Freed crook immediately robs bank with goal of going back to prison

A career crook robbed a bank in Wisconsin after completing a 20-year prison stint in New Jersey so he could get locked up in the Badger State’s reportedly superior jails, according to a report.

Just six months after getting out of a Jersey slammer for attempted homicide, Manhattan native William Gallagher, 68, robbed a Milwaukee Chase Bank “with the sole motivation of going to prison,” his public defender Charles Roozen said during a December hearing, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported.

“About 48 years ago, I’m sitting with a 72-year-old con, and he had been in just about every prison in the country and he did two bids in Wisconsin,” Gallagher said during the plea hearing in which he likened himself to a character from the classic prison flick “Shawshank Redemption,” according to a court transcript.

“And he said it was the best food, commissary, this, that, everything,” the Vietnam War veteran added.

Adding to the attraction is the health care offered in Wisconsin prisons, which rivals the care offered through the US Department of Veterans Affairs, Gallagher said.

Back in July, Gallagher said, VA doctors in Brooklyn “took cancer out of my back” and found three lymph nodes in his stomach and a nodule on his lung.

“Things were going pretty good and then everything just fell apart,” Gallagher said, as he pleaded guilty to attempted robbery of a financial institution.

During the robbery attempt, Gallagher made it crystal clear he wanted to get caught, asking the teller to “Please call the police” after demanding cash in $100 bills and saying he had a bomb.

Gallagher sat down until the police arrived and arrested him.

“It’s a sad comment on the situation of health care in America. … That a guy’s got to rob a bank to get health care is unfortunate, to say the least,” James Griffin, the assistant district attorney prosecuting Gallagher, said at the hearing.

At sentencing, Gallagher asked for 10 years from Milwaukee County Circuit Judge David Hansher.

“You ever seen the movie ‘Shawshank Redemption’?” Hansher asked, referring to the 1994 movie, in which actor James Whitmore’s character, longtime inmate Brooks Hatlen, commits suicide after his release because he can’t cope on the outside.

“That’s me. The librarian guy,” Gallagher told Hansher. “Institutionalized, couldn’t adjust, everything fell apart, he hung himself. I’m not hanging myself but, you know, that’s it.”

Gallagher said it wasn’t just the health care that motivated him. He also doesn’t want to burden his children — and he misses prison.

“I’m not crazy, your honor,” Gallagher told Hansher, “I’m 68. I just got out. Every day I’m looking at my watch. Oh, they’re in the yard now. … Instead of leaving, trying to lead a life out here, I’m thinking about what’s going on where I just left.”

Over his objection, the judge didn’t order Gallagher to go to prison and ordered a pre-sentence investigation instead.

A new sentencing hearing is scheduled for Feb. 13.

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