Randy James Fitzsimmons, a former program director for Mix 107.7/WMMX in Dayton, is in jail on charges that he committed a Nebraska bank robbery in Lincoln by passing a note to a teller at the drive-through window.
The Lincoln Journal Star reports that police arrested Fitzsimmons, 57 and listed in court records as James R. Fitzsimmons, on Tuesday.
Fitzsimmons left a US Bank branch without taking anything July 29, according to police, but not before passing a note that claimed gunmen and bombs that could be detonated remotely were inside the bank.
The Journal Star reported that according to court documents, the former radio program director also known as Randy James instructed the teller to place money in a bag and to not call police. No weapons or explosives were found. No one was injured.
Police said Fitzsimmons left in an older-model, four-door white vehicle bearing Ohio license tags.
The court documents also revealed that on Aug. 3, police learned his wife had gone to the bank driving the same car. A search warrant of their home revealed evidence from the bank. What police found in the Fitzsimmons home was not described in the court papers.
A judge has set bail at $100,000. Fitzsimmons is expected back in a Lancaster County courtroom in early September.
Fitzsimmons, who was known as Randy James at the time, was the off-the-air program director for Mix 107.7/WMMX from 1991-94.
In March 2013, he was program director for contemporary Christian WAKW (STAR 93 3) in Cincinnati when he announced his resignation to launch his new media company, TRUTH2VALUE.
According to allaccess.com, Fitzsimmons developed WAKW, Christian radio’s first Hot Adult Contemporary/Top 40 hybrid.
Fitzsimmons also is accused of faking his death in 2015.
Word of his presumed demise prompted Jerry Del Colliano, a writer for the “Inside Music Media” blog who described himself as a friend, to post an item in February of that year about Fitzsimmons. The headline reads “Randy James Fitzsimmons, R.I.P.”
“Randy was terminal according to Mayo doctors and left Scottsdale after lunch to drive to Oregon, a state where assisted suicide is legal,” Del Colliano wrote. “But when I went to bed late Tuesday night (early Wednesday morning). I did not yet see his final email to me sent at 3:06 a.m. Arizona time that said ‘Goodbye. You’ve been a good friend Doc. Unfortunately, I’m going to have to say goodbye now, so please tell my story.’ “
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