Chapter 3

My first goal was to exchange my last and only money in the form of a twenty-dollar bill to smaller bills and change.

The First Bank of Colorado was right there so I went in. I was fifth in line, and the tellers were really friendly. As a matter of fact, they were so neighborly that I had only moved up two spaces in fifteen minutes. No one else had come in, so I was last in line, and when the door behind me opened, I turned to look.

It was two men, and they had guns out!

“Stick’em up’ this is a robbery,” one yelled.

He pushed his way to the front of the line and handed the Teller a pillowcase and said, “Fill it up!”

The other came up beside me and said, “We are taking it all, give me your money.”

I probably did the wrong thing. He thrust his handgun close to me. Without thinking I grabbed his hand and turned the barrel away from me. His finger was within the trigger guard. I almost ripped his finger off as I turned the gun.

He let go of the gun, and I had it. I never thought. It was all happening so fast. I pointed it at his chest and pulled the trigger. A loud Bang and he went down.

The other guy was turning towards me, but I was facing him so the gun I held was already aimed in his direction, so I pointed at his chest and pulled the trigger. Another Bang and the robbery attempt was over. I had just killed two men in about three seconds. It all happened so fast the other people in line had not time to move.

I stood there feeling numb. About that time, heck broke loose as the Burglar Alarm was set off by a teller. The bank guard came out of the back room where he had been using the bathroom and immediately got the drop on me.

This was easy since I was standing there with the gun hanging down trying to process what had just happened. The tellers got him straightened out as the Police came charging in and had the drop on me again.

Again, the tellers got it all straightened out. I surrendered the handgun to the police, which I learned later was an M1911A 45 caliber semi-automatic. The cops found the robbers get-away car with the engine running around the corner.

They closed the bank and set me in a conference room. A male teller brought me a glass of water and closed the door behind him. I promptly got the shakes.

I was pretty well settled down when the FBI showed up two hours later. The agents were very nice to me, and I appreciated that they didn’t pull their guns on me as everyone else had. It was more like a conversation than the grilling I expected.

After getting my version of events they told me that it agreed with what all the others had told them. They then proceeded to tell me that the two guys, brothers by the name of John and Ernest Johnson were wanted for bank robbery and murder in three states.