Norco '80 : The True Story of the Most Spectacular Bank Robbery in American History (9781640092136) by Houlahan Peter

Author:Houlahan, Peter
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781640092136
Publisher: Lightning Source Inc
Published: 2019-03-26T16:00:00+00:00

“HOW MUCH DO YOU WEIGH?”

“With or without the lead?” Chris Harven said.

San Bernardino Homicide detective Larry Malmberg lit a cigarette and slid a Miranda waiver in front of him. Harven initialed each of the questions, signed the bottom, and slid it back. The chain-smoking Malmberg was a gruff veteran detective with a thick nose and bags under his eyes from frequent lack of sleep. Beside him in the interview room sat detective Roger Kuhns, who had driven down from the mountain with Harven. “You agree to talk to us about the charges?” Malmberg said.

“Whatever you want, start reeling ’em out,” Chris said.

“Do you know what those charges are?”

“No,” Chris shook his head.

“Bank robbery, numerous assaults on police officers, and a murder of a police officer. You understand those?”

Harven shifted in his seat. “I know what you mean. I just, you know, it’s the first time I heard about a police officer being injured or killed. What was he killed with?”

“A firearm. He was shot.”

“Where did it happen?”

“Lytle Creek area up above Stockton Campgrounds. You want to talk about it?”

“Yeah, whatever I can tell you.”

“You can probably tell us a whole lot, man. Why don’t you start from the beginning.”

“You mean how the whole thing started?”

“There ain’t no place like the beginning, right?”

“Well, I guess,” Chris said. He thought about it. “Might say the whole thing started a couple years ago when my friend George split up with his wife. He went sort of a little nuts after that. He was living with me and my wife and that didn’t work out, so my wife split. I had a job for seven years and they got rid of me so that’s why I’m on unemployment. Manny, his wife’s going to have a baby. He doesn’t have any cash. Billy, he’s got arthritis. He won’t even be able to walk, or wouldn’t have been able to walk, after he was twenty-five. He didn’t have anything to lose. George lost his wife, his job, his family. My brother was against it but he went in just ’cause we’re all friends. I didn’t have to go in on it, but I had a lot of peer group pressure, I guess, so I went along with it. So we went down and hit the Security Pacific.”

“So, all five of you got together and decided that you’d hit a bank. Is that it?” Malmberg asked.

“Well, not really.” Chris shrugged. “I didn’t decide to hit a bank. Russ didn’t decide to hit a bank. Manny didn’t decide to hit a bank. George decided to hit the bank. Believe it or not, before all this started out, I was a reputable citizen. The whole plan was stupid. Why we ever went through with it I’ll never know.”

“So George planned the whole operation?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, it went pretty smoothly for no rehearsal. I mean, you guys went in there like a bunch of professionals from what I understand.”

Chris shook his head. “I thought it was a botched job from the word go.

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