He's been dubbed the "Sweetheart Swindler," with a rap sheet of frauds, ripoffs and bank robberies in three states, but con artist Peter Splendore, of Scott,displayed none of his trademark smoothness yesterday in admitting to holding up five banks in Allegheny County last year.
"I have no excuse," he said in pleading guilty before Senior U.S. District Judge Maurice Cohill Jr. "I don't feel like I have a right to go to trial because I am guilty."
Splendore, 48, did mention his history of psychiatric problems and depression.
But in the end he took full responsibility for robbing Citizens Bank on Cochran Road in Scott on Feb. 11; Parkvale Savings Bank on Noblestown Road Feb. 19; National City bank on Banksville Road Feb. 22; PNC Bank in Pleasant Hills Feb. 26; and Parkvale Savings on Murray Avenue in Squirrel Hill March 5.
When he was arrested in April in New York City after police said he robbed a bank in Manhattan, he already was wanted by the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service and Scott police.
Scott authorities wanted him for conning a woman he met in a bar out of $10,000 and her Ford Expedition after he reportedly convinced her he was an executive from New York suffering from cancer.
That kind of maneuvering is typical of Splendore, and it's what earned him his nickname. The FBI describes him as a grifter with more than a dozen aliases and a trail of victims in Pennsylvania, New York and New England.
"He befriends women and gets involved in relationships with them and he gets them to spend money on him," Marti Evelsizer of the Pittsburgh office of the FBI said of Splendore before he was captured. "More than once, he's taken diamond rings and replaced them with glass. Wherever he has traveled, this is what he does."
He also robs banks, though, which makes him an unusual breed of criminal. Most con men thrive on working below the radar of law enforcement, and robbing banks is about as high-profile as it gets. But authorities also describe Splendore as a heroin addict, like many serial bank robbers, in desperate need of cash to buy drugs.
In 1998, Splendore robbed nine banks in New York City and New Jersey, using a fake hand grenade in four of them. He got out of prison in 2000 on supervised release, but the Scott charges meant he had violated the terms of his probation.
When he didn't show up at the probation office in Pittsburgh, U.S. District Judge Donetta Ambrose issued a warrant for his arrest.
In addition to using the replica hand grenade in New York in 1998, he was involved in a foot chase with police that year in Cambridge, Mass., when he robbed a bank there.
After threatening that he had a gun and getting away with about $4,000, Splendore jumped into a cab for his getaway. A police officer stopped the cab, drew his gun and ordered Splendore to get out. But Splendore shoved the officer out of the way and ran into the courtyard of the luxury hotel where he had been staying.
When officers caught up to him, he tried the old trick of conning them into thinking the suspect had already passed by and was getting away.
It didn't work.
When police arrested him they found him carrying 17 fake identifications. At the time, he also was wanted for larceny in Maine, Boston and three other Massachusetts towns.
Splendore will be sentenced March 10.
First Published: November 25, 2003, 5:00 a.m.