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'''Larry Eugene Phillips, Jr.,''' ([[September 20]], [[1970]]–[[February 28]], [[1997]]) is best known as one of two men who robbed a [[Bank of America]] in [[North Hollywood]], [[California]] in 1997. He died during the shootout that took place after the robbery, by committing suicide with a handgun. His partner, [[Emil Dechebal Matasareanu]], 30, also died during the gunfight. [[Image:Larry2.jpg|thumb|300px|Larry Eugene Phillips Jr.'s 1993 mugshot.]] |
'''Larry Eugene Phillips, Jr.,''' ([[September 20]], [[1970]]–[[February 28]], [[1997]]) is best known as one of two men who robbed a [[Bank of America]] in [[North Hollywood]], [[California]] in 1997. He died during the shootout that took place after the robbery, by committing suicide with a handgun. His partner, [[Emil Dechebal Matasareanu]], 30, also died during the gunfight. [[Image:Larry2.jpg|thumb|300px|Larry Eugene Phillips Jr.'s 1993 mugshot.]] |
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==History== |
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If anyone could be said to have been born to be a criminal, Larry Eugene Phillips, Jr., was probably it. After all, this was a guy who was conceived on the run from the law, and born under an aka. He had his father to thank for it; young Larry was an acorn that hadn't fallen far from the tree. Phillips's father, Larry Senior, was a two-bit criminal with a record for a gas station robbery and, believe it or not, corpse desecration; for reasons even he probably couldn't fully explain, he and some drunken teenaged buddies had dug up a body in a Colorado cemetery and tried to cut off its head. Sent to a youth reformatory , Larry Senior had escaped and spent the next seven years on the lam, working as a printer under the alias Daniel Ira Warfel. When his son, Larry junior, was born in L.A. in 1970, the last name on the baby boy's birth certificate was his dad's alias, Warfel. Only later would Larry junior learn that his real name was Phillips-although with Phillips, it was always hard to say what was real and what was not. Over his short life he would accumulate a long list of "also known as": Larry Phillips, Larry Warfel, Dennis Franks, Mark Wright, Genis Franks, Larry Martinez, Patrick Davis, Joseph Battaglia; at any given moment, he could be almost anybody. At his daddy's knee, young Larry developed a hatred of cops, federal agents, and authority in general, counterbalanced by admiration for men who operated on the other side of the law. One of Larry's most vivid memories was from when he was six years old. FBI agents showed up at the family's house in Denver and hauled Dad away in handcuffs on a federal fugitive warrant. Larry Senior, of course, blamed the agents, not himself. "He hated cops because of what they did to me," Larry Senior later told the Los Angeles Times. "He knew that every time I came in contact with police, something bad happened." Something else "bad" happened when Larry was thirteen, and his dad got mixed up in a bone-headed counterfeiting scheme that came apart when federal agents found a bag of bogus bills with the name of Larry Senior's printing shop conveniently tucked inside. Still, Larry admired his pop, and adopted his attitudes; he became the kind of guy who never used the word "cops" without putting "fucking" in front of fat.0000 |
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By all accounts Larry junior was a smart enough kid, although not a well-educated one; after moving back to Los Angeles from Colorado with his mother, he dropped out of school after the ninth grade and never went back. A devotee of muscle magazines since his early teens, he started pumping iron, dreaming of becoming the next Arnold Schwarzenegger or Hulk Hogan. Six feet tall and 210 pounds, with dark brown hair and black eyes-a legacy of his Mexican-American mother-Phillips developed the thick, sloping neck and 20-inch biceps of a professional bodybuilder, but overall he didn't have the looks or the style to make a living at it. It was another unrequited fantasy, one of many. Honest work held no appeal, either. |
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Dirt-poor all his life, Phillips had always nursed dreams of being a big shot, with nice clothes and cars and pockets full of money. As a teenager he would drive around the swanky sections of L.A., through Bel Air or Holmby Hills, to stare at the mansions and envy the people inside them. "He despised being poor," his half brother would later say. "For him to see people who were wealthy, and he wasn't, he couldn't accept it. Larry didn't just want a first-class seat on an airplane; he wanted his own Learjet. He didn't just want a mansion in an expensive neighborhood , he wanted his own island, with a castle." They were big dreams for a poor boy, the sort of dreams that found nurturing on late-night get-rich-quick TV infomercials. Phillips was especially drawn to the infomercials featuring Tom Vu, a strange Vietnamese-American man who made his televised pitches from the deck of a yacht, surrounded by babes in bikinis, exhorting his viewers to sign up for his no-capital-required, make-a-bundle-in-real-estate courses. In broken English he challenged his viewers: "You no make money with me, you a loser!" |
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Inspired, Phillips, age twenty and with a pregnant girlfriend to take care of, decided to go into real estate. He passed the state real estate test, but before he got his license the real estate board discovered that Phillips had a criminal record for boosting $400 worth of suits from a Sears store-suits that Phillips had thought he needed to look the part of a real estate whiz. The misdemeanor conviction, which had cost him a fine and three days in the jug, prevented him from getting a license. Phillips was furious, blaming the system, not himself, for his problems. But he went into the real estate business anyway, setting up a shell company called Capital West Investments and using forged documents to sell phony discounted second mortgages without the property owners ' knowledge. When confronted by one of his scam victims, Phillips acted the tough guy, claiming he worked for some big, bad people and telling the victim to keep his mouth shut. The victim didn't buy it- Phillips was just a kid-and called the cops. Phillips slipped away that time, but later he was busted in Orange County for a similar scam; when arrested, he was carrying a 9-mm Glock in his waistband. |
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Phillips narrowly managed to avoid criminal prosecution, but he did wind up with a $140,000 civil judgment against him-that was never paid. The experience didn't set him straight, though. He moved back to Colorado and started a new scam, renting out vacant houses and apartments without the owners' knowledge, and pocketing the deposit and first month's rent he collected from the unsuspecting renters before disappearing . He was busted for that one, too, and eventually he pleaded guilty to one felony count. It was a pissant crime, officially known as "larceny by trick," but then Phillips made it worse. Before he was sentenced , while he was out on bail, he went on the lam-again, like father, like son-and headed back to L.A. In Denver, he left behind his girlfriend and their two young children, who never saw him again. But he took with him Jeanette Federico, a young woman who had known him since he was a kid, and who had a baby daughter of her own. Back in L.A., living under a variety of aliases, Phillips hooked back up with an old buddy his-a huge, lumbering , Baby Huey-type Romanian immigrant named Emil Decebal Matasareanu. These two mismatched social misfits with big dreams and violent tendencies became friends, and would become two of the most famous- and overrated-bank robbers in history. |
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In 1993, the two men were arrested for speeding in [[Glendale, California]]. When a police officer requested Phillips's [[driver's license]], Phillips reportedly told him "I don't have one." When the officer asked for Phillips's name, Phillips responded, "I'd rather not say." The officer decided to pat down Phillips, who was acting suspiciously, and found a 9MM [[Glock]] handgun [[holstered]] at his side. The officer arrested Phillips, as well as Matasareanu, who had been the [[passenger]] in the car. |
In 1993, the two men were arrested for speeding in [[Glendale, California]]. When a police officer requested Phillips's [[driver's license]], Phillips reportedly told him "I don't have one." When the officer asked for Phillips's name, Phillips responded, "I'd rather not say." The officer decided to pat down Phillips, who was acting suspiciously, and found a 9MM [[Glock]] handgun [[holstered]] at his side. The officer arrested Phillips, as well as Matasareanu, who had been the [[passenger]] in the car. |
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Revision as of 00:09, 30 May 2007
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Larry Eugene Phillips, Jr., (September 20, 1970–February 28, 1997) is best known as one of two men who robbed a Bank of America in North Hollywood, California in 1997. He died during the shootout that took place after the robbery, by committing suicide with a handgun. His partner, Emil Dechebal Matasareanu, 30, also died during the gunfight.
In 1993, the two men were arrested for speeding in Glendale, California. When a police officer requested Phillips's driver's license, Phillips reportedly told him "I don't have one." When the officer asked for Phillips's name, Phillips responded, "I'd rather not say." The officer decided to pat down Phillips, who was acting suspiciously, and found a 9MM Glock handgun holstered at his side. The officer arrested Phillips, as well as Matasareanu, who had been the passenger in the car.
When the car was searched, the officers found an arsenal of weapons in the trunk. Two assault rifles, several handguns, ski masks, and ammunition were found in the car's trunk.
Phillips served time in prison for illegal possession of the weapons, and when he was released he and Matasareanu began robbing banks and armored trucks. They robbed two armored cars and two Bank of America branches, getting away with nearly two million dollars. During these robberies, the two men, ready to kill, wore ski masks, goggles, gloves, body armor, and carried fully automatic rifles with 100-round drums of ammunition. "They looked like...monsters. You knew as soon as they came into the bank, they meant business," commented one of the tellers who was in the bank during one of the robberies.
On February 28, 1997, Phillips and Matasareanu prepared for another bank robbery. Phillips had covered himself with body armors made of Kevlar that protected him from his neck to his ankles. He armed himself with a Romanian-made AKM assault rifle.
Once inside the bank, Phillips's accomplice entered the vault to fill a bag with money. Phillips, standing in the lobby on guard, realized that there were several police officers outside. He and Matasareanu abandoned the heist, getting away with $303,305.00 USD. The bandits opened up fire with their assault weapons; the uniformed police officers, although seriously outgunned, fired back with their issued pistols and shotguns. Phillips and Matasareanu, unaffected by the rounds because of their body armors, kept firing indiscriminately, injuring police officers and civilians. Many officers had a hard time taking shots at them due to the sustained and near-constant gunfire from the criminals.
After a few minutes, Matasareanu entered a white sedan, while Phillips walked beside it and fired at police over the roof of the car. Eventually, Phillips's weapon stovepipe-jammed and he abandonned it instead of clearing the shell out. Phillips walked out from behind the truck and began firing again at police with a 9MM Beretta pistol. He fired four rounds, then his pistol was shot from his hand by a police officer. Phillips had to bend over to pick up his pistol, then pointed it under his chin and pulled the trigger. At the same time an officer's bullet severed his spine.
After Phillips ducked behind a tractor trailor, Matasareanu continued driving slowly, not immediately realizing that his accomplice was not following the car.
Matasareanu threatenned more civilians in order to commandeer their vehicles but they swirved around him without stopping. Seeing the criminal coming his way, a man abandonned his truck, took his keys and turned off the kill switch. Matasareanu decided to move his weapons into the truck before he realized he could not start it. By that time, police officers who kept following him engaged him in his last gunfight. A SWAT team finally arrived and neutralized the second bandit who later died from his wounds.