Robber Wanted Control And Riches, Relative Says -- He Was Envious Of L.A.'S Wealthy, Orchestrated Life Of Partner In Crime

LOS ANGELES - A lust for riches and a resentment of society's rules motivated the dominant of the two armor-clad bank robbers who died in the city's most spectacular shootout of a quarter century, the man's half-brother said.

It was the younger of the robbers, Larry Eugene Phillips, 26, who lured Romanian-born Emil Matasareanu, 30, into the fatal Feb. 28 showdown, Phillips' half-brother said.

The brother characterized Phillips as a secretive, controlling figure who manipulated almost every aspect of Matasareanu's life.

"Larry didn't bring anybody into his inner circle unless he had a plan for him," he said.

The brother, who asked that his name not be used, described outings in which Phillips would drive him through the streets of wealthy neighborhoods and then park outside the homes of the prominent to watch them come and go, visualizing himself in their places.

"If those people knew how close he was, not just once, but on a daily basis, their skin would crawl," he said.

Phillips "wanted to live the American dream. He decided to go about it the wrong way," he said.

He dismissed as a motive the financial problems of Matasareanu, whose immigrant mother - a defector from the Romanian state orchestra - lost her state board and care license because of alleged patient neglect and fire violations, and had been dogged by tax liens in recent years.

"You can't imagine how manipulative my brother was," he said. "He tried to break your mind down and then build it up again so that you would become one of his crew."

Even Matasareanu's choice of a wife fell under Phillips' influence, he said.

"He told Emil not to marry an American woman," the brother said. "Larry didn't like the way American women always talked back."

On a 1990 trip to Romania to bring back his grandmother, Matasareanu also brought back a Romanian wife, Christina.

"I wouldn't say he (Phillips) was a criminal genius," the brother said, "but he was very intelligent. He would look at a crime and analyze it to see how it could have been done better."

His ideal was the 1978 New York Lufthansa Airlines heist in which six ski-masked gunmen crept into a cargo building before dawn and escaped with a record $5.8 million. And he quoted from Barry Minkow, the whiz-kid founder of ZZZZ Best who was later convicted of fraud, on the thrill of grabbing a handful of $100 bills and heading out for the day in his Ferrari to spend them.

Phillips' known life of crime began with a 1989 petty theft of $400 in merchandise from a Sears store near Los Angeles.

His failure to disclose that conviction on a 1990 application disqualified him from obtaining a California real-estate license, records show.

Nonetheless, he pursued real estate illegally, using sophisticated scams and sometimes bald threats, authorities and those who did business with him allege.

In 1991, Phillips was arrested in Orange, Calif., after a mortgage broker reported discovering deeds of trust he bought from Phillips were forged.