From Selling Meth out of a Tree House to Robbing Banks, Where Is Scot Scurlock Now?

Doesn't it seem like the world of bank robbing naturally attracts full-blown characters? Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that it's one of the few crimes that sort of encourages costumes and a bit of pageantry. Maybe we're unable to separate fact from fiction as movies like Point Break and The Italian Job make this kind of law breaking seem almost cool. Whatever it is, robbing banks is one of the few corners of the true-crime internet that feel like victimless crimes, even if they aren't.

This leads us to the wild story of the Hollywood bandit and his reign of financial theft terror that resulted in the theft of 19 banks. By the end of this crime spree, more than $2 million dollars had been stolen by Scurlock and his cohorts. Where is Scott Scurlock now? Hopefully not cracking any safes.

According to The Seattle Times, Scurlock took his own life on Thanksgiving day in 1996 following a gunfight with police. He had been hiding in a camper for 24 hours when law enforcement surrounded the vehicle. That is when Scurlock turned a gun on himself. Later when FBI searched his home, they found an array of things that told the story of a troubled yet interesting character.

In terms of weapons and disguises, they unearthed "two sawed-off shotguns, a 9-mm Luger, several rifles, a silencer and several boxes of ammunition, a fake beard and mustache and assorted makeup, police scanners, and two-way radios," per the outlet. There was over $11,000 in cash along with several passports, and various airline tickets. Strangely the FBI also noted the existence of "seven pairs of Converse All Star canvas tennis shoes, a picture of Buffalo Bill, and a brown fedora," the outlet wrote.

Scurlock was by all accounts a handsome, intelligent, charming, and smart man who didn't fall into a life of crime out of necessity. He was there by choice. Born in Virginia in 1955, Scurlock ended up in 1978 at The Evergreen State College, which was a liberal arts school on Washington state, per Time. To earn money, Scurlock learned how to make methamphetamines in the school's chemistry lab which proved to be quite lucrative. It also got him ejected from school.

Ann Rule wrote in The End of the Dream the Golden Boy Who Never Grew Up that Scurlock was unfazed by being kicked out of school. Instead, he bought 20 acres of land and proceeded sell meth out of the small house already on his property. He also built a tree house which is where he actually lived. This is when he met Steve Meyers, whose brother Kevin was friends with Scurlock. Meyers was a sculptor who was in the process of divorcing when Scurlock asked him to work on the tree house.

When Scurlock's main drug supplier was murdered, he quit the business and began looking into other way to make money. He told Meyers that robbing banks had always been a dream of his, so he reached out to his pal Mark Biggins who was struggling financially. Biggins reluctantly agreed to help, though their first job did not go smoothly. The engine of a car they stole from a bank employee ended up flooding. The duo ran on foot through a golf course, where they encountered multiple witnesses, and dogs.

That was in June 1992, and by the following year, Scurlock had robbed six more banks on his own after Biggins said he was quitting. During this time, Scurlock used makeup and wigs to disguise himself which earned him the name: Hollywood Bandit. Meyers was brought in as a lookout in 1993 and the two of them convinced Biggins to return to the robbery life. He would go inside the banks with Scurlock where he acted as a lookout there.

Over the next four years, the trio robbed several more banks until Scurlock's death in 1996. On that day, the three friends were in a white van stuck in Thanksgiving holiday traffic when police caught up with them. Both Meyers and Biggins were shot after exchanging gunfire with authorities. They were pulled from the van along with $1 million, but Scurlock had escaped. He would be dead in a few hours. Biggins and Meyers were sentenced to 21 years in prison but were released in 2015 and 2013, respectively.