On this day, July 20, in 1992, bookstore owner and bank robber Jeff Erickson escaped from custody and shot and killed two lawmen before turning the gun on himself.
Erickson, a former police officer, and his wife, Jill, a doctoral student at Loyola University in Chicago, had been called a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde.
During the two-year crime spree, Erickson wore a fake beard, carried a gun and police radio scanner. Once his wife discovered his double-life, rather than turn him in, she became his getaway driver.
He was arrested Dec. 16, 1991, while he and Jill were preparing to rob another bank. His wife sped away and died in a police shootout after a 10-mile chase.
During the course of his trial, Erickson managed to wrestle a gun from a deputy United States marshal, which he used to kill another marshal and a security guard.
– Scott McCabe
