Couple Suspected in Bank Holdups Seized

A one-time wrestling champ at a Manhattan Beach high school who became one of the nation’s most wanted bank robbery suspects was captured along with his wife, a disbarred Texas attorney, by FBI agents near Chicago on Friday.

Ralph Stephen Gambin, 42, is accused of robbing banks in Illinois and California, including institutions in Torrance and Buena Park. His wife, Julieta Flores Marquez, 38, is charged with aiding Gambin in a Buena Park bank robbery.

In the Buena Park robbery, a woman bank teller, her husband and son were held at gunpoint all night in their home and the woman was then forced the next day to go to the bank with what turned out to be a fake bomb strapped to her body. About $190,000 was taken from the bank.

The same technique was used in several other robberies in the two states during a yearlong spree that allegedly netted Gambin nearly $1 million. He was on the U.S. marshal’s top-15 fugitives list.

In 1975, Gambin shot two deputy U.S. marshals during a failed escaped attempt from a federal prison, leaving one of the marshals paralyzed for life. Gambin had been serving a 14-year prison term for bank robbery.

As a teen-ager, Gambin had been the California Interscholastic Federation Wrestling Champ at Mira Costa High School.