December 18, 2012
Story by 89 WLS reporter Bill Cameron
The manhunt for two bank robbers who escaped the feds downtown jail is still underway.
After dropping 15 floors down the side of the MCC on a rope made of bed sheets, the bad guys headed for Tinley Park. The mother of one of them lives there. The landlord told what he heard happened there, "The upstairs tenants were just telling me about it. He came there and he was already high. He went and scored somewhere this morning and he came to the house and took the gun away from the son and then she went to work."
Also going to work were the FBI, U.S. Marshals, and local law enforcement with a massive manhunt.
© Content Copyright 2012 WLS Radio 890AM and WLSAM.com. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Story by 89 WLS reporter Bill Cameron
A massive manhunt continues for two armed and dangerous bank robbers who escaped from the federal jail downtown.
A SWAT team raided the Tinley Park home of one of a relative of one, but didn't find them.
Looks like these guys knocked a hole in the wall at the MCC and made their escape by shimmying down about 15 stories on a rope made out of bed sheets.
You may have heard of one of them, according to the FBI's Joan Hyde, "Joseph Jose Banks was known as the Secondhand Bandit. He was given this name because of his habit of wearing what appeared to be used clothing. He was recently convicted in a jury trial in the northern district of Illinois and was awaiting sentencing."
And on that occasion he told the judge he'd be hearing about him later...and we are.
© Content Copyright 2012 WLS Radio 890AM and WLSAM.com. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Story by 89 WLS reporter Bill Cameron
Two dangerous prisoners have escaped from the federal jail in the Loop.
The FBI is co-coordinating a wide spread manhunt for two convicted bank robbers. FBI special agent Joan Hyde says they somehow escaped from the Metropolitan Correction Center downtown.
"The first is Jose Banks. The second is Kenneth Conley," says Hyde. "And we believe the two are still travelling together. They were last seen this morning in the Tinley Park area. We are concerned that they are armed and dangerous. We would hope that anybody having information on their whereabouts would reach out either to the FBI local office or to local law enforcement."
And the number to call at the FBI is 312-421-6700.
© Content Copyright 2012 WLS Radio 890AM and WLSAM.com. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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SWAT teams appeared to have come up empty-handed Tuesday after they burst into a Tinley Park home that two escaped bank robbers were believed to have possibly visited.
Earlier Monday, police had closed off nearby streets around the home and pushed back onlookers before entering a side entrance to the house with a dog.
Just after noon, SWAT team members were wrapping up their work at the scene.
The bank robbers ” including one who vowed to a federal judge just last week, "You'll hear from me!" escaped Tuesday morning from the federal jail in the Loop by apparently knocking out part of a cinder-block wall at the base of a window and climbing down 17 stories on a rope made of bed sheets along the south side of the building.
The inmates, who shared the same cell, are Jose Banks, the so-called Secondhand Bandit who was convicted last week of four bank heists, and Kenneth Conley, a former strip club floor host who pleaded guilty in October to robbing about $4,000 from a bank in Homewood.
During his trial, Banks had to be strapped to a chair at one point and vowed he would seek retribution, telling the judge, "You'll hear from me!"
The men were discovered missing about 8:45 a.m. Tuesday from their cell, which is on the 17th floor of the Metropolitan Correctional Center at 71 W. Van Buren St., authorities said. The inmates were last seen during a check at 5 a.m., wearing orange jumpsuits, police said
The inmates could now be wearing white T-shirts, gray sweatpants and white gym shoes, police said.
Banks, 37, is described as a black man, 5-feet-8, weighing 160 pounds, and Conley, 38, is described as white man, 6-feet-tall, weighing 185 pounds. Police said both men should be considered dangerous.
Banks made headlines earlier this month when he decided to represent himself at trial despite not being a lawyer.
Banks is considered one of the most prolific bank robbers in Chicago history and was dubbed the "Secondhand Bandit" because of thrift store clothes he would wear at some robberies.
During his trial at one point, he tried to leave, and court security strapped him to a chair, prompting Banks to say he felt like "Hannibal Lecter."
Banks argued at trial that he is a "Moorish national" who is not bound by federal law. Prosecutors presented video evidence, DNA evidence recovered from a fake beard and $40,000 in new, sequentailly numbered bills recovered from a security safe deposit box held in his name.
A jury took just two hours to convict Banks of four bank robberies on Thursday. In all, Banks is suspected in more than 20 robberies between 2004 and 2008.
Conley, of Tinley Park, is a former Chicago Heights strip club employee who robbed the Homewood bank on May 13 last year.
He stole $3,969 from an MB Financial Bank inside the Walt's Food Center at 2345 W. 183rd St..
Conley went into the bank early that afternoon, wearing a black suit, white dress shirt and silver or white tie and began talking to a teller about a mortgage. He left but returned to the teller a few minutes later, yelling that he "had lost $25,000."
Conley then showed the butt of a black pistol in his waistband to a teller, said the gun was loaded with six bullets, made a threat and demanded the money in the drawer, according to a cirminal complaint.
Later that day, Conley showed up at Club 390, where he worked as a floor host, flashing an unusually large amount of cash, and he repaid a $500 loan to a co-worker. Conley then stayed at the club for about 30 minutes before leaving and saying he had to catch a flight to Bermuda the following day.
Conley was arrested in Chicago Heights six days after the robbery for allegedly pointing a gun at someone while driving a gold Land Rover, and Chicago Heights police recovered a black BB gun, the complaint says.
Police later found clothing in the vehicle matching the clothing worn by the bank robber.
Conley told authorities on May 25 that he did not commit the robbery. He then went missing until he was arrested in September last year in California.
He pleaded guilty October 29 on the eve of trial and was scheduled to be sentenced in January.
The men, traveling together, were believed to be last seen near a home in Tinley Park where Conley has family, authorities said.
Initial police presence near the Tinley Park home was minimal before about three dozen law enforcement vehicles converged on the scene about 11:30 a.m.
"One police car just went down the street," said a neighbor of Conley's family's home, who asked not to be identified. "We have a church next door ” [the officer] went in the church and out and went back out again. That's all."
St. George Catholic Church and school is next door to the home of what is believed to be Conley's mother.
A man inside the church said he did know hear anything about the escape until a reporter told him. A funeral had been taking place at the church.
The principal of St. George School, which is in session today, was also surprised to hear that a potentially dangerous man could be in the area. He said authorities told no one at the school anything about it.
Earlier Monday morning, Chicago police searched a parking garage near the jail with K-9 units and a nearby Greyhound Bus station as well.
About 9:30 a.m., police swarmed into the downtown bus station. Travelers waiting inside said about 15 officers arrived.
One man transferring from one bus to another was briefly handcuffed and detained. Police looked at photocopied images of the MCC escapees, while asking the man for his identification and his travel plans, witnesses said.
"He was so calm and peaceful," said Joy Dean, 21, a North Sider heading to Champaign. "He didn't give them an attitude. We all were standing here feeling sorry for him. He missed his bus."
Damien Wilson, 21, was in one of the toilet stalls at the Greyhound station when police came charging in.
"They came in, shaking all the stalls," said Wilson, who just returned to the city after visiting relatives in Milwaukee.
Wilson said police apologized for interrupting him.
Outside the MCC, bystanders snapped cellphone photos of the police activity and compared the situation to a movie.
"Never in my whole life I thought I was going to witness this," said Hugo Munoz of Blue Island.
Escapes from the facilityMCC are rare.
Two inmates escaped from the sixth floor of the MCC in 1985. Bernard Welch and Hugh Colomb were being housed in the witness quarters of the MCC because they were telling officials about supposed escape plans being hatched in prisons in Downstate Marion and in Atlanta. In reality, Welch and Colomb were making their own escape plans, and they figured it would be easier to escape from the witness quarters.
The inmates smuggled a barbell from the workout area into the cell they shared and punched a hole in the cinder-block wall. They used a 75-foot cord connected to a floor buffer to rappel down the wall to the grassy plaza below.
Three months later, Welch was arrested in Greensburgh, Pa., in a stolen BMW. Two months after that, Colomb was arrested in Canton, Miss., after he robbed a bank, dropped a shotgun and entered a furniture store and tried to pose as a customer.
--Sun-Times
© Copyright 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC
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