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Las Vegas shooter's father was once on FBI's Ten Most Wanted list

RELATED: Brother of Las Vegas shooter: ‘We're dumbstruck'

The father of the man who opened fire on a crowd of 22,000 in Las Vegas, killing 58 and hurting 515, was once on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list.

Stephen Paddock, 64, killed himself after firing hundreds of rounds into the crowd at a music festival Sunday.

Paddock's brother Eric told reporters Monday that their father was a bank robber who was once on the FBI's most-wanted list.

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Benjamin Hoskins Paddock robbed a string of banks in Arizona, escaped prison in Texas and tried to start a new life as the manager of a bingo parlor in Oregon, according to historical newspaper articles.

The FBI began searching for Paddock after robberies at Phoenix branches of Valley National Bank. He was accused of stealing close to $25,000.

He tried to resist arrest and run down an agent with his car after FBI agents in Las Vegas caught him in the summer of 1960, according to the Tuscon Daily Citizen.

He was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison but escaped federal prison in Texas in 1969, the Eugene Register-Guard reported.

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He was on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list from 1969 to 1977.

An FBI most-wanted poster said Paddock was “diagnosed as psychopathic” and “reportedly has suicidal tendencies and should be considered armed and dangerous.”

Paddock was involved in an armed robbery at a bank in San Francisco about six months after the escape.

While awaiting trial, he went off and managed to live a secret life as a bingo parlor manager in Springfield, Ore.

The FBI said Paddock lived for years in the Eugene-Springfield area under the alias of Bruce Werner Ericksen. He constantly changed his appearance and avoided contact with police, the Eugene Register-Guard reported.

STORY: Who is Stephen Paddock, the shooter killed in Las Vegas?

He was eventually caught in 1978 but was released in less than a year.

Years later, the Oregon Attorney General’s Office filed seven racketeering charges against Paddock for his bingo operation and rolling back car odometers.

He settled the racketeering charges for $623,000 and pleaded no contest to the odometer case.

He was let off with no jail time and died in 1998. Read more on FoxNews.com

Bank robberies. A prison escape. Racketeering charges. Family of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock say the man's father spent several years on the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted list:

Posted by Action News Jax on Monday, October 2, 2017