The Blackout Murders Notes:

Header Image Source: Photo by Atanas Chankov on Unsplash

Image Sources:

Drs. Lakshman Rao Chervu and Shanta Chervu (via My Life Of Crime)

Paul Cox (via My Life Of Crime)

*Georgia’s story suggested by murderino, Jeannie G.

"Paul Cox, a 27-year-old carpenter from a prominent Larchmont family, was convicted of manslaughter today [December 7, 1994| in the brutal 1988 slayings of an Indian immigrant couple after a jury found he had been affected by "extreme emotional disturbance" in stabbing the sleeping victims.

In reaching their verdict in Mr. Cox's second trial, the jurors took a middle path in a case in which the defendant admitted to the killings but claimed he had done so in an alcoholic blackout in which he imagined that the victims, Dr. Lakshman Rao Chervu, 58, and his wife Dr. Shanta Chervu, 51, were his parents. The jury, after eight days of deliberations, rejected the defense contention that Mr. Cox was temporarily insane, but they also rejected the prosecution's request for a verdict of murder.

The first-degree manslaughter conviction carries a maximum term ranging from 8 1/3 to 25 years for each of the two killings.

The case had drawn wide attention not only because of the strange nature of the crime but because it raised questions about the assurances of confidentiality in therapylike groups. Mr. Cox was not arrested until May 1993, when a member of his Alcoholics Anonymous group informed the police that Mr. Cox was talking about dreams and fragmented memories of murdering the Chervus..."

— Source: NY Times article by Joseph Berger

Scott Scurlock, the Hollywood Bandit Notes:

Photo by Museums Victoria on Unsplash

Image Sources:

William Scott Surlock (via From Our Corner)

Scott's Treehouse (via From Our Corner)

*Story suggested by murderino, @doc_honeybear on Twitter

"Scott Scurlock (March 5, 1955 – November 28, 1996) born William Scott Scurlock in Fairfax County, Virginia was the son of a minister. He was nicknamed the Hollywood Bandit (or simply Hollywood). He got this nickname from his involvement in bank robberies in the Seattle area during the 1990s during which he used acting makeup and disguises. Using Hollywood quality make-up he successfully robbed 17 banks. His last attempt ended in a police shoot out with Scurlock escaping the scene. He eventually shot himself in the head as FBI agents waited outside a trailer he was holed up in and called out to him to surrender.

According to Steve Meyers, Scurlock had told him that he always had dreams, even as a child, of robbing banks, in a Robin Hood type of fashion kind of like re-appropriating money. It was with this kind of mindset that Scurlock looked up someone that he trusted, an old college friend named Mark Biggins. Biggins was having severe financial problems and was trying to support a family. Scurlock had previously hired Biggins to work on his property to help Biggins financially. As a result, when Scurlock asked Biggins to rob banks with him, Biggins felt obligated. On June 25, 1992, Scurlock and Biggins robbed their first bank. It didn't go well. The duo had planned to take a car from someone in the bank as their get-away vehicle, which they did, but Biggins was so nervous that he flooded the engine. They then had to run on foot encountering vicious dogs and running across a golf course where they left confused golfers and witnesses. After the fiasco, Biggins didn't want to be involved with bank robbery and "quit." However, Scurlock loved the adrenaline rush and continued to rob banks on his own. He asked his friend Kevin Meyers to help him with robbing banks. Meyers declined; however, due to feelings of obligation to Scurlock, he agreed to launder the money for him, which he did primarily through Las Vegas casinos. In 1992, Scurlock robbed six banks, leaving little or no clues for the FBI, who subsequently gave him the pseudonym "Hollywood" for his theatrical make-up worn during the robberies. Scurlock had plenty of banks to choose from, all with plenty of cash due to the growing high tech industries in the Seattle, Washington area which turned the locale into a money pit. In 1993, Steve Meyers became a look-out for Scurlock. Meyers monitored a police scanner, and when any 911 calls came in about the robbery, he would call Scurlock out of the bank. The duo used many tricks to throw off police and even paid off bank employees to find out information that would aid them in the robberies. Scurlock convinced Mark Biggins to forget the first bank robbing debacle and help him and Steve with the robberies. Biggins became an in-bank look out watching Scurlock's back. Steve, on 48 Hours, praised Scurlock for his professional approach, saying, "His whole point was if you go in crazy with violence and waving a gun and something does happen, what do you do then? Most people working in banks realize that this guy is not afraid. That is more frightening and commanding without having to be crazy." Meyers also said that they robbed two of the banks three times each. Due to Scurlock's knowledge of police work, police were concerned that it could be a police officer committing the robberies. By the end of 1995, Scurlock had stolen almost one million dollars. The FBI did notice a pattern and figured that Scurlock needed about $20,000 per month. They were able to determine this by noticing the pattern of his robberies, which seemed to be based around how much money he absconded with in any given robbery. With this information, they were able to determine when he would rob the next bank and made an educated guess as to which bank it would be. Their guess on the date, January 25, 1996, was exact but they surveilled a bank that was about two miles away from the actual bank he robbed and the FBI didn't arrive at the robbery scene in time. By mid-1996, Scurlock, with Biggins and Meyers, had robbed two more banks. That came to 17 banks in four years. The FBI put a $50,000 reward on the capture of the robber, thinking at the time that there was only one person involved. The reward signs showed a sketch of the robber that looked nothing like Scurlock.

His weapon of choice was a Glock 17 Generation 1 9mm pistol which he used in each of the hold up robberies and the pistol he shot himself with..."

— Source: Scott Surlock Wikipedia