Who was Benjamin Hoskins Paddock? Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock’s Dad and bank robber on FBI most wanted list
CRAZED gunman Stephen Paddock carried out the biggest mass shooting in modern US history a year ago.
After he was identified as the fiend who carried out the massacre, it emerged he was the son of an FBI wanted criminal — here's the latest on his notorious father Benjamin Hoskins Paddock...
Who was Benjamin Hoskins Paddock?
Benjamin Hoskins Paddock was born on November 1 1926.
During World War II he was an S2 in the US Navy but in 1960 committed a string a string of armed bank robberies in Phoenix, Arizona.
Paddock was arrested later that year but managed to escape from a Texas federal prison in 1968, when son Stephen was a teen.
He wound up on the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list between 1969 and 1977 with his notoriety earning him the nicknames 'Big Daddy', 'Chromedome' and 'Old Baldy'.
According to a newspaper article from Eugene Rigester-Guard in 1978, Paddock moved to Oregon's Eugene-Springfield for several years under the name Bruce Werner Ericksen. Here, he tried to build a new life as the manager of a 'bingo parlor' in Oregon.
He was eventually nabbed by cops in 1978 but it remains unclear what happened to Paddock following the arrest. He died twenty years later in 1998.
Why was he on the FBI most wanted list?
At the age of 34 Paddock committed a series of armed bank heists across the US where he was said to haven stolen more than $20,000 - the equivalent of $165,000 (£124,500) in today's money.
He was arrested in Las Vegas that year after a bank employee had given information about his getaway car. The bandit was sentenced to 20 years but managed to escape from a Texas federal jail eight years later.
A wanted poster was issued by the FBI in 1969 describing him as an "avid bridge player", a "psychopathic" with suicidal tendencies with citizens warned he "should be considered armed and very dangerous."
It was later published in Life magazine amid the widespread search for the crook.
The poster was signed by the famous FBI chief J Edgar Hoover.
In 1971, when Paddock was still on the run, an FBI agent described Paddock as "a glib, smooth-talking man who is egotistical and arrogant."
What happened with his son and the Las Vegas strip mass shooting?
The bandit's son Stephen Paddock committed the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history on October 1, 2017.
The 64-year-old travelled to Las Vegas several days before the shooting, setting up his stay at the Mandalay Bay Hotel located in the heart of the famous strip.
From his hotel window on the 32nd floor, the maniac sprayed bullets into crowds at the Route 91 Harvest Festival.
LATEST ON LAS VEGAS SHOOTING
The county musical concert massacre left at least 58 dead and 527 injured.
Cops found an arsenal of 23 guns in his hotel room ranging from military assault rifles to AK-47s.
The FBI have since ruled out connection with an international terrorist organisation but say his motives remain unclear.