Bank robber known as 'Fedora Bandit' sentenced to 9 years in prison

Submitted by Editor on Fri, 07/19/2013 - 12:14pm

David Griffith Osborne, 75, known as the "Fedora Bandit" for his lengthy string of bank robberies in northern California, Lake Tahoe and at least one in Carson City, was sentenced Friday to nine years in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, for three counts of armed bank robbery, U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced.

On January 11, 2013, Osborne, formerly of Carson City, pled guilty to robbing the following banks:

Bank of the West, 34 East Gridley Road, Gridley, April 26, 2010;

American River Bank, 9750 Business Park Drive, Rancho Cordova, June 3, 2010;

Chase Bank, 6669 Clark Road, Paradise, June 29, 2010.

Osborne also admitted to four other bank robberies and will be required to pay $55,929 in restitution for all seven robberies. The other robberies are:

Bank of the West, 736 Taylorville Road, Grass Valley, December 22, 2009 and March 31, 2010;

Bank of the West, 2160 Lake Tahoe Blvd., South Lake Tahoe, Feb. 18, 2010;

Bank of the West, 200 Bear Street, Kings Beach, March 9, 2010.

In each of his seven robberies, Osborne wore a hat, sunglasses, a fake mustache and goatee, and demanded money while brandishing a firearm. Osborne was identified on surveillance images, and after the June 29, 2010, robbery of the Paradise Bank, his DNA was recovered from an abandoned bicycle that he used as a getaway vehicle. Osborne also confessed to the seven armed robberies and also admitted that he had robbed a Bank of the West branch on 2976 North Carson Street, in Carson City.

This case was the product of an investigation by the FBI with the assistance from police departments in Grass Valley, South Lake Tahoe, Gridley, and Paradise; the Sheriff’s Offices in Placer and Sacramento Counties; and the Carson City Sheriff’s Office. It was the collaborative effort and cooperation of the agencies involved in the investigation that ultimately led to Osborne’s identification and the filing of federal charges. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Rodriguez prosecuted the case.