaker 1
We that we are. Yeah, you can find our website, or our link tree, which also links to our website, in the description of this episode, and that's where you find all of the fun stuff that we have to offer. 

0:55:08 - Speaker 2
Kind of sounds like link inception. Yeah, a little bit Yeah. 

0:55:13 - Speaker 1
Have a creepy ass day. 

0:55:15 - Speaker 2
See you next Tuesday, unless you get sidetracked trying to catch a fat beaver. 

0:55:55 - Speaker 1
It was a display that would have made Marshall and Lulip had truly proud. 

0:56:01 - Speaker 2
I don't know who those people are. 

0:56:03 - Speaker 1
Oh my God, you know when you're just like so disappointed in someone that like it hurts to speak. 

0:56:12 - Speaker 2
What is it? 

0:56:15 - Speaker 1
H-I-M-Y-M. If you know, you know ick-yick. How I Met Your Mother. 

0:56:25 - Speaker 2
Oh, ok, i mean, if you would have just said that, of course, then it clicks. I told you, i'm watching How I Met Your Father, didn't I? 

0:56:36 - Speaker 1
Yeah, I can't believe you're watching How I Met Your Father, but you haven't seen How I Met Your Mother. I've seen. 

0:56:41 - Speaker 2
How I Met Your Mother, ok, i said. I said, how Yeah, i Am I still saying it wrong How I Met Your Mother, yeah, ok, no, i've totally seen it, i'm dead.