By Jeff Lehr
jlehr@joplinglobe.com
A middle-aged gunman. Medium build to heavy-set.
In an older model white car, often parked close enough to be spotted when he fled.
Usually brought his own bag for the loot.
In retrospect, the details in common now seem to be falling quickly into place like the final pieces of a puzzle as investigators work to tie a suspect nabbed in the aftermath of Thursday’s bank robbery in Neosho to a number of recent armed robberies in Missouri and Kansas.
According to police, Richard Allan Bratt, 57, of rural Diamond, started talking in the wake of his arrest and what he’s told them so far leads them to believe he has built quite a resume as an armed robber the past few months.
Three cases cited
Joplin police said in a news release Friday that Bratt’s alleged admissions solve armed robberies in Joplin dating back to May. The release said that his statements to investigators, his physical description and evidence obtained in searches of his car and home provide grounds to seek charges against him in the armed robberies of the Hollywood Theater box office at 201 N. North Park Lane on May 10, Aldi’s grocery store at 3205 E. 20th St. on May 23, and Commerce Bank at 2980 S. McClelland Blvd. on Sept. 10.
Webb City police said charges will be sought against him in a robbery July 10 of Commerce Bank at 1311 S. Madison Ave.
And police in Independence, Kan., told the Globe charges are anticipated against Bratt in the robbery June 5 of Commercial Bank on Pennsylvania Avenue in Independence.
Bratt is charged with first-degree robbery, armed criminal action and felony resisting of arrest in the Neosho bank robbery. He stands to pick up several more felonies in Missouri and Kansas in the days ahead as charges are filed in other cases.
Looking back at the first robbery in which Bratt is confirmed by police to be a suspect, witnesses said a man with a gray goatee, between 40 and 60 years of age, and wearing a black beanie held up the ticket office at the movie theater in Joplin. He did not display a weapon but held his hand in his shirt as if he might have one. He threw a bag on the counter for the cashier to fill.
He drove off in a white Chevrolet Lumina.
At Aldi’s almost two weeks later, witnesses again described a white, four-door car in which the robber fled the store’s parking lot. The man’s hair was described as salt-and-pepper in color. He was wearing sunglasses, lingered in the store near closing time, and then walked up to a cashier with some items and pulled out a gun, police said.
After getting the cash from the clerk’s register, he demanded that a woman emerging from an office open the store’s safe for him. When she told him it was on a time lock, he told her to forget it and fled, police said.
Few details have been released in the bank job in Independence. But witnesses again described an older gunman and a white car.
Witnesses to the bank job in Webb City thought the white car was an Oldsmobile Cutlass, a detail that may have kept investigators from making a connection to some of the other cases with any certainty. But bank surveillance video and witness accounts led to a description of the suspect as a middle-aged, heavy-set man in a tan straw hat and sunglasses, and wearing a black handkerchief or mesh cloth over the lower portion of his face. He brought an Old Navy shopping bag for the loot.
Hat changes
If Bratt committed all the robberies for which charges are being sought on him, he apparently felt a need to vary his headwear and choice of masks.
At Commerce Bank in Joplin, the robber also wore a black mask that only partially covered his face. While in Thursday’s robbery, the suspect wore a full-facial “Jason” mask, named for the character in the “Friday the 13th” series of horror films whose face was hidden by a hockey goalie mask.
Few details have been released as yet about Bratt’s personal life. Neosho police Chief David McCracken said the suspect was currently unemployed. Local court records show no prior criminal record of note.
Search warrants
In the wake of Richard Bratt’s arrest, the Newton County Sheriff’s Department served a search warrant at his home on Lime Kiln Road near Diamond. A search warrant also was obtained on a white Chevrolet Lumina seized Thursday and believed to have been used in several robberies.
