Dallas - JL Hunter "Red" Rountree, the United States'(US) oldest known bank robber has died in a prison hospital. He was 92.
Rountree turned to crime in his 80s and said the robberies made him feel good.
A spokesperson for the US Medical Centre for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, said on Tuesday Rountree was transferred there shortly after his sentencing in January for a bank hold-up in Abilene, Texas, when he was 91. He died on October 12, two months shy of his 93rd birthday.
The Abilene job was the last of three bank robberies Rountree began in 1998, when he was 86. Earlier in 2004, he said he walked slowly to a teller's window, handed over an envelope indicating his intent and was greeted with a surprised, "Are you kidding?".
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The teller complied anyway, but Rountree was later caught and sentenced to 12-and-a-half years in prison - a death sentence for a man of his age.
"You want to know why I rob banks?" he once said. "It's fun. I feel good for sometimes days, for sometimes hours."
Born on December 11 1911 near Brownsville, Texas, Rountree was once a successful businessman, a relative said.
Before that, he had a business bank loan turn sour and the bitterness stayed with him, he indicated in prison.
In 1998, Rountree robbed a bank in Mississippi and was sentenced to three years' probation, fined $260 (about R1 500) and told to leave the state. A year later, he robbed a bank in Florida and was sentenced to three years behind bars. He was released in 2002. Then last year he robbed a third bank in Abilene.
He was buried in a cemetery near the prison. - Sapa-AP
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This article was originally published on page 4 of The Star on November 24, 2004
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