Evening star., 1954-09-21
.Ex-AirI1,an Gets
70 Years for
Bank HoIdup
Grateful for Chonce
To Get Medical Aid;
Judge Scores Loxity

BY Joseph B. Byrnes
Siur Staff Correspondent

ooAAA Va %A6H,OoO, Adot ulOAAGl1s
II guess my luck is still with
me-" the ex-Air Force corporal,
who once served at Andrews, told
the judge.
''Now can get the medical
treatment ! need"
The son Of a Jamaican Negro
father and an American Negro
mother. McGann was found to
be suffering a form of epilepsy
and from what doctors called an
abnormal tendency to be in
huenced by others.
However, the court-appointed
doctors said his condition was
not advanced to a point it made
him legally incapable of COM
mitting a crime.
McGann, who pleaded guilty,
remained impassive throughout
a three-hoM recapitulation of
the daring bank robbery-the
biggest in the history of Mary
land.
Mother in Court.
Seated among the few specta-
tors in court was Mrs. Edna Nc
Gam King of Fredericksburg,
Va, the defendants mother.
McGann's lawyer said the
mother and son had met for the
first time in 20 years few days
earlier as q result Of publicity
given McGann's arrest less than
80 minutes after the bank rob-
berry.
Pleading for leniency for his
client. Attorney John Jones ex-
planned that McGann's father, a
Jamaica coffee plantation owner,
separated from his first wife
when McGann was an infant.
The lawyer said the father
took the boy to Jamaica, placed
him in foster home and told
his wife McGann and his brother,
Albert, 26. had died.
Later, McGann returned to the
United States, finished high
school and enlisted in 1947 in
the Air Force. He was discharged
honorably in 1850. Meanwhile,
he served for a short time at
Andrews Air Force Base and
had had an account of SIS in the
bank he admitted robbing.
Drew Plan for Robbery.
McGann admitted to police it
was he who fingered" the bank
and drew a floor plan for guild
ance of his companions. He has
named them as John Foster, %,
and Earl (KilD Smith, "a, both
colored and both of New York.
Foster and Smith are still at
large.
Throughout the three-hour
sentencing hearing, Judge Ches-
nut censured banks generally for
laxity in protecting customers
funds.
At one point he asked Herbert
Pinckney, branch manager, why
he followed, at gun point, Nc
Cams instructions to fill up a
brown leather brief case and a
cardboard box with cash.
"Why didn't you give McGann
an opportunity to do it him.
self? asked the jurist.
II didn't think I had any
choice in the matter" the man.
ager answered.
Airman 1/c David L. Ridings,
one of four customers herded
into a vault following the stick
up, also was interrogated.
why didn't you make a break
for the door and raise an alarm"
querried Judge Chestnut.
Because there was a man
with a gun between it and me"
the airman replied.
Sees "Pushover job"
The judge also asked incredul-
ously if 1t were not q fact the
bank was located on q military
base. He seemed perplexed when
informed there were no armed
guards assigned to protect the
banking facility.
Judge Chestnut summed up his
remarks by terming the $124,-
600 hold-up a 'pushover job that
succeeded just because three men
happened to have three guns"
McGann, driver of the get
away car stolen in New York.
was arrested a few miles from
the base for speeding by Prince
Georges County Sergt. Charles
EeFrygO.
Sergt. Perrygo. unaware Of the
bank robbery, was booking Nc
Gam at Upper Marlboro when
his description was broadcast.
He dashed outside to get Fos-
ter and Smith, who had re-
mained in the car. but both they
and the auto were gone. The We
hicle was later found abandoned
in Baltimore.
AS yet none Of the loot has
been recovered.
In addition to the 2O-year
term, Judge Chestnut imposed
several five-year sentences upon
McGann on lesser charges grow
ing out Of the stick-up. However,
they are to run concurrently with
the main term Of 20 years.