gap80: The Wet Bandits
The Wet Bandits
(because it’s Christmas Eve)
(because it’s Christmas Eve)
(I’m ignoring Home Alone 4 because everyone else does)
The Wet Bandits was a duo of home burglars and petty thieves whom plagued the residential areas surrounding the American city of Chicago, Illinois with a series of burglaries from 1987 until their apprehension on Christmas Eve, 1990. After escaping from prison in Illinois in December 1992, they were found in Central Park, New York City, only a few days later. The circumstances of their 1990 and 1992 arrests are shadowed in mystery.
Most information on their pre-1990 actions come from testimony from their 1991 and 1993 trails. Harry L. Lyme and Marvin “Marv” Merchants first met in 1984 and soon began to burglar wealthy and middle-income houses across northern Illinois, along with several other crimes, including one attempted kidnapping and one attempted homicide (both disputed). Primarily with crowbars, Lyme and Marchants would steal as much as they could from homes, drive to a nearby state, and sell the items at various sellers, both legal and black market, for cash. Lyme stole a painter’s van in 1989 out of which to work. On October 2, 1990, Lyme purchased a police officer’s costume from a Halloween outfit store in Kankakee, and began impersonating an officer in mid-November.
Beginning in June 1990, during their Fourth-of-July vacation burglary spree, Merchants created the duo’s “calling card” – causing extensive damage by leaving the water running in a clogged kitchen sink at every house they robbed. At his 1991 trial Merchants proudly stated “All the great ones leave their mark!”). According to his 1993 trial, Merchants apparently attempted to rebrand the duo as “the Sticky Bandits” to no success.
Their criminal career initially came to an end on the night of December 24, 1990. At 9:42, Chicago police received a phone call from the residence of John Murphy, the caller saying his house was being robbed. Upon police arrival 7 minutes later, the two men were found unconscious in the home’s kitchen with multiple wounds. During the subsequent investigation, it was discovered that John Murphy was away on vacation at the time and had not called the police. The police concluded the phone was from an anonymous tipper whom has still not be identified.
Lime and Merchants spent the next six months (December 1990 – June 1991) in the hospital, recuperating from multiple wounds before standing trial. Lime had second-degree burns on his head and hand, a bruised ribcage bone, broken nose cartilage from some form of blunt force trauma, and a concussion; Merchants had wounds on his feet, a deep cut on one foot that required a tetanus shot, first-degree burns to his face, broken nose cartilage from some form of blunt force trauma, and multiple concussions. Merchants would later describe his stay in the hospital as “the most comfy six months of my entire life; I was pampered, I got a pretty nurse, and I had all the Jell-O I wanted!”
During the 1991 trial, the two criminals maintained their right to remain silent, refusing to explain the cause of their wounds, with Lime repeatedly being almost held in contempt of court for telling Merchants to “shut up.” While Lime stated that he did not know whom hit them with a shovel, Marvin’s sole explanation for their silence was that “how we ended up here is just too embarrassing to say.”
Only 14 months after beginning their sentences at the same Illinois prison, Lime and Merchants escaped from jail in December 1992. Days later, on Christmas Eve, the store Duncan’s Toy Chest was robbed. After another anonymous tip from a pay phone reported the store’s robber’s whereabouts, adding “look for fireworks.” Several minutes later, NYCP arrived just as fireworks began firing. At their source, a wounded Lime and Merchants were found covered in tar and seeds and being attacked by pigeons. Merchants immediately confessed to robbing the store, despite Lime’s attempt to get him to “shut up,” and were soon sent to a hospital for multiple wounds.
Lime and Merchants spent eight months in the hospital this time around. Their injuries were similar to the ones received in 1990, along with Merchants experiencing some form of electrocution. Yet in their 1993 trial, Lime and Merchants again refused to explain their wounds (with Lime having burns and bruises, and Merchants having even worse wounds). Merchants only offered the notion that “you [the police] wouldn’t believe us at all even if we told you.” Nevertheless, because Merchants was more compliant with the police, he was given a lighter sentence, much to the annoyance of Lime. This time, they were sent to separate prisons. In 2011, Merchants was released from prison on parole for good behavior; as of 2014, he resides in Arizona, where he says he is “happy outside the US; I don’t think I’ll ever go back to that country.” In 2015, Lime again escaped from prison. His current whereabouts are unknown, and he has been #15 on the US Marshals Most Wanted Fugitives list since 2016.
Merry Holidays, Everybody!
