Around 1960, the older Paddock, then said to be 34, was accused of robbing at least three banks in Phoenix, according to archival newspaper accounts. He allegedly stole more than $20,000, the equivalent of around $165,000 today. In 1960, FBI agents reportedly arrested him in Las Vegas after a bank employee gave police information about the getaway car. He reportedly appeared in a lineup before bank employees and was later sentenced to 20 years in prison.
On Christmas Eve in 1968, Paddock reportedly escaped from a Texas prison. Six months later, he robbed a bank in San Francisco, according to a newspaper account. Under his alias, he appeared on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list. A "wanted" notice from 1969 described him as having a scar above his right eyebrow and as an "avid bridge player." The notice also said that he had been "diagnosed as psychopathic," and that he might be suicidal and "should be considered armed and very dangerous." The notice is signed by J. Edgar Hoover, the famous FBI director from that era. Life magazine published his "wanted" picture. The New York Times mentioned him, too, saying he also went by the aliases "Big Daddy" and "Old Baldy." In 1971, an FBI agent described Paddock, then on the run, to the Tucson Daily News as "a glib, smooth-talking man who is egotistical and arrogant."
More about: #LasVegasShooting #StephenPaddock
