The Great Smoky Mountain Journal
Staff Reports
Posted: Monday, January 01, 2018 12:26 PM
70 Year Old Man Tells Judge He Robbed Bank To Get Away From Wife
A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced Lawrence John Ripple to probation.
Ripple went to the Bank of Labor — a block from police headquarters — last September. He gave a note to a teller saying he had a gun and was demanding money. After he was given it, Ripple waited for police.
Court records indicate Ripple wrote the robbery note in front of his wife and told her he would rather be in jail than at home.
The Kansas City Star (http://bit.ly/2sy6BIk ) reports Ripple told the judge Tuesday that heart surgery left him depressed and unlike himself before he robbed the bank.