Trench Coat Robbers Case Goes To Jury

TACOMA - Ray Bowman may be guilty of money laundering or an accessory to other crimes, but he is not one of the men responsible for the biggest bank holdup in the nation's history, his lawyer says.

A government attorney, however, told a U.S. District Court jury yesterday that there was overwhelming evidence linking Bowman to the Trench Coat Robbers' bank jobs, including a $4.4 million holdup in suburban Lakewood.

Jury deliberations begin today on charges of conspiracy to commit robbery in five robberies dating back to 1987.

Investigators say Bowman, 50, of Parkville, Mo., and William Kirkpatrick, 58, of Hovland, Minn., pulled off 28 bank robberies netting them more than $8 million from 1982 to 1997.

The case is named for a central element of the clothing worn by the robbers.

Kirkpatrick faces trial for a Minnesota bank robbery after Bowman's trial before Judge Franklin Burgess is concluded.

Testimony in Bowman's trial, which began Oct. 26, showed he had about $2 million from the Lakewood heist in his Kansas City home, two suitcases he gave to his brother and more than a dozen safe-deposit boxes.

FBI searches also uncovered disguises, guns, lock-picking gear, bulletproof vests and other bank-robbery tools in his home and safe-deposit boxes.

In closing arguments, defense lawyer Peter Camiel suggested Bowman was storing the money and other items for Kirkpatrick. He also emphasized that that only four of 16 witnesses to robberies picked Bowman out of a police lineup this year.

"It's not enough to say there's a lot of suspicious stuff about this guy," Camiel said jurors. "A not-guilty verdict doesn't mean you like him or approve of what he's done. It means you've done your job."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Arlen Storm said Bowman was a professional crook and master of disguises who simply wound up with too much loot - about 175 pounds of cash as his share of the haul from the Seattle-First National Bank branch in Lakewood.

Bowman left a trail from Lakewood to Kansas City, Mo., by renting safe-deposit boxes and visiting ones he had earlier, Storm said. The FBI found Bowman's palm print on a lease agreement for a Utah safe-deposit box that contained $500,000 - a box was rented two days after the big heist.

"In this case, you don't have to see Ray Bowman take the money to know what happened," Storm said.