An unrepentant bank robber, who wore a red wig to cover his receding hairline, was sentenced to 50 years in prison without parole Wednesday for committing five holdups in the Chicago area after going AWOL from a halfway house where he had been sent on parole from a previous robbery conviction.
Before his arrest on Nov. 10, 1987, Donald Ray Bennett, 45, became known to police as the ”leaping bandit” because of his unique style of entering a bank or savings and loan after an accomplice preceded him.
After the accomplice, carrying a sawed-off shotgun and wearing a bandoleer of ammunition, announced the robberies, police said the red-wigged Bennett would run inside, bolt a counter of the bank with pistol in hand and help himself to money from cash drawers.
Bennett`s accomplice, Steven Roger Keith, 39, of Louisville, who was convicted of taking part in four of the robberies, was sentenced to 38 years and 4 months with no parole. Both were convicted by U.S. District Judge John A. Nordberg, and still face charges of robbing four banks in Louisville during the same period of less than two months in 1987.
According to Lt. Phil Cline, of the Pullman Area Violent Crimes unit, the first bank robbery took place Sept. 4, 1987, at Republic Savings Bank, 11159 S. Kedzie Ave., after Bennett drifted away from a federal halfway house at 1515 W. Monroe St. He had been sent there to get reacquainted with society while on parole after serving more than 20 years in prison for an Indiana bank robbery.
Ten days later, according to evidence presented to Judge Nordberg, the Hemlock Federal Bank, in Oak Forest, was held up. On Oct. 6, Preferred Savings & Loan Association, 4800 S. Pulaski Rd., was robbed. Next came robberies at Standard Federal Savings and Loan, 6141 S. Archer Ave., on Oct. 8, and United Savings of America, 8340 S. Kedzie Ave., on Nov. 2.
A total of $83,369 was taken from the five institutions.
According to Cline, Bennett bought ”old beaters” as getaway cars for each robbery, and then abandoned them several blocks from the scene before switching to a 1978 Cadillac to complete his escape.
Cline said that maneuver led to the arrests of Bennett and Keith because they parked the Cadillac in front of the home of an off-duty police sergeant before the United robbery. The sergeant, who was raking leaves, took note of the car and the two men who walked from it and over a nearby railroad embankment.
When he later noticed the Cadillac missing and learned of the robbery not far away, he gave descriptions of the car and the two men to
investigators.
On Nov. 10, 1987, Detective Mike Cummings, of the Pullman Area Violent Crimes unit, was checking parking lots of motels and spotted the Cadillac in a lot at 5801 S. Cicero Ave. After learning in which motel room the driver was staying, Cummings and Cline went there and asked Bennett to admit them.
When he opened the door, the investigators said they saw a gun lying on a suitcase and Keith reclining on a bed. Neither man resisted arrest, and police later found the red wig in the room.
Although police said Bennett readily admitted his role in the bank robberies, he would not implicate Keith or anyone else because he didn`t want the reputation of being a ”stoolie” once he was back in prison.
Cline said only $3,000 of the $83,369 taken in the five robberies was recovered because Bennett and Keith refused to disclose what happened to the rest of the money.
Cummings said that shortly after Bennett was captured, a police officer said to him, ”You`ll probably be in your 60s or 70s when you get out of prison the next time. What will you do?”.
”Jump counters again,” Bennett is said to have responded. ”But it probably won`t be as easy.”
