Foiled by a Lockheed Badge!

The 1945 Burbank Bank Robbery

by Wes Clark and Mike McDaniel

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Ace Burbank researcher Mike McDaniel came across the following photo, which led to my doing some investigation with the Los Angeles Times.

Here are the first stories to hit the media:

2 August 1945 3 August 1945 As it turned out, the prints aren't what provided the best evidence. It was - oops! - a Lockheed employee badge, as this 27 September story reveals:

The perfect crime foiled by the FBI lab analysts in Washington D.C.! The pair were sentenced... from the 11 January 1946 Los Angeles Times.

John Uckele's sentence was cut from 35 to 20 years in recognition of the fact that he cooperated with Federal authorities to recover some of the money. The media trail ends here, but the question remains: is there $100,000 buried somewhere?

Perhaps in Burbank?

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