The bank was expected to have more than $750,000 to accommodate a Friday payday. He characterized his brother as a glib, fancy-dressing bodybuilder who could be charming and caring to his longtime girlfriend but who harbored dark dreams. A chilling lust for riches and a resentment of societys rules propelled the leader of two armor-clad bank robbers who fought police to the death in the citys most spectacular shootout in a quarter of a century, the mans half brother said. Everything he did was completely thought out. It was the younger of the robbers, Larry Eugene Phillips, 26, whose calculating and ruthless personality dominated the lopsided partnership, luring Romanian-born Emil Matasareanu, 30, into the fatal Feb. 28 showdown, Phillips half brother said. Larry was like a clone of me. He said Phillips would take him on the drives to motivate him. That would change dramatically as the autopsy progressed. The two men were later tied to two San Fernando Valley bank heists netting $1.67 million, as well as an armored truck robbery in which a guard was killed. Respect for privacy and personal property certainly went downhill in North Hollywood that day. Glendale again forwarded their suspicions to both the FBI and LAPD RHD (Robbery Homicide Division). Dr. Jorge O. Montes, who would receive an award, risked his life to treat the wounded cops. We only knew what happened when we saw it on the news.". Imaged below are the collated headers of all Phillips wounds, taken from the coroner's report. The North Hollywood gunmen took more than money. A worker patches up bullet holes on the north side of the bank. ", Copyright 2023 LAPPL Matasareanu's body would be formally identified by a family friend, not his wife, not his mother, a family friend. When Matasareanu was 8, bullying by schoolmates caused him to turn to computers as a refuge, she said. 2009-2021 Bears in the Beehive. The brother also became his victim, finding that his brother was using his name and Social Security number as his aliases. His actions were more of a suicide mission.". Whilst the media were asking such a public question it must be understood that out of the public eye the question also continued to be raised. After a failed bank robbery, two heavily armed men hold the Los Angeles Police Department at bay for 44 minutes. Ominous Warning This video is currently unavailable January 9, 2003 50min 13+ On October 17, 1989, Sherra Cox leaves work early to unpack in her new apartment. Nicknames: Jean Malta, Jeanette Phillips The truth of it was that they were identified very quickly, from AFIS fingerprint matches taken at the scenes where both bodies lay. After the bodies were removed under SWAT escort to the Coroner's office at North Mission Road, detectives would attempt to contact both men's families, with varying degrees of success. Whilst the L.A Times interviewed Fisher, they also released the information that the two gunmen were in fact the same two men arrested in Glendale in October of 1993 with a trunk full of weapons. Despite having sustained some extraordinarily serious wounds during his final confrontation with the three SWAT officers his body appeared to be that of one in repose, except for the blood masking the right hand side of his face he genuinely looked like a person sleeping. They were also believed to have robbed an armored car in June 1995; during that robbery, a guard was killed. Armed to the . A few days after the shootout, some detectives asked how he had failed to notice his sons flamboyant prosperity. Matasareanu's body would be formally identified by a family friend, not his wife, not his mother, a family friend. Hed say, Hey Pop, ever ride in a Jaguar? . Larry was a pretty gifted kid; thats all I can say. The entire country witnessed the raging gun battle that lasted half an hour, and left ten police officers and six civilians wounded. Inside, they located the missing money that Larry and Emil had stolen in previous robberies. When the robbers emerged, they were confronted by officers and tried to shoot their way clear with superior firepower. Walter Milosevic (the gentleman who was removed from his home when LAPD believed from a tip that there was a third gunman hiding in Milosevic's outbuilding). The truth appears to have been vastly different; the business was all but abandoned, residing in an unfinished basement at the East Orange Grove Boulevard address and consisting of nothing more than a few boxes of long forgotten parts and with, as far as we can make out, no 'employees' bar himself, and as a cherry to top the cake One must ask the question, why such an increase on the projected earnings? But authorities are investigating whether the gunmen in Friday's incident had funneled money from a pair of earlier robberies - which netted at least $1.3 million - to subversive paramilitary or criminal organizations. Mortgage broker Larry Newfield said that when he told Phillips he was going to police, Phillips said, Ill kill you.. Denver Gestopo units terminate a man for no reason, then plant a gun to say he pointed a gun at them. At 9.16am, after months of preparation, the pair entered the North Hollywood Bank of America branch. Tim McBride. "It sounded like a war, like death," said Lopez, 58, who is now retired. But the North Hollywood robbery was to be their biggest yet. Outside, LAPD Officer Bill Lantz was five days out of the police academy when he and his training officer cowered behind their cruiser in the intersection. You cant imagine how manipulative my brother was, he said. Third, late in the day came another breakthrough. But it ruins me., The fragments of video footage of the shootout are especially important to the father, he said, because I have no pictures of my son except what I cut out of newspapers.. "I think it's like a movie," said store manager Eim Tang. A total of 32 customers and 10 employees were present in the bank when the two men entered it. Phillips Sr. said his sons feelings about law enforcement were shaped on his sixth birthday when FBI agents came to the house, guns drawn, to arrest the father. Those folk who wanted to come see the place where this event had happened, to poke their fingers in the bullet holes, hunt for stray casings and touch the places where these men had fallen. As previously mentioned it soon became apparent that the two 1996 takeovers in the southern end of the San Fernando Valley had been the work of these two, CCTV and modus operandi was a faultless match. There was little external evidence of the horrendous trauma that had been inflicted upon Matasareanu's body. It was from the kiosk, once positioned directly across from the north bank door, where Zboravan had nicked Phillips with his shotgun. "Who's the doctor? That address does not exist today; the land parcel and those surrounding it were restructured sometime around 1956. Zboravan says he testified in that trial. So why the hike in the projected earnings, again we return to that question. They would become famous when they robbed a Bank of America in Van Nuys on February 28, 1997. The gunmen in "Heat" had nothing on these two. They gathered their automatic arsenal, including a Chinese-made AK-47 for Phillips, with a 70-round drum magazine, and a Bushmaster XM15 assault rifle for Matasareanu, with twin drums containing 100 rounds. Finally the answer to those campaigns would be forthcoming. Investigators said today (Tuesday) they are looking for Jeanette Theresa Federico, who is believed to be the wife of Larry Phillips Jr. Phillips was killed along with Emil Matasareanu after they robbed a Bank of America branch Feb. 28. He was a follower, he said, echoing the words of the mans mother, Valerie Nicolescu, who told reporters after the shootout that her son was corrupted by Phillips. On the morning of the robbery, officials believe they took phenobarbital to help control their nerves. And it was at the key shack that he dove atop Detective William Krulac and Officer Tracey Angeles as Phillips returned fire. On February 28, 1997, at 9:15 AM, Emil Dechebal Matasareanu and Larry Eugene Phillips, Junior, walked into a Bank of America in Van Nuys, California, not far from the Disney, Universal and Warner Bros. studios. It was to be replaced with a different form of urgency. For his valor, he would receive an award from the county. Jeanette Federico, Larry's widow, had seen the shootout on the news. Authorities believe the men might have robbed as many as five other banks in the past four years and they are trying to determine what happened to the millions in loot. Copyright 2023 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The 26-year-old Phillips is believed to be the other. He would not say specifically how Phillips and Matasareanu met. Matasareanu's final house (2015). The two men sprayed bullets at police and other people before they were fatally shot in a battle that left 16 officers and civilians injured and stunned the nation with its live, televised pictures. Unfortunately for most involved the steel trauma plate behind that hole had done its job correctly. He would look at a crime and analyze it to see how it could have been done better.. A golden retriever was shot in the nose while on the way to his vet. Dressed in new Nikes and with the ever present Rolex on his wrist and a wallet full of cash he appeared affluent and content. Something goes wrong in the robbery attempt and . Out back, their bullet-ridden getaway car, a destroyed LAPD black-and-white, and an armored car that helped rescue cops and civilians gathers crowds. In that case, Matasareanu and Larry Eugene Phillips Jr. served less than four months in jail after striking case a plea bargain that cut a conspiracy and weapons case to a handful of misdemeanors. LM/AM. As the day wore on various entities gave interviews to the media, amongst them was Sgt Haynes whose black and white had been the first target for Phillips, and Judy Cook; the widow of Herman Cook who was executed by an unknown gunman back in 1995. . The robbers, clad in cut-up Kevlar, emptied their clips, sending hot rounds through concrete walls, iron fences, dozens of cars and through the walls of a nearby ice cream parlor and pizza joint. PASADENA, Calif. (AP) _ The parents of a bandit gunned down by police during a botched bank robbery say their son had an ``attitude problem and that his brazen assault was ``like suicide., ``Never I heard that he fight with someone, Viorel Matasareanu, 77, said Sunday of his son Emil Dechebal Matasareanu, who he had brought with him from their native Romania. Cook seemed to be prepared, even eager it seemed to accept that Phillips and Matasareanu's deaths would at last close the file on her husband's murder that had remained unsloved for the previous two years. The two were wearing full body armor and fired hundreds of shots from fully automatic assault weapons at police officers and innocent bystanders after the foiled bank robbery. This final number shall also be addressed in the Myths page, for the media and the public jumped on this number and it has been incorrectly written into lore that he had been shot twenty nine times, and this just isn't the case. The clock ticked relentlessly. Before becoming a full-time bank robber, he began suffering from seizures. Because it remained unchecked and unchallenged it STILL endures to this day. Perhaps inspired by the epic shootout scene in the 1995 film "Heat," they were . James Zboravan, then a rookie, recalls the North Hollywood shootout, North Hollywood shootout 20th anniversary - a look at the past and present, The home improvement store that served as our makeshift office during the North Hollywood shootout is still there, and so is the man who runs it, How the infamous North Hollywood shootout unfolded, LASD Detective Dies In Carson After Medical Emergency While Driving, Koreatown Intruder Throws Boiling Hot Water At Resident, Family Of Slain California Deputy Calls For Judge To Resign, Number Of LA Killings Falls In 2022 But Is High Compared To Pre-COVID, Memorial Service To Honor Riverside County Deputy Shot During Traffic Stop. Eleven officers were wounded, but none killed. It is curious to note that we have found no official communiqu naming Phillips and Matasareanu as the perpetrators; the media seem to be the first people to use their names, and the LAPD followed suit some time later. Apparently enraged to find only $350,000 in its coffers, they beat a bank branch officer. Matasareanu's autopsy would be conducted over both days of that weekend. Prosecutors have said they were worried she might flee. At 11:30am the neighbourhood was evacuated after officers discovered what appeared to be bomb making equipment in a bag and in the trunk of a vehicle in the garage underneath what appeared to be the bedrooms Emil had decorated for his children (not many adults I know have Winnie the Pooh curtains) was found a 'putty-like substance'. Deputy District Attorney James Grodin, who supervised the prosecution of the case, said he initially charged them with conspiracy to commit robbery, but had to settle for several less-serious weapons charges because he lacked evidence to prove a conspiracy. . She would stay in the house for roughly another two weeks, when Larry never came home that Friday her intuition was proven correct, and when his name and Glendale arrest photo was finally broadcast across the airwaves the reality was hammered home. Last Updated September 7, 2016 at 6:56 AM EDT (6 years ago) Request Update Get E-Mail Alerts Entries (337) Calendar Events Related (0) 23 West Harriet St., Altadena, CA 244 West Loma, Altadena, CA Recently, after the first of a series of bank robberies that authorities believe Phillips and Matasareanu committed, his fortunes showed some improvement: Matasareanu and his wife rented a sprawling multilevel home in Rowland Heights. Unable to start the Jeep however, he soon finds himself engaged in a fresh . Emil Dechebal Matasareanu, 30, and Larry Eugene Phillips Jr., 26, were arrested in October 1993 after a routine traffic stop in Glendale, Calif., led to the discovery of a cache of weapons and . For Matasareanu and Phillips, suspected of pulling off a number of sophisticated bank heists, the North Hollywood robbery was to be their biggest yet. Sr would give the detectives a few leads to go on but ultimately he gave up nothing extraordinarily revealing about his son. . At 9am the fully clothed body of Larry Eugene Phillips Jr was removed from the five hundred berth cold storage area and bought into the examination room. . With a what-did-you-expect shrug, he added: "He grows (up) here. Matasareanu and his wife and young son were living with Nicolescu and running a home-care service for the mentally disabled. Matasareanu's mother said her son was a sharpshooter and computer whiz who had grown increasingly despondent in past months, causing her to fear he was suicidal and might hurt somebody. Marital Status: Widowed Lots more to come. On February 28, 1997, at 9:15 AM, Emil Dechebal Matasareanu and Larry Eugene Phillips, Jr, walked into a Bank of America in Van Nuys, California on Laurel Canyon Boulevard not far from the Disney, Universal and Warner. "For eight months, I didn't sleep during the night.". I have heard from sources whom shall remain nameless that the day took on a dark carnival atmosphere. "There was no time to be scared. The two decided to team up. Officials also were looking for ties between the men and organized crime. In recent years he lived with her on and off in her Glendale apartment, neighbors there said, but she moved into a rest home and died in 1994, having cut all contact with her nine brothers and sisters. On the morning of February 28, 1997, two heavily armed men wearing body armor burst into a Bank of America branch, took a little more than $300,000 and fired their way out. When police last week searched a Pasadena commercial building owned by Matasareanus mother, they were shocked to discover a 44-year-old mentally disabled woman locked in an underground bunker without food or water. Both Phillips father and brother said they are certain he didnt use drugs. Today would be a day of searches, secondary searches and seized vehicles. By the end, Larry and Emil were both dead; Emil was shot and killed by police while Larry committed suicide. Twenty years later, the North Hollywood shootout is still vivid for those who suffered through it, and it has become part of the cultural lore of Los Angeles. Phillips Sr told the detectives that Jr had handed him a pre-paid pager, and had also given him his own pager number so that they may remain in contact. In Phillips case his residence would not be identified until some weeks later when his wife, Jeanette Federico, finally surrendered herself in Colorado. The first search of this property would reveal 500 rounds of ammunition of an undisclosed calibre, a revolver, stun guns and blank identification documents. Even Matasareanus choice of a wife fell under Phillips influence, he said. Date of Birth: August 7, 1968 The Los Angeles County Coroner's Office said today (Thursday) that Emil Matasareanu was downed by 29 bullets, including a deep wound to his thigh that caused him to bleed to death. Laid out on his back with his head turned to the left, his Galco shoulder holster was removed; followed by his ammunition carrying vest revealing the blood and sweat soaked grey Honors T-shirt that covered his body armor. We are sure it must have been investigated but any official register of such an investigation is beyond our view at this time. 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