FBI Celebrates Capture of ‘the Shootist’ : Crime: Eight-year spree of brazen, meticulous heists, including some in Orange County, broke from the style of most bank robberies.

A man once known only as “the Shootist” was such a notorious bank robber that the FBI held regional conferences on how to capture him. The next one was supposed to be in San Francisco, but it has been canceled.

FBI agents arrested Johnny Madison Williams Jr., the man they dubbed the Shootist, over the weekend in Seattle. Now, they say, it turns out that his wife may have been an accomplice in what agents called the longest serial bank robbing spree in FBI history.

Williams is suspected of robbing more than $750,000 from 56 banks, including some in Irvine, Laguna Niguel, San Juan Capistrano and Mission Viejo, according to the FBI. Agents from six law enforcement agencies from three states were on hand to arrest him Saturday.

“He’s garnered a great deal of interest in the states he hit,” said Jan Caldwell, an FBI special agent in San Diego, where the warrant for Williams’ arrest originated. Now that he has been nabbed, Caldwell said, agents in the areas where he worked are ecstatic.

Williams and his wife, Carolyn, have been charged with four counts of armed robbery, and Caldwell says they are suspected in many more. Johnny Williams’ attorney could not be reached for comment. Carolyn Williams’ attorney declined to comment.

Johnny Williams is suspected of starting his robbery spree in 1986 in Dallas, Caldwell said. After five robberies in Texas, he opted for changes of venue and style, she said.

At San Diego Trust in November, 1987, Williams began to earn his nickname, Caldwell said.

The suspect entered the bank and fired what was to become a trademark shot into the ceiling, Caldwell said. Then he ordered patrons to lie down, vaulted the teller counter and went from teller to teller, ordering them to put cash in his bag, Caldwell said. He drove off in a getaway car, Caldwell said.

Williams allegedly repeated that routine 50 more times, Caldwell said, and his wife was in at least some of the getaway cars.

“He was very meticulous in his planning, and he ran his bank robberies like a business,” Caldwell said. He kept a ledger and studied the floor plans of banks before he robbed them, she added.

That meticulousness may prove costly, officials say. The Seattle U.S. attorney’s office says it has submitted pages of Johnny Williams’ diary that list his robberies.

FBI bank robbery investigators say Williams’ robberies were atypical. Most bank robbers quietly hold up one teller, frequently by slipping them a note demanding money while the robber waits in line, said Sam Stanton, supervisor to San Diego’s FBI bank robbery squad. Most serial robbers rob for eight months to two years before getting caught, said Dick Thurston, an FBI spokesman. Williams is suspected of an eight-year spree.

And Williams had favorite regions, Caldwell said--Texas, Southern California and Washington state. She said Williams needed money for his gambling habit, which she said was probably the motive for his robberies.

Barbara Winn, manager at one of the locations he allegedly chose in 1987 and 1988, said people at the Marguerite and Avery branch of First Interstate Bank in Mission Viejo always worried that the Shootist would return.

“The first thing everybody said this morning was ‘Yeah! He’s off the streets!’ ” Winn said.

Not much is known about the Williamses. The FBI says Johnny Madison Williams Jr. was born in Waukegan, Ill., raised in Dallas, and is believed to have lived a short time in Southern California. They also say he ran a carpet-cleaning business in Texas.

For years law enforcement agencies could not identify the Shootist. But in May, the suspect was featured on a segment of “San Diego’s Most Wanted.” The San Diego office of the FBI received an anonymous tip on the Shootist’s identity, Caldwell said, and after two months of investigation, FBI and other law enforcement agents gathered in the lobby of a Seattle hotel where the Williamses were staying.

When Johnny Williams came downstairs to use a typewriter, Caldwell said, “he had a welcoming committee.”

If convicted, Williams faces up to 25 years in jail and a $250,000 fine for each robbery.