The father ofLas Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock was previously on the FBI’s Most Wanted list, law enforcement officials confirmed to CNN on Monday.
Benjamin Hoskins Paddock appeared on the agency’s infamous registry from June 10, 1969 through May 5, 1977 and was described in an FBI poster as being “diagnosed as psychopathic” and as an individual reported to have “suicidal tendencies” who “has carried firearms in commission of bank robberies.”
The poster states that Benjamin Hoskins Paddock, known also by several aliases including “Big Daddy,” “Chromedome” and “Old Baldy,” was convicted of bank robbery and automobile theft.
Paddock landed on the FBI’s Most Wanted list after he escaped from a Texas federal prison in 1960. He had been sentenced to 20 years following a bank robbery conviction, according to a 1978 newspaper article in the Eugene Register-Guard.
The paper said Benjamin Hoskins Paddock lived in Oregon’s Eugene-Springfield area for several years under the name Bruce Werner Ericksen.
Earlier Monday, Eric Paddock — the brother of the las Vegas shooter — told reporters outside of his home in Orlando, Florida, that he was born while his father was on the run from authorities.
“I didn’t know him. We didn’t know him,” Eric Paddock said. “He was never with my mom. I was born on the run and that’s the last time he was ever associated with by our family.”
As for what motivated the actions of his brother, Eric Paddock said he and his family are “still just completely befuddled.”
Authorities are still investigating the possible motivation behind what is now the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.
