Suspected Thief Had Gun Cache : Robbery: Wife says he was using money from bank heists to prepare for end of the world. He built an elaborate bunker under rented home.

A man accused in a string of nine bank robberies, including the biggest in Los Angeles history, was building an elaborate bunker complex under his hillside house with thick steel doors and a cache of arms to prepare for the end of the world, his wife said Tuesday.

Gilbert Michaels, 47, was using his take from the robberies, which included a record $430,000 haul Sept. 5 from a Wells Fargo branch in Tarzana, to complete the survivalist shelter in West Hills, his wife said Tuesday.

A total of 119 guns--including two .50-caliber machine guns--and 25,000 rounds of ammunition were found in the bunker by FBI agents who arrested Michaels and a companion Friday, minutes after the latest robbery of a Home Savings of America branch on Victory Boulevard in Canoga Park.

Michaels’ sons, Isaiah, 15, and Jeremiah, 13, guided reporters on a tour of the bunker, reached through a trap door and by climbing down an eight-foot ladder under their expensive, four-story rented home.

There are two thick doors at the entrance. Leading to the left is a 30-foot hallway that Rose Ann Michaels, the arrested man’s wife, said was to be used as a firing range. There is a heating and air-conditioning unit, several red emergency lights, and three other small rooms behind steel fire doors. Michaels had been building the bunker for about a year, and had not finished, family members said.

The FBI said Michaels and James A. McGrath, 48, told agents they were preparing for Armageddon--the biblical last battle between the forces of good and evil.

Describing her husband as “like a prophet of old” who “has a message for the world,” Rose Ann Michaels said the United States has entered the period some religious fundamentalists call the “end times.” She said the weapons were being stockpiled to hand out to others who believe as she and her husband do.

Although Rose Ann Michaels, who is seven months pregnant with her fifth child, said money from the robberies was being used to finance the construction of the bunker, she said she was not admitting her husband actually committed any robberies. She denied that her husband is a violent man. “My husband would never kill a fly,” she said.

She said her husband was trying to get caught so that he could gain a public platform for his message that America is in danger from a shadowy conspiracy that would disarm its citizens.

She said her husband was not part of any organized group, but Los Angeles police said they are still searching for two other men and a woman believed to be involved in the robberies.

“They were good,” FBI Special Agent Charles Parsons said of the robbers. “They were meticulous in their planning.” Authorities said the robbers used elaborate disguises, wore military-style jumpsuits and carried automatic weapons.

Rose Ann Michaels said her husband and McGrath, whom she described as her husband’s best friend, were arrested while changing clothes in a van after the latest robbery.

Bookshelves in the Michaels’ house are filled with religious texts. A saying is affixed to a bulletin board: “Your heart is pure and your mind clear and your soul devout.”

Isaiah Michaels said he knew his father had a few guns but had no idea how many. He said the first time he and his brother heard about the bank robberies was when they came home Friday to find FBI agents around the house.

“I still love my dad,” said Isaiah, cuddling the family dog, a mini-Doberman pinscher named Springer. If his father committed the robberies, he said, “I know he has a reason. He always told me, before you do anything, think about it.”