119 Firearms Seized at Holdup Suspects’ Home : Crime: Police say two men arrested Friday were survivalists. They are believed to have robbed nine banks.

Two men suspected of robbing nine banks in the San Fernando Valley were survivalists who maintained a gun vault in their West Hills house containing 119 firearms and 25,000 rounds of ammunition, authorities said Saturday.

One of the robberies they are suspected of committing was the largest in Los Angeles history, Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates said.

Calling the robbers “meticulous and professional,” FBI agents and Los Angeles police said that they often wore elaborate disguises, such as masks and fake mustaches, during the crimes.

The weapons, along with disguises and other items, were confiscated Friday night after the arrests of James Ambrose McGrath, 48, and Gilbert David Michaels, 47. The weapons were found in a bunker beneath the house, authorities said.

“I’ve seen a lot of weapons confiscated,” Gates said as he held up a Thompson submachine gun during a news conference at Los Angeles police headquarters where the weapons were on display. “I’ve never seen anything like this. They’re into some heavy stuff.”

“They were preparing for the end, or Armageddon or something,” said Charlie Parsons, FBI special agent in charge of the Los Angeles bureau. “There’s no question they were survivalists. . . .They were just stockpiling these.”

Dubbed the “West Hills bandits” by police, the men are suspected in nine bank robberies beginning last March 15. The holdups included a robbery in which the amount of money stolen was the largest in Los Angeles history, authorities said. A record $430,000 was taken Sept. 5 from the Wells Fargo branch at 18705 Ventura Blvd. in Tarzana.

Two men and a woman involved in the robberies were still being sought, said Detective Joe Getherall.

The robbers often wore fake mustaches, eyebrows and noses or fanciful masks covering their faces and ordered employees and customers to lie on the floor while they cleaned out tellers’ drawers, Parsons said. In the Sept. 5 robbery, four men wielding automatic weapons and wearing military-style jumpsuits took over the Wells Fargo branch in Tarzana.

“They were good,” Parsons said. “They were meticulous in their planning. The average bank robber only gets $2,500, and they were able to get a lot more because they know what they’re doing.”

About 30 FBI agents arrested the two men in a parking lot outside an apartment building at 6300 Owensmouth Ave. about 3:15 p.m. Friday, several minutes after the robbery of the Home Savings of America branch at 21816 Victory Blvd. a few blocks away.

The arrests followed a stakeout by FBI agents. The two men were in federal custody in Los Angeles on Saturday.

Among the eight other banks that McGrath and Michaels are suspected of robbing are the Tarzana Wells Fargo and banks in West Hills, Westlake Village, Calabasas, Woodland Hills and Northridge, Parsons said.

Police think Michaels may have had a grudge against Wells Fargo and Home Savings banks because seven of the nine robberies were at those banks, Gates said.

“He believes that Wells Fargo changed his mother’s will with the help of Home Savings, causing him to lose $1 million,” Gates said.

The weapons were found in a reinforced bunker under the basement in a house at 8470 Hillcroft Ave., where Michaels, his wife and McGrath lived. It was unclear whether the occupants rented the home, which is owned by George Vosahlo and Carol J. Medof of Encino, according to property records.

The firearms included 59 handguns and 60 rifles, including two tripod-mounted .50-caliber machine guns capable of piercing armored vehicles. Also confiscated were numerous duffel bags and several books on weapons, investigative techniques and combat, including “How to Kill,” a six-volume series by John Minnery.

Authorities also found numerous religious items, including a dozen Bibles and books on prophecy and the end of the world.

The suspected robbers apparently are not connected with any known survivalist organization.

“They were some kind of true believers and survivalists,” Getherall said. “We really just don’t know what they believed in.”