`Trench-Coat' Robber Pleads Guilty

ST. PAUL, Minn. - A northeastern Minnesota man accused of being one of the "trench-coat robbers" in bank holdups across the country, including Washington state, pleaded guilty yesterday to three robberies.

William A. Kirkpatrick, 59, of Hovland, Minn., pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiring to rob a bank in Minnesota in 1993, one in Las Vegas in 1995 and the Seafirst Bank in Lakewood, Pierce County, on Feb. 10, 1997. He and partner Ray L. Bowman, 54, of Kansas City, stole about $4.4 million in the Washington state robbery, thought to be the largest bank holdup in U.S. history.

Bowman was sentenced last week to 24 years in prison for the Seafirst robbery.