Alleged ‘Handsome Guy’ bandit not looking so good in Mississippi

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Mississippi authorities who stopped the dashing alleged ‘Handsome Guy bandit,’ a.k.a. the ‘Hollywood bandit,’ may be none too impressed. They said he apparently scarfed down a bunch of pills, then vomited in the back of a police cruiser after being arrested in connection with assaulting a police officer as he allegedly fled the latest bank robbery.

Steven Ray Milam, a budget-casket salesman from east Texas, had been dubbed ‘Handsome Guy’ by investigators based on a lifelike silicone mask that authorities say he wore during a series of north Texas bank robberies. The mask, which sells for more than $800, is called ‘Handsome Guy.’

Unmasked, Milam, 44, of Tyler, Texas, is clean-cut, trim and tan. He was driving a red BMW with a Texas license plate Tuesday morning when Jackson County, Miss., sheriff’s deputies attempted to stop him, throwing down tire spikes and shooting his right rear tire, according to The Mississippi Press.

Before he was arrested, Milam managed to swallow a number of pills, police told The Times. By the time investigators delivered him to the sheriff’s office, Milam had vomited in the back seat of their cruiser, The Mississippi Press reported, with photos to corroborate the story.

Milam, who has already served a two-year federal prison sentence for a pair of Dallas bank robberies in 2005, could hardly stand after his arrest Tuesday and was taken to Singing River Hospital for treatment, the newspaper reported.

Sgt. Kevin Perlich, a Richardson, Texas, police spokesman, told The Times that witness accounts and bank surveillance video link Milam to the ‘Handsome Guy’ robberies.

Perlich said the mask that police believe was used in the robberies was recovered from the scene of the latest heist in Richardson on Saturday as the suspect fled, along with the suspect’s clothes, cash and a 9-millimeter pistol he may have used to shoot at a police officer as he escaped.

‘It’s very realistic,’ Perlich said of the mask. ‘There’s nothing that would draw your attention,’ adding that from the inside, the mask has ‘good sight lines.’

Perlich said Milam appeared to have recovered from the pills he ingested at the time of his arrest.

‘He’s been checked out -- it’s not a problem,’ Perlich said, adding that police were planning to transport Milam back to Texas, although it was unclear when.

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-- Molly Hennessy-Fiske in Houston