Much of the following is from ace Daily News intern Morgan Zalot:
Turns out the shuffling thief who held up a Center City bank on Monday isn’t so elderly, after all.
Jerry Lee Stanton, who was arrested earlier today by FBI agents at the West Philadelphia personal care home where he lives, is actually 59 years old — not in his 70s, as law enforcement officials suggested earlier this week.
According to his old pals, Stanton is a sad and lonesome guy who might have viewed robbing a bank as a way out of his doldrums.
“I know he was depressed,” said James Smith, who lived with Stanton at the Walnut Manor, at 50th and Walnut streets.
Smith and a handful of other residents mulled over Stanton’s arrest as they huddled on a porch outside the Manor, which is actually a pair of rowhouses that provide shelter and care for 24 men.
“I know he ain’t coming back. It’s very depressed in here, [emotionally] and financially. He didn’t wanna listen to everyone. This wasn’t for him,” Smith said.
FBI officials said Stanton entered the Citizens Bank, at 20th and Market streets, shortly after 9:30 a.m. Monday.
Surveillance footage showed Stanton handing a dirty pillowcase to a bank teller and then demanding cash. He fled on foot after the teller met his demand.
Investigators took note of Stanton’s hunched shoulders, oversized large sunglasses and wrinkled face, and initially suggested that he was in his 60s or 70s.
The specter of a puttering, elderly bandit attracted widespread media attention.
Law enforcement sources said the FBI received a flurry of tip calls this morning, including one from a Daily News reader who recognized Stanton from a surveillance image that was featured on the front page of the paper.
The eagle-eyed reader told investigators where Stanton lived. About 10:30 a.m., several agents arrived at the Walnut Manor.
FBI spokeswoman Vicki Humphreys said Stanton was charged locally, not federally, with robbery and related offenses.
“We don’t charge every bank robber federally,” she said. “In this particular case, I’m not sure what was the deciding factor to charge him locally.” Donald James Leon Hill IV, 52, another resident of Walnut Manor, said he doesn’t believe Stanton perpetrated the robbery.
“It \[the photo and video\] didn’t look like him,” Hill said, adding that the only suspicious thing he’d ever seen Stanton do was come home one day wearing “big, dark lady sunglasses.”
“I can’t believe Jerry would rob a bank,” Hill continued. “He’s the kindest guy in the world.”
Who knows, he may have just wanted the adventure. Or the attention.— br567rj- Based on his friends' description, I think Jerry Lee might have had a "I doubt they'll kick up any fuss for an old crook like me," moment, like Brooks in Shawshank Redemption.— phillyconfidential
- They want to go to prison sometimes. They prefer the undemanding life in prison.— CleanupPhilly
Dana DiFilippo has covered murder, mayhem and miscellany at the Daily News since 2000. She grew up in Delaware County and studied journalism and photography at Penn State University. E-mail tips to difilid@phillynews.com.
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Stephanie Farr has been reporting for the Daily News since 2007, covering everything from gay porn stars who entered the burglary business to moon trees, skinheads, murders and naked bike rides. She covers crime, both in the city and suburbs, and keeps clippings of bizarre Associated Press articles. Her favorite this year was the story about the drunk in Punxsutawney who gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a dead opossum. E-mail tips to farrs@phillynews.com.
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Phillip Lucas joined the Daily News crime team in 2011. He grew up on the mean streets of Seattle and studied journalism and psychology at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Before landing in the City of Brotherly Love, Phillip was a reporter for The News Journal in Wilmington, Del. Email tips to lucasp@phillynews.com.
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Morgan Zalot is the newest crime reporter at the Daily News, starting in 2011 after interning at the paper twice as a Temple University journalism student. In her past stints at the DN, she covered just about everything, from drunken Phillies fans to a barber shop in a high school to a grisly murder-suicide. She’s a born-and-raised Philly girl who grew up in the Northeast. E-mail tips to zalotm@philly.com.
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