1 of Postal Robbery Gang Pleads Guilty

A member of the “Blue Bandanna” gang suspected in the armed robbery of seven Los Angeles post offices during the 1984 Christmas season pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court to one of the holdups and faces a 25-year prison sentence, a federal prosecutor said.

Under a provision in the federal law known as the “Jesse James Act,” Velton Lamont Boone, 27, of Los Angeles, faces a mandatory 25-year prison term and a fine of up to $250,000 when he is sentenced Aug. 4 by U.S. District Judge William J. Rae.

Assistant U.S. Atty. David Katz said Boone and four others, nicknamed the “Blue Bandanna” gang because of the color of handkerchiefs tied around their faces, were suspected of committing up to seven “brazen, takeover” robberies of post offices in Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley in which postal employees and patrons were ordered to lie on the floor and robbed at gunpoint.

Two other members of the gang have received 30-year prison sentences and another was sentenced to 25 years in prison, Katz said. A fifth defendant was allowed to plead guilty to unarmed robbery and sentenced to eight years in prison, he said.

Boone, who has prior convictions for second-degree murder, robbery and forgery, acted as the lookout in at least two of the robberies, during which he stood in a lobby and stopped people entering the post offices, Katz said.

The gang members were arrested when a police officer recognized the profile of one of the robbers on a wanted poster photograph taken by a surveillance camera during a Westchester post office robbery on Dec. 19, 1984.

Katz said Boone pleaded guilty to the Westchester robbery, during which $5,800 was stolen.