Both of these movies are based on the bank robbing spree of suburban Chicago's Jeffrey Erickson and his wife Jill Erickson.

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Copyright 1992 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc. Chicago Sun-Times February 13, 1992, THURSDAY , FIVE STAR SPORTS FINAL SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 20 LENGTH: 350 words HEADLINE: Robbery suspect charged in cop's suburb shooting BYLINE: Philip Franchine BODY: An accused Hanover Park bank robber has been charged with the attempted murder last November of a Palatine police officer and with eight additional bank robberies, officials said Wednesday. Jeffrey Erickson, 33, was arrested Dec. 16 in Schaumburg and has been in federal custody on one federal bank robbery charge and one armed violence charge. His wife, Jill, was killed in a shoot-out with police that followed Erickson's arrest. Cook County State's Attorney Jack O'Malley announced at a press conference his office on Tuesday had charged Erickson with attempted murder and aggravated battery in the Nov. 4 shooting of Palatine Officer Kevin Maher. Maher, who was shot in the left shoulder while making a traffic stop, is back at work, Palatine Police Chief Jerry Bratcher said. U.S. Attorney Fred Foreman announced at the press conference that his office filed federal armed robbery charges against Erickson in the eight robberies, in which he allegedly wore a Cubs cap and a false beard and mustache. Foreman also announced unrelated charges against Orville Lippens, 39, of Elgin, in connection with four bank robberies in West Dundee, Roselle and Chicago since September. The bank robberies are part of a wave that is unprecedented locally and nationally, including the 95 in the Chicago area in 1991, up from 56 in 1990, he said. There have been 15 bank robberies in the Chicago area since Jan. 1, and 35 in the last three months in the 18-county area of northern Illinois, Foreman said. Seventeen still are under investigation, he said. Suburban bank robberies are up because of the increase in bank branches, easy getaways on numerous highways, and less security, Foreman said. If convicted, Erickson, a former Hoffman Estates police officer, faces up to 315 years in prison on the federal charges and up to 90 years on the attempted murder, aggravated battery and armed violence charges, O'Malley's spokesman, Andy Knott, said. Ballistics tests matched a semi-automatic rifle found in Erickson's home with shell casings at the shooting scene, officials said.

Copyright 1992 Gannett Company, Inc. USA TODAY July 21, 1992, Tuesday, FIRST EDITION SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 3A LENGTH: 413 words HEADLINE: Prisoner kills two officers, self BYLINE: Steve Marshall BODY: A former police trainee on trial in Chicago for eight bank robberies slipped from his handcuffs, wrested a gun from a deputy U.S. marshal and killed the deputy and another officer before killing himself Monday in a courthouse garage, the FBI said. Jeffrey Erickson, 34 was in the garage with eight other prisoners when he freed himself and fought for the weapon, FBI agent Ross Rice said. Using the gun, he killed the deputy and another security officer and began to flee. Then, ''for whatever reason, he stopped and shot himself,'' said Rice, who didn't know if other officers were blocking Erickson's escape path. Court security officer Harry Belluomini, 58, and deputy U.S. Marshal Roy Frakes, 30, both of Chicago, were killed. Lawyer Patrick Cummings, across the street at the time of the shooting, said he heard shots at about 5: 30 p.m. CT. ''I heard six or seven shots in at least two groups. I thought I heard a final shot later,'' he said. ''I figured it was probably a car, then my partner looked out his window, saw people ... and then he saw the body.'' Erickson - once dubbed ''the bearded bandit,'' was on trial for robbing eight banks, most in Chicago's suburbs, of more than $ 180,000 and wounding a suburban police officer who tried to stop him for a traffic violation in November 1991. Erickson was driving a stolen car at the time. He was arrested Dec. 16, 1991, in the suburb of Schaumburg, while he and his wife, Jill, were preparing to rob another bank, prosecutors said. His wife fatally shot herself after a 10-mile chase. In addition to the beard, prosecutors said, he wore layered clothing to disguise his weight, gloves and carried a police scanner radio. U.S. District Judge James Alesia, hearing Erickson's case, was leaving the garage by car and heard the shots. Since 1979, three federal judges have been killed, all at their homes. But recent courthouse shootings have raised concerns about safety of trial participants: on July 1, in Fort Worth, a lawyer opened fire, killing two lawyers and wounding two judges and a prosecutor. That courthouse had more than 30 metal detectors - used only for ''high- profile cases,'' the sheriff said. The U.S. Marshals Service supervises security for about 1,800 federal judges and other judicial employees. Marshals use metal detectors and X-ray machines in federal court buildings. Federal prisoners are typically transported in leg shackles, handcuffs and waist restraints. GRAPHIC: PHOTO; b/w, Mauricio Zuniga, AP

Aug 95They'llnever make a movie about this man ! The other day,in the pages of the ChicagoTribune, the newspaper for which I work, there appeared a long feature story about a movie filmed this summer. The headlineon the story was "TheyRobbedBanks." The movie, the story said, is based on the lives of JeffreyE. Erickson and his wife, Jill. Jeffrey Erickson had been charged with robbing eight banksbetweenJanuary 1990and November1991;Jill helpedhim out with his last robbery, and perhaps with others. Jill helda gun on bank customers during that final robbery. She died duringa chase with law officers ???or, as the story put it, "she went out in a blazeworthy of the final scene in 'Bonnieand Clyde.'" JeffreyErickson was on trial in federal court duringthe summer of 1992.On his way from the courtroom in Chicago's Dirksen Federal Buildingto the Metropolitan Correction Center, he unlocked liic hanrVuffe with a kpyhp hart obtained, took a gun from a deputy, shot and killed DeputyU.S. Marshal Roy"Bill" Frakes,then fired a shot into the chest of 58- year-old retired Chicago police detective Harry Belluomini, who was working as a courthouse security officer. Belluomini,dying, fired a bullet into Erickson's back. Erickson put his gun to his head and killed himself. The movie is beingmade about the lives of the Ericksons, although the names of Jeffreyand Jill will be changed. The article ???'.boutthe movie made the two of them seem like interestingpeople indeed. Jeffreywas described as "a superb marksman and into guns"; his lawyer was quoted as saying, "Jeff studied security systems. He did an immenseamount of research. He planned the robberies weeks and weeks in advance. In fact,he was the most meticulous oerson I ever met in my life." Jill, the story reported, was considered "brilliant" by some who knew her,although she was said to have severe mental problems. She "listened to rock music, was a 'Star Trek' fanatic and ... was an amateur astronomer." In the movie, JeffreyErickson is beingportrayed by Luke Perry of the television series "Beverly Hills, 90210";Jill is beingportrayed by AshleyJudd, sister of Wynonnad,aughter of Naomi.The photos of both young movie stars appeared with the feature story in the newspaper. Amongthe readers of the Chicago Tribune the daythe story ran was Anne Gill, the daughter of murdered court guard HarryBelluomini. "I was at work," she said ??? she works in a manufacturing plant - -"and the paper was in the lunchujuui. I iuuketi down ai it, and i saw what it was. I took it into an empty office and I cried. "You know,my father was a very good man. Helived his lifeby the rules. My sister and my brother and I loved him,and he and my mother loved each other so much, and I pick up the paper and I have to read about this movie they're making about the man who murdered him. I'm sitting at work reading that Jill Erickson liked astronomy, and that she liked rock music, and I'm thinking, this is just wrong. This is just wrong that these people's livesare beingglorified, and written up in the paper. "I think my father's life was interesting,but no one will ever hear about it. He was a police officer for 33 years ??? after he retired, my sister becamea police officer, and she took over his badge. My brother is a police otticer now, too. My mother and father had just celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary when my dad was murdered. "Mymom and dad loved going up to Wisconsin together and fishing. Theywould play cards with each other all the time ??? poker, canasta, cribbage. Mydad loved to work in the garden. Somemarried people lose interest in each other, but my mom and dad lovedto talk ??? they were always talking to each other. We all always ate dinner together. Myfathers laugh it was such a wonderful laugh. It was so loud and mirthful, you could hear it across a lake. "Mydad always taught us that we should live our lives so that when we got up in the morning, we could look at ourselves in the mirror. On the day he was murdered, I was getting ready to go to work 1 wasn't married yet, I was still livingat home ??? and he very cheerful, and he told me to havea good day..." Her voice broke, and then trailed off. "Maybe my father's life wasn't interestingenough to make a movie about," she said. "But I want you to know that when I picked up the paper and I saw that story, it made me cry. And it made me sick." Me,too. Bob Greene is a columnist with
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People Weekly, March 2, 1992 v37 n8 p71(3) Bloody ending to a double life. (bank robbers in Illinois) Michelle Green. Brief Summary: Jeff Erickson is accused of eight bank robberies near Chicago, IL. His wife, Jill Erickson, was killed when police staked out a car they suspected would be involved in a robbery. The couple does not fit the stereotype of bank robbers. Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1992 Time, Inc. TO THEIR NEIGHBORS IN THE CHICAgo suburb of Hanover Park, Jill and Jeff Erickson seemed slightly peculiar sorts who preferred their motorcycles and their golden retriever, Kaos, to the company of others. The hardworking owner of a used-book store, Jeff, 33, would speak when spoken to, but his wife, Jill, a 27-year-old lab technician, who was finishing a degree in chemistry at Loyola University in Chicago, seldom looked anyone in the eye. The couple had few visitors at their town house on Waterford Drive; both nocturnal, they would roar off on their powerful Honda bikes at 3 A.M. to ride the streets for hours. But even in a city with a rich gangland history, the Ericksons were adding an extraordinary new chapter to the criminal saga. Last Dec. 16 Jeff was arrested in connection with at least eight bank robberies. Cornered after a frantic 110-m.p.h. effort to escape, Jill died in a shoot-out with police. At their town house, police found 38 guns -- rifles, shotguns, pistols and revolvers, 25 boxes of ammunition, smoke grenades, gas masks, burglar tools, a police scanner and $1,742 in cash. The garage had been fitted with a massive safe, and a bulletproof vest was waiting at their mail drop. Instead of the mildly eccentric couple-next-door, it seemed, the bookseller and his wife were a suburban version of Bonnie and Clyde. The MO of the man police called the Bearded Robber (he wore a false dark beard) never varied: He would burst into a Chicago-area bank wearing nondescript clothing and carrying a handgun and a police scanner. No gentleman bandit, he threatened to blow tellers' brains out if they failed to cooperate. Outside the bank would be a stolen Japanese-made car with the ignition pulled out -- a getaway vehicle that he would abandon a few blocks from the bank. Police say that his forays netted him close to $200,000 in 22 months. On Dec. 10 an FBI task force found a stolen Mazda with its ignition ripped out at a mall in Schaumburg, Ill., about 30 miles northwest of Chicago. Since there had been no robbery nearby, the police were betting the car would be used in the next heist and promptly staked it out. The watch ended just before noon six days later, when Jill and Jeff Erickson drove into the lot in a silver van. Jeff jumped out and slipped behind the wheel of the stolen car, while his wife parked at the far side of the lot. In an instant, agents surrounded the Mazda and ordered Jeff to raise his hands. Startled, he twice made a move for a gun that was on the seat next to him. Finally he surrendered. Jill did not go so easily. When agents approached the van, she tore out of the parking lot. Speeding through Schaumburg, she led the feds on an 11-mile chase. Around 12:15 P.M. she ducked into Bear Flag Drive, the only route into a small subdivision. Cornered, she fired off a fusillade at the police cars surrounding the van. Officers returned fire, and there was an eerie silence. Jill was found slumped in her seat, blood streaming from her head. At around 6 P.M., she was pronounced dead at Humana Hospital in Hoffman Estates. As family members tell it, Erickson was an unlikely candidate for the role of bank robber. A sociable child, he was raised in the Chicago suburb of Morton Grove. His father, Jack, was in middle management at the phone company; his mother, June, raised two boys in a home filled with pets. "Our childhood was better than most," says Jeff's brother, Jim, 35, who owns a small gun shop in nearby Addison. A member of the swim team at Niles West High School, Jeff joined the Marines when he graduated in 1977. Jill was the youngest of two girls adopted by Fran and Carl Cohen, a child-education specialist and a pharmacist in Niles, Ill. She met Jeff at a bar near her home on her 17th birthday. Taken with her long blond hair, he nicknamed the 5 ft.11 in. senior Gorgeous. "Jill and I were crazy about each other," he says from his jail cell in Chicago. After they dated for six months, she dropped out of school to move in with him -- partly, he says, to escape the pain of her parents' impending divorce. Married in a bare-bones civil ceremony on July 29, 1983, the two never settled down. They moved nearly once a year -- landlords, they said, kept ordering them to get rid of their menagerie, which included dogs and birds. Jill took jobs in a series of labs, and Jeff worked as a truck driver and chauffeur. In 1986 he landed a job as a police officer in Hoffman Estates. Thirteen months later he was dismissed for reasons that remain unclear. Police Chief Donald Cundiff says only that he "lacked common sense"; Jeff himself allows that he was soft on lawbreakers, while his mother claims he didn't like making arrests. "He'd say after he made one that he felt he'd ruined someone's day," she says. According to the FBI, the erstwhile cop turned robber in January 1990. Carrying his police scanner, he allegedly walked into the First Nationwide Bank in Wilmette, Ill., and announced a stickup. Over the next 22 months, at least seven nearby banks were robbed in the same manner, with what authorities described as "military precision." By last spring the couple's fortunes were clearly on the rise. In May, Jeff -- a voracious reader who often checked out 15 library books at a time -- opened a large used-book store in a shopping strip in Roselle. "I had heard bookstores were lucrative," he says, "and I like working with people." Customers were impressed; his books were in superb condition, and "he was very knowledgeable about the classics," said customer Greg Heier. In February 1991 Jeff and Jill put $22,600 in cash down on an $86,000 town house in Hanover Park. "He told me he was in business for himself and that money was no problem," remembered real estate agent Jeanne Rezmer. Although they remained close to their families, the two were also becoming more insular. Last winter, Jeff says, Jill entered a local hospital where she was treated for a drinking problem and diagnosed as a manic depressive. As Jim Erickson tells it, doctors said she suffered from "the beginnings of schizophrenia" and placed her on drugs, including the antidepressant Prozac. Still, says Jeff, she never seemed out of control. "The only time I ever saw her get mad was when she was drinking," he said. "We would have yelling fights, and I think maybe once she slapped me, but she was the calmest thing when she was sober." Jill would have little chance to establish her equilibrium: By December, the authorities were closing in. Jeff (who faces up to 20 years in prison for each possible conviction) remembers Jill's final moments as a surreal drama heard on the police radio. Handcuffed in a squad car, he could hear the FBI agents pursuing her. "They were yelling, `Shots fired, shots fired.' I was stunned," said Erickson. (He has been indicted in connection with eight robberies and denies the charges against him. After he was taken to jail that afternoon, says Jeff, he heard that Jill had died. He immediately called his brother and told him to rescue Kaos before the FBI "shot him or took him to the pound." Now, he says, he spends his days in relative peace. "Jill and I were both loners," he explains. "I guess we were inseparable. What's keeping me OK in here is that I don't have to worry about her now." Still, Jeff admits that there are moments when he misses his wife beyond measure. "They showed Thelma & Louise here the other night. I had to go to my cell before they went over the cliff," he says. "The situation was too close to what happened with Jill, and I didn't want to cry in front of the group." CAPTION: A year after Jeff and Jill Erickson posed with Kaos, the Bearded Robber hit a bank in suburban Elk Grove Village, Ill. CAPTION: See above. CAPTION: Last December, after a dying Jill was pulled from the van in which she tried to escape, law officers searched it for evidence. CAPTION: In the shoot-out, Jill (wearing a dark wig) was wounded twice in the head. She was pronounced dead five hours later. CAPTION: After the Ericksons were apprehended, police found that a massive safe had been installed in their garage. CAPTION: "I think he truly loved books," neighbor Bob LaBrot said of Jeff (at his bookstore in suburban Roselle).
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People Weekly, March 2, 1992 v37 n8 p71(3) Bloody ending to a double life. (bank robbers in Illinois) Michelle Green. Brief Summary: Jeff Erickson is accused of eight bank robberies near Chicago, IL. His wife, Jill Erickson, was killed when police staked out a car they suspected would be involved in a robbery. The couple does not fit the stereotype of bank robbers. Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1992 Time, Inc. TO THEIR NEIGHBORS IN THE CHICAgo suburb of Hanover Park, Jill and Jeff Erickson seemed slightly peculiar sorts who preferred their motorcycles and their golden retriever, Kaos, to the company of others. The hardworking owner of a used-book store, Jeff, 33, would speak when spoken to, but his wife, Jill, a 27-year-old lab technician, who was finishing a degree in chemistry at Loyola University in Chicago, seldom looked anyone in the eye. The couple had few visitors at their town house on Waterford Drive; both nocturnal, they would roar off on their powerful Honda bikes at 3 A.M. to ride the streets for hours. But even in a city with a rich gangland history, the Ericksons were adding an extraordinary new chapter to the criminal saga. Last Dec. 16 Jeff was arrested in connection with at least eight bank robberies. Cornered after a frantic 110-m.p.h. effort to escape, Jill died in a shoot-out with police. At their town house, police found 38 guns -- rifles, shotguns, pistols and revolvers, 25 boxes of ammunition, smoke grenades, gas masks, burglar tools, a police scanner and $1,742 in cash. The garage had been fitted with a massive safe, and a bulletproof vest was waiting at their mail drop. Instead of the mildly eccentric couple-next-door, it seemed, the bookseller and his wife were a suburban version of Bonnie and Clyde. The MO of the man police called the Bearded Robber (he wore a false dark beard) never varied: He would burst into a Chicago-area bank wearing nondescript clothing and carrying a handgun and a police scanner. No gentleman bandit, he threatened to blow tellers' brains out if they failed to cooperate. Outside the bank would be a stolen Japanese-made car with the ignition pulled out -- a getaway vehicle that he would abandon a few blocks from the bank. Police say that his forays netted him close to $200,000 in 22 months. On Dec. 10 an FBI task force found a stolen Mazda with its ignition ripped out at a mall in Schaumburg, Ill., about 30 miles northwest of Chicago. Since there had been no robbery nearby, the police were betting the car would be used in the next heist and promptly staked it out. The watch ended just before noon six days later, when Jill and Jeff Erickson drove into the lot in a silver van. Jeff jumped out and slipped behind the wheel of the stolen car, while his wife parked at the far side of the lot. In an instant, agents surrounded the Mazda and ordered Jeff to raise his hands. Startled, he twice made a move for a gun that was on the seat next to him. Finally he surrendered. Jill did not go so easily. When agents approached the van, she tore out of the parking lot. Speeding through Schaumburg, she led the feds on an 11-mile chase. Around 12:15 P.M. she ducked into Bear Flag Drive, the only route into a small subdivision. Cornered, she fired off a fusillade at the police cars surrounding the van. Officers returned fire, and there was an eerie silence. Jill was found slumped in her seat, blood streaming from her head. At around 6 P.M., she was pronounced dead at Humana Hospital in Hoffman Estates. As family members tell it, Erickson was an unlikely candidate for the role of bank robber. A sociable child, he was raised in the Chicago suburb of Morton Grove. His father, Jack, was in middle management at the phone company; his mother, June, raised two boys in a home filled with pets. "Our childhood was better than most," says Jeff's brother, Jim, 35, who owns a small gun shop in nearby Addison. A member of the swim team at Niles West High School, Jeff joined the Marines when he graduated in 1977. Jill was the youngest of two girls adopted by Fran and Carl Cohen, a child-education specialist and a pharmacist in Niles, Ill. She met Jeff at a bar near her home on her 17th birthday. Taken with her long blond hair, he nicknamed the 5 ft.11 in. senior Gorgeous. "Jill and I were crazy about each other," he says from his jail cell in Chicago. After they dated for six months, she dropped out of school to move in with him -- partly, he says, to escape the pain of her parents' impending divorce. Married in a bare-bones civil ceremony on July 29, 1983, the two never settled down. They moved nearly once a year -- landlords, they said, kept ordering them to get rid of their menagerie, which included dogs and birds. Jill took jobs in a series of labs, and Jeff worked as a truck driver and chauffeur. In 1986 he landed a job as a police officer in Hoffman Estates. Thirteen months later he was dismissed for reasons that remain unclear. Police Chief Donald Cundiff says only that he "lacked common sense"; Jeff himself allows that he was soft on lawbreakers, while his mother claims he didn't like making arrests. "He'd say after he made one that he felt he'd ruined someone's day," she says. According to the FBI, the erstwhile cop turned robber in January 1990. Carrying his police scanner, he allegedly walked into the First Nationwide Bank in Wilmette, Ill., and announced a stickup. Over the next 22 months, at least seven nearby banks were robbed in the same manner, with what authorities described as "military precision." By last spring the couple's fortunes were clearly on the rise. In May, Jeff -- a voracious reader who often checked out 15 library books at a time -- opened a large used-book store in a shopping strip in Roselle. "I had heard bookstores were lucrative," he says, "and I like working with people." Customers were impressed; his books were in superb condition, and "he was very knowledgeable about the classics," said customer Greg Heier. In February 1991 Jeff and Jill put $22,600 in cash down on an $86,000 town house in Hanover Park. "He told me he was in business for himself and that money was no problem," remembered real estate agent Jeanne Rezmer. Although they remained close to their families, the two were also becoming more insular. Last winter, Jeff says, Jill entered a local hospital where she was treated for a drinking problem and diagnosed as a manic depressive. As Jim Erickson tells it, doctors said she suffered from "the beginnings of schizophrenia" and placed her on drugs, including the antidepressant Prozac. Still, says Jeff, she never seemed out of control. "The only time I ever saw her get mad was when she was drinking," he said. "We would have yelling fights, and I think maybe once she slapped me, but she was the calmest thing when she was sober." Jill would have little chance to establish her equilibrium: By December, the authorities were closing in. Jeff (who faces up to 20 years in prison for each possible conviction) remembers Jill's final moments as a surreal drama heard on the police radio. Handcuffed in a squad car, he could hear the FBI agents pursuing her. "They were yelling, `Shots fired, shots fired.' I was stunned," said Erickson. (He has been indicted in connection with eight robberies and denies the charges against him. After he was taken to jail that afternoon, says Jeff, he heard that Jill had died. He immediately called his brother and told him to rescue Kaos before the FBI "shot him or took him to the pound." Now, he says, he spends his days in relative peace. "Jill and I were both loners," he explains. "I guess we were inseparable. What's keeping me OK in here is that I don't have to worry about her now." Still, Jeff admits that there are moments when he misses his wife beyond measure. "They showed Thelma & Louise here the other night. I had to go to my cell before they went over the cliff," he says. "The situation was too close to what happened with Jill, and I didn't want to cry in front of the group." CAPTION: A year after Jeff and Jill Erickson posed with Kaos, the Bearded Robber hit a bank in suburban Elk Grove Village, Ill. CAPTION: See above. CAPTION: Last December, after a dying Jill was pulled from the van in which she tried to escape, law officers searched it for evidence. CAPTION: In the shoot-out, Jill (wearing a dark wig) was wounded twice in the head. She was pronounced dead five hours later. CAPTION: After the Ericksons were apprehended, police found that a massive safe had been installed in their garage. CAPTION: "I think he truly loved books," neighbor Bob LaBrot said of Jeff (at his bookstore in suburban Roselle).
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Movie 'puts salt in old wounds,' says suspect's relative BY JOHN CARPENTER june 1995 Daily Herald Legal Affairs Writer After Jill Erickson's violent suicide following a Dec. 17, 1991, Shootout with police, her older sister said she thought of taking her own life. But Maureen Joy said she survived with the help of friends, family and therapy. Now, as production continues on a film based on the lives of accused bank robbers Jill and Jeff Erickson, Joy is afraid she will relive her nightmare once again. Standing in front of the Schiller Park office of the production company making the movie "Normal Life," Joy issued a simple demand in a lengthy statement. "I am here today to stop this film," Joy said. "When will we say enough is enough to these production companies?" The film stars teenage heartthrob Luke Perry, as well as Ashley Judd. It is based on the lives of the Ericksons, whom police say were responsible for as many as eight bank robberies in the Northwest suburbs as they lived unassuming — albeit mysteriously extravagant — lives in a quiet Hanover Park subdivision. Both died in separate fiery conflicts with police. In 1991, as police were arresting Jeff, Jill fled in their van, leading police on an 11-mile chase while peppering officers with gunfire, according to witnesses. When she crashed her car, witnesses say a muffled gunshot could be heard from inside. The Cook County Medical Examiner, after an autopsy, ruled that Jill Erickson, 27 at the time, shot herself in the head with her own gun. Seven months later, in the midst of his federal trial, 33-year-old Jeff Erickson escaped from security officers and killed two of them before being badly wounded himself. In the middle of the ramp leading out of the lockup at the downtown Chicago Dirksen Federal Building, Erickson shot himself. Joy, a Northwest suburban resident who would not say specifically where she lives, said she believes her sister did not know about the life her husband was leading, and that police should not have pursued her when she fled in their weapon-laden van on the day she was killed. Either way, she said the pain now being inflicted by the making of the movie has nothing to do with either Jill or Jeff Erickson, "This is not about her. It's about the survivors," Joy said. "The pain this production company has caused and continues to inflict on us. "We struggle daily to put our lives back See MOVIE on Page 6 Maureen Joy reads a statement protesting a movie being produced about her late sister, Jill Erickson, who was accused of helping her hUSband rob banks. Dally Horald Photo/Mark Welsh

Man on Trial for Bank Robberies Kills Himself and Two Others By DOUG GLASS Associated Press Writer CHICAGO — A former police officer on trial for bank robbery slipped free of handcuffs in a courthouse garage, grabbed a gun from a guard and killed two other guards before fatally shooting himself, authorities said. Jeffrey Erickson, who had been dubbed the "bearded bandit," was being taken from the courthouse Monday after the sixth day of his trial. His wife and sometime accomplice, Jill, had fatally shot herself in December during a high-speed chase after his arrest. Prosecutors said the couple used more than $180,000 stolen from eight banks over a 2'/2-year period to open a bookstore and buy a home. Erickson, 34, got out of handcuffs as he was being led through the basement of the Dirksen Federal Building back to the Metropolitan Correctional Center with eight other prisoners, said FBI special agent Ross Rice. Investigators found a handcuff key near Erickson's body, Rice said today. Authorities are still investigating how he got the key. Erickson wrestled a revolver away from a deputy U.S. marshal, then shot and killed another deputy marshal, Rice said. "I'm going to jail. I'm going to jail. I'm going to die anyway. I'm going to take everybody with me," a witness who gave his name as Derrick Thomas said he heard Erickson say. A building security guard shot Erickson in the back as he fled. Erickson shot and killed the guard, then raced halfway up a ramp before he put the gun to his chin and killed himself, said Chicago chief of detectives John Stibich. Harry Belluomini, 58, and Roy Frakes, 30, both of Chicago, were dead on arrival at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, spokeswoman Shirley Jackson said. Frakes was the deputy marshal, Belluomini was the guard. Erickson's mother had warned his attorney a week ago that her son had been acting strangely and might try to escape. "She just had a feeling," said Richard Mottweiler, Erickson's lawyer. Mottweiler said he had relayed June Erickson's concerns to courthouse marshals. "I told them up front the possibility of something like this happening." Prosecutors said Erickson had earned the "bearded bandit" nickname by wearing a false beard during robberies. He also donned layered clothing to disguise his weight, wore gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints and carried a police scanner, prosecutors said. He was on his way to rob a bank when he was arrested last December, authorities said. Erickson was on trial for robbing eight banks, most in the suburbs. He also faced state charges in the wounding of a suburban Palatine police officer who tried to stop him for a traffic violation in November 1991. Prosecutors said the Ericksons used the stolen money to buy a starter home in suburban Hanover Park and to pay tuition for Jill Erickson, who was working toward a bachelor's degree in chemistry at Loyola University. The couple opened a small bookstore in suburban Roselle. Erickson had been a police officer in suburban Hoffman Estates, but was asked to resign in May 1987 because of a poor review, during a yearlong probationary period, Hoffman Estates police spokesman Robert Boynton said.

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*when the movie "Normal Life" came out in 1995, there was lots of anger. The Police and the families of the victims were angry because they felt that the movie made the killer out to be a hero. In their opinion the movie failed to show the anger and despair the families felt upon losing their loved ones.