Jury Convicts Robber Linked to 28 Heists

Ray Lewis Bowman, accused of being one of the “Trench Coat Robbers,” was convicted by a federal jury in Tacoma, Wash., of what is believed to be the largest bank robbery in U.S. history. Jurors found Bowman, 50, guilty of bank robbery, conspiracy to commit bank robbery and two other charges. The government alleges that from 1982 to 1997, Bowman and William Arthur Kirkpatrick, 58, of Hovland, Minn., pulled off 28 bank robberies that netted more than $8 million. The trial centered on the Feb. 10, 1997, robbery of nearly $4.5 million in Lakewood.