North Hollywood Robbers Linked to 5 Bank Holdups

Completing an exhaustive examination of bank robberies staged over the past four years, FBI officials said Tuesday they believe the two men fatally shot in the botched North Hollywood holdup were responsible for no more than five bank heists.

Los Angeles police believe the two men used some of the cash from at least two of those robberies to rent four properties in the city, as well as to buy new and used cars.

Investigators who are seeking to trace more than $1 million in bank robbery proceeds have begun to piece together a paper trail showing that the pair used false identities to rent Los Angeles County properties and register cars. The men paid cash for used vehicles listed for sale in the weekly Recycler classified newspaper, sources said.

FBI and Los Angeles Police Department officials say the two men, Larry Eugene Phillips Jr. and Emil Matasareanu, may have committed two armed takeover robberies at a San Fernando Valley Bank of America branch in May 1995, netting more than $1 million.

Authorities are also attempting to link the pair to two attempted armored car heists over the past two years in the Valley, including one in which a guard was killed. Authorities also are investigating their connection with a 1993 attack on an armored car guard outside a Denver bank.

It now appears unlikely the two men committed any other bank robberies, said William Rehder, who coordinates bank robbery investigations for the FBI’s local office.

The two armored car heists--in June 1995 and March 1996--fit the pattern used by the men, he said.

In addition to finding the stolen money, Los Angeles police are trying to account for the final months of Phillips’ and Matasareanu’s lives. LAPD officials say they are attempting to rule out any possible accomplices.

“There are big spaces in there we are trying to account for,” said LAPD Capt. Will Gartland, who heads the department’s Robbery/Homicide Division. “It’s also a high priority for us because we have to be able to say that there weren’t any other suspects.”

So far, police believe the pair used a Granada Hills home as a “safe house” to store their belongings. A car was impounded there along with rifles and ammunition.

Also, in a nearby Mission Hills neighborhood last weekend a late-model car was found that could have been the so-called layoff car, to be used if they were followed after the Feb. 28 robbery of the Bank of America branch on Laurel Canyon Boulevard.

Police found ammunition matching the type used in the violent shootout with police. They also found gasoline bombs, similar to the ones found in the getaway car used by the robbers, sources said.

In other developments Tuesday, the mother of Matasareanu, Valerie Nicolescu, 54, was charged with two felonies--endangering the health of a dependent adult and false imprisonment by violence. She is expected to be arraigned today.

Nicolescu is being held on $250,000 bail, an unusually high amount set because of concerns the woman might attempt to use funds amassed in the bank holdups.

Last week, police searching a Pasadena business property owned by Nicolescu and her son found a 44-year-old schizophrenic woman locked in an upstairs room with no toilet, light or hot water. Nicolescu was arrested Monday.

Times staff writer Eric Malnic contributed to this story.