Unsolved Mysteries Wiki
Register
Advertisement

Real Names: Terry Lee Conner and Joseph William Dougherty
Aliases: Stephen Posick (Conner); James Dunn, John Jordan, Robert Troy (Dougherty)
Wanted For: Armed Robbery, Abduction, Escape
Missing Since: July 1986

Case[]

Details: Forty-three-year-old Terry Lee Conner and forty-seven-year-old Joseph Dougherty are suspected of robbing at least four banks for a total of $1 million. They are reportedly armed with dynamite, grenades, and submachine guns. At various times, they have taken twenty-seven people hostage. Dougherty has vowed "not to be taken alive".
Not surprisingly, Conner and Dougherty were placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List.
The police have described Conner and Dougherty as skillful, calm, and intelligent. One FBI agent says they are "pros" and are above the "normal level" of most bank robbers. One prosecutor describes their robberies as well-planned and methodical. Conner is originally from Eugene, Oregon, while Dougherty is from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Conner reportedly started robbing banks to help save his failing chain of restaurants.
On December 29, 1982, Conner and Dougherty robbed the Quail Creek Bank in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The night before, they took the bank manager and his family hostage. After arriving at the bank, they had the manager call over his employees as they came in. He then took them into another room for a "meeting". At that point, Conner ordered them to open the vault. He and Dougherty took more than $740,000 and fled.
Several months later, Conner and Dougherty were arrested and charged with the Quail Creek Bank robbery. Conner was later convicted and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison. In the summer of 1985, Dougherty was scheduled to go on trial for the robbery. He and Conner were held at a federal prison in El Reno, Oklahoma. Dougherty was also awaiting trial for bank robberies in Arizona and Nevada, and both he and Conner were awaiting trial for a bank robbery in Utah. They were also suspected of robbing a bank in Eugene, Oregon.
Early on the morning of June 19, 1985, Paul Mayfield and Steve Stroud, two deputy marshals from the U.S. Marshals Service, came to the prison to shackle Conner and Dougherty and take them to the U.S. District Court, a federal courthouse in Oklahoma City. According to Michael Wineland of the U.S. Marshals, another marshal reminded Mayfield and Stroud to pick up leg chains because Conner and Dougherty were dangerous.
Conner and Dougherty were placed in the back of the vehicle, while Mayfield and Stroud were in the front. During the strip search, Mayfield and Stroud missed a handcuff key and razor blade, which Conner had reportedly hidden in his mouth. At some point during the drive, he and Dougherty removed their cuffs and took control of the vehicle. Within about two seconds, Dougherty grabbed Stroud's gun and left hand, making him virtually helpless. Meanwhile, Conner held the razor blade to Mayfield's throat.
Mayfield and Stroud were handcuffed and forced into the back seat. Conner and Dougherty left Interstate 40 and stopped at an isolated pasture near NW 10 and Council Road in Oklahoma City, where there would be no witnesses. Mayfield and Stroud were scared, as they did not know what Conner and Dougherty would do next. Conner and Dougherty forced them into a wooded area at gunpoint and then handcuffed them to a tree.
Conner indicated to Dougherty that he wanted to "eliminate" Mayfield and Stroud. He advanced towards them with his weapon and pointed it at them. He looked over at Dougherty and nodded his head as if to say that he was going to kill them. Dougherty replied, "No, they've been good guys. They'll be okay if we leave them handcuffed around the tree." He and Conner then fled the scene in Mayfield and Stroud's car. A short time later, Mayfield and Stroud freed themselves and called for help.
Shortly after their escape, Conner and Dougherty stole a car at gunpoint from the Union 76 truck stop on Interstate 40. Later that day, they entered the Oklahoma City home of Don and Pam Briscoe and took them hostage. Over the next twenty hours, they told the Briscoes about their robberies. They also offered to help clean the kitchen and showed the Briscoes pictures of their families. Conner said that during one robbery, he had unknowingly stolen family mementos from a bank. When he realized this, he sent the items back.
Conner and Dougherty practiced what they would do in certain situations (such as if someone came to the door or called). The next morning, Conner listened as Pam called her boss and told him she would be late for work. After that, they handcuffed the Briscoes and took the couple's car. Before leaving, they asked the Briscoes for a three-hour head start since they had "treated [them] nicely".
Conner and Dougherty drove the Briscoes' car to Muskogee, Oklahoma, where they abandoned it. At around 3pm, they abducted a man from a Muskogee parking lot and forced him to drive to Kansas City, Missouri. They then tied him up and spent the night with him in his van. They also gave him $200 for his "trouble". When he woke up the next morning, they were gone.
A few weeks later, on July 12, 1985, Conner and Dougherty robbed a bank in St. Louis, Missouri. On July 26, they robbed another bank in St. Louis. During the two robberies, they stole $35,000. On the night of September 2, they showed up at the home of Richard Woodcock, the chief executive officer of the Central Bank in West Alice, Wisconsin. They identified themselves as FBI agents, but when Richard's wife asked to see their identification, they said, "We're not here to display badges. We're here to rob banks." Wielding a hand grenade and automatic weapon, they took Richard, his wife, their daughter, and the daughter's boyfriend hostage.
Shortly after 6am on September 3, Conner, Dougherty, and their hostages went to the Central Bank. As the fourteen bank employees arrived for work, Conner and Dougherty herded them at gunpoint into a storage room. Richard and another bank officer gave them the combination to the vault. After locking their hostages in the storage room, they had the vault all to themselves. When they left at 8am, their duffel bags were stuffed with $750,000. Their getaway car was later found about a mile from the bank.
On July 1, 1986, in Vancouver, Washington, Conner and Dougherty allegedly pulled off one of their biggest bank robberies. The night before, they visited the home of Ray Deering, the assistant vice president of First Independent Bank, on the pretext of buying a car. Ray recalls that neither of them would let him walk around them or see their backs. They always turned their bodies. He was unaware that they had their guns in their belts behind their backs.
Conner and Dougherty asked if they could discuss the deal with Ray inside his home. He agreed. Once inside, they pulled out their guns and easily overpowered Ray and his son, Tom. Stunned, Ray had to take Conner to his bedroom, where his wife, Ronnie, was recovering from minor surgery. When she saw Conner's gun, she was frightened. She was not sure what they were going to do.
Conner and Dougherty forced the Deerings to sit on a couch in their living room. Every half hour or so, Conner and Dougherty left the room and had a meeting near the Deerings' front door, where they would whisper instructions back and forth. During one meeting, they left a submachine gun on the floor under the table. Ray and his family saw the gun, but he decided not to grab it because he did not want to risk their lives.
After about five minutes, Conner and Dougherty came back into the room. Dougherty told the Deerings that the gun had its safety on and that they left it there as a test. After that, the Deerings felt that Conner and Dougherty trusted them more since they did not try to take the gun.
Conner and Dougherty's plan was to hold the Deerings hostage all night and force Ray to open the bank doors early the next morning. When the group left at dawn, Conner and Dougherty changed into business suits and looked like normal bank executives on their way to work. Ronnie says it felt like they were a part of the robbery; it was a strange feeling.
The Deerings did not know what to expect. They did not know if there would be problems or if the police would be at the bank. They did not want the police there. Conner and Dougherty had told them that if the police were there, they would "spray the bank" with gunfire.
The group arrived at the bank at 7:05am. It was empty. Conner and Dougherty forced the Deerings into a back room. They planned to get the money as quickly as possible and leave. Ray hoped that they would be in and out quickly. He knew they would not harm him because they wanted the money. He says it got to the point where the money in the bank was not important to him. He wanted to do whatever he could to protect his family.
Most of the bank's forty employees would not arrive until 8:30am. A few tellers trickled in early. Ray was taken to the front to intercept them and get their vault keys. They were then taken to the back room. Ray feared for his family and employees. He was especially concerned because he was separated from his family and did not know what was happening to them. He was also concerned about what Conner and Dougherty would do once they got their money. He was not sure if they would take hostages out of the bank.
Conner and Dougherty were in the vault by 8:19am. They transferred $250,000 into two duffel bags in less than sixty seconds. After they got their money, they took Ray into the back room, where his family and employees were being held. Before leaving, Conner and Dougherty told the group not to open the door for ten minutes. By that point, Ray was happy because he knew they were not going to take any hostages and that his family and employees were safe.
Extra Notes:

  • This case originally aired on the January 20, 1987 Special #1 episode of Unsolved Mysteries hosted by Raymond Burr. At the end of the segment, other fugitives on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List were briefly profiled.
  • It was excluded from the FilmRise release of Robert Stack episodes.
  • It was also profiled on The FBI Files after their arrests.
  • The 2001 movie Bandits was loosely based on Conner and Dougherty's bank heists.
  • In the segment, Conner was portrayed by actor Rex Linn.
  • Some sources spell Dougherty's last name as "Daugherty" and state: one of the St. Louis robberies occurred on July 2 or August 12; Woodcock was president or vice president of the bank; Woodcock and his family were held hostage for three days; $500,000 was stolen from the Central Bank; another one of Ray's sons, Ed, was also taken hostage; and the Vancouver robbery occurred on June 30, 1986.

Results: Captured - Several weeks after this story was filmed, the FBI and U.S. Marshals learned that Conner and Dougherty were in Arlington Heights, Illinois, and planning to rob a nearby bank. The FBI distributed wanted posters in the area. A clerk at the Red Roof Inn in Arlington Heights noticed a guest registered under the name "Stephen Posick", one of Conner's aliases. She called the authorities, and within an hour, the FBI and U.S. Marshals staked out the motel. At 10am the next morning, December 9, 1986, Conner was arrested when he left his room.
On December 10, FBI agents began to conduct surveillance on an acquaintance of Dougherty's, Robert Butcher, in hopes that he would lead them to Dougherty. On December 19, Butcher and another associate, William Crouch, went to a laundromat in Antioch, California, where they met with Dougherty to plan a bank robbery. FBI agents surrounded the laundromat and arrested Dougherty, Butcher, and Crouch without incident.
In March 1987, Conner was convicted of kidnapping and escape. In July, Dougherty was convicted of bank robbery, kidnapping, and escape. Conner pleaded guilty to the same charges. They were both sentenced to life in prison. On April 14, 2016, Dougherty died in prison at the age of seventy-six.
On December 31, 2018, Ray Deering passed away at the age of eighty-five.
Links:


Advertisement