in the 1990s Seattle Washington was plagued by hundreds of bank robberies most of the thieves were caught but one continued to elude the FBI wearing a disguise he stole Millions threatening to kill anyone who got in his way with no leads and little evidence agents feared the only way to stop it was to catch him in the out [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] Bank teller's worst fears to steer down the barrel of a robber's gun Banks use a variety of devices to discourage would-be robbers security cameras silent alarms and exploding die packs but when an elusive bank robber targeted Seattle's Banks none of these precautions were effective I'm Jim calstrom former head of the FBI's New York office it would take cunning precision and patience to capture a Master of Disguise the FBI knew only as Hollywood Seattle Washington 1992 the computer Revolution was growing technology entrepreneurs were pumping billions into the city's economy accommodate the Newfound wealth Banks opened branches all over Seattle but neighborhood convenience also meant more opportunity for theft [Music] on the afternoon of June 25th at Sea first bank's Madison Ranch government threatened to shoot anyone who did not comply with their demands you're gonna shoot one train is gone on the frightened customers while the other forced to tell her to empty her cash drawer [Music] sit down after the bag was filled they demanded car keys from one of the customers who they had watched pull up they warned the tellers not to hit an alarm or they would return and kill someone [Music] the two sped away with nearly twenty thousand dollars since the bank's deposits were insured by the federal government the FBI was called in to assist the Seattle police because no alarm had been tripped the bank's security cameras were not activated investigators had no photos of the suspects customers and Bank employees described the gunman as being of medium height and build one employee heard the man holding the cash called to his partner using the name Mark probably the guy came to Houston the robbers had worn gloves so no fingerprints could be obtained investigators attempted to lift shoe prints from the desk where one of them had stood partial Treads were recovered which investigators believed were made by sneakers agents recorded the license plate number of the customer's stolen car a Cadillac sedan hours later the stolen Cadillac was discovered abandoned in a neighborhood close to the bank forensic technicians would pour over the vehicle's interior but find no fingerprints hairs or fibers foreign to the car seven weeks passed with no leads then on Friday August 14th this is the robbery everybody was robbed again yeah though the thief struck alone wearing a new disguise one of the tellers believed it was the same man he appeared to be wearing theatrical makeup we did we did trip off any alarms fill that up his take was more than eight thousand dollars and it was just the beginning over the next three months the same man hit four more Seattle area Banks a solo gunman wearing theater makeup a hat and dark sunglasses was responsible he brandished a Glock nine millimeter pistol and threatened to kill anyone who tried to stop him [Music] sixth robbery the thief had gotten away with 252 thousand dollars and investigators still had no leads and no name special agent Sean Johnson of the FBI Seattle field office began tracking this Master of Disguise who had come to be known as Hollywood it's much easier to coin a name for somebody than call them tall white male and a blue hat so uh with this person in particular he wore once again this elaborate facial disguise makeup so somewhere along the line somebody started calling him Hollywood because of that and that name stuck with him Hollywood had gone silent since he'd robbed see first bank's Hawthorne branch in Northeast Seattle his take from that location exceeded a quarter of a million dollars [Music] to date Hollywood had grabbed over three hundred and twenty thousand dollars from Seattle area Banks authorities have recovered none of the stolen cash and they still had no clues to his identity as the months passed investigators wondered if he had quit or moved on to another city thank you [Music] then on November 24th 1993 just over a year since his last Heist Hollywood struck again brandishing his trademark block pistol Hollywood herded the customers together [Music] he returned to see first bank's Hawthorne branch the bank he had previously hit for more than a quarter million dollars [Music] he asked for the reserve cash [Music] unsatisfied with the cash drawer take he ordered a teller to let him into the vault in a back room [Music] [Applause] Hollywood emerged with nearly a hundred thousand dollars [Applause] thank you again he threatened to kill anyone who hit an alarm Noah disobeyed his orders when Hollywood came to the banks he was very much in control he was polite to a degree but it didn't make people comfortable they were very afraid that he would use the weapon he brandished it it actually pointed at a number of people during the course of the robberies so we knew that he was not afraid to show the weapon and also to possibly use that weapon against somebody who didn't obey what he told them to do security strategies in Seattle banks at this time included using marked bills to trace stolen money another tactic was die packs hidden inside a stack of bills the packs contain red dye and an electronic charge [Music] the pack dead legs and stains a thief when he crosses Senses at the bank's exits is tied in silent alarms made it possible for tellers to call the police without alerting the robbers wait till I get out once you press the video cameras monitored every corner of the bank they'll take a pitch about every seven seconds so far Hollywood had somehow managed to defeat all these measures July 13 1994. Hollywood attacked his tenth Bank in two years they used a stun gun to threaten Bank employees teller risked her life pushing a silent alarm 275 foreign unaware that Patrol units were racing to the scene you can always go [Music] all right he fled with nearly 112 thousand dollars a witness outside the bank saw him get into a dark blue Dodge Caravan [Music] the witness was unable to see the vehicle's license tag [Music] [Applause] after police secured the scene another bank employee arrived for work very good thank you that just tell me what you saw he told police about an incident on the previous day [Music] the employee noticed a man taking notes in front of the bank standing next to a blue Dodge Caravan [Music] witness said he was too far away to get a good look at his face I appreciate you coming forward you can think of any other details to agent Johnson it appeared that Hollywood studied the locations before striking [Music] he would scout out the banks days before get a feel for the layout who came who went from the bank at given times Hollywood's planning was paying off he had gotten away with over 660 thousand dollars [Music] he struck most often on Wednesdays or Thursdays the next time he appeared was six months later he filled his bag to teller overheard a radio call from beneath his coat urging him to exit foreign census a die pack exploded for the first time he had failed in a robbery attempt a witness outside the bank took down the license plate number of the getaway car [Music] special agent Johnson was able to trace the vehicle we ran the license plates in the cars and they came back to a couple lived in Tacoma Washington south of Seattle so I went and talked to the couple to find out how their car had been sold they had advertised the car in a local paper the buyer paid twelve hundred dollars in cash without test driving it dirty the couple described the buyer as a white male in his late 30s or early 40s of medium height and weight based on their description the sketch artist created a likeness of the suspect the FBI now had their first glimpse of what Hollywood might look like [Music] by the spring of 1995 a masked Seattle gunman had robbed 12 Banks of nearly a million dollars and left behind few Clues investigators dubbed him Hollywood for his use of disguises and theatrical makeup lead that agent's hand was a sketch of what they believed was the face behind the mask special agent Sean Johnson looked for a pattern if he could figure out similarities among the banks Hollywood robbed perhaps he could predict when and where he would strike next I went back and visited all the banks that Hollywood hit since June of 92 what I was looking for some commonality how many doors were in the banks what was the layout of the lobby where was The Vault located was it downstairs upstairs on the main floor was the size of the parking lot was it adjacent to the bank was it across the street what kind of street was this Bank located on Johnson discovered that most of the banks were in commercial districts where area businesses made their deposits the banks also boarded residential areas [Music] enabled Hollywood to blend into the surrounding neighborhood without arousing suspicion he liked three areas of City primarily the Northeast part of town Madison Park which was just outside of downtown in West Seattle so uh once again looking at the types of banks he hit the branches themselves and areas of the city we came up with a pattern of likely targets in March of 1995 three years after Hollywood's initial Heist the Puget Sound violent crimes task force was formed [Music] let me see they grab staffed with investigators from five different agencies they had one goal in mind to take Hollywood off the streets Hollywood struck most often around noon and almost always on the last three days of the work week four of his past five robberies occurred in late January or early February [Music] agents calculated that Hollywood appeared to be going through about twenty thousand dollars a month effective Mike McGann joined the task force in June of 1995. McGann knew the streets and had many bank robbery callers to his credit it was my belief that at least 95 percent of the people that I arrested were narcotics users the other five percent I believe to be gamblers Thrill Seekers professionals or people that were working out of sheer desperation where I'd classify Hollywood was that he was a well-trained well disciplined professional McGann poured over the security camera photos of Hollywood he noted the weapons he brandished were a nine millimeter Glock and a stun gun at the time these arms were being considered as Weapons of choice among law enforcement the detective also noticed that Hollywood indexed his trigger finger on the side of the nine millimeter a technique taught to police officers many of the robberies occurred in the late morning between 11AM and noon precisely the time when a shift change for the Seattle Police occurred the evidence pointed to a frightening possibility Hollywood might be a cop and the reason I I thought he was a police officer is he knew so much about how we operated that he was probably watching us or listening to us uh he had he was disciplined he was in and out of the banks quickly he moved swiftly he just knew a lot about the policy procedures of the bank he knew that the the areas that he was hitting in were primarily you know residential areas that don't have much police presence in them and then something else caught his eye he noticed that Hollywood was wearing a radio on his belt if Hollywood was communicating with a walkie perhaps police could intercept the transmission the detective contacted an Electronics expert known as The Glitch with his help McGann hoped to gain an advantage I had sat down with this person and showed him the surveillance photographs of Hollywood and the two-way radio he had and he was able to determine the frequency most common to those radios that he would work off and it was two different frequencies the glitch offered to rig up a scanner and began's unmarked car by eavesdropping on Hollywood investigators hoped they could pinpoint his whereabouts and catch him in the act the idea didn't work special agent Johnson was stationed outside a bank in Northeast Seattle monitoring the radio when Hollywood and an account struck elsewhere [Music] it's about 11 30 I was going to break off about 12 o'clock and all of a sudden I heard the Seattle police radio saying we've had a bank robbery First Interstate Bank and that was about two miles from my location I heard the physical description I knew at that point it was Hollywood come back on one of those three days I predicted a year before and we just missed it a bystander outside the bank got the license number like his first robbery the getaway car was found in a neighborhood near the bank the FBI traced the car back to its owner who said he had sold it to a man for cash a few weeks earlier I had the owner come up and look at the vehicle and I said is there anything different about this car from when he sold it he said sure overall condition of your uh engine compartment here is anything the owner noticed the car had a new battery [Music] agents found that the car had been wiped down inside and out the owner also noticed that two of the tires had been replaced with newer models so I went to trace the the tires and found out they've been bought in Tacoma Washington the battery bought at a Sears store in Tacoma about two days after the car was purchased so I knew at that point that these people whether it was Hollywood and or his Partners were in the area at least two months before the robberies working with a sketch artist the owner described the buyer [Music] investigators now had two composite sketches but they were still no closer to catching Hollywood supervisory special agent Ellen Glasser was brought in to head the task force made the decision to go on the offensive it's one thing to put pen to paper and to put your thought processes at work and try to solve a case it's another when you take a proactive posture and an investigation knowing that you might get into a confrontation with somebody like Hollywood foreign supervisor realized that a more aggressive stance would Place her agents in Greater peril Hollywood had repeatedly threatened to kill anyone who tried to stop him we knew he had a propensity for violence and figured that if he was going to these elaborate means to disguise himself to plan the robberies that he probably would not necessarily give up easily as most others did and we were concerned about the safety of law enforcement and safety of customers and employees of the banks okay he's taking a lot of more Personnel we're assigned to specific areas of the city targeting the banks hit most often by Hollywood so he came up with a game plan saying okay we're going to be out on the streets on Wednesdays Thursdays and Fridays between these periods of time knowing full well that uh greed would probably take the better part of Hollywood and he would come back and Rob another bank even with the amount of money he'd already taken on May 22nd 1996 despite the increased presence of law enforcement Hollywood hit the First Interstate Bank in the affluent suburb of Madison Park it was his 14th known robbery to generate leads agents reached out to the community we increased the reward to fifty thousand dollars that we were offering in the community for tips we didn't want to have the media work against us now we didn't want to glamorize Hollywood and and cause copycat bank robberies to to go out and rob banks but we also felt that we needed the public [Music] agents saturated Madison Park with hundreds of wanted Flyers perhaps heightened public awareness could also help eliminate that neighborhood as a potential Target then law enforcement could increase Manpower in the remaining neighborhoods the campaign yielded nothing Hollywood had not surfaced in months they consulted a police profiler to learn how Hollywood might react if and when he was cornered her could be someone who is familiar or someone who was taken out based on his broad knowledge of violent criminal Behavior the profiler told him that Hollywood would not go quietly and it was very important for us to hear him say this guy is going to resist arrest this guy will not want to go into custody this guy will fight you this guy is dangerous authorities could only guess when and where Hollywood would strike next and if his gun would remain silent [Music] for almost four years Hollywood had threatened to shoot anyone who got in his way agents were convinced that if he was challenged the masked gunman would shoot to kill by 1996 a mass gunman known only as Hollywood had robbed 14 Seattle Banks rip off any alarm he threatened to kill dozens of people for his take of 1.2 million dollars over four years though Hollywood had not fired his weapon agents believed that if confronted he would kill supervisory special agent Ellen Glasser showed the task force of videotape of what could happen if they were not prepared we have been using for training in the FBI a video of the tragic fire fight that took place in 1986 in Miami where we lost two of our agents and several other agents were wounded what they were doing that day is they were on a surveillance for two dangerous bank robbery suspects so there were some obvious parallels to what we were doing on April 11 1986 the FBI confronted two armed bank robbers in Miami the shootout erupted the gunman Advanced while the agents were reloading their revolvers killing two of them and seriously wounding five others that Miami shootout was a reminder of How High the stakes were we can't always be a hundred percent prepared but we should be thinking have a plan all right come on what's that to avoid repeating the tragedy that occurred in Miami glassy developed more uniform procedures between the various agencies the Seattle SWAT team trained alongside special agent Johnson we did extensive training with them firearms training felony car stops how to take people out of cars different situations and how we'd respond to a bank robbery that Hollywood had committed and that was all done under Ellen glasser's supervision and her number one concern of course was the safety of all the people involved detective McGann knew they needed to make sure all Personnel were on the same page it also gave us a chance to test our Communications because the FBI doesn't work off police Communications they had their own so what we have to do is get everybody on board on the same radio frequency to prevent the danger of friendly fire all Personnel were required to wear clothing with emblazoned logos as Thanksgiving approached Glasser believed they were as prepared as they could be 360 is all around it's not just well that Wednesday that day before Thanksgiving in 1996 it started out just like any other day I went to work thinking I was going to catch up on some of my overdue paperwork thinking that I was looking forward to the holiday the next day having a day off the banks would be closed and thinking that people needed a rest because they had been working so hard agent Glasser detective McGann and detective Pete Erickson were the last ones in the office when an alert tone came over the radio at 5 41. and upon hearing that I knew that it was Hollywood that it hit and I'm looking around the office thinking well Pete's here and I looked at him and said you want to go he goes oh yeah let's go and Ellen saw me run down the hall and she's yelling Mike what's going on I said Hollywood hit you want to go she goes yes so she grabbed her coat and we all left the task force office [Music] and my car was parked right outside the front door we ran down and turn on the lights in the siren and put the light on the Rope then away we went multiple suspects had robbed a bank in Lake City the Seattle Subway just minutes from Task Force Headquarters [Music] as soon as we got into Mike's car I could hear the Seattle police radio traffic and I remember hearing the references to the makeup and it was really those references to the pancake makeup that that made it resonate in my head that this was it this was it a witness had seen a vehicle exit the bank's parking lot in an erratic manner [Music] a vehicle matching the description had been spotted [Music] the police believed they had found the getaway car foreign it turned out to be a false alarm the engine was cold 20 minutes had passed since the first call McGann was sure that Hollywood had transferred to a different vehicle by now he would need a place to change he would need place to take that makeup off that wig off to change his clothing to put the weapons you know so he put the weapons away or the money the getaway car there would most likely be a van detective McGann continued to cruise the side streets in the residential area near the bank from past Robins McGann and agent Glasser knew this was where he would most likely change vehicles some units were responding to one location and Mike was saying that's not him that's not him he'd patrolled in these streets he'd grown up in Seattle he knew every nook and cranny of the town in that area after several minutes of crisscrossing the main roads they pulled up behind a white van there was condensation on the insides of the windows I mean heavy condensation where the beads of water were dripping down on the insides of the van but there were flashlights moving about the van real quick light and it had dark windows tinted windows on it Echo McGann had a strong suspicion it was Hollywood [Music] we'll check the plates [Music] the van ignored the emergency lights and pulled away [Music] dispatch vehicles the investigators had no way of knowing how many persons were in the van or if they had any weapons if it was Hollywood they knew at the very least he would be carrying a nine millimeter Glock foreign by this time I knew he knew we were behind him he could see me he he just knew we were there and he drove Northbound and slowly came to a stop they prepared to approach the idling band good when I got out all I saw was this person holding the rifle at poor arms and stepped out from the side and took aim at me with that rifle shot and killed the rifle Jim fired into the report the Chase had turned into a firefight good get it get it on the night before Thanksgiving 1996 Three Investigators had just fired at a fleeing van after its driver had attempted to shoot them with a rifle everybody all right they believe the van held a man known only as Hollywood an elusive bank robber special agent Sean Johnson responded to the call for back my pager went off I looked at it and knew immediately there'd been a bank robbery I called the office and was told that Hollywood based on the description that they had gotten Hollywood had just robbed a bank see First Bank Lake City branch in the north part of town still several miles away Johnson raced to the location [Music] as the van came to another stop back up arrived [Music] foreign ducked back into the van and the chase resumed special agent Blaster felt it was a miracle the three of them had survived unharmed I think that's partially by the grace of God because these these rounds were found in the windshield of the car that was behind us so they went right over us they continued to pursue the unidentified gunmen through the residential neighborhood the agent updated their new position for approaching units [Music] they followed the van until it disappeared around the turn fearful he might be driving into an ambush McGann got out and continued the pursuit on foot inflation detective McGann told a K-9 Officer to cover the right side while he moved up on the left and I was trying to think am I doing everything right I'm alive there's no bullet holes in me my co-workers are alive plenty of help is behind us and I knew plenty of the help was in front of us coming at us foreign [Music] they could see the lights from an approaching Seattle police cruiser the van forcing it off the road [Applause] [Music] the van had come to rest in the front yard of a house investigators still had no idea how many were in the vehicle all right the side door is burst up but no one came out two minutes [Music] [Applause] [Music] one suspect had taken three rounds the bullets had penetrated his left shoulder thigh and stock the other had been hit in his right shoulder I looked down at him and said what's your name and he said Steve I said Steve what and he said Steve Myers and I said are you Hollywood and he says no the other suspect was taller and heavier than the gunman from the security camera photos believed he was not Hollywood either the detective turned his attention no but no one else was inside and I'm thinking where's the third suspect you're saying the suspect got out are you positive and they're saying yes he got out when he saw us he took off so I'm thinking oh my God investigators quickly organized a search both on the ground and in the air a third suspect probably Hollywood was on the Run police believed he was armed three rounds they did not know how far he could get from his wounded as the search continued a forensics team processed the van and in the back of the van there was a guitar case that had been converted into a gun carrying case and a blue nylon bag that that had money in it and it was a big bag of money the robbers had left behind more than a million dollars [Music] they also found pieces of a latex mask most likely belonging to Hollywood scattered around the blood-soaked interior investigators found an assault rifle a semi-automatic shotgun two pistols and several boxes of ammunition Hollywood's blocked nine millimeter pistol was nowhere to be found could have taken hostage in a house yeah I that did cross my mind that you know maybe he ran into a house and was holding a family hostage and would hold them until you know the early hours of the morning or in traffic until traffic died out or he could be watching us he could be one of us wherever he was and whoever he was Hollywood had eluded the FBI once more after four years of pursuit the masked bank robber known as Hollywood had eluded capture again following his 15th known bank robbery but two of his accomplices had been taken into custody one was identified as Mark Biggins Biggins had been Hollywood's accomplice in three of the robberies including their first he wore the Reagan mask the other accomplice was Steve Myers the man who drove Hollywood's getaway cars special agent Johnson pressed Myers for Hollywood's real name [Music] you need to tell me who this person is where he is and he finally said okay I'll tell you the person you're looking for is Scott Scurlock Scott Scurlock wasn't a police officer he was a local actor agents moved in on his 20-acre Ranch in Olympia Washington an hour south of Seattle [Music] clear left but no one was there investigators found a semi-automatic nine millimeter Glock okay [Music] agents recovered 23 thousand dollars in cash [Music] The Searchers also found a dozen pairs of canvas athletic shoes the kind that Hollywood was reported to have worn in several robberies behind the house agents approached a barn inside they found tools building materials and equipment on the dusty floor one of the agents noticed some footprints that led to a trap door [Music] it opened into an underground chamber see light switch anywhere agents had no way of knowing if Hollywood was hiding there with a gun Scurlock wasn't there but behind a curtain they discovered a second room it was a complete makeup studio [Music] the agents also found a photograph of Scurlock without makeup behind the barn special agent Sean Johnson and his team came across a large tree house it said about 60 feet up into the trees it was built on seven cedar trees it consisted of three stories I had numerous ramps that extended out from the tree house it was something to behold agents searched the treehouse they found no sign of Scurlock police were still patrolling the neighborhood where the shootout had occurred the night before searches had chromed the area but found no trace of The Fugitive Port came in that a man had spotted someone hiding in a camper behind his mother's house I'm out of the trailer police responded and approached the camper come out of the trailer they identified themselves but received no response an officer emptied a can of pepper spray into the window police come out of the trailer back up foreign set up a perimeter around the camper and called in reinforcements agent Johnson had just returned from searching scurlock's property within minutes of arriving at the office uh having not even unloaded the evidence I heard on the Seattle police radio shots had been exchanged at a location about two blocks away from the previous night's events so without even beginning to unload the evidence I took off again heading Northbound out of town license irons to this location every available unit converged on the site supervisory special agent Glasser had gone home after the shootout by that point in time I had decided not to cook a turkey on Thanksgiving I had changed the reservations for where we were going to eat Thanksgiving to a later time so that we could all be together as a family and we were almost out the door when we got a call from the office that Hollywood was barricaded in a trailer no other shots had been fired since that first Exchange Sherlock's girlfriend was brought to the scene if it was the Fugitive perhaps she could persuade him to give himself up there was no response [Music] all right [Applause] nobody knew for sure who was in the camper out of options the SWAT team was called to action [Music] hoping to flush out the suspect they fired two rounds of tear gas into his Refuge they heard nothing SWAT members entered cautiously [Music] and the initial rate of communication with the SWAT team said there's lots of blood but we see no body and I my first reaction to that was is this guy a ghost or what how can there be no body and then just seconds later they say we've we've got a body through the smoke a white male could be seen lying lifeless on the floor a gun near his head [Music] scurlock's photograph was compared to the body it matched the car owner later determined that his death had been self-inflicted Mark Biggins recovered from his wounds he and Steve Myers pled guilty to bank robbery assault on a Federal Officer and Firearms violations it was sentenced to 21 years in a federal prison Scott Scurlock had hidden behind a mask for four and a half years but when the FBI struck back the man they called Hollywood found there was no place left to hide [Music]