‘Veil Bandit’ on FBI Most-Wanted List Caught in L.A.

A fugitive on the FBI’s 10-most-wanted list--dubbed the Veil Bandit because he wore a cloth veil over a baseball cap to disguise himself--has been arrested in connection with 34 bank robberies in six states, including 15 in the Los Angeles area, FBI officials said Thursday.

Donald Keith Williams, 57, was arrested without incident Wednesday night as he emerged from an apartment in the 12700 block of Venice Boulevard in the Mar Vista section of West Los Angeles, said Jim Neilson, a spokesman for the FBI office in Los Angeles.

Neilson said a tip from a private citizen led agents to the apartment where Williams was arrested, but he did not elaborate. Three handguns were seized at the time of Williams’ arrest, he said.

Williams had been sought by the FBI for allegedly taking more than $100,000 in a string of robberies over the last three years in Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington, as well as in California.

He was charged with violating federal bank robbery laws in warrants issued on May 5, 1984, in Chicago and Aug. 8, 1985, in Minneapolis, federal court documents show.

The bearded Williams was referred to by some law enforcement officials as the Veil Bandit because in many of the robberies he reportedly “wore a baseball cap with a cloth over the visor that covered his features,” Neilson said.

The FBI put Williams on its most-wanted list on July 18, and he became the 401st fugitive to be added to the list since its inception in 1950.

Williams, a native of Lincoln, Neb., is the second on the list to be arrested in Los Angeles in 1986. Militant black nationalist Mutulu Shakur was arrested in February in West Los Angeles in connection with a 1981 armored car robbery and shoot-out in a New York City suburb.

Federal prosecutors said Williams, who has several convictions, reportedly violated the terms of his parole in Oklahoma after a 1968 conviction for robbery with a firearm.

He also was convicted of larceny and burglary in Missouri in 1952 and 1961, respectively, federal prosecutors said.

If convicted of armed bank robbery, he could receive a maximum of 25 years in prison and a $10,000 fine on each count.