“Lethal Heist” revisits Denver’s 1991 Father’s Day Bloodbath

Chapter 16

A Hankering for Chess

James W. King, a 54-year-old retired Denver cop, was piddling in his yard in Golden, Colorado—on the fringe of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in neighboring Jefferson County—a sweaty T-shirt and shorts clinging to his five-foot-eleven, 180-pound body.  With the again of his hand, he wiped the perspiration beading up on his brow slightly below his neatly trimmed, Fifties-style light-brown flat-top.  

It was June 23, one week because the bloody bloodbath.  King was mildly shocked no person on the joint process power had reached out to him to brainstorm.  In any case, he’d spent 13 months within the bowels of United Financial institution—till August 1990—and knew its safety system higher than simply about anybody.  Two days earlier, he’d written a letter to his good pal Mike McKown—the guard who’d skilled him—lamenting how regulation enforcement was “in fact” blaming previous and current guards for the tragedy.  “The Police and FBI haven’t but questioned me,” he wrote, “however I assume they’ll get round to it quickly.”

Although his prediction turned out to be eerily prophetic, the gentleman who interrupted his gardening that Sunday afternoon was on the payroll of a newspaper, not the DPD or FBI.  John Ensslin, the police-beat reporter for the Rocky, was working his manner down a prolonged checklist of former United Financial institution guards as he pieced collectively a narrative for Monday’s paper.  After the 2 exchanged pleasantries, King invited him inside, providing the journalist a chilly beverage.  The 2 males chatted in the lounge as a grey poodle, yapping furiously, tried to dominate their dialog.

King instructed Ensslin he was surprised upon listening to information of the theft and felt “sorrow” for the slain guards and their households.  “They need to have been armed,” he insisted.  He shared that he was one of many few guards on the weekend crew who carried a weapon, boasting he’d finished so with out first receiving the financial institution’s authorization.  “Nobody challenged me,” he mentioned.  King voiced his intense displeasure over United Financial institution and its new guardian firm, Norwest, creating an surroundings by which safety guards weren’t in a position to shield themselves. 

“Safety on the financial institution was shitty,” he added, noting how financial institution officers wandered by safe areas every time they happy.  They’d recurrently name downstairs to the monitor room to obtain an escort by way of the freight elevator, he mentioned, claiming to have misplaced their keycards.  He instructed Ensslin it was apparent the killer possessed detailed data of the safety system.

“Do you’ve got any concept who it may need been?”

“I can’t think about who would have finished such a horrible factor,” King mentioned with a shake of his head.

Thirty minutes after getting into the retired cop’s cramped bungalow, Ensslin headed again to his automobile—parked on the grime highway beside the home—one other former guard now crossed off his checklist.  The interview hadn’t unearthed something near a bombshell—nothing even worthy of point out within the article that would seem below his byline the subsequent day.  Not even King’s title.

John Gedney and Kevin Knierim had been working by their very own checklist of former United Financial institution guards that Monday morning.  Not like John Ensslin, nevertheless, they weren’t sitting in James King’s front room as a result of they had been writing a newspaper article.  Fairly, the 2 twenty-somethings had been particular brokers with the FBI.  King’s premonition to Mike McKown had been lifeless on the cash.  The brokers rigorously studied King’s bushy salt-and-pepper mustache, which they discovered just like the outline supplied by the financial institution tellers.  In addition they famous that his hair was starting to grey across the temples and down his ultra-thin sideburns.

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As he did with Ensslin, King expressed his disapproval of Norwest’s choice to disarm the guards.  He knowledgeable the brokers he was writing a e book about police procedures and financial institution safety.  He grew to become notably animated as he described United Financial institution’s woeful safety procedures, noting that was one of many causes he’d determined to give up.  

The ex-cop was notably upset, he mentioned, as a result of financial institution staff can be permitted to enter the ability on weekends with out having to point out any identification.  Even upkeep staff may freely enter the guard monitor room.  King instructed Gedney and Knierim he was satisfied that the crime had been dedicated by an insider, somebody who possessed thorough data of the financial institution’s safety techniques.

As for his personal whereabouts on Father’s Day morning, King recounted that he’d risen from mattress at 8:00 a.m. and pushed out to the Capitol Hill Group Heart at roughly 9:30 a.m. to hunt out a recreation of chess.  He returned a short while later, he mentioned, as a result of the ability was closed.  Upon returning dwelling, he ate breakfast together with his spouse after which accompanied her to go to her father’s grave on the cemetery.  They stopped for frozen yogurt on the way in which again.  Once they returned dwelling at about 1:00 p.m., he washed his automobile.

Requested whether or not he owned any weapons, King recognized three:  a twelve-gauge shotgun, a .22-caliber bolt-action rifle, and a .22-caliber handgun.  As for his .38-caliber police revolver, he instructed the younger brokers he removed it as a result of it had a cracked cylinder.  When the lawmen requested if he’d be prepared to take a polygraph, King nodded affirmatively, with out displaying the slightest hesitation.

Just a few days later, Gedney and Knierim’s report made its method to police headquarters.  As Detective Priest perused the doc, a number of gadgets nearly leapt off the web page.  First, although King lived eleven miles from United Financial institution’s downtown facility, he positioned himself simply over a mile away—on the group heart on 1290 Williams Road—on the identical time a homicidal maniac was brutally murdering 4 safety guards.  Second, the group heart hadn’t hosted the Denver Chess Membership in over three years, a reality confirmed by Priest’s subordinates.  Why wouldn’t he have recognized that? 

Much more vital, Priest couldn’t comprehend how a cop may casually discard the revolver he’d carried for 25 years.  He thought-about his personal service weapon a part of his identification, no completely different from his badge.  Most retired officers he knew had positioned their weapons and badges in show circumstances to memorialize their service.  He’d additionally by no means heard of a crack forming within the cylinder of a .38-caliber revolver.  James King’s story didn’t add up.  Within the blink of a watch, he’d leapfrogged Paul Yocum to the highest of the detective’s checklist of suspects. 

Detective Calvin Hemphill drew the task of conducting a follow-up interview of King.  He’d spent the final sixteen years with the DPD, almost ten as a detective.  Although he’d overlapped with King for greater than a decade, he didn’t have the foggiest clue who he was.  

On July 2, Hemphill stood on the previous cop’s entrance porch alongside one other FBI agent, Alfonso Villegas.  When the entrance door cracked open, the middle-aged man throughout from them appeared clear shaven, his bushy salt-and-pepper mustache all of a sudden gone.  

Hemphill and Villegas flashed their credentials.  “Might we have now a phrase with you?” the DPD detective requested.

King’s eyes darted from Hemphill to Villegas, after which again once more.  “No,” he lastly mentioned.  “My lawyer instructed me to not converse with the FBI or DPD.”

“Hear,” Hemphill mentioned, making an attempt to appeal his manner inside by interesting to King’s ego.  “We’re right here since you labored as a guard at United Financial institution and in addition with us on the power.  You’re not a suspect.  We need to faucet into your expertise to see should you may help us clear up the crime.”

The detective’s ploy labored.  King opened the door vast, directing the lawmen to a sofa in the lounge as he took a seat in a simple chair.  

Their dialog started with a overview of his employment with United Financial institution.  The previous cop defined that he’d labored twelve-hour shifts on Saturdays and Sundays, carrying his .38-caliber Colt Trooper revolver on a Sam Browne belt.  The belt contained a pouch for 2 pace loaders.  King acknowledged carrying the gun even after studying it had a cracked cylinder.  After he give up, he mentioned, he dismantled it—as a result of it was harmful—and threw it within the trash.  His spouse actually didn’t like having weapons round the home anyway.

With out a lot prompting, King launched right into a stinging critique of the financial institution’s safety procedures.  For starters, the surveillance cameras had been by no means cleaned, the footage they captured all the time out of focus.  Although the freight elevator supposedly had a devoted key, he mentioned, nearly any key on the guard’s key ring would work.  He defined how he’d as soon as mistakenly used the fallacious key to function the elevator and it labored simply positive.  It was such a severe breach of safety, he famous the issue within the guard logbook.  “However they didn’t care,” he instructed the lawmen, with evident disgust.

Moreover, anybody who wished to realize entry to the financial institution through the weekend may simply name right down to the monitor room and be allowed in with none identification.  The weekend guards felt compelled to let staff enter the financial institution even when their names weren’t discovered on the computerized checklist.  “If we instructed them we couldn’t allow them to in with out correct identification,” he mentioned, “they’d complain and we’d get into bother.”

When King lastly took a breath, Hemphill requested, “How would you recognize if the individual in search of entry to the financial institution was actually who they claimed to be?” 

“You wouldn’t,” the ex-cop mentioned with snicker.  “You wouldn’t know in the event that they had been a vice chairman or a secretary.”  

“Are you acquainted with the title Bob Bardwell?” 

King shook his head.  “No, I’m not.”  As he resumed his rant, Villegas jotted in his notes that he displayed “animosity” towards the financial institution, the FBI, and the DPD.

The previous safety guard acknowledged being conscious of a digital camera that filmed the guards as they labored within the monitor room and that it fed footage into the VCR within the supervisor’s workplace.  “They spied on us to see if we had been consuming or ingesting,” he mentioned, his tone dripping with disdain.  “After all I ate and drank throughout my shifts, and I couldn’t have cared much less in the event that they caught me.”

King shared with the lawmen further particulars about his actions on Father’s Day—a couple of of which didn’t mesh together with his June 24 interview.  He now claimed that he’d eaten breakfast together with his spouse earlier than leaving for the group heart at 9:30 a.m.  He instructed Hemphill and Villegas nobody was there when he arrived and that he due to this fact got here again dwelling with out enjoying chess, returning at about 10:20 a.m.  His spouse and youngest son had been there, he mentioned, and so they all went to the cemetery collectively.

Hemphill requested what prompted him to play chess that morning.  King defined that he used to play on a regular basis, however hadn’t been to the group heart for a recreation since 1986.  He mentioned he determined that very morning to begin enjoying once more, noting he’d met his lawyer, Walter Gerash, years earlier after they’d competed in opposition to one another on the heart.  “He’s an in depth pal of mine,” he mentioned.  “I don’t assume he’s going to invoice me for this.”  

King actually perked up when the dialogue shifted to his e book on police procedures.  He instructed the detective and particular agent he’d been writing one chapter per yr and had accomplished eight of the 23 he deliberate to jot down.  He’d taken the job at United Financial institution, he mentioned, partly to acquire background info for a chapter about financial institution safety.  However since quitting his job there, he’d modified his thoughts.  The e book wasn’t going to incorporate a chapter on financial institution safety in any case.

Earlier than leaving, Hemphill requested King to substantiate—a second time—that he’d be prepared to take a polygraph.

“Really, I’m not,” the retired cop mentioned, pursing his lips.  “The polygraph scares me and I’m nervous as it’s.  I simply don’t belief it.”

Hemphill and Villegas raced again to police headquarters to share with Jon Priest what King had instructed them.  After listening to their abstract, the lead detective was much more satisfied they had been closing in on the killer.  He requested Sergeant Doug Hildebrant, a fellow detective, to conduct a 3rd interview.  Hildebrant referred to as King the subsequent morning, July 3.

King repeated to Hildebrant what he’d mentioned the prior day, although with slight changes:  that he’d left for the group heart at 9:30 a.m. and that the ability was closed when he arrived.  He instructed Hildebrant he bought again dwelling between 10:20 and 10:30 a.m.  Between 11:00 and 11:30 a.m., he and his spouse visited Mount Olivet Cemetery, the place her mother and father had been buried.  On their manner again, they stopped for some ice cream.  At 1:00 p.m., he drove to a automobile wash after which got here again dwelling.  He realized in regards to the financial institution heist, he mentioned, watching the six o’clock information on TV.

Later that afternoon, Hildebrant and Lieutenant Tom Haney paid King yet one more go to.  The detective requested if any of King’s neighbors may confirm his whereabouts on Father’s Day morning.  The ex-cop replied that he didn’t know any of his neighbors and hadn’t seen any of them when he left for the group heart or when he returned dwelling.

Hildebrant inquired whether or not anybody had seen him on the group heart who may corroborate his alibi.  King recounted that he’d parked within the again, walked round to the entrance, however hadn’t seen anybody to let him in.  The place was closed and locked.  A well-dressed gentleman was standing on the entrance porch, he mentioned.  He requested the person if he knew the place the chess membership was assembly, however he didn’t know.  But the stranger couldn’t function his alibi, as King had no concept who he was.

Steven B. Epstein, a local of Lengthy Island, graduated with B.A. and regulation levels from the College of North Carolina.  “Lethal Heist” is his fourth true crime e book.  By day, he tries circumstances and practices household regulation at Poyner Spruill LLP in Raleigh, North Carolina.  He and his books have been featured on TV documentaries, together with “Dateline NBC,” TV newscasts, and true crime podcasts and livestreams.