Topline
A prolific Seattle bank robber has been thrust into the spotlight almost 30 years after he committed his last crime thanks to the Netflix movie “How To Rob A Bank,” a true crime documentary that debuted on the streamer’s Top 10 list this week and describes the life of an ordinary man who dedicated the last years of his life to becoming a seasoned—and evasive—criminal.
Jordan Burtchett as Scott Scurlock in “How to Rob a Bank.”
Key Facts
“How to Rob a Bank” debuted at No. 10 on the Netflix most-watched chart the week of June 3, amassing 3.1 million views in its first five days available.
The movie focuses on the criminal enterprise of Virginia native Scott Scurlock, an otherwise ordinary man who left a drug business he started in college to become a bank robber as he neared 40 years old.
Scurlock robbed a total of 17 banks in the Seattle area between 1992 and 1996, stealing close to $1 million and at times robbing multiple banks in a single night with the help of close accomplices Steven Meyers and Mark Briggins.
He was known to police and sought by detectives for years, but managed to evade capture by capitalizing on a recent tech boom in the area, tapping into a local police scanner and using a series of elaborate disguises that earned him the nickname “Hollywood.”
Scurlock ultimately died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound one day after fleeing from police the night he, Biggins and Meyers stole more than $1 million from Seafirst Bank—that same night, the trio was found by police when their getaway plans were snarled by Thanksgiving Day traffic.
Meyers and Biggins are now free men—they were sentenced to jail time for their Thanksgiving Eve robbery in 1996, but were released in 2013 and 2015, respectively.
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Scott Scurlock.
Mark Biggins and Scott Scurlock from “How to Rob a Bank.”
Crucial Quote
“This is a movie about the consequences of crime, rather than a movie about crime in our minds,” co-director Stephen Robert Morse told Variety Wednesday. “We’re trying to present the facts… There’s some things that we can’t change. That’s one of the constraints of making a documentary is we have to stick to the story that we’re given.”
Key Background
At the time of Scurlock’s four-year crime spree, Seattle was a hotspot for bank robberies. As internet companies like Microsoft and Amazon moved to the city, so followed a financial boom that brought a number of banks to the area for the first time and sparked a rise in robberies. Banks were hit almost nightly, one detective in the movie said, and Scurlock’s were among a series of lower-dollar robberies that didn’t rise to the attention of detectives—until he started upping his take. Eventually, he found his way into bank vaults and was stealing more and more, but a series of evasive maneuvers kept his true identity hidden. He wore a Ronald Reagan mask during his first robbery and later moved on to wearing movie-grade facial prosthetics. Meyers served as a lookout who would alert Scurlock the moment any 911 calls came across local police scanners, and Biggins, usually inside the banks, would help him get out before police arrived. Scurlock is also thought to have had a woman on the inside, who passed along information about vaults and bank protocols, but she was not identified in the film.
Surprising Fact
Scurlock drew inspiration for his crimes from movies like “Heat” (1995) and “Point Break” (1991), according to the documentary. He was inspired by Patrick Swayze’s character Bodhi in “Point Break,” who robs banks wearing masks of former presidents, and used movies like “Heat” to predict how police may respond to his robberies.