Two banks, six minutes.
Even by the standards set in Baltimore, Frederick McMillan was prolific.
The 39-year-old, after being freed from federal prison for, you guessed it, robbing a bank, returned to his old habits and quickly made up for lost time.
He held up 10 banks over 25 days last July. Police say that 47 banks were robbed in Baltimore City in 2009, meaning this one suspect was responsible for nearly 20 percent of all the holdups in one year.
McMillan started his spree July 2 at the M&T; Bank on West Baltimore Street, which would net him his second-largest haul — $4,097. He hit a bank every two to four days, though he took a week's vacation between threatening a teller at a Bank of America on North Charles Street on July 9 and walking away with $995 from a Wachovia Bank branch on West North Avenue on July 16.
On July 27, McMillan outdid himself.
At 11:30 a.m., he walked into a Citibank at 6 St. Paul St. in downtown Baltimore and handed a teller a hand-written note full of so much urgency that he apparently felt punctuation would slow it down: "This is a robbery I have a gun give me 20's and 50's from the top drawer Hurry Hurry"
But the teller would not be fazed.
"The victim teller pulled the alarm and walked away from the teller station," according to court documents filed by the Maryland U.S. attorney's office. "McMillan walked parallel to the victim teller, then turned and fled the bank."
He didn't go far.
He walked three blocks — his exact route could not be learned, but he most likely passed by a church, a popular coffee shop and a handful of restaurants — before he ended up at the First Mariner Bank at 300 N. Charles St.
At 11:36 a.m., he handed a teller a note, this time with a more threatening tone, but still grammatically challenged: "This is a robbery I have a gun give me 20's and 50's Hurry"
His prose grabbed this teller's attention. She handed McMillan $1,924.
The next day, in a sudden fit of remorse, McMillan walked into the local FBI office in Woodlawn and surrendered. He pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Baltimore on June 21, and Judge James D. Quarles Jr. sentenced him to 12 1/2 years in federal prison.
McMillan admitted in court to holding up all 10 banks. He wrote to the judge, pleading for mercy, saying he'd gotten out of federal prison in 2006 after serving five years for bank robbery, but then lost his girlfriend and "things got real hectic at work for me."
He wrote: "Instead of turning to God for help, I turned to drugs and a life of crime all over again. I deeply regret that to this very day." He said he turned himself in "because I was headed down the road to destruction, I was killing myself slowly and I knew at the time that God did not want me to go out that way."
McMillan told the judge that while confessing to his robbery spree at the FBI office, he wrote a letter to each teller "assuring them that I am sorry and that they have no reason to fear."
Little could be learned about McMillan — relatives could not be located, and his federal public defender, Jeffrey E. Risberg, did not return phone calls seeking comment. However, he fits the profile of a typical Baltimore bank robber: an addict desperate for money who commits holdups using a poorly drafted demand note but doesn't have or display a weapon, and usually gets away with around $1,500.
The FBI calls them "note jobs."
In 1995, Maryland had the fourth-highest number of bank robberies in the country, behind California, Florida and New York. In 2009, Maryland, with 180 holdups, tied Massachusetts for 11th place. California led the nation with 710, and Pennsylvania came in a distant second with 284.
But bank robbery statistics have never followed discernable pattern.
For example, Baltimore City reported 116 bank holdups in 1993, a number that inexplicably dropped to 51 in 1994. It then rose to 68 in 1995 and jumped to 133 in 1996. Federal officials supplied the most recent figures — 47 city banks robbed last year and fewer than 15 so far this year.
Special Agent Richard J. Wolf, a spokesman with Baltimore's FBI office, said there appears to be an "inverse relationship between the economy and bank robberies."
"You'd think that when the economy is horrible that bank robberies would be going through the roof," Wolf said. "But they're not."
He wouldn't talk specifically about the McMillan case but said agents "couldn't come up with another example" of a suspect holding up so many banks in so few days, let alone two within six minutes.
"It's very unusual," he said.
McMillan knows he did wrong.
"I would like to say that I did my crime and yes, I have to do the time," he wrote the judge, adding that he would accept whatever sentence he is given. "I will hold my head up high and know that it's God's will. God bless you Judge Quarles and take care."