Midwest Bank Robbers

The Midwest Bank Robbers is the name given to a criminal group active in the United States in the early 1990s. The group is alleged to have associated with convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh in the months before the Oklahoma City bombing.

In February, 2004, the FBI announced they would revisit the Oklahoma City bombing case after learning investigators, working to solve bank robberies attributed to the Midwest Bank Robbers, had found blasting caps the same as those McVeigh allegedly stole from a quarry to use in the April 19 attack. Investigators also found the driver's license of Roger Moore, an Arkansas gun dealer who was robbed before the attack. Prosecutors in the Oklahoma City bombing case alleged the robbery had funded the bombing.

In the months before the bombing a Georgia sheriff released one of the bank robbers to the custody of the Secret Service. The sheriff said the Secret Service were seeking the man's help in another investigation involving Michael William Brescia, a member of the Midwest Bank Robbers who is said to have elite military experience. This contention is almost certainly false as Brescia transitioned from his life as a college student to a right wing cultist almost immediately and never entered the military at any point. Brescia's primary interaction with the right wing militia movement appears to have been spawned by a teenage interest in racist skinhead music. Indeed, Brescia was a drummer for such a band throughout high school, and became more actively political after he entered LaSalle University in the fall of 1990. The informant escaped from his handlers and allegedly joined the gang. Investigators tracked the gang to Elohim City (an Aryan Nations base rather than a city) in early 1993 at a time when McVeigh was also known to be in the area. An Arkansas highway patrolman ticketed McVeigh for speeding only miles from Elohim City at a time when the gang of bank robbers were also there. Telephone records showed McVeigh made several calls to Elohim City before the bombing.

Shortly after the bombing an ATF informer, Carolyn Howe, told reporters that she had been at Elohim City just weeks prior to the attack and while there had heard talk of a major bombing in the works.

Together with Brescia, Mark William Thomas, Richard Lee Guthrie Jr., Peter Kevin Langan, Kevin McCarthy, and Scott Stedeford were indicted in the robbery spree on January 30, 1997. Brescia, McCarthy, Guthrie, and Thomas pleaded guilty and co-operated with authorities. Stedeford and Langan were convicted but faced further charges. Guthrie later hanged himself in prison. The robbers often made false bomb threats at other locations to distract police when they planned a robbery. Brescia admitted to being occasionally armed with a pipe bomb or similar devices during the robberies and to setting off smoke bombs to cover the robbers' getaway.

Langan and Guthrie allegedly robbed at least 18 banks during a two year period before Langan was arrested following a shootout with police in Columbus, Ohio in January, 1996. A search of storage lockers and places the pair had visited turned up promotional and recruiting material for the Aryan Republican Army. More than $250,000 in robbery proceeds were never recovered. The FBI investigated at the time whether the money had been used to fund violent right-wing activities.

Mark Thomas has since renounced his Aryan supremacy beliefs.

External links

* [http://www.web.apc.org/~ara/documents/news/bank.html Philadelphia Inquirer report of trials]
* [http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/crime/criminals/aryan-republican-army/] "Aryan Republican Army" at rotten.com library