Murder They Wrote: The End of the Dream

Marge Mullins (0:05)

He's like the Pied Piper.

Susan Spencer (0:07)

Scott Scurlock, a free-spirited minister's son, athletic, good-looking.

Elizabeth Stanton (0:11)

He's this incredible guy who built the tree house.

Kevin Myers (0:14)

Took me about two weeks to build this whole thing.

Anne Rule (0:16)

When I first read about the main characters in the newspaper, I was immediately curious.

Elizabeth Stanton (0:23)

I pulled you into this magical world where it was fun and happy.

Susan Spencer (0:27)

When he first came to you and said, Look, we want you to help us rob a bank.

Steve Myers (0:31)

I thought he was crazy.

Anne Rule (0:35)

This case is different from any that I have written about before.

Suzanne (0:39)

He loved the story of Robin Hood.

Anne Rule (0:40)

A bank robber who looked like Mel Gibson.

Susan Spencer (0:43)

The bank robber Hollywood would be born.

Sean Johnson (0:46)

Pancake makeup, wig, chin.

Susan Bartlett (0:48)

We're currently receiving a silent holdup alarm.

Mike McGann (0:51)

He was taking more amounts of money than any robber that I had ever seen.

Steve Myers (0:55)

We had planned to take five banks in one evening. It was a mind game with us.

Anne Rule (1:01)

I discovered that it was at the same time tragic and funny, terrifying and romantic.

Steve Myers (1:07)

Scott got out with this assault rifle.

Howard Monta (1:10)

And the gunshot went off. And I thought I was dead.

Anne Rule (1:13)

I'm Anne Rule. The story you're about to watch is from my book, The End of the Dream.

Sean Johnson (1:37)

It was Thanksgiving Eve, of course, and everybody's anxious to get home and be with their families and such. I left the office about 5.30.

Susan Spencer (1:44)

Almost precisely at that moment, the biggest bank robbery in American history Anne-Marie. got underway.

The robbers fled with more than a million dollars.

Susan Bartlett (1:55)

We're currently receiving a silent holdup alarm from RC First and Lake City.

Mike McGann (2:00)

I knew it was Hollywood.

Susan Spencer (2:01)

Hollywood, as they called him, was no stranger to the Seattle police or the FBI. One of the best you've ever seen?

Sean Johnson (2:08)

The best.

Susan Spencer (2:08)

No question.

Sean Johnson (2:09)

No questions.

Susan Spencer (2:10)

He had eluded and taunted them for four years, effortlessly robbing 18 banks. But this would be his last. Within 24 hours, he was hunkered down in a cold, dark camper in a Seattle backyard, surrounded by SWAT teams and the FBI.

And Hollywood made his exit.

Steve Myers (2:31)

I thought, fantastic.

He's out. He made it. He did it.

Susan Spencer (2:37)

Wow. His nickname, his style, his success, all caught the attention of one of Seattle's most famous writers. Without question, the most astonishing front entrance ever seen.

How are you? I'm Susan.

Elizabeth Stanton (2:50)

Nice to meet you.

Susan Spencer (2:51)

Anne Rule, a former Seattle cop, now a student of true crime. How do you get any work done?

Her home and office on Puget Sound are evidence that crime, or at least writing about it, can pay. You have been called the queen of true crime. You could pretty much pick whatever story you want to do. What was it specifically about this story that drew you to it?

Anne Rule (3:16)

The idea of a Robin Hood-like character, of a highwayman, a bank robber who looked like Mel Gibson, who basically was the kind of man that every woman in her secret heart would like to date at least once.

Susan Spencer (3:31)

Hollywood, actually, was Scott Scurlock, a preacher's son from Reston, Virginia, and the leading man in Ann Rule's 17th book, The End of the Dream. The story of the man who would become one of this country's most remarkable bank robbers begins, unremarkably enough, here in Hawaii, where he lived in the 70s on and off with his old friend, Kevin Myers, and what a life it was.

Kevin Myers (4:08)

I was cashing my check, and I was counting my tens as I was walking out of the bank door. Here comes the island bus pulling up.

The first person out, there's Scott coming down.

Susan Spencer (4:17)

Scott Scurlock and Kevin Myers were childhood friends. It was 1974, and Kevin was a student at the University of Hawaii. When out of the blue, Scott Scurlock simply showed up.

Kevin Myers (4:30)

He goes, well, I just came here from the airport. I go, you're kidding, from Virginia? He goes, yeah, I just got off the plane from Virginia.

Susan Spencer (4:36)

Ready to pick up where they'd left off in high school.

Kevin Myers (4:38)