Word: stickups
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...Rockville, Md., in 1979 Stephen Gregory got probation instead of a jail term thanks to a PTSD defense. Brandishing two rifles, he had held patrons in a Maryland bank hostage for 6½ hours after yelling, "This is not a stickup." His lawyer argued that Gregory was reliving a wartime event in which his best friend was killed; the policemen outside the bank became the Viet Cong in Gregory's mind, while the hostages were the comrades he sought to lead to safety...
...committed his first armed robbery at age 15 and passed 22 of his last 27 years behind bars. With similar steadfastness, Bishop had denounced all efforts made on his behalf by civil libertarians to stay his execution for the 1977 murder of Newlywed David Ballard, 22, during a casino stickup in Las Vegas. Indeed, Bishop waived his right to a jury trial and immediately pleaded guilty to the killing...
...Lufthansa conspiracy included not only six stickup men but three airline employees and one "coach," who directed rehearsals for the operation. The ten were to receive fees ranging from $10,000 to Werner's $300,000. The rest of the loot apparently went to DiPalermo and another Lucchese capo, Paul Vario, one of the regulars at the old Roberts Lounge, who supervises rackets at Kennedy Airport for the mob. By now, the FBI suspects the money probably has been effectively dispersed through a maze of Mafia business channels...
...movie follows its robber heroes from their early years as clumsy stickup men through their big score and its legal aftermath. There are some giddy set pieces, most notably a gummed-up bubble gum factory robbery, but it is the intimate moments and throwaway wisecracks that pay off best. This is due in no small part to Friedkin's cast, which is full of idiosyncratic comic actors who delight in playing amiable lowlife slobs...
Speedier trials would also help witnesses less patient than Patricia Finck, a Philadelphia A & P cashier who went back to court 46 times to get two stickup men convicted. "After three or four continuances of a case," says Patrick Healy, the executive director of the National District Attorneys Association, "unless you're really a devoted witness, you'll kiss it off. After all, what's in it for you? This business of civic pride goes so far. And the smart defendant and the smart defense lawyer will delay a case to death...