48 Hours - Stolen Dreams

Episode Date: November 30, 2023

Jeanne Callahan of Rockville Centre, Long Island waited for her husband, Stephen Trantel, to return home from a day of fishing in November of 2003.  Hours later, she received a call telling her that Stephen was alive, but was under arrest. Police told Jeanne that Stephen had committed ten bank robberies. “48 Hours" correspondent Richard Schlesinger reports. This classic "48 Hours" episode last aired on 7/11/2009. Watch all-new episodes of “48 Hours” on Saturdays, and stream on demand on Paramount+.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audio book is free. Visit audible.ca. I'm Erin Moriarty of 48 Hours and of all the cases I've covered, this is the one that troubles me most. Listen to Murder in the Orange Grove, The Trouble Case Against Crosley Green,

wherever you get your podcasts. At the crack of dawn, he woke up. And he was so excited because Stephen loves to fish. That's his thing. He loves it. I never would have thought a day that began with fishing could have ended the way it did. He called me at 12 o'clock in the afternoon. He's like, I caught three fish. He was so excited.

Said he's coming right home and never came home. I'm Jeannie Callahan. I thought I had the perfect life. Oh, Steven was the love of my life. My knight in shining armor. The most amazing husband and an amazing dad. There's my husband and my son. Hello.

I was a stay-home mom and raising the boys. Hi, sweetie mama. Steven was a commodities trader. He did very well. And he took such good care of me. Right after his trip, he called at 12 o'clock. He said he'll be home in five minutes. He called at 12 o'clock. He said he'll be home in five minutes.

I called him at 12.30. No answer. I called back at 1.30. I called back at 2 o'clock. I called him every half an hour on the hour. It was about 8 o'clock at night, so it was eight hours later. It was dark out. It was pouring rain out. There was no call from Stephen, and I thought, I cannot stay home. That night I was in a panic.

That night I was in a panic. I thought Steven either had a heart attack at the wheel or he was carjacked. So I drove around the whole neighborhood. I looked everywhere, down streets. I looked at restaurants. I just drove around just looking for his car. I started to call every hospital in the area and I remember just praying to God saying, Dear God, please let him be alive. Whatever it is, let Stephen be alive. And then I started to cry. I hadn't heard from him in nine hours.

I was terrified. Then I got the phone call. When the police officer told me what happened to my husband, I was in shock, in shock. I could not speak. Stolen Dreams, tonight's 48- Hours Mystery. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park.

They have to alert the military, and when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing The Best Idea Yet, a brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bold risk-takers who brought them to life.

Like, did you know that Super Mario, the best-selling video game character of all time, only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye? Or Jack, that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala? From Pez dispensers to Levi's 501s to Air Jordans, discover the surprising stories of the most viral products. Plus, we guarantee that after listening, you're going to dominate your next dinner party. So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus.

It's just the best idea yet. I knew something really bad has happened. It just was in my gut. I just knew it. It was dark and stormy in more ways than one that November night in 2003. There'd been no news about Stephen Trantel's whereabouts for hours. And then the police called. She answered the phone, and I'll never forget it, she gasped. Like she was gasping for air. And she just did not move, she didn't breathe. Brooke and Laura... Yeah, she's obviously very upset.

...had been with Jeannie Trantel since earlier in the evening, hours after Stephen was due home. We were going through a thousand different scenarios. If he was in a hospital, why nobody had called. He was mugged. Somebody stole his wallet. He was in an accident and his body was in a ditch someplace. Every scenario how are you feeling at that point I was so

sure the news was going to be that he was gone the news wasn't that bad but it wasn't that good either Stephen was alive but he was under arrest, charged with crimes that could put him away for the rest of his life. The police told Jeannie that her husband... Hi, sweetie. ...was a bank robber. And he didn't just commit one or two robberies.

He committed ten. I said, you have the wrong man. You have to have the wrong man. You knew that? Oh I knew that. I said well thank God because now we know it's a case of mistaken identity. Can you see Steve robbing a bank? It was funny. It was funny because of all the people they knew, Stephen was the least likely to rob a bank. For one thing, he was the son of a New York City cop. And because he was a trader in the big money world of commodities, he wouldn't have to

steal anything. Trantell's lived in a tony little town in the suburbs of Manhattan called Rockville Center. Rockville Center is awesome. It's the best town. It's kind of a ritzy place, eh? It's a very, very nice town. And Jeannie and Stephen were living a very, very nice life. Every month, Stephen handed her a wad of cash. She was very generous. Very generous.

He had always been generous, ever since they met when Jeannie was just 24. Stephen, he would plan these great nights out in the city. I would come home from work, and there would be a beautiful outfit in my room waiting with shoes, a purse. He had bought you an outfit? Oh sure. I'm like oh my god this guy is incredible. They drove nice cars. We're at Malibu. Took nice vacations. Here's my lovely wife. This is my lovely wife. And Jeannie could stay home to raise their two sons, Stephen Jr.

Let's look at your brother now. and his baby brother, Ryan. We love you, Ryan. And when Stephen got home from his job, he got right down to work. What a good papa. Stephen was a great dad. Proud mommy and daddy.

He was a dad who changed diapers right away. He even sexed your husband. It was impossible to imagine this man robbing banks. So you're in a christening outfit, dad. I was. Yet there he was, in police custody. He got on the phone, and he sounded really scared. And I just kept saying, Steve, what's going on?

What's going on? What's going on? And he said, it's okay. It's okay. I'm innocent. I just said it's not me. The police had been confronting Stephen with surveillance pictures from bank security cameras.

When they would show pictures of the guy robbing the bank, they would say, this is you, and what did you say? I said, no, it's not. For Stephen Trantel, this day that ended in handcuffs began out on the water for that fishing trip. We had a good day, you know. Caught a decent amount of fish. The only problem with the day so far was the taillight on Stephen's car.

It was out. But on his way home, police suddenly swooped in on Steven's car. It was out. But on his way home, police suddenly swooped in and surrounded his car. And he was a little bit of a wise guy. I got to that stop sign and five cops surrounded me. So they handcuffed me, put me in the car. I'm like, guys, all this for a tail light? Come on.

What'd they say? We wanna talk to you about something. You know, at this point, it was just a blur. And by the end of the night, Stephen was charged with bank robbery. This is just ridiculous. We're talking about Stephen here. Stephen's lifelong friends, Laura, Bobby, Sarah, and Tommy knew this was a case of mistaken identity. Stephen was a Little League coach. He played Santa Claus at their annual Christmas party. It was Steve's biggest thing.

It entertained every child in the place. Stephen also volunteered at soup kitchens and Habitat for Humanity. There were so many causes that he was the first one to step up to the plate and try to figure out what to do about it and how to be active in it. In fact, his friends even doubted that Stephen had the guts to rob a bank. It was like a nervous Nelly. I couldn't picture the calm and what it would take to walk into a bank. The tenacity, just, yeah.

That's not Steve. You know, like... They have the wrong man. Did you think you could prove it? Sure. How? Trading records. Stephen's trading records from the commodities exchange

could show he was on Wall Street, working when the banks were robbed. And this was nothing more than a big case of mistaken identity. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. The scary cult classic was set in the Chicago housing project. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. Candyman. Candyman?

Now we all know chanting a name won't make a killer magically appear. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. We're going to talk to the people who were there, and we're also going to uncover the larger story. My architect was shocked when he saw how this was created. Literally shocked. And we'll look at what the story tells us about injustice in America. If you really believed in tough on crime, then you wouldn't make it easy to crawl into medicine cabinets and kill our women. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind

the bathroom mirror murder, wherever you get your podcasts. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reached the age of 10 that would still have heard it. It just happens to all of them. I'm journalist Luke Jones, and for almost two years,

I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn trials, I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery Plus.

Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. While Jeannie Trantell spent a sleepless night reeling from her husband Steven's arrest for bank robbery... This was one of the jackets we recovered. Detective James Scopek... Latex gloves. ...was methodically going through the evidence... That's the hat. ...to make sure he had the right man. His disguise consisted of baseball cap, sunglasses, and maybe some clothing changes.

It had been a maddening case. After the first few robberies, Skopek had a bunch of clothes and a group of terrified tellers, but not much more. The only clues we could come up with would be basic description. Surveillance tape showed a man in his 30s aware of all the cameras. The brim of his baseball hat pulled low to cover his eyes. You could see that on some of the videotapes, the way he walked in. Make sure that he was okay in there. Make sure there wasn't a lot of customers, so we didn't have a lot of witnesses to try

to help out our case. The few witnesses he did have recounted details that made Skopek very nervous. For example, he'd enter that bank and he would do an immediate surveillance, and he would pick out that teller that he felt was the weakest one. He would tell him, I have a gun. Hurry up. No funny games, no alarm, very forceful. Scary. Very scary. You could see the latex glove, the hat, the glasses.

He's pointing and says, give me that money right there. One teller, he handed her a note and said, give me the money or I'll blow your head off. You were worried that this would escalate. Yes. Scopex bosses were also starting to worry that sooner or later, someone was going to get hurt. He's doing the robbery right next to this guy with the baby. Oh, there he is. He's behind the guy right next to this guy with the baby. Oh, there he is. He's on the line.

He's right behind the guy with the baby carriage. There's a guy with a baby in there and he still goes into Robin's bank. That's right. What does that tell you? He did not care about these people. The first few banks the robber hit were all fleet banks, now owned by Bank of America, near one another on the south shore of Long Island. He'd strike on a Thursday or Friday.

Skopak thought that was information he could use. You started setting up surveillance on Fleet Banks hoping to catch this guy? Correct. And you thought you'd head him off? We tried to, yes. And what happened? He went to the north shore at a different time of day and in a different day of the week. That'll happen, detective.

Yes, it will. He was embarrassing me as the lead detective. The robberies continued. Every two weeks or so, Skopek would head to a scene, scour the area, and find more discarded disguises, but nothing to help him identify the bank robber. Can you learn anything from this? He's not just somebody off the street that's randomly doing a bank robbery. He's planning this.

He's planning how to enter, how to leave. Yeah, he's not just sort of doing this on a lark. Right, right. The criminal Skopek was looking for seemed to have thought of everything. He used to go in front of the bank, take a cup of coffee and put it on a mailbox and walk into the bank to commit the robbery. Michelle DiPaolo was the assistant DA assigned to the case. After he committed the robbery, he would pick up the cup of coffee off of the mailbox

and continue to walk down the street because who would suspect somebody who's walking around with a cup of coffee of committing bank robbery? He even thought about the notes demanding money. So far, not a fingerprint on them. He must have worn gloves when he wrote them. He sometimes left the notes with the tellers and sometimes took them back. The notes pretty much were the same. This is a stick-up. I have a gun. You could see he took the time to try to make sure that there was no trace evidence. The authorities tried to learn as much as they could from the traumatized tellers.

When somebody comes to you and threatens you violence, telling you they have a gun, putting your entire being at risk, that's very personal. Paul DeStefano is in charge of security at the State Bank of Long Island, the ninth bank the robber attacked. The day the bank was hit, the teller on duty was a woman with a baby at home.

This is not an ATM withdrawal where there's a mindless entity that you're removing money from. It's a living, breathing person who ultimately are put in a position where they're being terrified. When the robber came into this bank, he handed the teller a note threatening her with a gun if she didn't turn over the money. As frightened as she was, the teller decided to hold on to that note. And that decision, say police, changed everything for them. Because unlike the other notes the robber had passed, this one contained a vital clue

to his identity. It was written on a piece of paper that was torn from a notebook. I immediately started to think that for someone to rip the page out of a spiral notebook, he would have to grab it pretty good and pull it from the book. So you thought — I thought fingerprints. Fingerprints. Veteran detective Charlie Costello was working in the fingerprint lab that day.

He sprayed the note with a chemical that can bring out hidden prints. Nothing too high-tech here. Heat from a regular iron activates the chemical. He examined the note using a machine called a crime scope. What I would do with the glasses, I would look to see the ridge detail. Oh, you really can see that. Now that looks like a fingerprint. Costello ran his results through the FBI database. Nothing.

Then he ran the prints through the local Long Island database, and to his surprise, a name popped up from almost 20 years ago. He just said, Jimmy, we have a hit. We have a hit. In 1984, a teenager had been arrested for drinking and driving and was fingerprinted. And now those prints match the prints of the bank robber. But Detective Skopek still was in for a surprise.

The man he had been looking for, the robber who held up ten banks, a happily married Wall Street trader, the son of a cop who lived in one of the finest neighborhoods in the area, Stephen Trantell. Had you ever had a suspect like that before? No, I did not. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own.

She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. I'm Marsha Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney, I've seen some crazy cases, and this one belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informant's Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery

app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. Detective Jim Skopek had never arrested a bank robber quite like Stephen Trantel before. Little league coaches rob banks normally out here in Nassau County, New York? No, they do not. Commodities dealers rob banks a lot out here? No, they do not. But with that matching fingerprint, he was sure he had the right man, handcuffed to the table in the interrogation room.

He was very nervous. He was shaking. He showed Stevens surveillance photos of the bank robber threatening Tellers. And I laid them out for him and asked, who's that? And he said, I don't know. He acted as if he didn't know why he was here. Scopek had chased the bank robber for four months and was determined to find more evidence against Stephen.

The police tore through Stephen's SUV looking for anything that would tie him to the robberies. This was stuff that was in the truck. anything that would tie him to the robberies. This was stuff that was in the truck. There were lots of hats and sunglasses, the kind the bank robber wore. And then, in the back of the truck, the police made a discovery that surprised even the veteran detectives.

That's his son's backpack, where we found the latex gloves. And the gloves are still in there? They're still in there. They are gloves just like the ones used in the bank robberies. Then I showed it to him here. I showed him this. He just kind of sulked, put his head down,

didn't answer me again. Did that hurt to see them bring in your son's backpack? Yeah. I mean, at that point, I knew that they had me, you know. He could not deny it any longer. Stephen Trantel, adoring husband, pillar of the community, was a serial bank robber. And the whole world was about to find out.

And then I started thinking about how it would just shock everybody and how I disappointed so many people, let down so many people. Oh, my gosh, look. The hardest part of all would be telling his wife. I was worried about Jeannie because I knew it would kill her. Move to the camera. That's daddy. worried about Jeannie because I knew it would kill her.

Move to the camera. That's daddy. But Stephen had no choice. He had to tell her that for months on end, he'd been lying to her about who he was and what he'd done. They broke my heart. They crumbled my heart.

I've never felt such pain in my whole life. She's like, I married you. I didn't even know who I married. She's like, I married a bankrupt. I was like, who is this guy? Who is this man that I love and married, who I trusted, who I had children with, who I slept with every night? Who is this man that I love and married, who I trusted, who I had children with, who I slept with every night? Who is this man?

Hi, sweetheart. Hi, Mommy. I kept saying, Steve, look around here. Look at me. Look at your children. How could you have done this? Nobody ever had a clue that Stephen Trantel, of all people, could fall so far. You're the least likely person to become a bank robber. I know.

Next to me, maybe, that I know. I know, and I think that's the million-dollar question. Like, what drove me to commit a crime. It wasn't that long ago that Stephen was on top of the world. I was commodities trade, you know, a big shot. Stephen had worked for a trading company but was now self-employed, betting big money, his own money, on the future price of oil. It is a big rush. You're kind of like playing football every day. You know, you're bumping

and shoving and screaming. It's like a game. Stephen says in his best year he made about $300,000 and thought he could finally afford to buy Jeannie the house of her dreams. Bought the bigger, nicer house in Rockville Center, and we were on our way, you know, and I just didn't plan enough ahead. Their mortgage tripled. So did their other expenses.

Fancy cars, private preschool. All of a sudden, all these bills are coming in. And Stephen was struggling to keep up. You know, you have those days where you make $1,000 a day, and then you lose $10,000. Sounds like gambling. It's legalized gambling, I guess you could say.

A lot of people fall into that trap. We keep up with the Joneses' trap. That's Michael Mawinney, Stephen's coworker and close friend, who could see what few others did. The pressure on Stephen was immense and building. I would say to him, okay, if you're up this amount of money, just go home. Did he listen to you? Sometimes yeah and sometimes no.

As his troubles and his debts mounted, Stephen decided not to tell Jeannie how bad things had become. And then, on top of that, his mother was diagnosed with a terminal illness. It killed me. Stephen's attention was divided, and he began to lose big money. Let me be rude and ask you,

how much money do you think you lost? I probably lost well over $200,000. He had to do something. He joined a prayer group. Stephen would be at the prayer group every week. Pat Reynolds is a family friend. He eventually stopped coming, and I wondered why, and I asked him, and he said, it turned out every time he would come to me on a Tuesday night and pray for financial success,

he would go to work Wednesday and get crushed. He would lose more money than ever. success, he would go to work Wednesday and get crushed. He would lose more money than ever. The bill companies were calling. Mortgage was backed up. Everything was backed up. Washington Mutual called about our mortgage. And I would say to Steve, you know, today I got a phone call. And he would just say, ignore it, or I'll call them. Not to worry. And that's the way it always was. Stephen worried about the money, he paid the bills. Except now he couldn't.

That's not sugar-coated, as you say. You were broke. I was broke. I went to my dad, I went to my sister, but I couldn't just keep borrowing money to throw away, trading, because it wasn't working anymore. Stephen even tried getting money from the bank by borrowing it. He got a job selling real estate and tried to start a donut business, but nothing was working.

He was losing so much money that the commodities exchange eventually barred him from the floor. He went from walking on the floor with a badge as a traitor to all of a sudden you're not allowed on the floor. It meant that he, that was the ultimate failure. How is he going to explain this at home? He didn't. He took a shower, he got up and he went to work.

Only Stephen wasn't going to work. He had nowhere to go. And one warm summer morning, he sat in the parking lot of the local library. And I was just sitting in my truck, looking out the window, and I'm like, you know, what can I do? What can I do when nobody's gonna get hurt,

and I need money. I need money right now. The bottom line is that I just came to this epiphany that there's no other way. If I want to hold on to everything, then I got to steal money. On a hot summer day in 2003, Stephen Trantell walked into the local library with a peculiar research project. He needed to know everything there was to know about robbing a bank. I realized that if I'm going to get away with this, I have to do it right.

It's a strange place for a wannabe bank robber to begin his life of crime. I researched how people get caught. How did you research that? I went on the internet. You can find out anything, right? He studied past bank robberies. How long did you research robbing banks? Probably, I don't know, two or three weeks. Every day? Yeah. and I saw a statistic that 80% of the people who rob banks get caught from their getaway car. So I'm like, all right, take that out of the equation. I won't use a car right then and there. That was the first thing you learned, no car, no car. What else did you learn? I didn't want to go to a bank where there was a guard. You know, I said, so that couldn't be in the equation. Once he had a plan, he needed a target.

He zeroed in on this bank. At the time, it was a fleet bank, and he watched who came in. Most cops will try to cash their checks Wednesday, you know, so I wouldn't go in there on a Wednesday. You researched when the cops were... I kind of, like like just followed, yeah. Most blue-collar guys, they're going to be the ones to be the heroes, right?

So I got to wait till they're all out of the bank. My next job was, for the next few days, was to work out a whole escape route. The bank was close to the parkway, and across the street, behind a row of stores, there were dumpsters. I wanted it to be hidden from everybody. The perfect place to change into a disguise. I'd be walking to this changing spot, Stephen Trantel.

I would change into, put the cap on, the glasses, everything else, run into the bank, come right back to that spot, change again, and I'd walk back to my car like Stephen Trantel. Stephen had added up his debts and knew how much he needed to get back on his feet. And that was $20,000 I had in my head. I'm like, how bad could it be to get $20,000? It's no big thing. Your father was a police officer, for goodness sake. What happens to a man to Make that seem like a good idea. I

Guess just the desperation. I was Steve Trantella the family man. I Wanted everything to be great and I wanted to keep it all great Why not sell the house I wanted the kids to be in that house Why not sell the house? I wanted the kids to be in that house. You know, the tree-lined street, great school around the corner. If this was a one-shot deal and I was in and out,

that wouldn't be so bad. And that's all it was going to be? One shot? One shot deal. And you were going to retire from that career? That career, yeah. After weeks of reconnaissance, Stephen was just about ready to move. It was right before July 4th. I had no money.

We had bills to pay. It was just, I was choking. So Stephen got ready to go into that bank. I was as scared as you could possibly imagine. There was one lady working. I went straight over to her. I handed her a note. The teller read the note, and to Stephen's surprise, she handed him cash.

It was the easiest thing. She just gave me a bunch of money. He got almost $11,000. I put in this plastic little shopping bag things. I ran out. How long did it take you? 30 seconds. Stephen paid the mortgage and some other bills and gave his wife Jeannie her allowance. She says she had no idea anything was different, except her husband seemed stressed. And so you asked him, obviously, what's wrong? And he said nothing. It's just work. And Jeannie believed him. After all, she knew Stephen's Wall Street job was high pressure. I was used to this, Richard. This is my life with it. You know know we'll be up and down

all the time she didn't know it then but her life was about to change because her husband was now in a new line of work how long after the first one did you rob your second bank uh i don't know it's probably two weeks two weeks what happened to the i just going to do this once and get out of this line of work? You know, I had paid a bunch of bills, and then I had no money again. So I'm like, you know, nothing has changed. Over the next four months, Stephen staged nine more robberies and got his system down pat. Get in, get the money, and get out within seconds. We were looking at some of the surveillance tape,

and one thing struck me. One of the banks that you robbed, there was a little child in there. Do you remember this? Absolutely. I felt like a complete piece of garbage because she was right around my son's age. I mean, there was a thousand things going through my mind.

All the things that could go wrong. Right. By the time Stephen was finally caught, he'd stolen more than $60,000. Where was the money going? It was going for everything. I look back, too, and I'm like, what happened to all this money?

There are sources close to the case who believe at least some of the money was going to support a cocaine habit and Steven did go to rehab before he got sentenced what did you go to rehab for well basically it was my lawyers idea I did it because it was what they wanted me to do his records from rehab are not public but before he was arrested things were getting awkward. He was telling a lot of lies and leading a double life, like the evening he took his kids camping.

And what had you done in that afternoon? I had robbed a bank in East Rockaway. And how was the camping trip? Did you enjoy the camping trip? Yeah. I mean, what was I going to do? Like, you know, cancel a camping trip and just say, yo, yo, I can't go. I got to rob a bank.

Stephen robbed his eighth bank as Halloween was approaching. When he came home one night, Jeannie showed him the matching costumes she bought for them. Jailbird costumes. You got what kind of costumes?

They were jailbird costumes. Am I wrong to see a little irony? Yeah, no, you're not wrong. It was more than ironic. It was prophetic. Just three weeks and two bank robberies later, Stephen knew it was all over when he saw this picture in the newspaper. I was just glancing through the paper.

I almost passed out. I mean, I just, I saw my picture there. 48 hours later, police arrested him and slapped him with enough charges to put him away for the rest of his life. Jeanne Trantel's entire world was crumbling around her. The police say Trantel was living a double life, wanted in at least ten robberies. Her husband Stephen was facing decades in prison. And she was facing harsh questions.

How could he rob so many banks? And how could she not have known? Was he a great actor or were you just not paying attention? Well, both. I didn't want to see a lot of things. I didn't want to hear anything because I wanted my life to stay as it was. Stephen definitely was playing a great game. To this day, I still cannot wrap my brain around why he chose this. Stephen was close to rock bottom. In order to get out of jail to await his trial, he had to get bail money from his father, the retired police officer.

And that meant he had to tell him what he had done. I told my dad everything, you know, and I just said, you know, I'm sorry for ruining your name, you know. What a thing to have to say. Yeah. But Stephen still had to face a judge, a jury, and prosecutor Michelle DiPaola.

I would have loved to see him do 20 years, just because of the tellers. She could tie Stephen to at least three of the robberies, but she wanted to solve all the cases. So Michelle DiPaolo offered a deal, less time for more information. Stephen would have to admit his guilt and reveal how he did it. He took the deal and got nine years in prison. It was a bargain, considering he'd robbed 10 banks. I felt bad for his children, but how great is it for them to be

raised by a guy who's robbed 10 banks? Jeannie would have to learn how to provide for the children. But first, she and Stephen had to tell the boys about their father. I had to tell them that I was leaving. And I had to tell them that this person that they thought was this everything type of a guy was just a criminal. Just like a no good criminal. A few months later, the day came when Stephen had to surrender and begin doing his time.

It was horrible, very emotional, and, you know, it was very hard for me because I was trying to be strong for them. The boys were holding Stephen's legs, saying, please stay, Daddy. I don't want you to go. And Stephen just hugging his children and crying. I was falling apart.

So when he walked out the door and the door closed and you were with the kids, what happened next? The boys came over to me on the couch and sat on my lap, and we just cried. Move to the camera. That's Daddy. And for Stephen, as such a great father, to watch him, you know, leave this house, I'm knowing that he'll never be here again, really.

I did everything with my kids. What a good papa. You name it. From changing diapers and cooking them everything and putting them to bed, and then all of a sudden it just stopped. And that's the hardest part about being in jail. Jeannie, who had never paid a bill in her married life, was suddenly alone with two kids. He left me where he was. Do you know what I'm saying?

Struggling for money. Struggling for money. I was very scared. She was a mess. She was upstairs. She has a big walk-in closet in the upstairs bedroom. She was in the closet? She was in the closet? She was in the closet. In tears? In tears.

That's a very sad image, sitting in the closet, crying on the phone with you. She is on the edge. Jeannie asked her friend Beth, who coached her through the tough times, to talk to us. The cars were getting towed away. The phones were getting shut off. She was petrified. She was also humiliated. I had a lot of shame.

I didn't take the kids to school for quite some time. What did people say? Oh, come on. She couldn't have known? She didn't know? Come on. A lot of doubt, a lot of sarcasm. So how could you not have known?

It's just amazing. Who would think so? That is the last thing on my mind, that I would think my husband was out robbing banks. But she was forced to acknowledge that she might have unknowingly played a role in what happened. If I knew more about how much money was coming in and out and how much it cost to actually run our household,

this would have never happened. Did you have any clue about how much it cost? No. Honestly, I didn't really care. I do have my head in the sand. I'm admitting it now on camera. Her parents had to pay the mortgage. Her in-laws helped take care of the kids.

Gene Trento! And Jeannie managed to go back to school. She's working two jobs now as a real estate agent and a massage therapist. The first year in real estate, every check I got was to pay his problems back, his debt. I have a couple great houses to show you. And slowly, she was able to face the world again. It was nice meeting you. She began showing her face, and I think it supported her to lead

with her story. Hi, I'm Jeannie. You might have heard about my husband, or... My husband, the bank robber. It's been a pleasure. Jeannie's now telling everyone she's writing a book. And shortly after Stephen started doing time, she made a big decision. She divorced him. There's a point in a woman's life that she has to draw the line.

And I deserve to be free. I love your house. It's got such charm to it. It's been more than five years since Stephen was arrested. He does think the house should be lowered. And Jeannie's learned to take care of herself and their two children. My older son was in the car, and I said, you know, Steve, I'm so sorry that Mama has to work so much,

and I'm so sorry that this really happened. And I had tears in my eyes when he said, he said, you know, Mama, he goes, if this never happened happened you would never know what a strong girl you are and what you've done in your life but stephen is left to wonder why he did what he did with his life how could i be so stupid to like throw that all away to, like, throw that all away and, I mean, lose everything. You know, the wife, the house, you know, all that. And he has about three years left in prison

to figure it all out. I love my kids. They didn't deserve any of this, you know, and that's where I felt as a parent. Stephen Trantel was released from prison in 2012.