Benjamin Hoskins Paddock Jr. (November 1, 1926 – January 18, 1998) was an American bank robber and con man who was on the

FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives The FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives is a most wanted list maintained by the United States's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The list arose from a conversation held in late 1949 between J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI, and William K ...

list from 1969 to 1977. He was the father of mass murderer Stephen Paddock, the perpetrator of the

2017 Las Vegas shooting On October 1, 2017, Stephen Paddock, a 64-year-old man from Mesquite, Nevada, opened fire on the crowd attending the Route 91 Harvest music festival on the Las Vegas Strip in . From his 32nd-floor suites in the Mandalay Bay hotel, he fir ...

Early life

Paddock was born at St. Nicholas Hospital in

Sheboygan, Wisconsin Sheboygan () is a city in and the county seat of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 49,929 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Sheboygan, Wisconsin Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a populati ...

on November 1, 1926, the son of Benjamin Hoskins Paddock Sr. and Olga Emelia Elizabeth Paddock (née Gunderson). He served in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

as an S2 (Seaman Second Class) during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

.National Cemetery Administration, Nationwide Gravesite Locator, https://gravelocator.cem.va.gov In the 1950s in

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive ...

, he operated a service station where he sold used cars. He later sold

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s under the name of Arizona Disposer Company and was connected with the operation of a nightclub in Tucson. In the late 1950s, Paddock volunteered with the

Pima County Pima County ( ) is a county in the south central region of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,043,433, making it Arizona's second-most populous county. The county seat is Tucson, where most of the populatio ...

Juvenile Probation Department and in 1959 was named special deputy to handle cases of wayward youths.

Criminal career

In 1946, Paddock was convicted of ten counts of auto larceny and five counts of

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and was confined at the

Illinois State Penitentiary Stateville Correctional Center (SCC) is a maximum security state prison for men in Crest Hill, Illinois, United States, near Chicago. It is a part of the Illinois Department of Corrections. History Opened in 1925, Stateville was built to ac ...

until July 1951. In 1953, he was convicted of conspiracy in connection with a bad check passing operation and was again held at the Illinois State Penitentiary until August 1956. In one of his early arrests, he was found with a concealed revolver. He was accused of robbing branches of the Valley National Bank of Arizona in Phoenix of $11,210 ($ in dollars) on February 19, 1959, and of $9,285 ($ in dollars) on January 29, 1960. He robbed another branch of $4,620 ($ in dollars) on July 26, 1960. He was captured and then convicted for the third robbery in federal court in January 1961. During his arrest, he attempted to run down an FBI agent with his car. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison. On December 30, 1968, Paddock escaped from the Federal Correctional Institution, La Tuna in

Anthony, Texas Anthony is an incorporated town in El Paso County, Texas, United States. The population was 5,011 at the 2010 census. As of July 1, 2018, the population estimate for the town from the U.S. Census was 5,655. It is the first town encountered in Te ...

. A warrant for his arrest relating to his escape was issued on February 3, 1969, and he was placed on the FBI Ten Most Wanted list. Most individuals who have been on the FBI Ten Most Wanted list are off the list in less than six months. Paddock was among those who were on the list the longest, being placed on the list on June 10, 1969, and removed on May 5, 1977. While on the most wanted list, he was described as being tall, weighing , having blond hair, but being balding and frequently shaved. He had green eyes and wore contact lenses or glasses. He also had a scar above his right eyebrow and on his right knee and had a birthmark on his left ankle. He was described as a smooth talker, as arrogant and egotistical, liking cigars, cigarettes, and steaks. He also played bridge, enjoyed gambling, and watching sports, particularly baseball, for which he also worked as an umpire. During his criminal career, Paddock had numerous aliases, including Perry Archer, Benjamin J. Butler, Leo Genstein, Pat Paddock, and Patrick Benjamin Paddock. His nicknames included "Chromedome", "Old Baldy", and "Big Daddy". After escaping prison in 1968, Paddock moved to Oregon where he took the name Bruce Warner Erickson. In Oregon, he worked as a contract trucker and in drug abuse rehabilitation. He was twice cited for traffic violations and in September 1977 he applied for and was granted a license to open a

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, but his identity was not uncovered. He then operated a bingo parlor for the Center for Education Reform, a non-profit organization based in

Eugene, Oregon Eugene ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast. As of the 2020 United States Census ...

. He was captured and arrested in early September 1978 in

Springfield, Oregon Springfield is a city in Lane County, Oregon, United States. Located in the Southern Willamette Valley, it is within the Eugene-Springfield Metropolitan Statistical Area. Separated from Eugene to the west, mainly by Interstate 5, Springfield ...

, and was eventually released on parole. In 1987, he was charged by the

Oregon Attorney General The Oregon Attorney General is a statutory office within the executive branch of the state of Oregon, and serves as the chief legal officer of the state, heading its Department of Justice with its six operating divisions. The attorney general i ...

with racketeering related to his bingo business and fraud for an illegal business he ran rolling back car odometers, but avoided a prison sentence by paying a $100,000 fine ($ in dollars). Later in life, his involvement in bingo earned him the nickname, Bingo Bruce. During the last decade of his life, he lived quietly in Texas where he co-owned a car shop with his girlfriend.

Personal life and death

Paddock married Dolores Irene Hudson (born January 10, 1928) in 1952, and they had four sons,

Stephen Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; h ...

(1953–2017), Patrick (born ), Bruce (1959–2020), and Eric (born 1960). He died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which m ...

on January 18, 1998, in

Arlington, Texas Arlington is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, located in Tarrant County. It forms part of the Mid-Cities region of the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan statistical area, and is a principal city of the metropolis and region. ...

. He's buried at the Fort Gibson National Cemetery in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma. His eldest son

was the perpetrator of the

, the deadliest

mass shooting There is a lack of consensus on how to define a mass shooting. Most terms define a minimum of three or four victims of gun violence (not including the shooter or in an inner city) in a short period of time, although an Australian study from 200 ...

by a lone gunman in North American history. Stephen was seven at the time of his father's arrest in the summer of 1960. "We didn't grow up under his influence," said his brother Eric. Their mother told them at the time that their father was dead. Another son, Bruce, was arrested in North Hollywood on charges of possessing over 600 child pornography images. The charges were dropped in May 2018.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paddock, Benjamin Hoskins 1926 births 1998 deaths 20th-century American criminals American bank robbers American confidence tricksters American escapees United States Navy personnel of World War II American prisoners and detainees Businesspeople from Tucson, Arizona Criminals from Wisconsin FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives Military personnel from Wisconsin People from Sheboygan, Wisconsin Prisoners and detainees of Illinois Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government 2017 Las Vegas shooting 20th-century American businesspeople