Original subtitles

He was a bank robber with a style of his own. It was because of the theatrical

makeup he wore where he developed that nickname of Hollywood.

He instilled fear in those who encountered him. He would say, you know,

do this or you're dead. Do this or you're dead. He planned to perfection.

He was a type of guy that did his research.

He left no clues.

His getaways were flawless.

He'd be gone.

He was one of the most creative outlaws in modern America.

I think maybe looked upon himself as somewhat of a Robin Hood.

The 38-year-old Scott Scurlock was a boy who never grew up.

The former model lived and played in the woods outside Seattle, shunning the

workaday world for a more carefree existence.

To friends like Tammy Diamond, Scott was larger than life.

He reminded me of Peter Pan in The Never Never Land. He was very playful, very

earthy.

He was a jokester, mischievous in a fun way.

Handsome and charming, he was always surrounded by admirers. He was dark

-skinned and had beautiful eyes.

He had lovely sculptural features.

When Scott walked in the room, people noticed.

Scott got by by doing odd jobs, but his real passion in life was the three-story

treehouse he'd built in his own hands.

His longtime neighbor and friend, Anna Schofield, remembers.

I think the treehouse embodied his spirit of being both creative and close

to nature, but also able to put something together structurally.

It wasn't just a drawing. It was an actual place to live.

It was a magical place where you felt at home right away.

You didn't need permission to be there. It was a welcoming spot.

And it was a place where Scott could live out his fantasies.

He used to swing from ropes and make his Tarzan calls. I think he had a bit of a

fantasy of himself as a Tarzan. He was a very handsome man and bright, extremely

bright. He was known as Treehouse Scott.

He had a small clan that he felt very protective of.

I think of him as a brother, and at times in my life where I needed help or

support, he was there to help me.

But there was also a dark side to Scott Scurlock and a brewing sense of anger.

Seattle in the 90s was experiencing a high-tech gold rush from his beloved

treehouse steep in the woods.

Scott started to resent what he saw of the new millionaires and their

materialistic way of life.

He liked nature.

He did not like people who raped nature.

He was one of those people that went around and pulled for sale signs off of

lots. He was someone that messed with logging companies that were going to

mess with old-growth forests.

With bank branches popping up all over Seattle, There seemed to be lots of cash

around, just ripe for the taking.

The city was fast becoming a hotspot for bank robbers.

The bank robbers that were occurring here were as common as an espresso cart

was on a street corner.

We were number three in the country for bank robbers at that time.

Scott was fascinated by the robbers' exploits and believed that the banks got

what they deserved.

He saw the banks as...

An entity that was insured and that was probably using other people.

And that he disliked.

So Scott Scurlock decided to become a bank robber.

Scott called an old college friend, Mark Biggins.

Mark was a poet, a guitar player, very light-hearted.

He was someone that would pull out his guitar.

He sat around the fire.

One evening, after a few beers, Scott told Mark about his plan to rob a bank.

Scott had a small arsenal of weapons and believed the two could pull a simple

stick-em-up out of town.

Mark agreed for a percentage of the take.

Only two days later, on March 26, 1992, Scott and Mark put the plan into action.

He did a robbery which was similar to the movie Point Break, where he wore

presidential masks.

They weren't quite sophisticated as he eventually became.

But the whole operation was a disaster.

They only got $15,000 from the tellers and ran into trouble outside.

Mark flooded the engine of their getaway car.

They narrowly escaped on foot.

Mark was traumatized.

Scott was hooked.

I think Scott got to enjoy the bank robbing business.

Somewhere along the line, it wasn't the money even so much anymore, but maybe

the adrenaline rush, just the sheer excitement of robbing banks.

Over the next few months, Scott devoted himself to the art of the heist.

Scott liked to do research, and it doesn't surprise me that the police

think that he did quite a bit of research.

On the crimes he committed, his library reflected that in the books that he

kept.

Scott bought criminal manuals by mail order.

Some of the books that he had were How to Change Your Identity, How to Stay Off

Government Lists, FBI, Forensics. He became knowledgeable about bank policy

procedures, locations, police equipment, security equipment, different things

like that.

Most importantly, he taught himself the art of disguise.

He also was artistic, so it was not unusual to see art books in his house.

There was a book about how to make a mask.

Inspired by the film FX, Scott learned how to change his identity with movie

makeup.

He purchased fake noses, latex chins, and a variety of wigs.

If the disguise was good enough, he wouldn't have to worry about witnesses

or surveillance cameras.

He could focus solely on the money.

After a year of detailed research, Scott was ready to get back into bank robbery.

Following a near disastrous first robbery, Scott Scurlock had spent a year

researching the art of the perfect heist. It was time to put his new skills

to the test.

On June 7th, 1993, he and his buddy Mark Biggins stormed the C-First Bank in

northeast Seattle and walked away with $150,000.

From surveillance photos, Seattle police detective Mike McGann could see that

Scott wasn't your average crook.

This bank robber was a very graceful individual.

He was very disciplined. He just stood in front of the teller line and just

leaped up onto it and walked across the teller line directing who he wanted to

do what, where they were to lie down.

The man in the mask quickly earned a nickname with the FBI.

We always give bank robbers a name rather than trying to describe them as a

tall white guy in a hat. So in this case, with the facial disguises and

such, we dubbed him Hollywood.

Between 1992 and 1996, Hollywood took 19 Seattle banks for well over $2 million

and got away with it.

His M.O. was always the same.

Hollywood would generally go in and do what we'd call a takeover-style robbery,

where he'd take command and control of all the people in the bank, witnesses

and the victims, and access the safe as well as the teller line.

Thus, his take would actually be bigger.

On average, Scott stayed in the bank probably four to five minutes.

Four to five minutes, and that was well above and beyond what most Brian Carvers

do. They're probably in for 30 seconds to a minute. But Scott was in there, as

I said, four to five minutes.

And he did it all without leaving any forensic evidence behind.

Hollywood was a riddle for FBI agent Sean Johnson.

Cars that he used were clean, never got a fingerprint out of the bank.

All we had were bank robbery surveillance photographs, which didn't

do us much good because he had on this elaborate facial disguise, and we had no

idea who he was or who he was working with outside of the bank.

Hollywood did his research.

He had inside information about the bank's hours, their operations, security

alarms, security measures, staff.

We liked bad weather. Thought that kind of slowed down the police response a bit

if it was raining and miserable outside.

So far, Hollywood was right.

Police had no idea about the man behind the mask, but they were learning about

the mask itself.

I took some surveillance photographs and had them enhanced, and you could see the

lines in the face where the makeup had been. You could see the extension on the

chin, and it appeared to be an overlay.

Sean Johnson researched possible makeup suppliers.

I checked with local makeup studios, professional artists and such, just to

get an idea of what this makeup may have consisted of, where he could have bought

the various components, and I was told it was probably a mail order. He got

this stuff through mail order.

Hollywood had his makeup shipped in unmarked boxes through a network of

unwitting friends.

Police knew only two things for sure.

Hollywood was a great bank robber and a master makeup artist.

The police wondered how and where he put on his elaborate disguise.

The makeup room was on the main floor of the barn. On the makeup counter there

was these false mustaches, wigs.

um pancake makeup and everything else you need to apply the makeup so it was

it was quite an elaborate setup they would get all uh all disguised up at the

barn jump into the car and drive that hour and hour and a half up to seattle

the police speculated that hollywood must remove his disguise within seconds

using an alcohol water mixture that way while police scoured city streets he

could slip into a cafe unnoticed and wait out the heat

Some banks, I think, were somewhat embarrassed to say they'd been hit by

this guy. And he seemed to be picking on a few banks or a few branches in

particular. He went back and what we call double-tapped a few banks, went

back and hit the same bank twice.

The banks put a $50,000 reward on his head, and the police stepped up their

investigation.

By this time, we had numbers of about 45 people actually working the case.

and we wanted to have as much information or background intelligence

on the bank robber or robbers themselves.

But to Hollywood, the reward was a challenge he couldn't refuse.

With the public focused on his antics and authorities closing in, it was time

for Hollywood to stage the biggest bank heist of his career.

He met with his former accomplice, Mark Biggins, and an old friend named Steve

Myers at his treehouse.

There he revealed his master plan and their roles in it.

Mark's job was to stay in the lobby, maintain crowd control.

Scott's job was to go back, get the cash out of the vault, and get out of that

bank as soon as possible.

And Steve's job, as he was outside in the car, was to listen to the police

scanner, know when the police were going to be showing up, and to radio in to

Scott when to leave.

Myers listened to police scanners for weeks until he knew all the codes and

alerts used to respond to a robbery.

At the same time, Hollywood's gang cased bank branches all over Seattle's

wealthiest suburbs.

They would scout out, do surveillance on the banks.

They knew when the employees showed up for work. They knew when they were

leaving at the end of the day. They knew which times of the day there were a lot

of customers or people in the bank.

They knew when the armored cars showed up at the banks, so there might be more

money than usual.

They took everything to the last degree and knew exactly what they were going to

encounter when they went in the bank.

Hollywood's gang settled on a large branch of Seafirst Bank in the trendy

neighborhood of Lake City.

They would hit on the afternoon before Thanksgiving.

The vaults would be full with Christmas shopping money.

The bank would be lightly staffed.

Everything was in place for the haul of Hollywood's career.

Hollywood was confident that nothing could go wrong.

On November 27th, 1996, the afternoon before Thanksgiving, Scott Scurlock,

also known as the Hollywood Bank Robber, prepared for his biggest role to date.

By his side were his accomplices Mark Biggins and Steve Myers.

They all wore Hollywood's trademark disguise, latex facial features, wigs,

and makeup.

So it was well after 5 o'clock, getting on close to 6 o'clock is when he robbed

this bank.

And as usual, I'd driven up from Olympia, taken Mark and Steve with him,

taken his van, drove to the bank. Steve waited at a location nearby.

And as Mark and Scott walked into the bank, that's when it all started to

happen.

Scott had chosen Seafirst Bank in Lake City because it was large, wealthy.

and full of holiday spending money they estimated they had about three minutes

to clear out the bank once inside scott was all business he was very to the

point and don't move or you're dead don't do this or you're dead just came

in and completely took everything over and had everyone under control and he

was very quick and very to the point the robbery went

like clockwork

Scott first demanded that the tellers empty their drawers.

He didn't want any marked bills or die packs.

The tellers complied.

And after he cleared out all the teller drawers, he demanded someone to open up

the vault.

So the operations supervisor had the keys to the vault and opened everything

up for him back there.

Once in the vaults, Hollywood came face to face with more money than he'd ever

seen.

Three million dollars.

He had the teller help him load up his bag.

Biggins made sure that no one entered or left the bank.

Hollywood radioed Myers for an update on the police.

He wasn't in there a whole long time, but he had a walkie-talkie. He was

talking to another person in a car.

He kept saying, you know, you have so many minutes, you have so many minutes.

Basically told him what was going on outside.

Hollywood's bag was crammed with over a million dollars when he got a panicked

call from Myers.

Someone inside the bank had triggered a silent alarm.

The police were on their way.

They had less than 60 seconds to make their getaway.

At about 5.45 p.m. Thanksgiving Eve, the alert tones went out that, in fact,

there had been a bank robbery in northeast Seattle.

I was on my way home. I got a page from the office indicating there had been a

bank robbery at C-First Bank.

Based on the description that I heard and others at the office heard, we knew

that it was Hollywood.

The robbers piled into their getaway vehicles in the nick of time.

But there would be no high-speed chase.

For once, Hollywood's meticulous planning betrayed him.

The foul weather, which he normally favored, was now slowing him down.

But being Thanksgiving Eve, traffic was at gridlock on the interstate. It was 60

-mile-an-hour wind gusts, torrential downpours, thunder and lightning.

Worst-case scenario at that time, what I did is hop down the shoulder of the

freeway and access the shoulder the entire way to northeast Seattle.

Meantime, the getaway driver made a fatal error and took a wrong turn

leaving the bank.

He drove straight into the traffic jam.

The bank robbers were now sitting ducks, and Detective Mike McGann was closing

in.

With my luck, I fell in behind that van. We asked to have what we call a felony

stop or a high-risk stop done on that car.

As McGann and his fellow officers drove near the van, Hollywood and his gang

attempted an inconspicuous escape through neighborhood streets.

And what they did is they just slowly took off.

And I mean 15, 20 miles an hour until they came to a rest on a side street,

which was maybe just several hundred feet away from when I first spotted the

van.

Hollywood's van swerved off the road and into a dead end.

A SWAT team blockaded the van.

Then McGann saw a semi-automatic rifle aimed at him from someone in the

driver's seat.

I took aim with my pistol and shot eight rounds into the back left door of the

van, thinking that I could get the driver.

Little did I know, there was a person behind the left door of the van, and

that was Biggins.

From inside the van, the wounded bank robbers unloaded their weapons at the

police.

Myers and Biggins fired.

What we counted was 37 rounds of 9mm at me and my car. Still, with their wounds,

they were able to fire their handguns at me and my co-workers.

And we engaged in a volley of fire.

Myers got out of the van, still holding a gun, and officers had directed him to

drop the gun, and again he was shot a second time.

He fell to the ground.

The SWAT team stormed the van.

Biggins and Myers were arrested, but Hollywood was nowhere to be seen.

The elusive mastermind had escaped during the gunfight.

Unbeknownst to me, Hollywood had run down an alley southbound from that

location and basically disappeared.

The police found the loot, over a million dollars in bloodstained bills,

but there wasn't a single clue that could lead them to Hollywood.

It was again, it was just like he disappeared into thin air.

Would this escape turn out to be a Hollywood ending for Scott Scurlock?

Following a police shootout after a bank robbery, Scott Scurlock, also known as

Mr. Hollywood, had vanished.

His accomplices had been arrested.

and quickly confessed Hollywood's true identity to the police.

Authorities were now on the lookout for Scott Scurlock all over the city.

In fact, Scott was lying low only a few hundred yards from the scene of the

shootout. He had taken refuge overnight in an abandoned camper in the backyard

of Seattle resident Wilma Walker.

The next morning...

it was on television that there was the robber was around somewhere then my son

came over and he said i wonder if he could be in that camper he had parked

his camper out in the backyard and then he said oh i see him he's in there he

has dark curly hair so he came in the house and called the police at

first the police thought the figure inside the van was a vagrant

Then they saw Mr.

Hollywood's shadowy figure, his gun at the ready.

He could have fired at the police, but Hollywood's story had a surprise ending.

They finally found him. He had shot

himself.

Scott's accomplices, Mark Biggins and Steve Myers, got 18 years each for their

crimes.

But prison was not an option for Scott.

The boy who never grew up did not want to grow old behind bars.

He was the best bank robber that I knew in my 16-year career.

The suicide brought Scott Scurlock's short life to a dramatic Hollywood

ending.

Thanks.