Duane Earl Pope

Duane Earl Pope (born February 8, 1943) is an American mass murderer and former fugitive serving a life sentence for the violent 1965 robbery of the Farmers State Bank in Big Springs, Nebraska, in which three people were murdered and one was left severely injured.

Early life Pope grew up on a small, farm outside Roxbury, Kansas, an unincorporated town in the northeast portion of McPherson County. One of eight siblings, he was described as shy, quiet, and athletic as a child. He grew up with a fascination for guns and tractors. He graduated in 1965 from McPherson College in McPherson, Kansas, with a degree in industrial education, although he lacked the teaching component of that degree that would have let him obtain a job teaching high school industrial arts. He had the idea to rob the Big Springs bank while working in wheat fields there one summer while he was in college. In college, he bought several caterpillar tractors/bulldozers and was contemplating starting an excavation business, but needed money for a trailer.

Criminal career Late in the morning of June 4, 1965, after circling the bank and watching for the morning customers to leave, Pope conversed with a banker pretending to be a landowner seeking a loan. He then pulled out a Ruger .38 semiautomatic pistol and ordered the bank employees to fill his briefcase with cash. After getting what he could (about $1,600), Pope ordered the four bank workers to lie face down on the floor, where he shot them execution-style in the back and in the neck. Three of the victims, bank president Andreas "Andy" Kjeldgaard, 77, cashier Glenn Hendrickson, 59, and bookkeeper Lois Ann Hothan, 35, died instantly. The fourth, Franklin Kjeldgaard, 25, survived, but was paralyzed for life

Pope made a circuitous exit from Big Springs, spotted by several witnesses. He tossed his gun and breastplate along the road; they were recovered by the FBI. He dropped some of the money off at his family home and returned the car to Hertz in Salina. He then traveled by bus and plane to Tijuana, Mexico, by way of Fort Worth and El Paso, Texas. In San Diego, California, Pope discovered that authorities had deduced his identity. He next went to Las Vegas, Nevada, where he gambled and enjoyed himself. Pope remained at USP Leavenworth (Register Number: 85021–132) until July 1, 2016. On that date, aged 73, he was granted federal parole and then transported to Nebraska to begin serving three life sentences handed down in 1970 by Nebraska (Department Correctional Services ID: 84196). From 1978–83, while incarcerated, Pope was married to a college girlfriend, Ramona Lowe.