210:. He called the bank's guard room using a street-level security phone. Guard William McCullum Jr. responded by riding the elevator up from the guard room. When the elevator doors opened, the gunman forced McCullum to ride to the subbasement area of the bank. There, the gunman killed McCullum, hid his body in a storage room, and took his electric pass card. The killer made his way through the bank tunnels and up one floor to the bank's basement-level area, which housed the vault and guard station.
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killed. Investigators believed a third guard, Todd Wilson, returned to the area during or immediately after the shooting. Upon his return, Wilson was shot several feet away from the battery room where
Mankoff and McCarthy lay. Upon investigation, police determined the shooter fired eighteen shots during the killing spree, hitting his victims with all except one of them. None of the four murdered bank guards were armed.
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guards, but left the other bank employees unharmed, since the guards were unarmed and did not present any more of a threat than the other employees at the scene. Police quickly determined the man could not have been bank Vice
President Robert Bardwell, the name the robber used to gain entry at the freight elevator, as the real Bardwell was vacationing in the mountains with his family at the time.
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map of the bank building interior in a folder marked "plans", and five phony ID cards, containing King's picture with different aliases. These phony ID cards would be suppressed by a judge and not included as evidence in his trial, on grounds that it was never established King had ever used them in any illegal activity, nor could they be connected in any way to the robbery and murders.
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James Prado, the former head of bank security, testified that the mantrap had not been installed in the tower until after King had stopped working there, meaning he would not have known how to expertly manipulate it as the robber did. Prado also testified the map of the bank found in King's house was
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From the beginning of the robbery investigation, authorities suspected that the killer was associated in some way with the bank. There was also some suspicion that the robber may have been a police officer due to having fired eighteen rounds, a standard load carried by officers on duty. Investigators
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King had carried a .38 Colt
Trooper as his service revolver when he was a police officer, which he kept after his retirement and had also used as his duty weapon when he worked at the bank. It was the same type of weapon used in the crime. Police had not found the weapon in King's house. When asked
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a year after he retired from the force, and still had substantial debt in 1991, including $ 25,000 in credit card bills. King was arrested on the evening of July 4, 1991. A search of his house found no physical evidence connecting him to the robbery. The only suspicious things found were a detailed
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The eighteen bullets fired at the crime scene came from five different brands of manufacturers. It was highly unusual for one gun used in one crime to fire so many different brands of bullets. In the Denver Police, it was a common practice for police to deposit spare rounds in "bullet buckets" and
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When asked where he was during the robbery, King said he had gone to the
Capitol Hill Community Center for a match with the Denver Chess Club. However, none of the employees there remembered seeing him or remembered anyone asking about a chess match that day, and the Denver Chess Club had not held
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Electronic records indicated that the intruder opened the vault door at 9:48 a.m. At that time, six vault employees were on duty processing cash deliveries. The intruder demanded that the employees cover their eyes and lie on the floor. He ordered the senior vault manager, David
Barranco, to
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During the journey, the intruder set off an alarm at 9:20 a.m. when entering a stairwell. The intruder made his way into the vault area and first entered the guard room. There, the gunman forced two guards, Phillip
Mankoff and Scott McCarthy, into a battery room, where both men were shot and
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FBI Agent Lloyd
Cubbison testified the stolen money measured up to be 1,009 cubic inches, almost the exact amount as the 1,000 cubic inch capacity of King's new safety deposit box, implying King had deliberately stolen a specific amount of money that would fit in the box. Defense attorney Walter
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agents and two dozen detectives. Investigators were baffled as to why the robber never filled the entire satchel with cash, and only stole approximately $ 200,000 – a mere 10% of the more than $ 2 million available in the cash room and vault. They also did not understand why he murdered the four
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that had been removed from his revolver after firing it. The only physical evidence he left behind was the eighteen bullets he fired. The surviving bank employees said the man appeared to be in his late 50s or 60s, wearing a gray sport coat, a white shirt, a multi-colored necktie, blue or gray
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Bank Vice
President Robert Bardwell, whose name had been used by the robber, testified he had previously lost his bank access card, which he had reported missing on August 13, 1990. James King had resigned from the bank on August 12, 1990. He also testified guards routinely patrolled by his
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in his house. King said he had gotten rid of them since he no longer needed them after leaving his job as a bank guard. When asked why he did not return them to the Denver Police
Department when he retired, he said it was because no one there had told him to bring them
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Five of the six surviving bank employees identified King as the robber. However, they only picked him out of a photo lineup on a second viewing, after the police had drawn a hat and sunglasses over the faces on the photos so they would resemble what the robber was
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Eyewitness identification was unreliable. Robinson showed witnesses to the crime a picture of a man disguised with a hat, sunglasses, and a mustache, just like the robber. None of the witnesses could identify him. Robinson then revealed the man was famous actor
234:. The robber made his escape at 9:56 a.m. according to electronic records, leaving the tellers locked in the mantrap. Using a broken spoon found on the mantrap's door sill, the tellers freed themselves approximately 20 minutes after the robbery.
203:– an alarm went off in a basement storage room at the United Bank Tower. Records showed a guard in the control center turned off the alarm and took no further action. It is unknown if this incident had anything to do with the upcoming robbery.
392:, Robert Bardwell said he had never seen King before, and he had not worked weekends at the bank since 1989, which were the only days King worked at the bank. He also said he was not sure of the precise day he had lost his bank access card.
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use those same buckets to load their duty weapons. Since King was a former Denver Police officer and the Denver Police used many different brands of ammo, this would explain why the robber's gun fired so many different ammo brands.
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weekend in 1990. He also lived less than a mile from the United Bank Tower. FBI agents
William McMath and Charles Evans testified that when they went to investigate Yoccum's apartment, they found a closet door secured with
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Gerash objected to his testimony as "wishful thinking", pointing out this did not factor in other items police had found when they searched the box and the dimensions of the money did not match the dimensions of the box.
171:. An estimated $ 200,000 was stolen from the bank. Nearly three weeks later, on July 4, 1991, authorities arrested retired police officer James W. King for the crime. The subsequent trial was broadcast nationally on
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After 53 hours of jury deliberation, King was acquitted of all charges. After the trial, the FBI kept King under observation for years, hoping to find something they could charge him with that was not prevented by
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Before leaving the guard room and entering the vault area, the intruder removed and tampered with evidence so as to eliminate any trace of his identity. The perpetrator seized ten
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questioned current and former bank employees until narrowing their search to James King, a retired Denver police officer and a former guard at the bank. After retiring from the
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James King had plainly visible moles on his face, yet none of the witnesses had mentioned moles in their initial descriptions of the robber to the police or to the police
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fill a satchel with cash from the work stations. Before leaving the scene, the assailant forced the tellers to crawl into a small room near the vault—otherwise known as a
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The United Bank Tower had previously allowed its guards to be armed, but had changed their policy less than a year before the robbery, requiring the guards to be unarmed.
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in 1986, King worked as a part-time guard at the bank between 1989 and 1990, leaving the job ten months before the robbery. King and his wife had declared
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A convicted bank robber named Dewey Calvin Baker had at one point confessed to reporters that he committed the crime, though he later recanted.
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One of King's neighbors testified that she saw him mowing his lawn at the time the bank was robbed. She yelled a Father's Day greeting to him.
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A jury of seven men, five women and two alternates was chosen on the morning of May 19, 1992. The trial began the same day in the afternoon.
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At 9:14 a.m., a man identifying himself as Robert Bardwell, a vice president at the bank, asked for entry into the bank through a side
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Another alternate suspect was former bank guard Paul Yoccum, who had been tried and acquitted for stealing $ 30,000 from a United Bank
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procedure, but they found nothing. King lived what was described as "a hermit's existence" at his home at 665 Juniper Street, in
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None of the witnesses to the crime reported the robber was wearing gloves, yet King's fingerprints were not found at the scene.
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No physical evidence tied King to the crime. Neither the murder weapon nor any of the stolen money had ever been found.
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at a nearby hospice on May 21, 2013, at the age of 77. His wife, who had stayed with him, predeceased him in 2009.
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Seventeen of the robber's eighteen shots hit his victims, implying that the robber was well trained with firearms.
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and eyewitness evidence pointed to King's role in the crime. The arguments presented by the prosecution included:
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167:, Colorado, United States. The perpetrator killed four unarmed bank guards and held up six tellers in the bank's
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In 1997, King's attorney Walter Gerash, along with Phil Goodstein, published a book about the case, entitled
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The large safety deposit box King purchased after the crime was not found to contain anything incriminating.
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a standard map issued to all bank guards, and they were not required to return them upon leaving the job.
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A map of the bank building interior had been found in King's house, inside a folder labeled "plans".
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411:. Inside the closet, they found boxes of .38-caliber and .357-caliber ammunition, as well as a
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King. None of the stolen money was ever found. The crime remains unsolved and is considered a
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King was a former employee of the bank and thus allegedly understood the security systems.
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and shooting that took place on Sunday, June 16, 1991, at the United Bank Tower (now the
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Murders in the Bank Vault: The Father's Day massacre and the trial of James King
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Murders in the Bank Vault: The Father's Day massacre and the trial of James King
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Four months after the verdict, Paul Yoccum died of a heart attack at age 52.
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Murders in the Bank Vault: The Father's Day Massacre and Trial of James King
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Police also did not find King's Denver police department-issued gun belt or
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766:"URGENT Former Police Sergeant Acquitted in Slayings of Four Bank Guards"
604:"James King, key figure in mystery of Denver Father's Day Massacre, dies"
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where it was, King said he disposed of it because of a cracked cylinder.
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Wells Fargo Center in Denver, site of the Father's Day Bank Massacre.
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hat and mirrored sunglasses, and had a bandage on his left cheek.
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against King. The prosecution contended that several pieces of
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Prior to leaving the scene, the robber collected all the spent
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221:, bank keys, a two-way radio, and pages of the guard logbook.
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The ensuing police investigation involved more than forty
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matches at the Capitol Hill Community Center for years.
551:"19 years later, Denver bank massacre still a mystery"
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Denver Deputy District Attorney Bill Buckley led the
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199:At approximately 4 a.m on Sunday, June 16, 1991 –
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16:1991 bank robbery and shooting in Denver, Colorado
832:"Father's Day Massacre at the Denver United Bank"
809:"Father's Day Massacre at the Denver United Bank"
748:"Father's Day Massacre at the Denver United Bank"
704:"Father's Day Massacre at the Denver United Bank"
686:"Father's Day Massacre at the Denver United Bank"
573:"Murderous robber had detailed knowledge of bank"
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511:"Denver's Father's Day Massacre, 20 years later"
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965:Mass murder in the United States in the 1990s
356:King. The key elements of their case were:
352:Attorneys Walter Gerash and Scott Robinson
945:Unsolved mass murders in the United States
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317:King shaved his mustache after the crime.
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935:1991 mass shootings in the United States
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175:. After days of deliberation, the jury
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905:1991 murders in the United States
626:, New Social Publications, 1997.
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56:9:14 a.m. – 9:56 a.m. (MDT)
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509:Burnett, Sara (June 29, 2011).
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192:Bank entry and murder of guards
970:Massacres in the United States
920:Robberies in the United States
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250:Arrest and trial of James King
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940:Deaths by firearm in Colorado
549:Romero, John (May 24, 2010).
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225:Holdup of tellers and robbery
469:William McCullum Jr., age 33
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153:Father's Day Bank Massacre
22:Father's Day Bank Massacre
624:Murders in the Bank Vault
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960:1990s crimes in Colorado
324:the day after the crime.
320:King purchased a larger
265:Denver Police Department
925:Mass murder in Colorado
783:Gerash, Walter (1997).
722:Gerash, Walter (1997).
466:Phillip Mankoff, age 41
876:39.74361°N 104.98528°W
472:Scott McCarthy, age 21
187:Timeline of bank heist
881:39.74361; -104.98528
527:on February 24, 2020
872: /
475:Todd Wilson, age 21
322:safety deposit box
161:Wells Fargo Center
910:Massacres in 1991
668:"A Bloody Sunday"
652:, August 5, 1991.
644:"A Bloody Sunday"
513:. The Rap Sheet.
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441:Golden, Colorado
279:Prosecution case
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208:freight elevator
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529:. Retrieved
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404:Memorial Day
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516:Denver Post
285:prosecution
118:Perpetrator
93:.38-caliber
75:mass murder
62:Attack type
894:Categories
867:104°59′7″W
864:39°44′37″N
836:Cold Cases
813:Cold Cases
794:0962216968
752:Cold Cases
733:0962216968
690:Cold Cases
672:PEOPLE.com
553:. Denver:
480:References
269:bankruptcy
219:videotapes
169:cash vault
145:Not guilty
137:James King
42:Downtown,
409:handcuffs
181:cold case
177:acquitted
531:July 25,
445:dementia
354:defended
296:wearing.
173:Court TV
39:Location
770:AP NEWS
461:Victims
339:office.
232:mantrap
142:Verdict
134:Accused
129:Robbery
121:Unknown
110:Injured
89:Weapons
70:Robbery
791:
730:
649:People
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521:Denver
421:batons
244:fedora
165:Denver
155:was a
126:Motive
102:Deaths
44:Denver
425:alibi
388:Upon
311:back.
163:) in
789:ISBN
728:ISBN
628:ISBN
555:KDVR
533:2021
415:and
151:The
51:Date
577:UPI
402:on
400:ATM
256:FBI
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