Bandits
The three men selected were known for their criminal prowess and experience. Richie Gillette was from Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn. He was 39 years-old and about 6 feet tall. He had a 12 page long arrest sheet for drug possession and bribery, amongst other offenses. Gillette had not held down a steady job since 1996 and had a 17 year-old son to support as well as his drug habit.
Gillette selected two of his friends, Melvin Folk and Mike Reed. Folk was a 44 year-old alcoholic; he had drug and alcohol problems, and he, his wife, and son had been homeless for months since their Queens house burned down.
Reed was a 34 year-old heroin abuser, whose parents had died of heroin overdoses when he was 8; his Grandmother raised him. In the Bishop Boardman Apartments in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, he had been found to be thieving from elderly residents and was forced to leave. Just before the robbery, he had stolen a homeless man's food stamps.
The reason Guarino picked such undesirables was that he could encourage them to believe that if ever they informed on him or anyone else, or failed, they could be murdered by the Mafia. Guarino was persuasive and they truly believed that he was a high-ranking mobster.
Read more about this topic: 1998 Bank Of America Robbery
Famous quotes containing the word bandits:
“The world perishes not from bandits and fires, but from hatred, hostility, and all these petty squabbles.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)