Son of Columnist Royko Charged in Heist Attempt
A son of late newspaper columnist Mike Royko was arrested after he allegedly walked into a bank with a device rigged to look like a pipe bomb and demanded a bag of cash, authorities said.
Robert Royko entered the Associated Bank on Friday, pulled a device from a black box and put it on a desk, saying it was a bomb, FBI agents wrote in court documents. He then put on a ski mask and handed the teller a bag, demanding it be filled with money, the agents wrote.
Royko told the bank guard that he had a remote-control device that could detonate the bomb, but the guard, an off-duty Chicago police officer, slapped the device out of Royko’s hand and arrested him, the agents said. The device contained no explosives, the agents said.
Royko, 41, of Johnsburg, Ill., was charged with attempted bank robbery. A defense attorney and family friend who accompanied Royko to court said he would plead not guilty.
“What the case is really about is an American tragedy -- alcohol and drug abuse,” lawyer Patrick O’Byrne told reporters.
Mike Royko, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist who worked for three Chicago newspapers, died in 1997.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
