I Robbed Banks for 10 Years — Then Spent 22 in Federal Prison | Larry Barnhill

Larry Barnhill (0:00)

We can go out and land in the 90s, spending money any way we want, because we had bank robbery money, and we never ever touched the teller. It was always the vault, and then we trained in the basement of this mansion. Everyone had to be on point, had to be focused mentally.

Ian Bick (0:14)

That's Larry Barnhill. He went from a track star and college graduate working around celebrities and professional athletes to selling drugs and joining one of Atlanta's most organized bank robbery crews. For nearly a decade, Larry was involved in bank heists that made millions of dollars until the feds caught up with him. He was sentenced to 26 years in federal prison and served more than 22 years behind bars.

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Larry Barnhill (0:54)

I grew up in Wilmington, Delaware and on the west side of the town.

Originally from, I was born in Maryland. So I was very from Maryland, Snow Hill. By the time we moved to Wilmington, I believe I was eight years old, eight somewhere around there. Grew up on the west side there, went to elementary school, middle school in Howard Career Center. That was the school that I went to. Also, yeah, just grew up in the Boys and Girls Club on that side of town.

Very segregated part of the town at that time. So we grew up there and we lived there and that's what I did, my family.

Ian Bick (1:40)

What was your parents' line of work?

Larry Barnhill (1:42)

My dad was kind of like a self-made man. He worked in the car detailing business and he worked in, after our clubs, things of that nature. But his business took off with being one of the best car detailing shops in, I would say, 80s, 90s, and even while I was incarcerated, several nice facilities for total car care in Delaware. He actually got cited for one of the best businesses in that state at one time before he passed.

My mother was a lab technician. She worked for Hercules Research Center. She was a lab technician, a lab chemist. I can't remember exactly, but she retired from there and worked her way up through night school and so forth. Now, just a middle-class family.

We survived, we had a hard times, but overall, they made sure that me and my brothers and sisters, you know, it's kept as well as we could be. But just like in any, I would say, middle-class struggling family.

Ian Bick (2:56)

How many of you were there? How many brothers and sisters?

Larry Barnhill (2:59)

I got twin sisters and one brother, one older brother, so it was four of us.

Ian Bick (3:04)

Were you older than the sisters? Yes, I'm the middle. Okay.

That's got to be tough.

Larry Barnhill (3:08)

Yeah, it was kind of, you know, it is what it is. Like I said, we have our connected family, immediate family was individuals, you know, my mom's sisters, she had five sisters, and you know, they're kids, you know how it is, first cousins growing up, spending most of your time around grandma, and that's down in Snow Hill, Merlin.

But, you know, other than that, you know, it wasn't hard. You know, it was just the regular, just, you know, family, middle-class family back then, you know, everyone fighting each other, each other when we get together, but loving each other. So it wasn't that tough.

Ian Bick (3:46)

What was your favorite childhood memory?

Larry Barnhill (3:48)

One of my favorite childhood memories, I would say, would be, you know, I had an uncle, my mom's sister husband, just riding with him when he got that new car, and being able to get in that Corvette, you know, that fast car, him taking me out riding, and just seeing him, you know, take to me. And we used to look forward to, you know, I used to look forward to seeing him and doing that. And actually, I would have too.

Because one another memory was, there was, I don't know if he was my uncle, what we call him, Uncle Skin Baby. And we had to keep our hair, you know, cut short on the side. So we know we was going to see Uncle Skin Baby. We know whoever got their hair cut short, he was going to give you that dollar or that file out. So we always knew if we go down there, we want to see Skin Baby, if he's going to be in Snow Hill, Maryland. So that's one of my memories, too. I got to keep my hair, you know, cut nice and neat. And that was one of childhood memories, too. But it's funny how going through my experiences and you sit back and look at that, and now that's one of my memories. But going through it, that wasn't a memory. It's like when I'm sitting in there incarcerated and thinking about your childhood, you know, you spend that kind of time.