Scott Scurlock

William Scott Scurlock (March 5, 1955 – November 28, 1996), nicknamed the Hollywood Bandit or simply Hollywood, was an American criminal who robbed banks in the Seattle area during the 1990s, during which he used Hollywood-quality make-up and disguises. He is credited with successfully robbing 19 banks, though one source gives the figure as 18 because he was not involved in the first one. His last attempt ended in a police shootout with Scurlock escaping the scene. His two accomplices were captured and one gave up Scurlock. He killed himself via a gunshot to the head after FBI agents cornered him in a trailer and called out to him to surrender.

1970s and 1980s William Scott Scurlock was born in Maryland and grew up in Reston, Virginia, the son of a minister. In 1974, Scurlock moved to Hawaii and reunited with his friend Kevin Meyers, who went to the University of Hawaii on a pole vault scholarship. After Meyers' scholarship ended, the two friends moved to the North Shore of Oahu, where they lived on a five-acre tomato farm. They worked in Honolulu for a company called Hawaii Plant Life and Privacy Fences four days a week and the rest they spent on the North Shore. In 1976, while hiking, Scurlock and Meyers came across a small marijuana farm. They later returned and stole a number of marijuana plants, which Scurlock subsequently sold. Though he had not planned on becoming involved in the drug trade, Scurlock liked having his own marijuana plants hidden on the tomato farm. When the farm's owner found out, Scurlock was kicked off the property, and Meyers moved to Banff National Park in Canada soon thereafter. Scurlock left Hawaii and moved to Olympia, Washington.

In 1978, Scurlock enrolled at Evergreen State College, dreaming of becoming a doctor. He excelled in college, including chemistry classes. As a result, Scurlock began sneaking into the school chemistry lab at night through the ceilings to make methamphetamine, which he subsequently sold. With the money made from dealing, he owned of secluded land near Olympia that had a small house on it. He used the house for methamphetamine production and built a three-story tree house on the property. Scurlock bragged that he and others built the tree house in two weeks, working day and night "due to being high on meth." But that was not the case, as a later source said that it took them an estimated 3-4 months to build the tree house. The tree house included an extra-large fireplace, outdoor bathtub, and an emergency escape using rope lines to zip through the woods.

Scurlock was popular with friends that he referred to as "his tribe," who would do almost anything for him. Scurlock hired Steve Meyers — Kevin's brother, a successful sculptor who was struggling after a bitter divorce — to come to Washington and do work on his tree house. Meyers transformed it and said that when he arrived, "there was nothing in the house that was conscientiously designed, that's very much what Scott was like." Scurlock had an open and free demeanor, which included living a nudist lifestyle while at the treehouse, and was videotaped often while nude. He traveled extensively, had no shortage of girlfriends, and enjoyed the finest restaurants and champagne. He was known by local waitresses to always leave a $100 tip.

Scurlock was eventually kicked out of school when a professor caught him misusing lab equipment to make meth. He was one credit away from graduating. His meth dealing ended in 1989 when Scurlock's main distributor was murdered. As a result, Scurlock decided that the drug business was too dangerous and quit immediately. When asked by a friend about his (Scurlock's) biggest priority being money, he replied, "No, no. All that does is let you live life a little easier." However, Scurlock needed an income, so he sought another solution.

Bank robbery According to Steve Meyers, Scurlock had told him that he always had dreams, even as a child, of robbing banks with a "Robin Hood" ethic, kind of like re-appropriating money. It was with this mindset that Scurlock looked up someone he trusted, an old college friend named Mark Biggins. Biggins was having severe financial problems and was trying to support a family. Scurlock had previously hired Biggins to work on his property to help Biggins financially. As a result, when Scurlock asked Biggins to rob banks with him, Biggins felt obligated.

On June 25, 1992, Scurlock and Biggins robbed their first bank. It did not go well. The duo had planned to take a car from someone in the bank as their getaway vehicle, which they did. Biggins did not want to be involved with bank robbery and "quit." However, Scurlock loved the adrenaline rush and continued to rob banks on his own. He asked his friend Steve Meyers to help and offered him $250,000 for one job. Meyers declined knowing it would only corrupt his goal of becoming an artist.

In 1992, Scurlock robbed six banks, leaving few or no clues for the FBI, who subsequently gave him the pseudonym "Hollywood" for the theatrical make-up he wore during the robberies. Scurlock had plenty of banks to choose from, all with plenty of cash due to the burgeoning economy of the Seattle, Washington area, which turned the locale into a money pit.

In 1993, Steve Meyers became a lookout for Scurlock. Meyers monitored a police scanner, and when any 911 calls came in about the robbery, he would call Scurlock out of the bank. The duo used many tricks to throw off police and even paid off bank employees to find out information that would aid them in the robberies.

In popular culture Scurlock’s robberies were covered in an episode of Masterminds and in an episode of The FBI Files.

Netflix released a documentary about Scurlock, How to Rob a Bank, on June 5, 2024. It was directed by Stephen Robert Morse and Seth Porges.