[msb-alumni] Alan Hurwitz, 79, died on June 6, 2020; Known as the "zombie Bandit" for a String of Bank Heists in Michigan and Surrounding States
- From: Steve <pipeguy920@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2020 15:27:31 -0400
BlankTHOSE WE'VE LOST. Alan Hurwitz, 79. By Richard Sandomir.
Once a Detroit educator committed to social justice, he developed a crack
addiction
and robbed 18 banks in three months, earning the name the "Zombie Bandit." He
died
of Covid-19.
During the early decades of his adult life, Alan Hurwitz was an educator in
Detroit
with a passion for social justice. But in 1992 he became known as something
else: the
Zombie Bandit.
Over nine weeks that year, Mr. Hurwitz robbed 18 banks in Michigan, Indiana,
Illinois
and Ohio. His blank expression when he demanded cash from tellers led the
F.B.I. to
give him his nickname.
After the television series "America's Most Wanted" aired video of Mr.
Hurwitz's
heists, tips led the F.B.I. to arrest him in Fowlerville, Mich., northwest of
Detroit. He pleaded guilty to 13 of the robberies and spent 12 years in prison.
But he was not finished. In late 2008, he pulled another string of armed
robberies,
one in Medford, Ore., and three in Northern California, while living in
Orleans,
Calif., with his daughter Laura Hurwitz. He was captured in Wyoming and
sentenced to
17 ? years in prison.
On May 20, he was granted a compassionate release from the Federal Correctional
Complex in Butner, N.C., where Covid-19 was spreading rapidly among inmates;
eight
prisoners there had died of the disease by the time Mr. Hurwitz was freed. His
daughter Karen Hurwitz Hoene said he had not been tested in prison.
Mr. Hurwitz flew from North Carolina to Chicago and became ill after a second
flight
to Denver en route to Orleans. He was taken to a hospital there and died on
June 6 of
Covid-19, Ms. Hurwitz Hoene said. He was 79.
Alan David Hurwitz was born on Jan. 18, 1941, in Detroit. His mother, Minnie
(Cohen)
Hurwitz, was a secretary; his father, Theodor, was a customs worker.
"I was raised in the liberal Jewish tradition of justice, learning and
equality," he
told the Detroit Metro Times in 2005.
After flunking out of Wayne State University, Mr. Hurwitz served in the Marine
Corps
Reserve. He returned to Wayne State to earn a bachelor's degree in education.
He
began teaching English and social studies in a middle school, then held
positions
that included adviser on desegregation to Detroit's public schools. He was a
member
of a state task force on school violence and education director of a civic
group
called New Detroit.
His spiral into robbery came on the heels of an addiction to crack. For a
while, he
later said, he had been growing increasingly angry that his three decades of
effort
to reform education and combat racism had failed.
Mr. Hurwitz's criminal life provided him with a chance to educate prisoners.
"He found his place in prison," Ms. Hurwitz Hoene said. "He taught inmates to
read
and write; he taught them history."
In addition to his daughters, Mr. Hurwitz is survived by his sons, Michael
Hurwitz
and Sean Case; eight grandchildren; two great-grandchildren, and a brother,
Larry.
Mr. Hurwitz's two marriages ended in divorce.
Mr. Hurwitz felt no guilt about the money he stole --"'He hated bankers and
they were
federally insured," Ms. Hurwitz Hoene said -- but was sorry about any trauma he
caused the tellers, who believed he had a handgun tucked in his waistband.
"But his biggest regret was that his father died while he was incarcerated,"
Ms.
Hurwitz Hoene said. (Theodor Hurwitz died in 1996.) "My grandfather was loyal
to him
and forgave him."
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- » [msb-alumni] Alan Hurwitz, 79, died on June 6, 2020; Known as the "zombie Bandit" for a String of Bank Heists in Michigan and Surrounding States - Steve
