I’m Robert Riggs and in this episode, I take you inside the crime scene tape of the once bank robbery capital of the world.

In 1997, I was in the Los Angeles office of the FBI’s bank robbery squad, reporting on an epidemic of violent take-over bank robberies. 

Veteran FBI Agent xpm-1988-12-06-me-737-story.html">Bill Rehder pointed to a wall plastered with bank surveillance photos.

clad head to toe in black body armor and armed with assault rifles. 

Rehder focused on two heavily armed gunmen he had dubbed “The Hi Incident Bandits.” 

He ominously told me that they were not just dressed for a bank robbery but for a confrontation.

Indeed a month later, the pair shot it out with police after robbing a bank in North Hollywood.

The running gun battle lasted 44 minutes. The pair were armed with thousands of rounds of ammunition and fully automatic assault rifles.

It was a case of life imitating art.

Two years earlier, the movie Heat featured a similar paramilitary-style robbery and shootout in LA.

Written and directed by interview-michael-mann.aspx">Michael Mann, Heat is a classic American crime film. It pits pacino-the-godfather.html">Al Pacino as an LAPD detective against Robert De Niro, who plays a career thief and the gang's leader.

Now, Mann has teamed up with award-winning author Meg Gardiner to write a suspenseful novel titled Heat 2.

It tells the back story of the character in the years before and after the iconic movie.

Meg Gardiner is my guest on this episode of True Crime Reporter®.

Links to Robert's Bank Robbery TV News Reports:

https://youtu.be/NC6QZKP_F5Q

https://youtu.be/M9BcS1DFFXc

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