America's Oldest Bank Robber

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AUGUST 13--Meet J. L. Rountree, America's oldest bank robber. The 91-year-old Texas man walked into an Abilene bank yesterday morning and handed a teller an envelope with the word "ROBBERY" printed on it. Rountree shuffled out with $2000 and fled in a '96 Buick Regal. But he was arrested 30 minutes later by cops who had been given his license plate number by an alert bystander. Rountree, who once owned a successful manufacturing business, has been convicted on bank robbery charges twice in the past five years. In a 2001 interview with the Orlando Sentinel, Rountree, who is known as Red, spoke of his long dislike for savings institutions, ever since one in Texas "forced me into bankruptcy. I have never liked banks since." At the time of the interview, Rountree was the oldest inmate in the Florida prison system, where he landed following a conviction for the 1999 stickup of a Pensacola bank. (2 pages)