Original subtitles

In this episode of American Greed. I didn't know his real name. I didn't know

his real age.

I didn't know whether or not anything that I had learned about him or thought

knew was in any way true.

The perfect husband turns out to be an imposter. And if he wasn't Dr.

Gerald Barnes, who was he?

And later, a businessman with a secret.

He was leading these dual lives.

A life built on lies and deception.

He had absolutely no conscience. Taking from those who know him and those who

don't, a serial bank robber in his own word.

No big money, no alarms be calling if no one gets hurt.

Okay, hold on, sweetie. We're going to get an x -ray, all right?

You're right there.

In 1979, Rick D 'Alessandro works as a physician's assistant to Dr. Gerald

Barnes, the director of a medical facility in Orange County, California.

He was a very likable little guy. Funny and entertaining and easy to talk to,

engaging guy.

On the morning of December 26th, 29 -year -old John McKenzie shows up for a

visit with Dr.

Barnes. He was losing weight and he was tired and, you know, thirsty.

You know, he just didn't look good.

McKenzie has been feeling sick for several days.

He had presented to Dr. Barnes with some dizziness, excessive thirst, excessive

urination, dry mouth, problems with equilibrium and balance.

Dr. Barnes gives the patient a prescription for an antivertico drug and

him home, while routine blood tests are sent to the lab.

The next day, McKenzie's blood results come back.

But Dr. Barnes has the day off.

They brought me the chart when the results came back on Mr. McKenzie

that he had a 1 ,200 blood sugar.

Normal blood sugar is like 100, 80 to 100. And he had a 1 ,200.

To D 'Alessandro, the patient is showing classic symptoms of an acute diabetic

crisis. And John McKenzie's life could be in imminent danger.

D 'Alessandro tries desperately to reach the patient.

Nobody had heard from him nor seen him. His emergency contact numbers, his ex

-wife and someone else that was on there had not heard from him or seen him. So

I decided to call the police.

Officers from the Garden Grove Police Department head to McKenzie's address

break the door in.

I found him dead in his kitchen laying on the floor with Dr.

Barnes' prescription for the dizziness drug in his hand.

And he had collapsed and went into a coma and died.

The 29 -year -old is dead.

from uncontrolled diabetes.

He should have been hospitalized or, you know, right there. He just, something

should have been done. But they sent him home.

While McKenzie's family struggles with the senseless loss, Rick D 'Alessandro

wants answers.

How could any doctor miss such a common and easily diagnosed condition?

The physician's assistant decides to do some checking.

So calling the medical board up in Sacramento and having them.

Facts down a picture and identification and information regarding Gerald Barnes.

Well, the picture that comes down doesn't look anything like Barnes. And

home address is like a street in Stockton.

Stockton is 400 miles from the Orange County Clinic.

And for Rick D 'Alessandro, the proof is shocking.

He has been working with a fraud.

This is a huge, huge issue. This guy had been there for a few years.

had been elevated to a medical director and was seeing patients by the tune of

like 30 or 40 every single day for years now.

D 'Alessandro reports his findings to the police, and on August 8, 1980, the

phony doctor is arrested for murder.

Barnes begins working at that Pacific Southwest Medical Group in 78.

Orange County Deputy D .A. James Enright and Investigator Eddie Banks are tasked

with building a case against the imposter.

Well, we knew right away we could get him on practicing medicine without a

license. The big thing was to get him on the manslaughter.

Because the practicing medicine without a license didn't have much teeth in it

at all at that time.

Their investigation reveals that the suspect is not really Gerald Barnes, but

man named Gerald Barnbaum, a pharmacist from Chicago who got caught up in a

Medicaid scam five years earlier.

Though acquitted by a jury, Barnbaum's pharmacy license was revoked, and he

decided to start over in California.

He did background checks. The guy was a founder. The guy was an actor.

Barnbaum has been a college thespian and was heavily involved in community

theater.

Upon landing in Orange County in 1977, he created his own starring role as a

doctor, even though he had no medical training.

He called the medical board and asked the medical board for a duplicate copy

his license, saying that he was Gerald Barnes, a physician in Stockton. The

medical board then sent him a copy because he said he was opening up a

Los Angeles, sent him a copy of the license without doing any other

other than that.

Now, the Orange County District Attorney's Office hopes to stop him

Never mind he wasn't a doctor. There was a connection between what he should

have done, what he didn't do, and the death of McKenzie.

Ultimately, that's what we got to.

On May 29, 1981, the con man pleads guilty in a plea bargain to the charges

manslaughter and practicing medicine without a license.

He is sentenced to three years in prison.

For the family of John McKenzie, the sentence does not seem to fit the crime.

And the victim's four -year -old daughter, Jill, is left without a

He was a nice young man with a lot of life ahead of him.

And he could have been who knows what he could have been.

And that's what's so sad, is that he and Jill had that taken away.

And there is another victim still, the man whose good name was tainted by the

imposter. My wife tells me she was driving to a nearby town and she heard

radio that Dr.

Gerald Barnes had been arrested and found guilty of manslaughter.

The real Dr. Gerald Barnes is a well -respected orthopedic surgeon from

California. He had no idea that his identity had been stolen.

Well, first I was in shock. I didn't know that someone, you know, how could

someone do something like this? Then the more I thought about it, the madder I

got, you know.

But I was satisfied after I found out that he was incarcerated and this was

going to be the end of the problem.

The problem, however, is only beginning.

After 18 months, the imposter doctor is released on good behavior and picks up

right where he left off as Dr.

Gerald Barnes.

Until one day when Dr.

Barnes comes face to face with the man who blew the whistle on his charade. He

looks at me and he says, hi, Rick, how you doing?

And I said, well, Gerald, I'm not doing too well because you're doing the same

thing that you did back in the 70s. And he said, well, you know, this is all

just a big mistake.

In 1996, life is good for Lisa Roberts and her husband, Dr. Gerald Barnes.

The couple has been married just over a year.

It was very romantic, and along with the courtship, there were, you know,

flowers and evenings out for dinner or to events and concerts.

You know, charmed the girl right off her feet.

While Dr. Barnes earns a six -figure salary as medical director at a Los

clinic, Lisa makes plans for their future together.

My expectations were that we would have children and at some point we would

be able to save enough money to start his own practice.

The doctor and his wife seem to have everything going for them.

Until one day when Dr. Barnes runs into an old acquaintance at an industry

Christmas party.

And I'm looking to see what's on his lapel because when you check into the

Christmas party, they gave you a little sticky tag that says, hi, I'm so -and

-so, you know.

And his said, hi, I'm Dr. Barnes.

Rick D 'Alessandro worked as a physician's assistant to the same Dr.

years ago.

Problem is, Gerald Barnes is not really a doctor. He's an imposter who, in 1979,

was responsible for his patient's death.

John McKenzie.

was 29 years old.

I wanted him off the street because this guy hurts people and, in fact, kills

people.

The next day, D 'Alessandro drives to Los Angeles and a meeting with Dr.

supervisors at the clinic.

He said, are you aware that this guy, Gerald Barnes, is a fraud? He's not

a doctor.

While they're talking, Gerald Barnes happens in.

He looks at me and he says, hi, Rick, how you doing?

And I said, well, Gerald, I'm not doing too well because you're doing the same

thing that you did back in the 70s. And he said, well, you know, this is all

just a big mistake.

I can go home and get all the information I need to. And they said,

know, this is a pretty serious thing, so we do need you to do that. So we need

you to go home and get it. Well, he disappeared. They never saw him again.

D 'Alessandro reports Barnes to the California Medical Board, who in turn

it to the FBI.

Agent Marie Konjowski learns that her suspect's given name is Gerald Barnbaum,

and he has been using the stolen identity of the real Dr. Gerald Barnes

two decades.

He had been convicted three times in the 80s for

various state violations involving his portrayal of the real

physician. Since 1981, the imposter has been in and out of prison.

serving a total of five years.

While behind bars, he took medical correspondence courses.

And each time he stepped out of the prison gates, he stepped into his lab

and resumed his life as a doctor.

Incredibly, the imposter has been hired over and over again by at least half a

dozen medical companies in Southern California.

Konjalski also learns that more than a hundred of the FBI's own agents are

patients of the phony doctor.

The FBI had a contract with that particular clinic to perform both

physicals for FBI agents as well as pre -employment exams that are required as

part of the application process.

When the so -called Dr. Gerald Barnes is taken into custody, his wife, Lisa

Roberts, is left in shock.

I didn't know his real name. I didn't know his real age.

I didn't know whether or not anything that I had learned about him or thought

knew. wasn't any way true. And if he wasn't Dr.

Gerald Barnes, who was he? And who had I let share my life and my bed and my

family? And who had I trusted?

Robert says she couldn't have imagined that her husband wasn't really a doctor.

Here I am. I'm married to a man who I believe to be a physician.

Every day he goes out and he acts as a physician. He wears the physician's

He works with patients. Other doctors think he's a doctor. Patients think he's

doctor. The FBI thought he was a doctor. So who am I to not think he was a

doctor?

On October 10, 1996, Gerald Barnes, a .k .a. Gerald Barnbaum, stands

before a federal judge to face six charges of fraud.

Today, the 62 -year -old appeared weak and had difficulty walking. He claims to

suffer from diabetes and prostate cancer.

Barnbaum pleads guilty in another plea bargain and is sentenced to 12 1⁄2 years

in a federal prison.

The real Dr. Barnes is there to see his imposter put away.

He was crying about the fact that he was sick and he wouldn't be able to see his

grandchildren and so forth and so on.

And that's when the judge said, I'm convinced that if I were to let you

set you free, that you would 100 % chance that you would do this again.

He was driven to do this as evidenced by the fact that...

He wasn't afraid to go back to prison.

He'd get out of prison, and almost immediately he would start practicing

medicine again.

He collects money, he treats people, he hurts people, and the same thing

happens. He's arrested again, and you see the headline. You never know what

happens after that. And for the most part, it goes away.

Investigators hope this prison stretch will finally put an end to Barnbaum's

counterfeit career.

But this 63 -year -old con man seems to have a way of hoodwinking nearly

everyone he meets.

I received a word from one of my colleagues here at the FBI and then soon

thereafter got a call from the U .S. Marshal Service who'd been notified by

Bureau of Prisons of his escape.

I had to prove that I was the good guy and he was the bad guy. Dr. Gerald

is an orthopedic surgeon.

He's been practicing in Stockton, California for 37 years.

It almost gets to the point that you become calloused over this because it

happens so often.

For more than two decades, Dr. Barnes has been shadowed by an imposter, a man

who stole his medical license, his credentials, and his good name.

Then we got into all the problems with the stealing of my identity as far as

opening accounts and buying two cars and my driver's license, which I've had to

change over the years and so forth. So it's been a real headache.

In 1996, the identity thief, whose real name is Gerald Barnbaum, receives his

longest prison sentence to date,

12 1⁄2 years in the federal pen.

And the case of the phony doctor should finally be brought to a close.

Four years later, Barnbaum is transferred to another prison. And once

pops up on the radar of the FBI.

I learned that given that he had been categorized as a low security inmate,

that in transferring Mr. Barnbaum from one facility in California to

another facility in another state, that he was given a bus ticket and allowed

to travel.

on his own.

Barnbaum is supposed to report to a prison in Illinois, but he never shows

After a month of searching, U .S. Marshal Joseph Exner locates the

North Hollywood clinic.

Myself, my partner in LAPD went inside the clinic.

I called out for Gerald Barnbaum.

He stepped out wearing a white coat, a stethoscope.

He simply said, you guys are good.

And then I turned him around, patted him down, and put the cuffs on.

In May of 2004, Gerald Barnbaum pleads guilty to three additional counts of

fraud and identity theft.

A federal judge adds another 10 years to the imposter's 12 -and -a -half -year

sentence.

He had used the same false identity documents to portray himself as the real

Dr. Gerald Barnes.

got a job at this clinic and was seeing a number of patients a day and once

again prescribing controlled substances in violation of federal law.

Barnbaum collected an estimated $100 ,000 a year during his counterfeit

and built insurance companies and individuals out of more than $5 million

fraudulent patient claims.

The last company that hired the imposter, Executive Health Group, was

hit the hardest.

The last clinic at which he was employed here in Los Angeles had billed

somewhere in the neighborhood of about $350 ,000 to their clients for

services that had been provided by Mr. Barnbaum.

In addition to repaying much of the fraudulent billing, Executive Health

was slapped with a multimillion -dollar civil lawsuit brought on by nearly 500

former patients, including...

Carl Janssen, an executive with Atlantic Richfield Corporation.

I was on their executive payroll, and one of our benefits was an annual, they

called it executive medical exam.

Janssen had received a full workup by Dr. Barnes in 1996.

We went through the routine medical exam, included all the questions, the

work, checking your vitals, all of those kinds of things.

He was very personable, appeared to be very professional about what he was

doing. Part of the exam was a prostate exam, and he seemed to be very

professional about all of that.

Jansen had no idea anything was amiss until the next day when he saw his

on the evening news.

Out came...

The good Dr. Barnes in handcuffs out of executive health, and I went, whoa, you

know, what in the world is going on? Today, Gerald Barnes, seen here in 1981,

was arraigned in federal court on charges of practicing medicine without a

license. The businessman soon found out that he had been duped by an imposter.

I went into executive health fully trusting that they had a competent

professional staff.

I had no reason to think otherwise.

I'm sure it was as big a surprise to them as it was to me. Now, you could

that it's understandable that it was a surprise to me, and it shouldn't have

been a surprise to them.

Diane Goldman represents Jansen and other plaintiffs in the civil suit.

She believes that health care companies need to be held responsible for the

people they hire.

They definitely need to be more diligent.

The evidence that was developed in the lawsuit showed that the...

background information or background investigation that was supposed to be

performed on this imposter doctor wasn't done. And had they done the bare

minimum, they would have discovered his numerous felony convictions and the

problems surrounding him.

While Executive Health Group denies liability in the case, the lawsuit was

settled for just over $9 million, and the company is now out of business.

Money. Follow the money. It's always about money.

For Lisa Roberts, who was once married to Gerald Baumbach, and now refers to

phony husband as the never was.

The ability for the con man to perpetrate his fraud over and over again

down to one thing.

Greed. It's always about money.

It was about money for the never was. It was about money for his companies. It

was about money for the people who he worked for before.

that apparently knew that there was something wrong and had fired him for a

variety of reasons, but said nothing to anyone.

Gerald Baumbach is now 74 years old. He is serving his sentence at Wasika

Federal Prison in Minnesota.

His projected release date is in 2018.

He's a very dangerous human being.

His age won't make any difference.

Now he can be almost semi -retired physician. And no doubt when he walks

those doors, he will be a physician again.

Next on American Greed, he hit 43 banks in six states. There was a demand note

indicating I have a gun, be quiet.

A serial bandit who can't be stopped.

They've done it this many times. Why would they stop?

Deluding capture for nearly two years.

And now, the hunt is on.

Louisville, Kentucky.

The River City.

Gateway to the South.

On November 11, 2002, the city falls prey to a bank robber who targets banks

inside of grocery stores.

He adds Louisville to an ever -growing list of cities he's targeted.

His weapons, a simple disguise and a threatening note.

His take today, $6 ,000.

Louisville Metro Detective Larry Duncan draws the case.

Duncan's been chasing robbers for the past 11 years.

There was a demand note indicating this is a holdup, I have a gun, be calm,

both drawers, be quiet, go home alive.

The note is clean, no fingerprints.

The robber is a white male who appears to be in his early to mid -40s. The

teller describes him as wearing a mustache and a fishing hat.

Larry Duncan believes this bandit has hit before.

Over the past five months, there have been four similar bank holdups in the

Louisville metro area, including one two weeks earlier, just across the border

in Indiana.

The clothing worn during the Jeffersonville, Indiana robbery

of tan coveralls, a fishing -style hat.

or a boonie hat, as did the robbery at the Winn -Dixie on November 11th. So

it did for me clearly was indicate this was the same person that was responsible

for now at least five bank robberies.

870, I'm going to be out for about 20 minutes.

115 miles northeast in Blue Ash, Ohio, Detective Joe Schlee is investigating a

grocery store bank robbery of his own.

Schlee notices a teletype fax from Detective Duncan about a series of

bank robberies in Louisville, Kentucky.

I did not know Larry Duncan prior to this case.

He sent me a photo matrix of bank video shots that he

had received, and we showed that matrix to Howard Teller, and he was definite

that it was the same guy that hit her.

Detective Duncan suspects the Blue Ash robber could be the same man linked to

other grocery store robberies in four states.

Duncan is searching the Internet for banks and markets near interstates when

thought crosses his mind about the bandits' sophisticated methods.

I think the guy I'm looking for is doing the exact same thing I'm doing. You

could almost visualize the two of us doing the same thing with those

me in an attempt to locate where he was going to go next.

and him an attempt to decide where he was going to go next.

Larry Duncan examines a map in his office and sees a pattern unfolding

him.

When you look at the relationship between Indianapolis, Indiana,

Kentucky, and Cincinnati, Ohio, and the major interstates that are intersecting

those three highways, and then run a parallel with that to the bankmark that

he's hitting, he really had no other alternative other than to name the

interstate Bankmark Bandit.

The Interstate Bankmark Bandit, or IBM for short, lands squarely on the FBI's

radar. My initial contact with the IBM Bandit case was a robbery that I had

in Cincinnati, Ohio.

We've hidden the agent's face at the FBI's request.

When I came back from that robbery and I started having conversations with

Detective Joe Schley, I found that he not only...

had his bank robbery in Blue Ash, but also was working on other bank robberies

here in Cincinnati, trying to link them as well as bank robberies down in

Louisville and Lexington.

Duncan, Schlee, and Fryhofer team up to form the IBM task force.

They suspect the bandit of at least 20 robberies, but are no closer to

identifying them.

Just before sunset on a Friday night, the task force catches an unexpected

break.

In June of 2003, a bank robbery occurred inside a Meijer

in Lexington, Kentucky.

It's IBM's 29th robbery.

A surveillance camera at the Meijer grocery store captured this photo of

getaway. You're actually able to see the IBM Bandit entering the backseat of the

getaway vehicle.

And clearly you're able to determine that it is a black, late 90s model, four

-door, BMW, IL, I believe.

Police learned something else from the images.

IBM has an accomplice.

In some of his demand notes, he would make reference that we are listening and

we have a scanner. A lot of times that is a trick, but we had evidence

suggesting that this was correct.

And we were getting evidence that there was a white female sitting in a car

outside that he was getting in.

The task force develops a theory about the robber's home base.

I think he started in Indianapolis.

He got some exposure, and he didn't like it, so he said, I'm going to go further

away. And we could almost feel that we could travel with the IBM bandit down

expressway that he was using as he was hitting each one of these and then

turning around again and heading back into what we assumed was his safe zone

Indiana. Detective Duncan uses that theory to formulate a plan to catch IBM.

He calls it Operation Intercept.

Cops will monitor the interstates, hoping to capture IBM as he heads back

to Indiana.

Duncan selects five banks in the Louisville metro area that fit the

.O. We would put undercover cars and undercover detectives as tellers inside

these banks so that when he hit...

we would be right on top of him.

Officers would then use police radios to coordinate IBM's capture.

So the idea was to calmly state Operation Intercept and then set up and

pulling over all the black four -door BMWs that were heading

north toward Indianapolis.

The city of Louisville puts its full force, about 1 ,200 officers, on

operational alert.

On September 6, 2003, with the trap set and baited, IBM robs a U .S. bank in

Louisville just as the task force predicted.

It's hit number 35.

The sergeant that got on the radio almost shouted Operation Intercept. It

quiet and discreet by any means.

I'm kind of shaking my head and thinking to myself, Duncan, you're blowing it,

you're blowing it, I know I'm blowing it.

Because I felt without question that the interstate benchmark bandit was

listening to every word over that radio and that it was slipping away from me.

The bandit avoids the interstates and slips through the noose.

One week passes without even a fleeting glimpse of IBM or the black BMW.

And finally, I call the commander of the operation and I say, well, we've blown

it. He's not hitting.

And he said, are you asking me to call it off? And I was like, yeah, I'm asking

to call it off.

We've missed our chance.

When we come back, Larry Duncan is left to wonder if and when we'll get another

shot at the IBM Bandit.

For more information and special web exclusives, log on to AmericanGreed

.com.

16 months and 35 banks into the crime spree, IBM is still on the loose.

His take so far?

$136 ,000.

And only two people know his true identity.

One is the blonde female who drives the getaway car.

The other is a 46 -year -old self -proclaimed entrepreneur with a shady

named David Branko.

David Branko is the IBM bandit.

The first time I met David, he was impeccably dressed.

Phil Sperry runs a title company out of Bloomington, Indiana.

He and his late wife, Bonnie, crossed paths with David Brankle in 1999.

He always seemed to have the right response to any question.

He was cool.

He was very smooth.

Brankle rents a small office in a building they own.

This is the space that we rented to David Brankle. It was to be his

where he was going to operate all of his business and his dealing with

architecture and construction.

And his company was called ACR.

Now, I know the A was for architecture, and I know the C was for construction,

and now I understand the R is for robbery.

David Brankle approaches Bonnie with a proposition.

that they create an interior design firm named Trade Secrets.

I think he saw her as a meal ticket.

I think he thought that she was the kind of person who perhaps could be peeled

off and attended to individually so that he would get access to

the great fortune, whatever that is.

Brankle uses the Sperry name to reach into the pockets of other Bloomington

businesses.

Sullivan's Clothing Store is a Bloomington institution.

David went in and ran up a bill, I think it was about $1 ,700, and paid it off,

no problem, and then said to Bobby, well, could I

perhaps have a house account?

And so Bobby said, sure, at which point I believe he ran up a little over $8

,000 worth.

because he was a dapper dresser.

And then that's when he didn't pay.

As time goes on, David Brankle begins to wear out his welcome in Bloomington.

Phil and Bonnie Sperry cut him off, both personally and professionally.

I very much regret the damage done to our friends, and

I really feel responsible for having caused that to happen, and I very much

regret that.

Brankle skips town with his wife and young son and drives southwest, landing

Vincennes, Indiana.

There, he finds his next mark.

Alan Logan is well -known in Vincennes.

He and his wife Becky own one of the town's favorite family businesses,

Wet Pets and More.

The Logans are looking to expand their pet store concept into a family

entertainment complex they call Logan's Great Escape.

We met David. Our first impression was legitimate businessman.

We needed our developer, you know, and here he was.

Actually, Becky and I thought, when we were going home that night talking, we

said maybe this was God's gift to us.

Branko sells himself as a consultant with the Vanguard Capital Marketing

and says he is based in Chicago.

He had Vanguard Capital marketing material spread out on the table, nice

of all their jobs they completed, and the contract on how much it was going to

cost to hire them, and timetables and all that, and it looked legit.

But it isn't.

Brankle tells them he needs a retainer of $3 ,500 to start, as well as $500 per

month over the course of the project.

Then Brankle turns to an old con man's ploy.

He was getting ready to go out of town on another project, and he needed to

ASAP.

And the following morning, I come down here right and early and wrote a big

check for him.

The beginning of each month, David Brankle comes to collect his check,

with his son at his side.

And a lot of times he'd bring Michael in, and Michael would have the bill in

hand and give it to me.

Sad.

To everyone around him, David Brankle is the epitome of a successful

businessman. But he's living multiple lives.

Sunday through Wednesday, Brankle lives in this rented house in Vincennes with

his wife and son.

Thursday through Saturday, he travels back to Bloomington to a girlfriend

Donna Hewins and his life as a serial bankrupt.

He said that they were watching a movie about a bank robber.

He said, what would you think of me if I told you this is what I do for a

living? And she reportedly said, I would still love you.

Andrew Wolfson is a reporter for the Louisville Courier -Journal.

And then gradually she became increasingly involved.

She would start driving the getaway car. She would join him on encasing the

banks. Donna met David at a topless bar in Bloomington where she worked as a

waitress. They dated, grew close, and Donna became Bonnie to David Brankle's

plight. By the time I met him, he was a very self -pitying character who blamed

everything on everyone else, including and mostly his mother.

He was hoping he could become the most successful bank robber of all time

because his mother had always said he couldn't mow the lawn right.

David Brankle, it turns out, is very good at one thing in his life.

taking advantage of everyone and everything around him.

I would not only say he was a narcissist. I would say he's a sociopath

sense that he had absolutely no conscience.

You can ask anybody in this town that shops with me.

I'd give you my shirt off my back if I could help you out. And they'll tell you

I would.

But I couldn't do that now.

And that hurts.

David Brankle's success as the IBM bandit has been a perfect mix of luck,

and planning.

But as 2003 draws to a close, one mistake is about to change everything.

If he was going to come up with a gun, I wanted to have mine out first.

December of 2003.

In the nearly four months since the IBM bandit escaped Operation Intercept,

David Brankle and Donna Hewins have been very busy, committing another eight

robberies, bringing the total to 43.

Four more months of payments have cost the Logans an additional $2 ,000.

On December 29th, David Brankle is visiting Bloomington once again, and his

changes. On Highway 45, Brankle nearly strikes a vehicle driven by Bloomington

police detective Kevin Hill.

I noticed in my rearview mirror a black BMW coming at a high rate of speed, and

he basically cut myself and the other vehicle off, sending us into oncoming

traffic, almost causing an accident, and he lost control of his vehicle, and

that's where I pulled him over about a quarter mile down the road.

Detective Hill calls in the driver's information.

Well, the driver's license wasn't coming back, but the plate came back stolen.

Hill moves in to remove the driver from the car.

for him to show me his hands, and he gave me his left hand, but he wouldn't

me the right one. He had it down below his right leg.

And so I kept telling him to bring his hand up, and he wouldn't do it, so I

pulled my gun out and pointed it at him and told him to let me see his hands,

and they better come up empty.

And he looked up at me, and he said, we're okay, and he dropped the car in

drive, and he took off.

The pursuit reaches speeds in excess of 100 miles an hour.

They're running people off the road. He's disregarding stop signs, driving

through intersections.

The BMW sedan leaves Detective Hill's Ford Taurus in the dust.

David Brankle escapes the police yet again.

But this time, he leaves a vital clue in their hands.

An Indiana driver's license.

Just across the Wabash River from Illinois sits Vincennes, Indiana.

Vincennes is Indiana's first city. It is about to become David Brankle's last.

This is the house at 1919 Hickory that David Brankle lived at.

When the state police were looking for the stolen plate, Trooper Trotter

and saw the garage door was open and saw the vehicle on the plate.

Shortly after that, David Brankle came out and got in his car.

Brankle leads the Indiana State Police on a chase through the streets of

Vincennes. As I was listening to the pursuit, I was coming down College, and

heard John Trotter say that he was out on foot.

Brankle had abandoned his child in the car, and so Trooper Trotter was staying

with the child at that time with the car.

Brankle runs, trying to lose Sergeant Winkler in the maze of apartment

buildings.

As he was coming up to one of the apartment complexes, he tripped on the

and fell down.

The sergeant moves quickly to handcuff his suspect.

As he does, a small knife lands in the grass.

And he kept telling me that, you know, it just fell out of his pocket. He

going to stab me or anything with it.

And I handcuffed him and put him in the car and took him to jail.

David Brankle is booked into the Knox County Jail.

The BMW is inventoried by the Indiana State Police.

In the trunk, they find suitcases filled with the tools of a successful bank

robber on the move.

He told me who he was, the IBM bandit.

And they said, well, you call the Louisville Metro Police and Cincinnati

They'll know who I am. They'll want to talk to me.

Larry Duncan is busy working at his desk when the phone rings.

I received a call in the robbery office.

Detective Duncan, I have a fellow that you'll know down here.

He says he's the IBM bandit.

And I said, what's he look like? And he said, hey, Larry, this is your guy.

Sergeant Greg Winkler runs the list of evidence pulled from Brankle's car.

Notes on banks in several states.

Baseball caps and disguises seen in bank surveillance video.

Nine millimeter handgun and ammunition.

After we hung up the phone, I called Joe and says, y 'all got to get down here.

Get a hold of CJ and get down here as quick as you can.

The three investigators rushed to Vincennes and their first meeting with

bandit. When I extended my hand to him to shake his hand, he moved

forward toward me as if he was going to hug me.

It kind of broke the ice for all of us because I realized at that moment we

going to talk and we would probably be there for a long, long, long time.

David Brankle speaks to investigators for nearly six hours that first night.

American Greed has obtained audio from that interrogation.

Brankle begins with his first robbery.

He tells investigators about Donna's involvement in the robberies.

Donna got involved in this because she loves me.

She drove or rode with me and acted as a secretary or listened to.

He explains the motivation for his crimes, that he and his wife were

estranged. He believed he would lose his son.

David Branko tells investigators everything.

Branko is charged in federal court with 43 counts of unarmed bank robbery.

Facing more than 180 years in federal prison, Branko cuts a deal and receives

years behind bars.

Donna Hewins pleads guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit unarmed bank

robbery and receives house arrest and five years probation for her crime.

David Brankle is also ordered to pay more than $175 ,000 in restitution for

crimes. Not a dime of that money makes its way back to Phil Sperry or Alan and

Becky Logan, since David Brankle is not charged with any crimes relating to his

dealings with them.

He had no remorse towards the Sperrys, and he claims that he did legitimate

for the Logans and that he didn't rip them off.

Now, David Brankle is a con.

man.

But if that man had used his intelligence and all the good things

do good instead of using it to do bad and do evil, he could have accomplished

great things in his life.

Just the kind of fellow that a lot of times would rather lie to you than tell

the truth, even though it didn't make any sense. And we'll tell you

David, why did you do that? And as he told Andy Wilson, that's just David.

In an upcoming episode of American Greed.

It's one of the largest art thefts in the United States.

There was wall -to -wall artwork.

130 pieces of fine art vanished.

Picasso print.

This is the golden egg. You won't believe the characters behind the heist.

know, we'll either be princes or prisoners if this thing goes wrong.