‘Leaping bandit,’ now 83 years old, linked to suburban bank heists
An 83-year-old Kentucky man once known as the “leaping bandit” and an Oak Lawn man he met in prison nearly two decades ago have been linked to a string of bank robberies in the suburbs since June.
Donald “Doc” Bennett, 83, of Campbellsville, Kentucky, and Edward Binert, 55, were arrested at Binert’s home last week in connection with the armed robbery of a Chase bank in Hickory Hills on Valentine’s Day, court records show.
In an affidavit filed Thursday, FBI Special Agent Cassandra Johnson wrote that the Hickory Hills heist fits the pattern of six other robberies that occurred at suburban Chase and Fifth Third banks over the past eight months.
They include the Nov. 1 robbery of a Chase Bank on Roosevelt Road in Lombard, when a suspect described as an older man showed a handgun, demanded money and fled on foot.
Other robberies linked to the investigation, according to the FBI affidavit, occurred June 27 and Aug. 25 in Oak Lawn, Nov. 29 in Willowbrook, Dec. 1 in Tinley Park and Jan. 26 in Glen Ellyn.
According to the affidavit, robbers escaped with more than $42,000 in the two Oak Lawn robberies and another $6,964 from the Hickory Hills bank on Wednesday.
In the most recent heist, authorities said, two men — one armed with a silver handgun — entered the bank just before noon, robbed the business and then left in a silver sedan.
A combination of surveillance footage from the bank and a nearby grocery store, license plate readers, and car rental and phone records led them to Binert’s residence, according to the FBI affidavit.
There, authorities say, investigators found the vehicle believed used in the robbery, as well as a silver, loaded handgun, two black jackets matching those worn by the robbers, a brown wig and a gray hat with hair attached.
They also found license plates used in a previous Oak Lawn robbery, the affidavit states.
Binert later confessed to the robbery in a video-recorded interview, according to the affidavit, and described how he and Bennett met while serving time together in a Michigan prison.
According to ABC 7 and court records, Bennett and a second man were convicted in 1989 for multiple Chicago-area bank robberies. Bennett was sentenced to 50 years in prison, records state, but released in 2020 after serving 31 years, ABC 7 reported.
A November 1987 Associated Press report says Bennett and accomplice Ray Keith earned the nickname the “leaping bandits” for hopping over bank counters to steal money during a five-heist run that netted them more than $83,000 from banks on the South Side of Chicago and the Southwest suburbs.
The pair spent the stolen money on drinking and “Robin Hood”-style handouts to poor people, according to the Associated Press story.
Bennett also was convicted of an assault with a deadly weapon in 1967 in Kentucky, according to ABC 7.
Court records show Bennett remains in custody pending a detention hearing in federal court Thursday.