A 74-year-old man currently serving time in a federal prison has confessed to a string of armed bank robberies that included one near Rosemont in 2010, according to a federal court document filed by the FBI.
David Griffith Osborne, who is in prison on unrelated charges, was interviewed earlier this month and confessed to a total of eight armed robberies in 2009 and 2010, according to the federal complaint.
One of the robberies took place on June 3, 2010, at the American River Bank located at 9750 Business Park Dr. In that incident, federal agents allege that Osborne held up the bank at gunpoint and fled on a bicycle with $10,772 in stolen cash.
In each armed robbery Osborne is accused of committing, the FBI says he wore a hat, sunglasses, and a fake mustache and goatee. He earned the nickname "the Fedora Bandit," according to a press release.
According to the court document, the FBI obtained DNA evidence from a bicycle abandoned after a robbery in Paradise, and matched that DNA to Osborne. A Jeep Cherokee used in that same robbery matched the description of one registered to Osborne at that time, the FBI says.
Osborne, of Carson City, Nev., faces a maximum of 25 years in prison for each robbery.
The full list of bank robberies being attributed to him is as follows:
- December 22, 2009, Bank of the West, 736 Taylorville Road, Grass Valley
- February 18, 2010, Bank of the West, 2160 Lake Tahoe Boulevard, South Lake Tahoe
- March 9, 2010, Bank of the West, 200 Bear Street, Kings Beach
- March 31, 2010, Bank of the West, 736 Taylorville Road, Grass Valley
- April 26, 2010, Bank of the West, 34 East Gridley Road, Gridley
- June 3, 2010, American River Bank, 9750 Business Park Drive, Rancho Cordova
- June 29, 2010, Chase Bank, 6669 Clark Road, Paradise.
He also confessed to an April 2010 robbery of a Carson City bank, according to the court document.
