Old man wanted more than money in Branson bank robbery

This story was originally published on Dec. 17

Joseph Cyrus could barely get the words out.

He knew what he wanted to say, but he didn't want to break down in the courtroom.

Cyrus' lawyer told him it was OK. He could wait until the sentencing hearing in a few months if he wanted. But the 77-year-old Cyrus couldn't wait.

A proud man, Cyrus couldn't go another day without explaining himself.

"I wanted to be caught, your honor," Cyrus said from his wheelchair last month at the federal courthouse in Springfield. "I wanted to get some help from the United States government."

A masked Cyrus robbed the Central Bank on James Epps Road in Branson on Oct. 16, pointing what he says was a plastic BB gun at the tellers.

The reason he committed the crime, he said, was to get access to health care in the federal prison system.

Cyrus turned himself in to police a few days after the robbery and pleaded guilty on Nov. 10.

Cyrus gave an emotional speech in the courtroom after pleading guilty, saying he has bad feet and is losing his hearing. He told the judge he recently lost his job and was turned away by a Veterans Affairs hospital.

Cyrus said he woke up the morning of the robbery in his trailer at the Yacht Club Mobile Home Park in Hollister with roaches crawling all over his body.

He asked himself a question as he was eating breakfast that morning.

"I turned around and looked in the mirror, into a mirror that I had in my apartment, and I said 'Why am I doing this?'" Cyrus said. "So I grabbed that mask (and) turned the license plate upside down."

Cyrus drove his pickup truck to the bank, hobbled in, pointed what looked like a pistol at the tellers, ordered everyone into the lobby and made out with almost $31,000 in a reusable grocery bag.

Witnesses at the bank said Cyrus was "hunched over" and appeared to be in pain as he walked out of the building.

Two hours later, Cyrus paid his rent in cash, put a "for sale" sign in his truck and left town. He would later come back to Branson and turn himself in.

Judge David Rush said pride is what put Cyrus in this position.

"I hope you'll find it somehow in your heart to let them (your family) — let them help you," Rush told Cyrus in the courtroom. "I can tell you're a strong and a proud man. And there's nothing wrong with that, except if that gets in the way of letting people who love and care for you demonstrate that."

The Yacht Club Mobile Home Park, where Cyrus lived from July to October, is a mix of trailers and one-story apartment structures located along the water just south of the Branson Landing.

Neighbors say someone new has moved into the corner apartment where Cyrus stayed, but there is still plenty of chatter about that day in October when the FBI came asking questions about the old man in Unit 30.

Robert Smith lives a few doors down from where Cyrus stayed at the Yacht Club. Smith said he was interviewed by authorities the day of the robbery.

Smith said Cyrus seemed like a nice guy, but he had a tendency to tell tall tales about his time in the military or being an undercover drug cop in California.

David Dykes, who runs the Yacht Club Mobile Home Park, said Cyrus was a good tenant who mostly kept to himself. Dykes also referenced some exaggerated stories Cyrus had told.

"A lot of the things he said, I didn’t believe half of them, to tell you the truth," Dykes said. "That’s just the way he was. But he seemed like a nice guy."

That hyperbole extended to the courtroom the day Cyrus pleaded guilty. During the speech explaining his actions, Cyrus makes vague references to shooting bank robbers and once taking a bullet to the mouth.

Neighbors were skeptical of some things Cyrus said. But two things they knew for sure is that Cyrus was poor and sick.

Gene Hendricks lives at the Yacht Club a few rows away from Cyrus. Hendricks said he thought Cyrus had diabetes.

Hendricks said he could only think of one explanation when he heard Cyrus had been arrested for robbing a bank.

"The very first instinct that I got after he did it is that he wants to get popped so that he can go to jail, because the jail will take care of him," Hendricks said. "It makes you wonder what's wrong with our system."

Jim Casada works at the Casey's General Store down the road from the Yacht Club where Cyrus would go almost daily to get coffee and a doughnut.

Casada said he was shocked when he heard Cyrus had robbed a bank, but money problems can make a man do strange things.

"I can't imagine he would hurt anybody," Casada said. "He always had a real nice demeanor. He always acted like he was somebody's grandfather."

Cyrus said in court he has 16 grandchildren. He said he didn't want them to see him as an old, deaf man too sick to drive a car.

Cyrus turned himself in five days after robbing the bank. He later said in court he spent the days after the robbery traveling through the southwestern part of the country visiting friends and family.

"I had to tell them some things," Cyrus said. "Why I did it."

As for the cash, an exploding dye pack went off in the bag of money after Cyrus robbed the bank, but Cyrus said in court he wasn't after the cash anyway.

"I threw all that money in the river because it's useless," Cyrus said. "It's no good."

Kristie Breshears, public information officer at the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, said Cyrus' case is not totally unique.

"I don’t want to give the misconception that there are all of these guys lined up to go to prison to get free health care," Breshears said. "But do I believe it exists? Absolutely."

Breshears said the health care in the federal prison system is equivalent to anything offered in a private hospital.

Breshears said the Fed Med in Springfield has a prosthetics lab, a physical therapy department and the largest dialysis center in the nation. And all of the health care is available to the prisoners at no cost to them.

Cyrus is being held in the Greene County Jail as he awaits sentencing for the bank robbery. He faces up to 10 years in prison, but it's not clear if he will serve his time in Springfield or at a different federal prison.

Judge Rush told Cyrus at the end of his court appearance that it would be better to lean on family in times of need instead of the federal prison system.

Rush said he hopes Cyrus will not die behind bars.

"You can have an influence on those grandchildren and a positive influence," Rush said in court. "You may have to swallow some of your pride, you know, as far as what you've done here and brought you to this point. But don't let that define you. You can still — you can still make a difference in their lives."

Because banks are federally insured, the FBI serves as the lead investigating agency for bank robberies. FBI spokeswoman Bridget Patton said she could not discuss the specifics of Cyrus' case or the frequency at which people rob banks to get free health care.