The ‘Zombie Bandit’ suspected in holdup
Associated Press
January 8, 2009
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MEDFORD, ORE. — A convicted bank robber the FBI nicknamed the “Zombie Bandit” during a string of bank holdups in the Midwest in 1991 is the suspect in a robbery last week in Medford.
Surveillance videos convinced investigators the man who robbed the Liberty Bank on Dec. 30 is 67-year-old Alan David Hurwitz, who served prison time for holdups at 18 banks across Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.
The FBI nicknamed him the “Zombie Bandit” because of the vacant look on his face during the Midwest robberies.
Police also have linked Hurwitz to a Dec. 11 bank robbery in San Rafael.
At one time, Hurwitz was a Detroit teacher, a staff member at Michigan State University, a member of a task force on school violence and a deputy director of the Peace Corps in Kenya, according to a 2005 profile in Detroit’s Metro Times newspaper.
Hurwitz told the newspaper he might move to Northern California to be with his daughters.



