Las Vegas Shooter’s Father Was On FBI’s Most Wanted List

As Hannah told you about earlier, the Las Vegas shooter’s brother spoke to the media. He seemed legitimately shocked, and I feel bad for the man.

He didn’t do this. He seemingly wasn’t even very close to his brother. Now his head is obviously spinning trying to figure out how to process all of this, and he’s worried about other members of this family.

He said his 90-year-old mother is “in shock.” He said they’re currently “sitting in here in our house hoping that everyone doesn’t attack us.”

Now, Peter Alexander, national correspondent for NBC news is revealing something else the shooter’s brother said:

NEW: Shooter’s brother says their father was Patrick Benjamin Paddock, a bank robber who he says was on FBI Most Wanted list. @tracyconnor

— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) October 2, 2017

Woah.

According to this:

NBC’s @PeterAlexander reports shooter’s father former FBI 10 Most Wanted bank robber Patrick Benjamin Paddock, aka Benjamin Hoskins Paddock pic.twitter.com/xnQEH5KOdA

— Brendan Keefe (@BrendanKeefe) October 2, 2017

Around 1960, the older Paddock, then said to be 34, was accused of robbing at least three banks in Phoenix, according to archival newspaper accounts. He allegedly stole more than $20,000, the equivalent of around $165,000 today. In 1960, FBI agents reportedly arrested him in Las Vegas after a bank employee gave police information about the getaway car. He reportedly appeared in a lineup before bank employees and was later sentenced to 20 years in prison.

 

On Christmas Eve in 1968, Paddock reportedly escaped from a Texas prison. Six months later, he robbed a bank in San Francisco, according to a newspaper account. Under his alias, he appeared on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list.

 

A “wanted” notice from 1969 described him as having a scar above his right eyebrow and as an “avid bridge player.” The notice also said that he had been “diagnosed as psychopathic,” and that he might be suicidal and “should be considered armed and very dangerous.” The notice is signed by J. Edgar Hoover, the famous FBI director from that era. Life magazine published his “wanted” picture. The New York Times mentioned him, too, saying he also went by the aliases “Big Daddy” and “Old Baldy.” In 1971, an FBI agent described Paddock, then on the run, to the Tucson Daily News as “a glib, smooth-talking man who is egotistical and arrogant.”

 

The older Paddock remained on the “most wanted” list until 1977, according to bureau records. The following year, police arrested him, Oregon’s Eugene Register-Guard reported at the time. He was reportedly then the manager of a bingo parlor in the Eugene, Oregon, area and living under the name Bruce Werner Ericksen. It was not immediately clear what happened after that arrest. Public records indicate that he died in 1998.

Reactions to this are pretty mixed:

So hard to watch this man trying to convey who his brother is/was…he has no clue. When you think you know someone…think otherwise #pray

— B. Moore (@kem74moore) October 2, 2017

Maybe if he had a moment 2 process he’d realize there were clues but nope, media had 2shove mic in his face immediately.

— Thoughtful Patriot (@KFerrugia) October 2, 2017

and that has bearing on the Vegas mass murder…how?

— Greytdog (@Greytdog) October 2, 2017

At this early stage, everything’s relevant–certainly as relevant as wild ISIS claims.

— Ed Kilgore (@ed_kilgore) October 2, 2017

What’s your take? Is this relevant?