The scene at the Metropolitan Correctional Center and in Tinley Park, where authorities were searching for two escaped prisoners on Dec. 18, 2012. (Zbigniew Bzdak & Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune)
Two convicted bank robbers escaped from the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center in the Loop this morning by tying bedsheets together and shimmying down at least 15 stories to the ground below, officials say.
Joseph "Jose" Banks and Kenneth Conley were somehow able to climb out of the narrow slit of a window in the cell they shared and make their way down the south face of the federal jail, the spokesman said.
“A rope was fashioned out of bedsheets,’’ said a spokesman for the MCC. “I would imagine that they saved them up."
Conley and Banks, known as the Second-Hand Bandit who was convicted just last week, were discovered missing from their cell at the federal jail at 71 W. Van Buren St. around 8:45 a.m., according to Central District Police Sgt. Michael Lazzaro. The inmates were last checked at 5 a.m., he said.
The makeshift rope could be seen dangling along the south side of the MCC.
The MCC spokesman declined to say whether any guards were under investigation or whether anything was smuggled into them or how the narrow cell window was widened.
Hours after the escape, SWAT teams forced their way into a Tinley Park house where a relative of Conley is believed to live. But no one was found inside, and FBI officials said they believe Conley and Banks had been there hours earlier.
The SWAT officers left the home after about 20 minutes and walked down the street with dogs as neighbors followed, taking pictures with their phones. About two blocks down, the officers searched the Metra stop.
A woman who answered at the home of a relative of Conley said it was "very upsetting for everyone" and declined further comment.
Banks’ cousin, Theresa Ann Banks, pleaded for Banks to turn himself in.
“I just don’t want to see him get hurt or killed,” she said with a shaky voice. “(The family) is trying to hold themselves together. We just have to have faith in God and hope everything goes right.”
Theresa Ann Banks said she received a call about the escape from Banks' father, who heard about it on the news.
When Joseph Banks was arrested in 2008, Theresa Ann Banks said she visited him whenever she had a chance. “When I went to see him, he was calm, he was humble, he was happy to see me,” she said. “He was very positive every time I would go.”
Banks was described as black, 37, 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighing 160 pounds. Conley is white, 38, 6 feet and 185 pounds.
Banks, known as the Second-Hand Bandit, was convicted last Thursday of two bank robberies and two attempted holdups. He made off with a nearly $600,000 in the heists, and authorities say $500,000 is still unaccounted for.
Banks was an aspiring clothing designer who claimed to be a "sovereign citizen" who could not be tried in a federal court. He acted as his own attorney and had to be restrained during his trial.
During closing arguments, Banks repeatedly interrupted Assistant U.S. Attorney Renato Mariotti, commenting on the evidence and suggesting photo lineups were rigged. Mariotti raised his voice over the interruptions to remind the jury of the evidence at trial, including $40,000 found in Banks' safe deposit box as well as a fake beard he wore in the robberies.
Security footage played for jurors showed Banks jumping bank counters and wielding a handgun as he ordered employees to open vaults and ATMs at the banks. In one video, a bank worker was shown hyperventilating on the floor of a cash room, clutching his chest and neck.
One day during his trial, Banks had to be restrained to keep him from leaving the courtroom. He had fired his attorneys, so Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer told him he had to stay in court.
Banks eventually agreed to sit still. As the security staff wheeled him into a room to release him from the chair, he called out: "I feel like I'm Hannibal Lecter or something."
Security was beefed up when the jury reached its decision, with 10 deputy U.S. marshals in the courtroom when the guilty verdict was read.
"I'll be seeking retribution as well as damages," he told U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer.
