00:00:06
Hey weirdos. I'm Elina. I'm Ash. And
00:00:10
this is
00:00:12
[Music]
00:00:24
Morbid. It's morbid. And I was just
00:00:27
whispering about my computer screen
00:00:28
being too bright while Elena said, "Hey,
00:00:30
weirdo." So, you might have heard that.
00:00:31
You probably heard that. You probably
00:00:35
Yeah, probably did. Peas are a little
00:00:38
hard. Actually, currently, um, your girl
00:00:41
ate [ __ ] yesterday. Oh, wait. Actually,
00:00:45
before we get to that super duper fun
00:00:47
tale, I feel I have some like a a big
00:00:50
question to ask everybody. I feel like
00:00:52
there's so many terms for falling. Yeah,
00:00:55
this is something we've learned over the
00:00:57
last few days. Like I eat [ __ ] is one of
00:01:00
them. Like I didn't eat actual [ __ ] I
00:01:02
fell. And then there's also took a
00:01:05
digger which I say a lot like oh she
00:01:07
took a digger. Yeah. I've had some
00:01:10
people look at me like I'm like like and
00:01:12
they're like what do you mean? She what
00:01:14
you what it's like fell. Fell everybody
00:01:16
took a digger. Yeah. Ate [ __ ] Anything
00:01:20
else? What else is that? Took a digger.
00:01:21
Took a digger. ass over tea kettle. I
00:01:24
love ass. Yeah. But anyway, so yeah, we
00:01:27
were at the Celtics game last night.
00:01:28
Elena was nice enough to take me. It's
00:01:30
too soon to talk about. Um yeah, it was
00:01:32
not not a banner game. My guy was out in
00:01:35
the first the first like 13 minutes of
00:01:39
the game. My guy was killing it. Yeah.
00:01:41
So, um but on the way there, I tripped
00:01:44
up the stairs and I really thought I had
00:01:47
saved myself. I was like, "Oh, okay.
00:01:49
We're fine." Nope. Momentum. I put my
00:01:51
hands out. Luckily, it wasn't on like
00:01:53
the actual concrete. There's like a
00:01:55
carpeted stair area that I was lucky
00:01:57
enough to fall on, which is also [ __ ]
00:01:58
disgusting. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I put my
00:02:01
hands out, but it was still too too late
00:02:04
in the game, so my face skidded onto the
00:02:07
carpet. My like my lip did, my upper
00:02:09
lip, and then my teeth kind of
00:02:12
like like my teeth like bit into my top
00:02:15
lip and like took a chunk. Yeah. But I
00:02:18
didn't bleed at all. No, she didn't. And
00:02:22
um it was it was so funny. And here I am
00:02:25
coming at you from the other point of
00:02:26
view. Uh one of the funniest things I've
00:02:29
seen in a
00:02:31
while. I made sure she was okay through
00:02:34
laughs. I made sure she was okay. No,
00:02:36
that's fair. Um but there was a whole
00:02:38
[ __ ] ton of people in that stairwell. Oh
00:02:40
my god. That was all I was thinking
00:02:42
about the entire There was Well, there
00:02:44
was a few thoughts running through my
00:02:45
head, but that was like one of the main
00:02:47
ones. I was like, "Oh my god, nobody
00:02:48
asked me if I'm okay." cuz I don't want
00:02:50
to talk to you that. Thank you to the
00:02:52
people of Boston. Uh thank you to the
00:02:55
people who were at the TD Bank Garden
00:02:57
last night at the Celtics game. We all
00:02:59
suffered together that game and then you
00:03:02
guys did us a solid and you did not ask
00:03:04
Ash if she was okay. You just cleared
00:03:06
the [ __ ] out of that stairwell. No,
00:03:08
because Boston is the one of the only
00:03:10
places where you'll ask someone if
00:03:11
they're okay and they'll tell you to
00:03:12
[ __ ] off. Like so nice. Thank you. I
00:03:16
don't want you to ask me if I'm okay
00:03:17
right now because I'm horrified. Yeah,
00:03:19
I'm mortified right now. Mortified. I
00:03:21
That was great. I looked around and I
00:03:23
said, "Wow, everyone cleared out." And
00:03:25
then I said, "Are you okay?" And she was
00:03:27
holding her mouth and I said, "If you
00:03:29
spit out a tooth, I'm going to ask you
00:03:30
to put that back in so we can see the
00:03:32
playoffs." But and and I would have, but
00:03:36
she wasn't she wasn't missing a tooth.
00:03:38
She wasn't bleeding. But um it was one
00:03:40
of those falls that's like slow motion.
00:03:44
And I said, "Oh, she's going." And then
00:03:47
I I had no time. Even though it was slow
00:03:49
motion, I had no time to do anything
00:03:51
about it because it was slow motion and
00:03:52
so fast. It was cuz then once her hands
00:03:55
hit the ground, she the momentum just
00:03:58
took her into like, you know, kind of
00:04:01
like a crow pose like like a
00:04:06
like a non-consensual crow pose that she
00:04:09
did not intend to go into, but then her
00:04:11
face hit floor instead of yoga mat.
00:04:14
Yeah. And it was it was something. It
00:04:17
was something. So now I have like a
00:04:18
blood blister on the inside of my lip
00:04:20
and like one side of my lip is like a
00:04:22
little swollen. I know. I feel bad. It's
00:04:24
to I mean I'm not in any pain
00:04:25
whatsoever. It's just like annoying. It
00:04:27
was an omen for the game. I know because
00:04:31
it you know they they some of them did
00:04:34
their best. Some of them did. I think
00:04:36
they all did their best. I think it was
00:04:37
just an off night. But that's okay cuz I
00:04:42
mean for all the non-sports people,
00:04:43
we're just in the second round of the of
00:04:45
the playoffs. We're playing the New York
00:04:47
Knicks which like right. So, uh, anytime
00:04:51
I saw a Knicks player pop up to any of
00:04:53
our listeners who are a Knicks fan, any
00:04:56
of our listeners who are Knicks fans,
00:04:58
like we're where to fight. Listen, we we
00:05:01
love you always, except at the TD
00:05:02
Garden. Except during the playoffs when
00:05:05
I don't love you. Uh, anytime I saw one
00:05:07
of them pop up to cheer, I was like, sit
00:05:08
the [ __ ] down. But, but it's okay. We
00:05:11
had a blast. We had so much fun. Um, I
00:05:13
hope Chris Stops Porzingis feels better
00:05:15
because that's my favorite player and he
00:05:18
got sick. I hope they play Pritchard
00:05:20
more next [ __ ] game because they
00:05:21
should have. It was It was sad. It was
00:05:23
sad. I knew he was sick. I know him. I
00:05:26
know him. I know Kristoffs. I don't. But
00:05:29
I know But I know him. My old friend
00:05:31
Kristoff. So, as soon as he came out, I
00:05:33
said, "Uh oh, he's sweaty." Uh, and he
00:05:35
was sick. So, hopefully he's better for
00:05:37
game two because we need him. I think
00:05:38
it's just a tummy thing. I think it was
00:05:40
a tummy thing. Yeah. By the time this
00:05:41
comes out, you'll know who won
00:05:42
everything. So, I'm sure you listen,
00:05:44
Chris stops. So, I hope you feel better.
00:05:46
Hey. Hey. Well, uh, but yeah, that was
00:05:49
our sports night. I know I don't like
00:05:52
any other sports, but Elena's made me a
00:05:54
basketball fan. Celtics are the Celtics
00:05:56
are just fun. It's fun. That team, don't
00:06:00
worry, we'll stray away from this cuz
00:06:01
I'm sure a lot of people are like, I
00:06:02
don't give a [ __ ] The Celtics team is
00:06:05
just like a really likable group of
00:06:07
dudes. And they all like volunteer at
00:06:09
Boston Children's Hospital and they they
00:06:11
protest for great things and like
00:06:14
there's they're a likable group of
00:06:15
dudes, so they're easy to love. We'll
00:06:17
keep them. If you're looking for a team
00:06:18
to love, love the Celtics. And if you
00:06:20
think that you don't like sports, try
00:06:22
basketball. Yeah, it's fun. All right.
00:06:24
Never did I ever think we'd have a
00:06:25
sports discussion on this show. But
00:06:27
here, hey, there's a first for
00:06:28
everything. Um, but I have a really
00:06:31
interesting case today. Uh, Dave found
00:06:33
this. Shout out to my boy
00:06:38
David.
00:06:39
David, it's still sports coded. I can
00:06:42
hear Dave right now being like, "No,
00:06:44
don't do that. Don't do that." He's
00:06:46
like, "Never do that again." He's like,
00:06:48
"That was too much." We're like, "Come
00:06:50
on, David. Go team." Okay, David. We
00:06:53
just like hit his butt. He's like, "This
00:06:54
is this is a felony. This is assault."
00:06:57
He's like, "I work for you. Stop.
00:06:58
Where's HR?" Okay. Anyway, we're going
00:07:02
to talk about the Norcco shootout today.
00:07:04
Hell yeah, we are. Which is fascinating.
00:07:07
I had I I hope I don't come off as like
00:07:09
super [ __ ] ignorant right now. I had
00:07:11
never heard of this. No, it's okay. Not
00:07:13
everybody's heard of everything. I've
00:07:15
only I've heard of so much I've heard of
00:07:17
the term the nor I've heard of like that
00:07:19
the Norco shootout like it's like how
00:07:21
everybody knows Waco, you know. I did
00:07:23
not know any of the details of this. So
00:07:26
I am in the same boat as you. Okay, that
00:07:27
I'm so happy to hear that. Yeah, we're
00:07:29
ignorant [ __ ] together. In a boat.
00:07:31
Okay. Well, did you say in our boat? In
00:07:33
a boat. In a boat. I'm surprised you put
00:07:35
yourself in a boat. It's an ignorance
00:07:37
boat. So
00:07:39
So I didn't even know I was getting into
00:07:41
it. I was ignorant to that. So, the
00:07:42
Norcco shootout and the robbery that
00:07:44
initiated it are among the most shocking
00:07:47
and violent events in California's
00:07:49
history, which is why they have achieved
00:07:51
a certain level of notoriety throughout
00:07:53
the years, except to me. Um, however,
00:07:55
while the acts themselves are usually
00:07:57
the focus of discussion, it's really the
00:07:59
men who committed the crimes that made
00:08:01
it especially surprising and notable.
00:08:03
They are interesting, um, to say the
00:08:06
least. Not in a good way, but they're
00:08:08
fascinating people.
00:08:10
George Wayne Smith and Christopher
00:08:12
Harvin, the men who planned the heist,
00:08:14
they weren't members of any kind of real
00:08:17
criminal organization. They also weren't
00:08:19
even really desperate for like quick
00:08:22
cash. It wasn't like they needed to pay
00:08:24
for something or were in dire straits or
00:08:26
anything like that, which is usually
00:08:28
where these all begin. Yeah. Um like
00:08:30
you've all seen the cheerleader movie
00:08:32
where they steal money. What's that
00:08:33
called? Sugar and spice. Uh Sugar and
00:08:34
Spice. Yeah, I'm going to watch that. I
00:08:36
love that movie. I love that movie.
00:08:38
That's a movie. Um, but in fact, they
00:08:40
actually had no criminal record and
00:08:42
really didn't have any interactions with
00:08:44
law enforcement in their past. Huh.
00:08:46
Which is wild. That's crazy. So, why did
00:08:49
they plan this elaborate robbery? Well,
00:08:52
they were devout members of an
00:08:53
apocalyptic sect of Christianity. There
00:08:56
it is. Who were convinced that the world
00:08:58
was coming to an end. Yep. And they
00:09:01
thought they were going to need
00:09:02
resources in order to survive the end of
00:09:04
civilization as they knew it. That just
00:09:07
makes sense. It does. It just I like
00:09:09
when you said that I was like yeah
00:09:10
that's the only other reason you would
00:09:12
do that. There is only like one I think
00:09:14
I don't know if it was a TV show or a
00:09:15
movie made about this. There's only one.
00:09:17
It was made in like 2006. That's crazy.
00:09:19
And then there was going to be a movie
00:09:20
but it doesn't look like it ever came to
00:09:22
fruition. What are they waiting for? I
00:09:24
would like to watch this. And by the end
00:09:26
of this story you will too because wow
00:09:28
interesting. Wow. So, as author Peter
00:09:31
Hulahan points out, both George Smith
00:09:33
and Christopher Harvin were part of the
00:09:35
first generation to live their entire
00:09:37
lives under the threat of nuclear war.
00:09:39
As kids, they spent their lives
00:09:41
overhearing hushed conversations going
00:09:43
on among adults about potential nuclear
00:09:45
strikes, advanced weaponry, and of
00:09:47
course, the Cold War. And at the same
00:09:50
time, the 60s and the early 70s was, as
00:09:52
we all know, a time of revolution in
00:09:54
various countries throughout the world.
00:09:56
Mhm. The front pages of newspapers had
00:09:58
photographs of armed guerrilla fighters
00:10:00
in South America, headlines about
00:10:02
hijacked airplanes bound for Cuba. Like
00:10:05
there was a lot going on. It was a scary
00:10:07
time. Yeah. And that's traumatizing. It
00:10:08
is. Hulahan, who wrote Norcco 80, the
00:10:11
true story of the most spectacular bank
00:10:13
robbery in American history, said the
00:10:15
key takeaway for both was simple. We're
00:10:17
all going to die. Which is traumatizing.
00:10:20
It is traumatizing for sure. Now, having
00:10:23
been born in the mid to late 1950s in
00:10:25
Northern California, both men spent
00:10:27
their formative years right in the
00:10:29
middle of all this social political
00:10:31
unrest. And by the time they'd come of
00:10:33
age, violent revolution wasn't just an
00:10:35
abstract concept to them. It was
00:10:37
regularly being discussed in bars and
00:10:40
college campuses as a path forward to a
00:10:42
new future. Yeah. Which is scary. That's
00:10:45
horrifying. Yeah. I can't imagine. It's
00:10:47
very dystopian. Very. Now, in 1973,
00:10:50
George Smith had just returned from two
00:10:52
years in Germany, where he trained as an
00:10:54
artillery man in the US Army. His
00:10:57
experience in Eastern Europe gave him
00:10:58
insight into what life under an
00:11:01
authoritarian regime pretty much looked
00:11:03
like. And as an American, it was a very
00:11:05
eye-opening experience for him. Oh, I'm
00:11:07
sure. So, he was very happy to be in the
00:11:09
US again and out of the army. But all at
00:11:12
the same time, he felt directionless and
00:11:14
was looking for some kind of purpose,
00:11:16
something to give his life meaning.
00:11:18
Eventually, he found that meaning within
00:11:20
the Jesus movement, which was very big
00:11:23
at the time. The Jesus movement. It was
00:11:25
straight up called the Jesus Movement.
00:11:28
You know that I mean that that really
00:11:29
sells you on what it is. Jesus Moves.
00:11:31
Yeah. They don't bury the lead on that.
00:11:33
They don't. It was a group of young
00:11:35
people like himself who were somewhat
00:11:37
conservative, but they also embraced the
00:11:39
politics of like counterculture hippie
00:11:41
kind of people and maintained a healthy
00:11:43
distrust of authority, which I'm sure he
00:11:45
had after he left Germany. Oh, I'm sure
00:11:48
all things considered, the preachers
00:11:50
within the Jesus movement really weren't
00:11:52
that different from other born again
00:11:53
Christian preachers, but they have put a
00:11:56
strong emphasis on the book of
00:11:57
Revelations and specifically its end
00:12:00
time prophecies. I don't know if you
00:12:02
guys have read that one. I have not, but
00:12:04
I have heard some of the end time
00:12:06
prophecies and they actually scare the
00:12:07
[ __ ] out of me. Real scary. And I'm not
00:12:09
even like a big God gal. No, I I looked
00:12:12
into it a little bit when we were inter
00:12:14
interviewing Tobias Forge. Yes. Cuz like
00:12:18
why not? And it's got a lot It's got a
00:12:21
lot going on. Yeah. There's like trumpet
00:12:23
men. There's horses. There's It's It's
00:12:26
going to It could be agony if it
00:12:28
wouldn't be fun if it happened. I'd
00:12:30
leave. Yeah. But for somebody who
00:12:32
believes strongly in these predictions,
00:12:33
unlike ourselves, like George Smith did,
00:12:36
the signs of the coming apocalypse were
00:12:38
all around them every day. On a global
00:12:40
scale, the Cold War threats of nuclear
00:12:41
war were everpresent. So was the social
00:12:44
unrest that was occurring in countries
00:12:45
all over the world. And closer to home,
00:12:47
there was a lot of political and social
00:12:49
divisions over everything. Like there
00:12:51
still is race, gender, class,
00:12:54
everything. Yeah. And it seemed to be
00:12:56
pushing Americans closer and closer to
00:12:57
the edge. And at the same time,
00:12:59
industrial pollution was making the
00:13:01
earth's uh pretty much uninhabitable. So
00:13:03
that's Yeah. Just slowly. Yeah. To
00:13:05
George, who had been trained to
00:13:07
interpret these prophecies by the
00:13:08
Calvary Baptist Church, everything
00:13:11
seemed to be lining up just as it was
00:13:13
described in Revelations. And that
00:13:15
coupled with his time in the military
00:13:17
and his experience with military grade
00:13:20
weaponry, not only did he know that the
00:13:22
end of times were coming, but he also
00:13:24
knew precisely how and with what weapons
00:13:27
it would be fought. Ooh,
00:13:29
scary. Now, for Christopher Harvin,
00:13:32
things were a little bit different.
00:13:34
Still very dire and very apocalyptic,
00:13:36
but different. Okay. Like George, he saw
00:13:39
the signs of the impending apocalypse
00:13:40
everywhere. But as somebody whose
00:13:42
beliefs leaned more in the direction of
00:13:44
like spirituality versus actual
00:13:47
religion, like organized religion, yeah,
00:13:49
he took a less biblical form of things.
00:13:51
Okay. According to Peter Hulahan, Harvin
00:13:54
viewed signs of impending social
00:13:55
collapse in the alignment of the
00:13:57
planets, predictions of cataclysmic
00:14:00
overpopulation, ecological disaster, and
00:14:02
an array of other doomsday scenarios
00:14:04
that gained traction during the decade.
00:14:06
I hate that. Yeah. It's It's very
00:14:09
interesting how in like very different
00:14:11
groups of people, everyone is predicting
00:14:13
the apocalypse in some way. Yeah.
00:14:15
Because it's everyone's biggest fear.
00:14:17
Yeah. It's just like the biggest fear
00:14:19
you can think of. It is. Yeah. Now,
00:14:21
Chris and George somehow met in 1973.
00:14:24
They were both working for the Cypress
00:14:25
Parks Department. They both had grown up
00:14:27
pretty similarly, but they did have very
00:14:30
different personalities. According to
00:14:32
Hulahan, George was evangelical,
00:14:34
engaging, and outgoing. Chris Harvin was
00:14:36
more stoner than seeker, a burnout
00:14:39
rather than a believer. All right. I
00:14:41
love how he wrote that. And like George,
00:14:44
Chris had also joined the army right out
00:14:46
of high school. Uh but his behavior and
00:14:48
his attitude got him kicked out after
00:14:49
just two months. Oh, damn. So, you can
00:14:51
see the differences between them, but
00:14:54
also how they aligned on a lot of the
00:14:56
scarier topics that they were to talk
00:14:58
about. Yeah. Which is a little creepy
00:14:59
cuz it's like they had the same idea,
00:15:01
just different methods of getting there
00:15:03
basically. But despite their differences
00:15:05
in personality and temperament, they did
00:15:07
bond over their love of camping, outdoor
00:15:09
activities, music, guns, weed, and you
00:15:12
know, the apocalypse. They were both in
00:15:14
agreement that the world was coming to
00:15:16
an end and that it was happening soon.
00:15:18
Actually, damn. Now, Chris believed, so
00:15:20
obviously George believes that it's like
00:15:23
a biblical thing. It's going to be like
00:15:25
in how they say it in the book of
00:15:26
Trumpets and all that in the four
00:15:28
horsemen apocalypse. Exactly. Chris
00:15:31
though, this is interesting and I kind
00:15:33
of want to look more into it later. He
00:15:34
believed that the end of the world or
00:15:36
the apocalypse would come as a result of
00:15:38
what he called the Jupiter effect, which
00:15:40
would happen during a rare alignment of
00:15:42
planets that would result in major tidal
00:15:45
shifts and eventually a massive
00:15:47
earthquake that would, you know, it
00:15:50
would just tip everything right off the
00:15:51
scale. George's vision of the end of the
00:15:54
world, like I said, was more biblical.
00:15:55
After the rapture, which he believed
00:15:57
would happen in 1981, the world would be
00:15:59
thrust into seven days of Armageddon and
00:16:01
everybody would be scrambling for
00:16:03
safety. Damn. So, you know, uh, for 3
00:16:06
years they spent their days talking
00:16:07
about that. Talking that's healthy.
00:16:10
Yeah, totally. Talking about how they'd
00:16:12
survived that, how they would survive
00:16:14
it, what types of resources and
00:16:16
knowledge they would need to just get
00:16:18
through this impending apocalypse. Yeah.
00:16:20
Chris, like I said, he wasn't religious
00:16:22
and he also wasn't exactly what one
00:16:24
would consider a follower, but George
00:16:27
was engaging and very persuasive when he
00:16:29
talked about his beliefs. And since
00:16:31
Chris was already in that headsp space,
00:16:33
he was drawn deeper and deeper into
00:16:35
George's paranoid fantasies and started
00:16:37
to take them on himself. That makes
00:16:38
sense that that could happen. You're
00:16:41
spending all your time with this person
00:16:43
and you do believe in one thing so
00:16:45
wholeheartedly together. Yeah. Like it's
00:16:47
you can understand why that group thing
00:16:49
can happen. I mean, you see it happen
00:16:51
all the time, and you never think it
00:16:52
could happen to you, but Yep, it can.
00:16:54
There it is. So, Chris uh actually left
00:16:57
the Cypress Parks department in 1976. He
00:16:59
wanted to find a place, a job closer to
00:17:01
home. He had expected George would join
00:17:04
him since their boss really seemed to
00:17:06
hate George, but George stayed on for a
00:17:08
few more years for whatever reason. And
00:17:10
in the me in the meantime, they remained
00:17:12
incredibly close. And in 1979, they
00:17:15
scraped together enough money for a
00:17:17
$5,000 down payment on a small house in
00:17:20
Miraloma, California. And they financed
00:17:23
a $56,000 VA loan taken out in Georgia's
00:17:26
name. Jeez. This would be their home
00:17:28
base. They were moving in together, and
00:17:30
it was going to be the shelter that they
00:17:32
would fortify and that would protect
00:17:33
them from the coming apocalypse. It's
00:17:36
getting a little scary. So, they're
00:17:37
moving in together. I don't like that.
00:17:39
And creating basically like a bunker.
00:17:42
Yeah. Yeah. That's just an echo chamber
00:17:44
of delusion and paranoia. Yeah. That
00:17:48
obviously does not end well. Not
00:17:50
healthy. No. No. No. So, Miraloma is uh
00:17:55
in Riverside County and it's just about
00:17:56
45 miles away from LA. It's always been
00:17:58
a relatively working-class town.
00:18:00
Neighbors are said to be pretty
00:18:02
friendly. Most people take pride in
00:18:04
their their home's appearance. Um and
00:18:06
that's exactly why George and Chris
00:18:08
stuck out. One neighbor told a reporter
00:18:11
bluntly, "They were weirdos." I mean,
00:18:13
which like usually I'd be mad at, but
00:18:17
there's a certain like weirdo
00:18:20
that it's where you put that emphasis on
00:18:23
it. I feel like we said they were
00:18:25
weirdos like that's bad. You guys like
00:18:28
us are like weirdos. Yeah, they're
00:18:31
[ __ ] weirdos. They're apocalyptic.
00:18:34
Yeah, you know that's different. Just
00:18:36
wait. They let their lawn grow out and
00:18:38
they rarely tended to it, which is one
00:18:40
thing that's like annoying. But here's
00:18:42
the real kicker. They built a 10 foot
00:18:44
high fence around the backyard basically
00:18:47
to prevent anybody from seeing what they
00:18:48
were doing back there. The fence was
00:18:51
supported by 3 ft of fiberglass and
00:18:53
cinder block. And George ran concertino
00:18:56
razor wire around the top to keep people
00:18:59
out. Wow. And should anybody make it
00:19:02
past that razor wire, the two men had
00:19:05
hammered hundreds of carpet tacks to the
00:19:08
sides, sharp side up, so that anything
00:19:11
that came into contact or like tried to
00:19:13
hop over that fence would be
00:19:15
shredded. Whoa. Yeah. Whoa. Yeah. Just
00:19:20
imagine like hearing like hearing the
00:19:23
construction of that and then seeing it
00:19:26
erected. That's a lot. I just, you know,
00:19:29
I mean, I'd be like, that's your
00:19:31
business. Like, you want to keep people
00:19:32
out. Yeah. You that's your that's your
00:19:36
choice. I'd be so nervous. Um, but
00:19:39
that's the thing I It's like I would be
00:19:41
like that is like you go off. Go off.
00:19:46
Like, I get it. Keep everyone out. A lot
00:19:49
of people suck. Yeah. But this would
00:19:51
make me nervous. It would not make me
00:19:53
feel like you were someone that was um
00:19:57
approachable to be around. Like I'd be
00:19:59
I'd feel like you were a dangerous
00:20:00
person. It's the paranoia for me. I
00:20:03
think that's where it takes me is like
00:20:04
the paranoia takes me into like you
00:20:06
might be unhinged. Yes, definitely. You
00:20:08
know, that goes past having like a a
00:20:10
gate. Mhm. Or like a security system.
00:20:13
It's also just real bold. Like I want to
00:20:15
put up a fence, but I'm nervous that
00:20:17
it's going to like rub my neighbors the
00:20:19
wrong way. Yeah. Yeah. Meanwhile, like
00:20:21
they put up a fence with barbed wire
00:20:24
essentially on the top of it. Yeah. They
00:20:25
they just said, "We don't give a fuck."
00:20:27
And it was 10 ft tall. That's wild. 10
00:20:30
ft tall. Insane. Yeah. I mean, I They
00:20:34
obviously don't have an HOA. It's taller
00:20:36
than Kristoff's Porzingis. Oh my god.
00:20:38
It's taller than him. I hope you're
00:20:40
feeling
00:20:41
better. Full circle. So, the fence was
00:20:45
mostly successful at protecting their
00:20:47
privacy, but on one occasion, a very
00:20:49
brave loose dog managed to knock one of
00:20:52
the boards free. So, neighbors got a
00:20:54
rare glimpse into the backyard. Luckily,
00:20:56
it sounds like he just bumped into it.
00:20:57
Okay. I was like, "Don't go in there."
00:20:58
In my version of events, he's fine.
00:21:00
Yeah, he is. Um, but so people were able
00:21:03
to peek into the backyard. Oh, damn. I
00:21:05
would I'd Oh, I'd be right. Face against
00:21:10
fence. You're making a big stink of
00:21:12
keeping it private. I want to know what
00:21:14
it is. I need to know. You should have
00:21:15
been a little more subtle about that.
00:21:16
Yeah, 100%. One neighbor said, "I seen
00:21:19
them digging. They got a big hole."
00:21:23
I know. Insert all the jokes here.
00:21:26
But like, why are they digging a big
00:21:28
hole?
00:21:30
It's not okay. It's not very You're
00:21:33
about that. According to more neighbors,
00:21:35
George and Chris started what sounded
00:21:37
like a construction project in the
00:21:39
backyard around April 1980. For days,
00:21:42
all neighbors heard was the sound of
00:21:44
digging all throughout the day and the
00:21:46
night. Okay, that would piss me off.
00:21:48
That would piss me off. That's when I
00:21:49
would get pissed off. And then it just
00:21:51
abruptly stopped one day. Was anybody
00:21:55
calling anybody? I don't know. I don't
00:21:57
know what you would say really because I
00:21:58
don't know what they're if they're doing
00:22:00
anything wrong. Like I don't know if
00:22:01
they're adhering to noise regular noise
00:22:05
regulations in the 80s. Probably not. I
00:22:07
don't know. I don't know when that [ __ ]
00:22:09
start. I'm not sure. I just I'm like I
00:22:13
don't know. I also don't start digging
00:22:15
big holes in your backyard unless you
00:22:17
have like something like a pool that's
00:22:18
going to go in there. Yeah. Do it during
00:22:19
you know like something that you can
00:22:20
show after and be like this is why we
00:22:22
did that. Yeah. Come on over swim in our
00:22:24
pool. And not even just like see that
00:22:27
like no don't come over. But here, you
00:22:30
know that big hole I was digging that
00:22:31
made you all nervous? This is what that
00:22:33
was for. Don't come over. You're not
00:22:35
welcome. But that's what that was for. I
00:22:37
also wonder if people were just like I
00:22:39
mean I don't wonder. People were afraid
00:22:41
of them for sure. So that's probably why
00:22:42
they didn't call. Yeah. You know what I
00:22:44
mean? Yeah. So the fence kept out
00:22:46
anybody who might take an interest in
00:22:47
the greenhouse full of marijuana that
00:22:49
they were cultivating in the backyard.
00:22:50
Oh.
00:22:51
But it also served to shield from view
00:22:53
the larger project that they had been
00:22:55
working on because you don't put your
00:22:57
marijuana operation in a large hole. Of
00:23:00
course you don't. Neighbors didn't know
00:23:01
it at the time, but what Chris and
00:23:03
George were doing was building, you
00:23:05
guessed it, a bunker in the backyard.
00:23:07
There it is. George had come up with the
00:23:08
idea a few months earlier. They were
00:23:10
going to dig a tunnel leading from the
00:23:12
garage to the backyard bunker so that
00:23:15
they wouldn't have to go outside in the
00:23:16
event of, you know, an inevitable
00:23:18
assault on their compound. Ah, I mean,
00:23:21
okay. Yeah. The bunker they were
00:23:23
planning would be stocked with food,
00:23:24
water, all the essentials, and enough
00:23:27
firepower to hold off an army should it
00:23:29
come to that, which they of course
00:23:30
believed it would. Yeah, this is getting
00:23:33
scary. Oh, just wait. Now, there's no
00:23:35
way of knowing at what exact point Chris
00:23:37
and George's fantasies turned into like
00:23:39
a dangerous reality, but it seems that
00:23:42
1979 was a critical year for both of
00:23:44
them. In August 1979, George actually
00:23:47
got fired from his job with Cypress
00:23:49
Parks Department and he started
00:23:51
collecting unemployment. Not long after,
00:23:54
Chris also became unemployed and they
00:23:56
just spent all day at that point
00:23:59
talking, strategizing, coming up with
00:24:02
plans on how to fortify the house.
00:24:03
That's not good, man. Yeah, that is not
00:24:06
good. Now, losing his job and becoming
00:24:09
fully absorbed in violent fantasies was
00:24:12
the last straw for George's wife.
00:24:15
Yeah, he's married everybody. Sorry. And
00:24:19
they have a child. Oh no. Yeah. A few
00:24:23
months later, his wife took their
00:24:24
daughter and left the house in George
00:24:26
behind. Oh man. Neighbor Anna Grimley or
00:24:30
Grimley told a reporter she said she was
00:24:32
going home to her mother. I mean, good
00:24:33
for her. Yeah. She said, "We're going to
00:24:35
get you out of there. Get the [ __ ] out
00:24:36
of there. That is no place for a child."
00:24:38
Yeah. Losing his job, then his wife and
00:24:40
his daughter, though, seemed to be the
00:24:42
stressor that pushed George Smith from
00:24:44
being, you know, an evangelical guy with
00:24:46
dark fantasies to being a fully
00:24:48
delusional man with violent plans. Oh,
00:24:51
that sucks. It does. Uh, by the end of
00:24:55
1979, Chris's wife, Lonnie, also moved
00:24:58
out of the house, taking their young son
00:25:00
with her because he also was married
00:25:02
with a child. Why are you two parents?
00:25:05
So many people are parents that should
00:25:07
not be. So many people are parents. Now,
00:25:09
unlike George though, Chris's reaction
00:25:11
to his wife and child's departure was a
00:25:13
lot more reasonable. In a conversation
00:25:15
with his mother, he told her he felt
00:25:17
like his life was going down the tubes.
00:25:19
So, he got why. He was like, "My life's
00:25:20
going down the tubes. Of course, they
00:25:21
left." He's probably like, "Why wouldn't
00:25:22
they leave?" Yeah. It's weird. He was
00:25:25
weirdly rational in some ways, but in a
00:25:28
lot of other ways, not so much at all.
00:25:30
Yeah. But that feeling became even
00:25:32
stronger when a few months later, he
00:25:34
lost his job. and apparently any
00:25:36
motivation he had to continue
00:25:37
participating in society. Awesome. At
00:25:40
that time, Anna Grimley said, "Sometimes
00:25:42
they work and sometimes they don't. They
00:25:43
sleep in the day and they go out all
00:25:45
night and they never talk to anybody."
00:25:48
Yeah, kind of like that. So, by the
00:25:49
spring of 1980, Chris and George were
00:25:51
just barely getting by. They were
00:25:53
working odd jobs here and there, and
00:25:54
when they couldn't find work, they just
00:25:56
collected unemployment. By that point,
00:25:58
Chris's brother Russ had also moved in
00:26:00
with them, but he too was unemployed
00:26:02
more often than not and barely
00:26:05
contributed to the household budget.
00:26:07
Damn, this is going really well. Yeah,
00:26:08
it's really not. Their collective
00:26:10
financial situation had important
00:26:12
implications in their future plans.
00:26:14
George had already started to scrap his
00:26:16
idea for buying a cabin in the Utah
00:26:18
Mountains should the apocalypse come.
00:26:20
Oh, but now with the mortgage severely
00:26:22
overdue, it was beginning to look like
00:26:24
they might end up losing the house that
00:26:26
they had worked so hard to fortify into
00:26:28
this [ __ ] apocalyptic bunker. Damn.
00:26:31
And without their bunker, the likelihood
00:26:33
of surviving the apocalypse seemed low.
00:26:35
And for George, that was unthinkable.
00:26:38
So, one afternoon in late spring, Chris
00:26:41
was sitting at the kitchen table when
00:26:42
George came home with a former co-orker
00:26:44
from Cyprus, 21-year-old Manny Delgado,
00:26:47
and announced that they were planning to
00:26:49
rob a Denny's restaurant in Corona.
00:26:51
Manny Delgado is the name of um Jay and
00:26:57
uh what's her name's son in Modern
00:27:00
Family. Okay, I thought that Jay and um
00:27:03
Gloria. Gloria. I almost said Julia. I
00:27:05
couldn't think of it. I thought that
00:27:06
too. Manny Delgado. As soon as you said
00:27:08
that, I was like, when I I'm so happy
00:27:11
you said that cuz when I read that name,
00:27:12
I said, I know that person. You do. I
00:27:14
know that person that person. Well, this
00:27:16
is a very different Manny. This is a
00:27:18
very different Manny Delgado. He's not
00:27:19
very in touch with his feelings. Okay.
00:27:21
So, very different. This Manny Delgado,
00:27:24
uh, you know, they were going to rob a
00:27:25
Denny's restaurant. Yeah, that's not
00:27:27
great. Chris was like, "That's stupid.
00:27:28
If you're going to rob anything, why
00:27:30
wouldn't you just rob a bank?"
00:27:32
I guess valid criminal thinking, you
00:27:35
know, I guess so. Not rational thinking.
00:27:37
No. To George, robbing a Denny was just
00:27:39
a robbing a Denny, excuse me, was just a
00:27:41
means to an end. Something that would
00:27:43
give them enough to cover the mortgage
00:27:44
and maybe finish building the bunker.
00:27:46
Wow. But Chris was right in theory. If
00:27:48
they were going to take a huge risk,
00:27:50
they might as well just be more
00:27:51
ambitious. Yeah. And and again, that's
00:27:53
just criminal thinking. Yeah. Criminal
00:27:55
thinking. For Manny, who already had one
00:27:57
child at home and another on the way,
00:27:59
one robbery was just as good as the
00:28:01
other. So, he was like, "Yeah, that's
00:28:02
fine. I'll still do that." Yeah, why
00:28:04
not? I got a baby on the way. Like I
00:28:06
said, different Manny. Yes. As for
00:28:08
Chris, he already bought into the end
00:28:10
times fantasies that George had been
00:28:11
spinning for nearly a decade at this
00:28:13
point. Damn. And saw new no reason why
00:28:15
they shouldn't take the risk. But there
00:28:17
was just one thing. Chris told George,
00:28:19
"I'm not going into any bank unless
00:28:21
we're armed up. I won't get taken
00:28:22
alive." Oo, that's that's scary. That's
00:28:26
very scary. Oh, it's going to get a
00:28:27
whole lot scarier, girl. Just that way
00:28:29
of thinking. Yeah. A few weeks later,
00:28:31
Manny Delgado quit his job at the
00:28:33
Cypress Parks Department and told his
00:28:35
people at work that he was moving to
00:28:37
Arizona. Not true. He also recruited his
00:28:40
17-year-old brother, Billy, to be their
00:28:41
getaway driver. Sadly, Billy had been
00:28:44
diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis a
00:28:46
few years earlier. Yeah. And 17, too. So
00:28:50
young. Yeah. And I mean, he was even
00:28:52
younger when he got diagnosed. He was
00:28:54
constantly in pain. And he actually
00:28:56
expected the disease to get even worse
00:28:58
by his mid20s. So according to Hulahan
00:29:01
there, the um author, he Billy quote
00:29:04
figured he had nothing to lose and
00:29:06
agreed to. Makes me sad. That's Yeah,
00:29:08
that's a big tragedy. With their driver
00:29:10
in place, the men only needed one more
00:29:12
person and they didn't have to look very
00:29:14
far to find him. Throughout their lives,
00:29:16
Chris Harvin and his brother Russ hadn't
00:29:18
really been especially close. In fact,
00:29:20
if you had to describe their
00:29:22
relationship, someone would probably say
00:29:24
that it was just straight up
00:29:25
adversarial. Oh, yeah. If not just plain
00:29:27
strained. But prior to moving in with
00:29:30
Chris and George, 26-year-old Russ just
00:29:32
lived at home with his parents and spent
00:29:34
a lot of time hanging out in his room
00:29:35
getting high. Productive. Yeah, he's got
00:29:38
a lot going for him. More importantly,
00:29:40
Russ didn't share his brother's
00:29:42
interests in new age spirituality or
00:29:44
astrological prophecies. He also did not
00:29:47
believe that the world was coming to an
00:29:48
end anytime soon. You know what? It's
00:29:50
niche. It is niche. You know, I I
00:29:52
understand. Yeah. So, they didn't have a
00:29:54
lot in common, but at the same time,
00:29:56
Russ didn't really think he had anything
00:29:58
going for him. So, when Chris and George
00:30:00
asked to help ask for his help with the
00:30:01
bank heist, he was like, "All
00:30:04
right, damn." The amount of people in
00:30:06
this story that are just like, "H, you
00:30:08
know what? We might as well rob a bank."
00:30:09
It's like, I've never been in a place
00:30:13
where somebody would say, "Do you want
00:30:14
to go rob something?" And I'm like,
00:30:15
"Well, I don't have anything else going
00:30:17
on, so I have no idea." Like, I've been
00:30:20
bored. I've been I've been in a place
00:30:22
where I didn't have a lot going on. I've
00:30:25
been bored. I've been between jobs and
00:30:27
it wasn't ever an option. Yeah, for most
00:30:29
people I don't think it is. But the
00:30:32
final and arguably most important piece
00:30:34
of this plan to them was weaponry.
00:30:37
Having both grown up in conservative and
00:30:39
somewhat rural parts of California and
00:30:41
again both having spent time in the
00:30:43
military, Chris and George were what
00:30:44
would appropriately be called gun
00:30:46
enthusiasts. They like pew pew. Did you
00:30:49
just say dang pew pews? He said they
00:30:51
like a pew pew. They like a pew pew. Uh
00:30:53
even before they moved into the house
00:30:55
together, they both already had
00:30:56
collected a surprising number of
00:30:58
handguns, shotguns, and hunting rifles.
00:31:01
But as far as they were concerned, that
00:31:03
collection still wasn't enough. I'm
00:31:05
going to clear my throat for the next
00:31:07
part cuz it's going to take me a minute.
00:31:10
That spring, Chris and George withdrew
00:31:13
the rest of their savings, all of it,
00:31:15
and went to a local gun store and picked
00:31:17
up more weapons, including, I hope I say
00:31:19
these all right. I'm not a pew pew
00:31:21
enthusiast, so I'm doing my best. A
00:31:23
semi-automatic handgun, a Heckler coke
00:31:26
or [ __ ] an
00:31:28
HK93, a top-of-the-line 223 caliber
00:31:31
German assault rifle similar to that
00:31:33
used in military combat. Oh, and then a
00:31:36
few weeks later, they returned to the
00:31:38
store and bought a Remington 870
00:31:40
Wingmaster shotgun, uh, what's more
00:31:43
commonly known as a riot gun. Then that
00:31:45
wasn't enough. So, a week later, they
00:31:47
were back yet again and bought an
00:31:49
uncommon, one might say, amount of
00:31:51
ammunition, including hundreds of rounds
00:31:54
of 223 bullets, high-capacity magazines,
00:31:58
and 40 shotgun slugs, quote, powerful
00:32:01
enough to crack the engine block of an
00:32:03
automobile.
00:32:05
I'm sorry. What? A month later, after
00:32:09
working some day labor jobs, Chris went
00:32:11
to another gun store and purchased a
00:32:14
Colt uh AR-15 assault rifle and a large
00:32:17
number of 40 round high-capacity
00:32:19
magazines. Did anyone at that first gun
00:32:22
store say, "Huh, they're coming in a lot
00:32:26
and buying a lot of guns." I would think
00:32:28
so. No one was sitting there being like,
00:32:30
"What you doing?" Yeah, maybe keep an
00:32:33
eye on that person. I'm not sure because
00:32:36
like what business do you have coming
00:32:37
and getting that much [ __ ] weeks apart?
00:32:40
It's very strange. I'd be concerned.
00:32:42
It's very strange. Obviously, today we
00:32:44
would all be like, "What the [ __ ] are
00:32:46
you doing?" You would think any day
00:32:48
though. That's a lot of guns. It is. And
00:32:50
a lot of ammo. Yeah. So, with their
00:32:52
arsenal, I would say uh more than fully
00:32:54
stopped. Yes. George and Chris. It runth
00:32:56
over. It runth over. They now uh turned
00:32:59
their attention to making explosives.
00:33:02
Oh, cuz Yeah, you need that, too. Mhm.
00:33:04
Using recipes found in the notorious uh
00:33:06
anarchist cookbook, they created dozens
00:33:09
of fragmentation grenades from PVC
00:33:12
piping and beer cans filled with
00:33:14
gunpowder and shrapnel. That's so
00:33:16
[ __ ] scary. It is scary. The grenades
00:33:19
were fashioned in such a way that they
00:33:21
could be fired from the Remington Wing
00:33:23
Master. Shut the [ __ ] up. Effectively
00:33:25
making it a grenade launcher. What the
00:33:27
[ __ ] Yet, even the addition of dozens
00:33:30
of improvised explosives still wasn't
00:33:33
enough for George, who still felt they
00:33:36
needed more guns. A few days later, he
00:33:39
returned to that first store, which I'm
00:33:40
like, now you really got to ask
00:33:41
question. You got Yeah, you got to ask
00:33:43
that guy about this. Where he purchased
00:33:44
a 223 rifle and this time a second Colt
00:33:49
AR-15 and a Heckler and Ko
00:33:52
HK91, an assault rifle modeled on the
00:33:54
AR-15. but that fired larger and more
00:33:57
destructive 30 caliber rounds. The fact
00:34:00
that no one was concerned about this is
00:34:03
disconcerning to me. Yeah, you would say
00:34:05
so. Yeah. So, with these last purchases,
00:34:08
they had everything they thought they
00:34:09
needed to pull off the bank job finally.
00:34:12
Holy hell. Yeah. Now, interestingly, I
00:34:14
didn't actually know this. By the 1960s,
00:34:16
the FBI had labeled LA the bank robbery
00:34:18
capital of the world. What a title. I
00:34:21
know. with one in every four California
00:34:23
robberies occurring in Los Angeles
00:34:25
County. Holy [ __ ] Is that fascinating?
00:34:27
Imagine taking a job as a as a bank
00:34:29
employee there. No. At this time, I
00:34:31
cannot. According to Hulahan, this was
00:34:33
mostly because the city had a
00:34:35
significant number of banks and was
00:34:36
built within a network of freeways,
00:34:38
which made it easy to rob a bank and get
00:34:40
away quickly. Ah, that makes sense. So,
00:34:41
all that to say, robbing a bank in the
00:34:43
70s and 80s was a pretty easy way to
00:34:45
make money with relatively low risk,
00:34:47
assuming you could get away from the
00:34:48
scene before the police got there, which
00:34:50
is wild. It is. It really is. By 1980,
00:34:53
robberies had increased across America
00:34:55
with an average of six banks being
00:34:57
robbed each business day. Holy [ __ ]
00:34:59
Yeah. And more than 1,500 banks robbed a
00:35:02
year. And now you never hear about a
00:35:04
bank robbery. No, not at all. Yeah. So
00:35:06
that meant, if nothing else, law
00:35:07
enforcement officials and bank employees
00:35:09
had gained considerable experience with
00:35:11
robberies and now had a pro had many
00:35:14
protocols in place to deal with
00:35:15
situations like that. Under the
00:35:17
circumstances, it would have been in the
00:35:19
gang's best interest to keep things as
00:35:21
simple as possible and just do what
00:35:23
other successful bank robbers did. Rob a
00:35:25
bank in downtown LA, get away from the
00:35:27
scene as quickly as possible, and
00:35:28
disappear on the freeway headed toward
00:35:30
one of California's more forgettable
00:35:32
towns. Yeah. One, two, three, done. Keep
00:35:34
it simple, stupid. But George Smith had
00:35:37
other plans. Of course he did. In
00:35:39
George's head, the plan was simple. In
00:35:41
mine, it was not. The four men would
00:35:44
enter the Norcco branch of the Security
00:35:46
Pacific Bank in the afternoon while
00:35:48
Billy waited in the getaway van outside.
00:35:51
Each would be armed. Chris with the
00:35:53
HK93, Russ with the Colt AR-15, and
00:35:56
George with the Heckler rifle, and Manny
00:35:58
with the riot gun. Each man would also
00:36:01
carry a semi-automatic handgun and large
00:36:03
amounts of uh ammunition just on their
00:36:05
person. In the van, Billy would have the
00:36:08
other AR-15 on the passenger seat beside
00:36:10
him, and he too would have a handgun.
00:36:13
Holy [ __ ] Yeah. They had also loaded
00:36:16
around 3,000 rounds of ammunition into a
00:36:19
duffel bag stashed in the back of the
00:36:21
van, as well as a dozen grenades, three
00:36:24
Molotov cocktails, and a box of beer
00:36:27
bottles that were filled with gasoline
00:36:28
and a detonation device. Holy [ __ ] The
00:36:32
serial numbers on the guns were all
00:36:33
covered with black electrical tape so
00:36:35
that they wouldn't be able to be read on
00:36:36
the security camera footage and traced
00:36:38
back to Chris and George. They really
00:36:40
thought of everything they did kind of.
00:36:42
Before heading to the security Pacific
00:36:44
Bank, George placed or was planning to
00:36:46
place a small explosive under a gas man
00:36:49
about a mile from the bank. His plan in
00:36:52
his head was that before they entered
00:36:53
the bank, he would detonate that bomb,
00:36:55
creating a diversion to draw authorities
00:36:57
away from the bank, giving the robbers
00:36:59
more time to escape, which seems like it
00:37:02
would make sense. Yeah, smart in a
00:37:04
criminal way in theory. But there was
00:37:07
the matter of transportation to think
00:37:09
of. Yeah. None of them owned a vehicle
00:37:11
that would carry all five men. Oops. And
00:37:14
their arsenal of weapons would never be
00:37:16
carried in a vehicle that they owned.
00:37:18
So, and it also wouldn't carry the money
00:37:20
that they planned to take with them. So,
00:37:21
that was a big problem. That's a
00:37:23
problem. Yeah. But Georgia's solution
00:37:25
was that they would drive to a large
00:37:26
parking lot several miles from the bank
00:37:28
and just steal the first van they saw.
00:37:31
That is risky as [ __ ] Yes. Wow. He said
00:37:35
from there, Billy would drive the van
00:37:36
with the rest of them in the back. The
00:37:38
gas man explosion would occupy emergency
00:37:40
services for hours and that would give
00:37:42
them ample time to escape. So, that's
00:37:44
his plan. It's also crazy that there's
00:37:46
four of them going into this bank cuz
00:37:48
it's like the four horsemen of the
00:37:49
apocalypse.
00:37:51
Good point, dude. I'm like, I wonder if
00:37:53
they they planned that. I know. Cuz you
00:37:55
would think four people is like too
00:37:56
many. Yeah. It feels like way too many
00:37:58
cooks in the kitchen here. Yeah, that's
00:38:00
a that's a very good point. Yeah. And
00:38:03
like haunting, isn't it? So, according
00:38:05
to Peter uh Hulahan, George Smith broke
00:38:08
cardinal rule number one when it comes
00:38:09
to bank robbery. He robbed his own bank.
00:38:14
Shut the [ __ ] up. He robbed his own
00:38:18
bank. That feels like the first day of
00:38:21
freshman year of bank robber school.
00:38:24
They tell you the number one Hi, welcome
00:38:27
to bank robber school school. We're
00:38:29
going to tell you something that we
00:38:30
think you don't need to know. Yeah.
00:38:32
Don't rob your own bank. Yep. They have
00:38:34
literally all your information. All your
00:38:36
information. They recognize you. They
00:38:37
know you. And you're stealing your own
00:38:39
money back. Like what?
00:38:42
I can't. And I just told you how many
00:38:45
banks there are in LA. There's a [ __ ]
00:38:47
ton of banks. So many other options.
00:38:49
Why? Wow. Uh so yeah, that was
00:38:51
incredibly risky because rather than
00:38:53
robbing a bank down in downtown LA, like
00:38:56
I said, where no one would have
00:38:57
recognized him, he chose to rob a bank
00:38:59
where employees were familiar with his
00:39:01
face and his voice, which was not that
00:39:03
hard in a town of only 20,000 people.
00:39:06
But more than making bad choices, it was
00:39:08
actually really just a lot of bad luck
00:39:10
that caused things to go wrong. Maybe
00:39:11
bad karma, one would say. Yes. On the
00:39:15
morning of May 9th, which is interesting
00:39:16
because it's May 6th right now. We
00:39:18
always do that. We always do that. We
00:39:20
never mean to do that. No, I picked this
00:39:22
case that literally like not knowing
00:39:25
anything. Yeah. So, that's weird. That's
00:39:27
crazy. So, on the morning of May 9th,
00:39:29
all five men loaded into George's uh
00:39:31
George Smith's Blue Matador and headed
00:39:33
to Norcco. uh stopping at the
00:39:35
Westminister Mall about half an hour
00:39:37
from Norcco just after 9:30 a.m. General
00:39:40
telephone service worker Steve Cantelli
00:39:42
was sitting in his van just flipping
00:39:44
through a Thomas' guide book when three
00:39:46
men appeared at the driver's side window
00:39:48
and pressed a 38 special to his head.
00:39:50
One of the men shouted, "Get out of the
00:39:52
[ __ ] van now." And Cantelli complied.
00:39:55
He was like, "You got it. Sure." As soon
00:39:57
as he stepped out of the van, he started
00:39:59
running, but to his surprise, no one
00:40:01
followed. Instead, a man sitting in his
00:40:03
car a few yards away just watched as the
00:40:05
three soon to be bank robbers opened the
00:40:07
back of the telephone van and have now
00:40:09
caused a scene. and have now caused a
00:40:11
scene. One of the men climbed in the
00:40:12
back only to emerge a few seconds later
00:40:14
shaking his head as indicated by the
00:40:18
sign on the outside of the van in
00:40:20
probably very large letters. It was a
00:40:22
telephone service vehicle, so the rear
00:40:25
cargo area was fitted with shelving and
00:40:27
full of equipment. So, it wasn't going
00:40:30
to work for what they needed it to. My
00:40:31
goodness. But not seeing any other vans
00:40:34
in the lot, the men returned to the
00:40:35
matador and the witness watched as they
00:40:37
fled the scene. Wow. So now they've been
00:40:40
spotted. You guys are killing it so far.
00:40:42
Now they've been spotted and they still
00:40:44
don't have a getaway car. So after
00:40:45
leaving the lot, George drove about 3
00:40:47
miles down the road to the I think it's
00:40:50
Bri or Brea Mall. Brea Mall. Brea the
00:40:52
Brea Mall, thinking that they would
00:40:54
surely find another van there. Of
00:40:55
course. Why don't we leave this up to
00:40:57
Chance? Yeah, of course. His assumption
00:40:59
turned out to be a reasonable one.
00:41:01
Although they had to wait a few hours,
00:41:03
eventually they spotted a mid70s Dodge
00:41:05
Tradesman van with a faded logo on the
00:41:08
side that read Deano
00:41:10
Cappuccino. Known for being large and
00:41:12
powerful, the Tradesman was exactly the
00:41:14
kind of vehicle they were looking for.
00:41:15
So, this was good. Okay. The driver of
00:41:17
the van, 35-year-old Gary Hakala, had
00:41:20
stopped at the mall around 11:30 that
00:41:22
morning just to get some parts to fix a
00:41:24
broken side view mirror on that actual
00:41:26
van before going to deliver the
00:41:28
freeze-dried food that he had in the
00:41:30
trailer hitched to the back of the van.
00:41:32
He noticed the men in the blue sedan as
00:41:34
soon as he pulled in the parking lot.
00:41:36
They appeared to be staring at him
00:41:37
intensely as he parked. Concerned that
00:41:39
the men in the cars might be looking to
00:41:41
steal from other cars in the lot, Gary
00:41:43
grabbed the padlock from the dashboard,
00:41:45
intending to lock the trailer before
00:41:47
going inside, but he barely got the lock
00:41:50
in his hand when both doors of the van
00:41:52
flew open and Gary had three guns
00:41:55
pointing in his face. Jesus. Manny
00:41:57
Delgado told him, "I swear to God, we
00:41:58
will [ __ ] kill you if you try
00:42:00
anything."
00:42:02
I'd just be like, "Okay." Yeah. He
00:42:04
basically That's all you should do in
00:42:05
that situation. Yep. That's That's
00:42:07
exactly what he did.
00:42:09
But they forced him to the ground. He
00:42:11
got a good look at the driver though,
00:42:13
Billy Delgado. But once he was on the
00:42:15
ground, they taped his hands and ankles,
00:42:17
placed a paper shopping bag over his
00:42:19
head, and threw him in the back of his
00:42:21
own van. Oh no. Now they have a hostage.
00:42:24
Oh no. Well, now with their hostage,
00:42:27
Billy started the van with George and
00:42:29
Manny in the back. And they uh pulled
00:42:31
When they pulled out of the lot, Chris
00:42:32
and Russ followed behind in George's
00:42:34
car. Oh [ __ ] With the bag over his
00:42:37
head, Gary couldn't tell where they were
00:42:39
or where they were even going. They
00:42:41
drove for a short distance and then he
00:42:42
felt the van come to a stop and he could
00:42:44
hear the men removing the trailer from
00:42:46
the hitch. Now free of the trailer, they
00:42:48
started driving again, this time for
00:42:50
about an hour before they stopped a
00:42:52
second time. This time, Manny forced
00:42:55
Gary into a small equipment cabinet in
00:42:57
the back of the van, so all he could do
00:43:00
was listen to the sounds of the men
00:43:01
loading equipment in the back. And then
00:43:03
the three carjackers were joined by the
00:43:05
two other men. So everybody bad for
00:43:06
Gary. I know this poor man. So now
00:43:09
everybody's getting in the van. Then
00:43:12
Billy drove a little ways until they
00:43:13
reached the gas man a few miles from the
00:43:15
bank. And George jumped out and placed
00:43:17
the explosive under the main. From
00:43:19
inside the cabinet, Gary heard George
00:43:22
jump back in the van. The the van the
00:43:24
van in the van and shout, "It's a go.
00:43:26
It's a go. Go, go, go." Then the van
00:43:29
lurched forward and they were driving
00:43:30
again. 10 minutes passed before it came
00:43:33
to a stop in the parking lot just
00:43:35
outside the Security Pacific Bank in
00:43:37
Norcco. Now, until this point, the gang
00:43:40
had made a few mistakes. Uh Chief among
00:43:42
them being seen by at least three
00:43:44
witnesses. Yeah, that's a big deal.
00:43:46
Yeah, that's not great. But here's where
00:43:48
the element of bad luck/bad karma really
00:43:50
comes into play and throws George's plan
00:43:53
[ __ ] off the rails entirely.
00:43:56
By the time they arrived in the parking
00:43:58
lot, George had detonated the explosive
00:44:00
under the gas man. But rather than cause
00:44:03
a large explosion as they thought it
00:44:05
would, it started a modest fire. Oh no.
00:44:09
Which I'm so happy about. And it makes
00:44:11
me lol a little bit. It is great that
00:44:13
that's what happened. Yeah. Yeah. That
00:44:16
firearm was almost immediately pa uh
00:44:18
spotted by a passer by who flagged down
00:44:20
a truck driver and that truck driver
00:44:22
literally just used a fire extinguisher
00:44:24
to put out the flames and went about his
00:44:25
day. Good for him. There was no need for
00:44:28
any kind of large emergency response
00:44:30
distraction. No. So that was bad. Now
00:44:33
the gang in the van realized this, but
00:44:35
by then they'd already put their plan in
00:44:36
motion and nobody seemed willing to back
00:44:38
out. Oh man. The second instance of bad
00:44:41
luck came in the parking lot of the
00:44:43
Security Pacific Bank. As soon as Billy
00:44:46
Delgado put the van into park, the four
00:44:48
heavily armed men piled out of the back
00:44:50
and made their way into the front door.
00:44:51
I can't imagine witnessing this, seeing
00:44:54
this cuz they're all they all have ski
00:44:55
masks on. Terrifying. Heavily armed.
00:44:58
Unbeknownst to them though, an employee
00:45:00
from the bank across the street because
00:45:03
there's another [ __ ] bank witnessed
00:45:05
what was happening as did the two
00:45:07
mothers of the and the pack of cub
00:45:10
scouts standing outside the bank. My
00:45:11
god. Yeah. But still, the men blew past
00:45:13
the group and burst into the bank.
00:45:16
George, brandishing the heckler rifle,
00:45:18
yelled, "Everybody down, while the three
00:45:20
others secured the dozen customers who
00:45:22
were in the lobby. Oh god." George went
00:45:24
up to the teller and said, "If there are
00:45:26
any alarms or anything, there's going to
00:45:27
be a lot of dead people here." Oo,
00:45:29
that's [ __ ] up. Then he handed over
00:45:31
one of the duffel bags and demanded the
00:45:32
teller fill the bag with
00:45:34
$20,000. It'd be about
00:45:37
$77,621 today. So, solid chunk of
00:45:40
change. Yeah. Now, although they'd seen
00:45:42
the group standing outside the bank, it
00:45:44
didn't occur to any of the men that one
00:45:45
of those mothers would have called the
00:45:47
police. No. But it wasn't the group
00:45:49
outside the bank who had alerted the
00:45:51
police. It was the bank teller across
00:45:53
the street who saw them get out of the
00:45:55
van. And their run of bad luck was only
00:45:57
just getting started. They were in the
00:45:59
bank for a little over two minutes, but
00:46:01
the report about the robbery had gone
00:46:03
out over the police radio while they
00:46:05
were still inside. And the closest
00:46:07
deputy, Glenn Bolasi, was sitting in his
00:46:09
cruiser at a stoplight. Literally around
00:46:12
the corner. Wow.
00:46:15
Around the corner. Around the corner. So
00:46:19
Bolasi raced over to Security Pacific,
00:46:21
which also it's just so wild to me that
00:46:23
they robbed a bank called Security.
00:46:26
Yeah, that that really hit me. That's a
00:46:28
bad omen, you know. Yeah, that's not
00:46:29
good. But anyway, he raced over and
00:46:31
pulled into the lot while the four men
00:46:33
were still inside. But from his position
00:46:35
in the van, Billy Delgado could see the
00:46:37
wave of sheriff sheriff's officers
00:46:39
arriving at the bank. And he grabbed his
00:46:41
walkie-talkie and fumbled with it before
00:46:43
alerting George that the police had
00:46:44
arrived. Now in a panic, they grabbed
00:46:47
whatever money they could and made their
00:46:48
way out the front door. From inside the
00:46:50
bank, several of the customers heard a
00:46:52
voice shout, "There's one." And then
00:46:54
everything was drowned out by the sound
00:46:56
of gunfire. Oh no. The first thing
00:46:59
Deputy Bowski saw when he looked up from
00:47:01
his police radio was Manny Delgado step
00:47:03
right in front of his cruiser with the
00:47:05
riot shotgun aimed directly at him.
00:47:08
[ __ ] So, he threw himself down across
00:47:10
the bench seat like within seconds
00:47:14
avoiding having his head blown off. Holy
00:47:16
[ __ ] Yes. Like that weapon is insane.
00:47:20
He would have it would have been it
00:47:21
would have been wild. From that point
00:47:23
forward, the scene was absolute chaos
00:47:26
with Riverside Sheriff's deputies firing
00:47:28
in the direction of the men who had now
00:47:30
spread out behind the area around the
00:47:32
van. Then Bilasi heard George shout,
00:47:35
"We've got a hostage in here." But his
00:47:37
voice was quickly blocked out by the
00:47:39
sound of bullets just ripping through
00:47:40
the metal of cars in the lot. Can you
00:47:42
imagine being the hostage, Gary? No. And
00:47:46
remember, he's about to talk about him.
00:47:49
He's in a a cabinet, like a tiny
00:47:51
cabinet. He's prone to get shot here.
00:47:54
Oh, yeah. The And And they don't even
00:47:56
know he's in there. And he's hearing
00:47:58
he's hearing like a ton of cars around
00:48:00
him getting shot and just gunfire. Yeah.
00:48:02
So, from inside the cabinet in the back
00:48:04
of the van, Gary Hakala was [ __ ]
00:48:06
terrified. Later, he told the jury, "I
00:48:08
heard a lot of gunfire. An awful lot of
00:48:11
gunfire. I heard shots of something
00:48:13
hitting the outside of the van. Oh my
00:48:14
god." And through all the chaos, he then
00:48:16
heard the four men climb into the van
00:48:18
and the vehicle started up and they
00:48:20
started moving. But they didn't make it
00:48:22
very far when the car came to a complete
00:48:25
abrupt stop, clearly having hit
00:48:27
something. What Gary didn't know at the
00:48:29
time was as the van sped out of the
00:48:31
parking lot, Deputy Bolasi aimed his
00:48:33
shotgun at the driver's side and fired,
00:48:36
the round of buckshot hitting uh Billy
00:48:38
Delgado behind the ear, killing him
00:48:40
instantly and sending the van careening
00:48:42
into a telephone pole. Oh wow. So now
00:48:45
their getaway driver is dead. Holy [ __ ]
00:48:48
And 17 years old. 17 years old. As soon
00:48:50
as that happened, the other men piled
00:48:52
out of the van and ran, just leaving
00:48:54
Gary behind, their hostage. But again,
00:48:57
like you said, people don't know he's in
00:48:58
there. Certain they were gone, though,
00:49:01
he managed to smash his way out of the
00:49:03
cabinet and found the cargo area of the
00:49:05
van, quote, filled with shell casings,
00:49:07
broken glass, money, guns, and what
00:49:09
appeared to be bombs. Holy [ __ ] Imagine
00:49:12
coming out and finding that and trying
00:49:14
to make your way around that while going
00:49:16
outside. but also you're coming out of
00:49:18
the same van that they were just in. So
00:49:20
you don't want them to think that you're
00:49:21
one of them and it's like exactly. So
00:49:24
still bound at his wrist and ankles, he
00:49:26
managed to get to the broken window and
00:49:28
yelled, "I'm a hostage. Help me." With a
00:49:30
slight push, he fell out. It's [ __ ]
00:49:33
horrifying. He fell out of the back door
00:49:35
of the van and managed to crawl to
00:49:36
safety on the other side of the street,
00:49:38
which is just astounding. Yeah. Now,
00:49:42
Norcco isn't now, and it wasn't then a
00:49:43
very heavily populated town, but it was
00:49:46
busy in this area the afternoon that the
00:49:48
shooting well when the shooting began.
00:49:50
Outside the bank on one of the town's
00:49:52
main streets, several drivers just sat
00:49:54
in awe as these heavily armed men poured
00:49:57
out of the wrecked van and a horde of
00:49:59
sheriff's deputies trailed behind them.
00:50:01
Countless residents had already been
00:50:03
alerted to the shootout since bullets
00:50:04
had begun tearing through cars,
00:50:06
businesses, and houses all around the
00:50:09
bank. Yeah, you got to think about that.
00:50:11
There's people just going about their
00:50:13
lives here. Right. Exactly. Now, at
00:50:16
first, Manny Delgado tried to lift his
00:50:18
brother's body from the driver's seat,
00:50:19
either to carry him out of the van or
00:50:21
just to move him so somebody else could
00:50:22
drive. But the position of Billy's body
00:50:24
and the density of the dead weight just
00:50:26
made that impossible. So, Chris and
00:50:28
George grabbed the duffel bags full of
00:50:30
guns and made their way out the back
00:50:31
door with Russ and Manny close behind
00:50:34
them. As soon as they were outside the
00:50:36
van, Chris and George started firing in
00:50:38
the direction of Bolasi's cruiser where
00:50:40
the deputy was ducked behind the front
00:50:42
right tire. This must have been
00:50:43
horrifying. Yeah. By that point, he'd
00:50:46
been struck several times in the face,
00:50:48
arms, and shoulder, but he was
00:50:50
continuing to engage the men until
00:50:52
additional deputies arrived. My god.
00:50:55
Brave. Holy man. [ __ ] Brave man. By the
00:50:58
time deputies Charles Hill and Andy
00:51:00
Delgado arrived on the scene, the
00:51:02
remaining four bank robbers were out of
00:51:04
the van and still firing in Bilas's
00:51:06
direction. Andy Delgado drew their
00:51:08
attention and gunfire while Charles uh
00:51:11
Charles Hill made his way over to
00:51:12
Bilasi, who was now bleeding heavily.
00:51:15
Yeah. Fortunately, Hill was able to get
00:51:17
Bolasi back to his cruiser and evacuate
00:51:20
him to the nearest hospital, though.
00:51:21
Damn. He is That's like heroic [ __ ]
00:51:25
like name something more heroic. It's
00:51:27
insane. As the gunfight ensued, George
00:51:30
spotted an F F250, stopped at a nearby
00:51:33
light, and just started walking toward
00:51:36
it like Michael Myers style. Hate that.
00:51:38
Inside the truck, the driver, 24year-old
00:51:40
Mike Lynville, spotted George coming in
00:51:43
his direction. Remember, he's wearing a
00:51:44
ski mask and holding like however many
00:51:47
guns. No, thank you. So, he sees George
00:51:49
coming in his direction and then also
00:51:51
notices three other men not far behind
00:51:53
him. Uh Manny Delgado was the only one
00:51:55
who did not have his face covered with a
00:51:57
ski mask and they were all also carrying
00:52:00
large green duffel bags. So he's like,
00:52:02
"I'm good." He's like, "That seems
00:52:03
conspicuous." Yeah. So they're so
00:52:06
they're waving they're like weaving
00:52:08
around cars pointing their guns at
00:52:10
drivers and passengers. It's very clear
00:52:11
that they're looking for a new vehicle.
00:52:13
And he knew that his truck was probably
00:52:15
exactly what they wanted. So rather than
00:52:17
sit it out and wait for them to order
00:52:19
him out of the truck, he threw open the
00:52:21
door, jumped out, ran toward the bank
00:52:23
parking lot, scrambled up a cinder block
00:52:26
wall, and found safety on top of the 21
00:52:29
uh Century 21 realy building
00:52:32
like a scaled a wall literally
00:52:35
brilliant. It is just I mean like
00:52:38
self-preservation wise that is and also
00:52:41
you're you're saving other people.
00:52:43
You're saving a lot of people in that in
00:52:45
that area by just being like you know
00:52:46
what this is probably what you want so
00:52:48
you can take it let the police deal with
00:52:50
it and yep we're all safe now. Yep. So
00:52:53
good for him. Yeah. Good for him. I just
00:52:56
love that he scaled a cinder block wall.
00:52:58
I love safety on a roof. He assessed on
00:53:01
a roof. On a roof. He assessed the
00:53:03
situation. He said, "I got what they
00:53:05
want." And he got he just said, "Bye."
00:53:07
Yeah. And then he just went on a roof.
00:53:09
Smart. I would go on a roof. He's safe.
00:53:11
Everyone else is safe. Good job. Let's
00:53:13
go. Everyone else is not quite safe yet,
00:53:15
but he saved a lot of people. He tried.
00:53:17
So, when the officers finally heard a
00:53:19
break in the shooting, they looked up to
00:53:21
see all four remaining robbers climbing
00:53:23
into Lynville's now empty truck. Three
00:53:25
of the men were in the cab of the truck
00:53:27
while another stood in the bed holding
00:53:28
an assault rifle. I'm just going to give
00:53:30
you all a minute to conjure that in your
00:53:32
mind. Yeah, that's a terrifying. It's
00:53:34
not an image you want to think about.
00:53:35
No. They also now appeared to be in no
00:53:38
hurry as they took their time loading
00:53:39
the truck and then pulled out from the
00:53:42
intersection and headed headed in the
00:53:44
direction of the little league field on
00:53:45
the other side of town where they had
00:53:47
stashed George and Chris's cars. I don't
00:53:49
like that at all. Yeah. The fact that
00:53:51
they're not in a hurry now is freaky.
00:53:52
And that they stashed the cars at a
00:53:54
little league Yeah. field. Upsetting.
00:53:56
Gross. Now, as Chris drove the truck,
00:53:59
George studied the wound in his leg
00:54:00
where he'd been hit. It was bleeding
00:54:02
real bad and he didn't know what he
00:54:04
could do to make it stop. So, he tied
00:54:06
his bandana around it as a temporary
00:54:08
solution. Everyone else remained silent,
00:54:11
likely reflecting on how George's simple
00:54:13
plan had gone so [ __ ] bad. I know I
00:54:15
would be if I were in their situation.
00:54:16
I'd be like, "What the [ __ ] did we get
00:54:18
ourselves into?" But as they neared the
00:54:20
little league field, they encountered
00:54:22
yet another problem. Having heard the
00:54:24
call go out over the radio, the local
00:54:26
fire department used their trucks to set
00:54:28
up blockades across the town to make
00:54:31
sure they blocked the main escape
00:54:32
routes. Yeah, they did. Smart. Yeah,
00:54:34
they did. So, Chris cut down a side road
00:54:36
though to avoid the blockade and soon
00:54:39
they were barreling down the back roads
00:54:40
of Norcco, desperately making their way
00:54:43
toward the freeway. Oh [ __ ] The plan
00:54:45
had worked, at least in as much as it
00:54:47
had got them to the freeway, but it also
00:54:49
allowed the horde of law enforcement
00:54:51
officials to catch up to them. With
00:54:53
Chris driving, Manny sat on the frame of
00:54:55
the passenger door just firing Chris's
00:54:58
HK93 in the direction of pursuing
00:55:00
officers. [ __ ] a sitting on the frame
00:55:03
of the passenger door as they're
00:55:05
driving, just firing at police officers.
00:55:08
So scary. Meanwhile, Russ Harvin was
00:55:10
positioned in the bed of the truck,
00:55:12
filing his assault rifle in their
00:55:13
direction as well and occasionally
00:55:16
tossing homemade grenades at them. Yeah,
00:55:18
no big deal. Yeah. As they raced through
00:55:21
San Bernardino County towards the Sierra
00:55:23
Mountains, Chris and Manny were largely
00:55:25
successful at keeping pursuing officers
00:55:27
at a distance because they're throwing
00:55:29
[ __ ] hand grenades and they were also
00:55:31
picking off any vehicles that got too
00:55:33
close. By the time they reached the area
00:55:36
around Mount Baldi, Chris had put enough
00:55:38
distance between them and their deputies
00:55:40
that the pursuers didn't immediately see
00:55:42
the truck turn off a rural a rural road.
00:55:45
Rural road, so hard to say. Toward the
00:55:47
mountain, so now they're like a little
00:55:49
bit out of sight. Eventually, the
00:55:51
deputies did find the truck at the dead
00:55:54
end of a service road, but they were
00:55:56
completely unaware that they had driven
00:55:58
straight into a trap. Oh no. Now
00:56:00
bottlenecked on a deadend road, there
00:56:03
was no way for them to turn around or
00:56:05
retreat quickly. In fact, by the time
00:56:07
lead deputy James Evans realized the
00:56:09
truck was empty, it was already too
00:56:11
late. The four men emerged from around
00:56:13
the truck and started firing in his
00:56:15
direction as he took cover behind his
00:56:18
cruiser. In returning fire, he managed
00:56:21
the incredible achievement of hitting
00:56:23
Chris Harvin from 75 ft away. Whoa.
00:56:27
Yeah. Using just his service revolver.
00:56:29
[ __ ] The bullet sent Chris flying back
00:56:31
into the dirt, but the other three
00:56:33
continued firing. And the next time
00:56:35
Evans popped up to to return fire, he
00:56:38
was sadly struck in the head, killing
00:56:40
him. Oh no. Yeah. He's a hero, too,
00:56:43
though. As the remaining deputies
00:56:45
attempted to return fire, they too were
00:56:47
struck by the hail of gunfire,
00:56:49
sustaining injuries of various degrees
00:56:51
of severity. The death of Deputy Evans
00:56:54
gave Manny, Russ, Chris, and George
00:56:56
enough time to retreat further into the
00:56:58
woods, though, and up the mountain. Now
00:57:00
they're going in the they're fleeing
00:57:01
into the mountains. They're literally
00:57:02
going like to like a snowy mountain.
00:57:04
[ __ ] that. Yeah. Fleeing to Mount Baldi
00:57:07
was surely never part of George's plan.
00:57:10
But like a lot of other aspects of the
00:57:11
robbery, it reflected the reality that
00:57:13
they were way out of their [ __ ]
00:57:15
league. Yeah. At least criminally
00:57:17
speaking. In their panicked attempt to
00:57:19
escape, they fled up the mountain, which
00:57:21
meant that the only way to actually
00:57:23
escape was to um go back down the
00:57:25
mountain. Yeah. So, in that case, all
00:57:27
the sheriff's department and now the
00:57:29
newly arrived SWAT team had to do was
00:57:32
wait them out and eventually they'd get
00:57:33
them. Yeah. They now you're stuck,
00:57:35
right? But the only question was, would
00:57:37
they take them alive or dead? By the
00:57:39
time the sun had gone down, Mount Baldi
00:57:41
was surrounded by hundreds of law
00:57:44
enforcement officers from the ri from
00:57:46
Riverside and the surrounding counties
00:57:48
as well as federal agents. That must
00:57:50
have been crazy. Yeah. In killing Jim
00:57:52
Evans, the gang had upped the ante
00:57:53
significantly and it seemed unlikely
00:57:56
that they were going to be able to
00:57:57
escape. Oh yeah. It's like now you've
00:57:58
killed the cop. You killed a cop. Yeah.
00:58:00
You shot a cop in the head. Mhm. In the
00:58:02
meantime, officers accompanied tracking
00:58:04
dogs up into the mountains, following
00:58:06
the trail of blood left by Chris and
00:58:09
George, who were both now bleeding
00:58:10
heavily from gunshot wounds. Wow.
00:58:13
Throughout the night, occasional bursts
00:58:14
of gunfire could be heard from and
00:58:16
around the mountain. But for a few hours
00:58:18
at least, the chaos seemed to settle.
00:58:21
The following morning, deputies and SWAT
00:58:23
members finally cornered George, Chris,
00:58:26
and Russ in a snow-covered patch of
00:58:28
mountains. They were soaking wet,
00:58:30
freezing, exhausted, and Chris and
00:58:32
George had lost a lot of blood. By that
00:58:35
point, they had become separated from
00:58:37
Manny Delgado, who was tracked by um
00:58:39
officers with dogs. But as soon as
00:58:42
deputies closed in around him, he took
00:58:44
his own life rather than be taken into
00:58:46
custody. Wow. Yeah. In the end, the
00:58:48
crime scene was the largest in US
00:58:50
history, stretching out more than 50
00:58:53
miles from Norcco into the San uh San
00:58:55
Gabriel Mountains and littered with
00:58:58
thousands of spent shells, shrapnel, and
00:59:01
other debris from the shootout. Holy
00:59:03
[ __ ] In the fight, more than three
00:59:05
dozen cars were destroyed. A San
00:59:07
Bernardino uh County helicopter was
00:59:09
badly damaged. And countless homes and
00:59:12
businesses in and around Norcco showed
00:59:14
evidence of having been hit with fire.
00:59:16
Oh, I'm sure. And there was the human
00:59:18
cost. In addition to the murder of
00:59:20
Deputy Jim Evans, Billy Delgado had been
00:59:22
shot by the police and killed. His
00:59:25
brother Manny had taken his own life on
00:59:26
Mount Baldi. Throughout the ordeal, at
00:59:30
least eight officers sustained serious
00:59:32
injuries and three civilians were
00:59:34
injured. Oh, I I'm surprised it wasn't
00:59:36
more. I am too, actually. And as for the
00:59:39
money they had stolen, most of it flew
00:59:41
out the window of the truck as they made
00:59:43
their getaway. You've got to be [ __ ]
00:59:45
So, this was all for nothing. This was
00:59:46
for literally nothing. Yep. In the days
00:59:49
that followed, none of the bank robbers
00:59:51
were compliant. And it took law
00:59:52
enforcement officials some time before
00:59:54
they were even able to identify them
00:59:56
because remember, these people have no
00:59:58
past criminal history. Yeah. Like that's
01:00:00
what's even scarier. It's insane. They
01:00:01
really went for it. In the meantime, the
01:00:03
press descended on Norcco looking for
01:00:05
any information on the robbers or any
01:00:07
firstirhand counts of the robbery.
01:00:09
Security Pacific employee Tim Murphy
01:00:11
told a reporter it was scary. They
01:00:13
looked and acted like commandos. They
01:00:15
were professional and they didn't mind
01:00:17
shooting. Yeah. Other residents in
01:00:19
Norcco were simply stunned that the
01:00:21
robbery had happened at all. One
01:00:22
resident said, "Things like this just
01:00:24
don't happen." Well, not here anyway.
01:00:26
Cuz it's so massive. Like, what a scale.
01:00:29
And like I said, this is a small town.
01:00:31
It's like 20,000 people. Yeah. A week
01:00:34
later, all three men were arraigned on
01:00:35
40 separate charges, including willful
01:00:38
murder, armed robbery, and killing an
01:00:40
officer during the commission of a
01:00:41
robbery. In his statement to the press,
01:00:44
assistant district attorney uh Tom
01:00:46
Holland Horse noted the charges included
01:00:48
four quote special circumstances that
01:00:50
could very likely lead it to becoming a
01:00:53
death penalty case. But despite the
01:00:55
crime having occurred across multiple
01:00:57
jurisdictions, the federal government
01:00:59
deferred the case to the Riverside
01:01:00
County District Attorney for
01:01:02
prosecution. The case was delayed
01:01:04
several times in the months that
01:01:06
followed, and the three men didn't end
01:01:08
up going before a judge until the summer
01:01:10
of 1981, so almost a year passed. Wow.
01:01:12
After several months of testimony from
01:01:14
witnesses and multiple sheriff's
01:01:16
deputies, the jury deliberated for 16
01:01:19
days before emerging to find them, all
01:01:21
three of them, guilty on 45 counts. Holy
01:01:25
[ __ ] Including two counts of murder uh
01:01:27
for Billy Delgado and Jim Evans, one of
01:01:30
their own and a police officer and 25
01:01:33
counts of attempted murder. Damn. Yeah.
01:01:37
Despite the complexity of the case and
01:01:38
the number of delays, the prosecutor,
01:01:40
Jay Hanks, never doubted that they would
01:01:42
receive a guilty verdict. He told
01:01:44
reporters, "I would not have been
01:01:45
surprised to have seen some charges
01:01:47
compromised, but I fully did expect to
01:01:49
see the murder charges stand, but I'm
01:01:51
sure it surprised him that they got
01:01:52
convicted on almost like every single
01:01:54
count." Yeah. I mean, that's a risk you
01:01:57
take. With that many counts, you assume
01:01:59
a lot are going to fall off. But the
01:02:01
fact that they were on they got all of
01:02:02
them on 45 counts. Holy [ __ ] So the
01:02:06
following month, all three were
01:02:07
sentenced to serve the rest of their
01:02:08
lives in prison without the possibility
01:02:11
of parole. And the world didn't end.
01:02:13
Today, George Smith is serving his
01:02:15
sentence at Richard J. Dunovan
01:02:17
Correctional Facility in San Diego. And
01:02:19
Chris Harvin is serving his sentence at
01:02:21
the California State Prison in Bavil.
01:02:24
Russ Harvin, his brother, died from
01:02:26
heart failure in December of 2019. Damn.
01:02:29
But I just think it's absolutely insane
01:02:31
that they went to all this I don't even
01:02:34
want to say like all this trouble. I
01:02:35
don't there's not even a word for it.
01:02:36
All this nonsense, all this chaos, all
01:02:38
this nonsense for money to fortify a
01:02:43
bunker for the end of the world and the
01:02:47
world is still going. It it really and
01:02:49
that's the thing and also that they put
01:02:51
themselves in this position where they
01:02:55
were could easily have been killed to
01:02:57
survive to survive cuz they didn't want
01:03:00
to die. Yep. Like make it make sense.
01:03:05
It's a truly fascinating case. and that
01:03:08
they I don't there's not one part of me
01:03:11
that believes that that was a simple
01:03:14
reason for this because if it was simply
01:03:16
that they would have done what every
01:03:18
other bank robbery was doing at the
01:03:20
time. Run in there, get the money, run
01:03:23
out and go hide somewhere with your
01:03:24
money. I think that's they went so far.
01:03:28
I think they wanted to cause chaos. I
01:03:31
think so too. Yeah, I they were looking
01:03:33
to scare people, to terrorize people.
01:03:35
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. because they
01:03:37
were scared and terrorized. So they
01:03:40
wanted to spread that. Yeah, I think so.
01:03:42
And I think they wanted some kind of
01:03:44
notoriety for sure. Yeah. Which the case
01:03:47
has notoriety. They don't they really
01:03:49
don't get even talked about that much.
01:03:51
Well, nobody knows their names. Nobody
01:03:52
knows their names.
01:03:54
And remember, you know, Jim Evans, you
01:03:57
remember that name? Absolutely you do.
01:03:59
But yeah, [ __ ] those guys. [ __ ] them.
01:04:02
[ __ ] those guys. [ __ ] them. But damn,
01:04:05
what a what a ride. Truly, from start to
01:04:08
finish, it just that case takes off and
01:04:10
you're just like, you're like, I'm
01:04:12
sorry, what? Hello. But it's tragic that
01:04:16
an officer lost his life. And many
01:04:18
others had to spend weeks and weeks
01:04:21
healing from like insane injuries.
01:04:23
People were hit with grenades. That's
01:04:25
funny. And shrapnel and all kinds of
01:04:28
[ __ ] And people had to repair their
01:04:30
homes, their businesses, their cars.
01:04:32
Like imagine that. Like imagine like a
01:04:35
stray bullet comes through your door
01:04:36
like and forget like all the time spent
01:04:39
healing and the you know all of that
01:04:42
just the trauma. Oh yeah. Even for
01:04:45
somebody that that wasn't hit but that
01:04:47
just witnessed that. Exactly. You would
01:04:49
be so fearful to leave your house ever
01:04:51
again. Yeah. Can't imagine. Can't
01:04:53
imagine. No. But damn. With all that
01:04:56
being said, we hope you keep listening
01:04:58
and we hope you keep it weird.
01:05:03
But not as weird as that. If you think
01:05:05
the end of the world is coming, you um
01:05:07
you page Buffy. Exactly. And you know,
01:05:10
if the world is ending, there's nothing
01:05:13
we can do to stop it. That's the thing.
01:05:15
Just ride it out, man. Just five until
01:05:17
then. It's fine. Yeah, we're good. It's
01:05:20
all good. Love you, baby. Love you. Be
01:05:23
more.
01:05:30
[Music]
01:05:37
[Music]