This guy, AND the judicial system, need numerous clue-bat applications. I think he just finally got one.
80-year-old bank robber sentenced to 13 years for heist
FORT LAUDERDALE -- An 80-year-old career bank robber and escape artist, now needing a walker to get around, will serve 13 years in prison for pulling off a bank heist last year, a judge ruled.
Forrest "Woody" Tucker, whose criminal career dates back to the mid-1930s, was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge Daniel T.K. Hurley for the $5,600 bank holdup in Jupiter on April 22, 1999.
Tucker pleaded guilty in May to a count of bank robbery and his attorney had asked for him to be put on house arrest because of his poor health. Tucker has severe cardiac problems and had a heart attack only a few weeks ago.
Hurley decided Tucker was too dangerous to be confined to his home.
"Mr. Tucker is a man who has been an armed robber for most of his life and the danger he poses to the community has not diminished," Hurley said.
Tucker told the judge he had to resume his life of crime because he needed money to pay for the credit card bills of a friend with terminal cancer who ended up hospitalized. When the friend couldn't pay the hospital bill, Tucker said he helped sneak him out and dropped him off in the Everglades to kill himself.
Hurley said he didn't believe the crimes were committed by someone who was "mixed-up." He pointed out that when Tucker was arrested he had disguises, guns, handcuffs, a police scanner, Mace and electrical tape in his trunk.
Charles White, Tucker's attorney, said that Tucker's body and soul had been broken by the past 19 months behind bars.
"Whatever fight he had in him is gone," White said.
FBI agents and police arrested Tucker hours after the Jupiter robbery last spring, following a car chase through his Pompano Beach neighborhood.
Tucker has a reputation for prison breaks -- he boasts he has busted out 18 times. The most publicized escape was in 1979, when Tucker and two other inmates paddled away from San Quentin in a kayak built out of plastic sheeting, Formica, wood and duct tape.
Tucker and an old prison buddy were captured in 1983 after a bullet-riddled chase on Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard. He didn't get out of prison for another 10 years.
© The News Chief
80-year-old bank robber sentenced to 13 years for heist
FORT LAUDERDALE -- An 80-year-old career bank robber and escape artist, now needing a walker to get around, will serve 13 years in prison for pulling off a bank heist last year, a judge ruled.
Forrest "Woody" Tucker, whose criminal career dates back to the mid-1930s, was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge Daniel T.K. Hurley for the $5,600 bank holdup in Jupiter on April 22, 1999.
Tucker pleaded guilty in May to a count of bank robbery and his attorney had asked for him to be put on house arrest because of his poor health. Tucker has severe cardiac problems and had a heart attack only a few weeks ago.
Hurley decided Tucker was too dangerous to be confined to his home.
"Mr. Tucker is a man who has been an armed robber for most of his life and the danger he poses to the community has not diminished," Hurley said.
Tucker told the judge he had to resume his life of crime because he needed money to pay for the credit card bills of a friend with terminal cancer who ended up hospitalized. When the friend couldn't pay the hospital bill, Tucker said he helped sneak him out and dropped him off in the Everglades to kill himself.
Hurley said he didn't believe the crimes were committed by someone who was "mixed-up." He pointed out that when Tucker was arrested he had disguises, guns, handcuffs, a police scanner, Mace and electrical tape in his trunk.
Charles White, Tucker's attorney, said that Tucker's body and soul had been broken by the past 19 months behind bars.
"Whatever fight he had in him is gone," White said.
FBI agents and police arrested Tucker hours after the Jupiter robbery last spring, following a car chase through his Pompano Beach neighborhood.
Tucker has a reputation for prison breaks -- he boasts he has busted out 18 times. The most publicized escape was in 1979, when Tucker and two other inmates paddled away from San Quentin in a kayak built out of plastic sheeting, Formica, wood and duct tape.
Tucker and an old prison buddy were captured in 1983 after a bullet-riddled chase on Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard. He didn't get out of prison for another 10 years.
© The News Chief