BEVERLY HILLS—John Earl Wright, a serial bank robber who confessed to committing over 100 heists was sentenced on Thursday, April 23 to 3 1/2 years in federal prison in connection with three bank robberies he committed in Los Angeles last summer.
Wright pleaded guilty in October 2014 to two of three counts of his federal indictment. As part of his plea deal, he specifically acknowledged his role in three heists, the first of which took place at a U.S. Bank in Beverly Hills on June 6, 2014.
The second heist took place at a Bank of the West branch in Los Angeles on June 9, 2014 and the third at a Beverly Hills Wells Fargo Bank on June 18, 2014. Per court documents, the robberies netted Wright an estimated $5,675.
Wright’s robbery tactics involved intimidation and convincing bank robbers that he was armed and prepared to kill. In the June 9 robbery of Bank of the West, Wright even grabbed a hostage that he threatened to kill if the teller didn’t fork over the cash.
His defense stated that he has battled a lifelong addiction with heroin, one that put him in a state of desperation resulting in his spree of violent crime. Owning a lengthy criminal record dating all the way back to 1995, Wright was once dubbed the “white bag bandit” for a series of bank robberies in which he used a white plastic bag to haul off the loot of his armed robberies.
Though he has officially been linked to only 21 heists, Wright confessed to the prosecution that he was responsible for over 100 bank robberies in his life, including an estimated two dozen in the Los Angeles area alone.
It has been recommended that during his incarceration, Wright take part in a drug treatment program. In addition to his 3 1/2 sentence, he is required to pay a restitution fee of $3,000.
