Born: 1946

Stanley Mark Rifkin, a mild-mannered computer wizard, used his skills to pull off the largest bank robbery in the history of the United States. Adding insult to injury, the bank was unaware that it had been victimized until federal officials informed them of Rifkin’s scam.

An artful schmoozer

In 1978, Rifkin operated a computer consulting firm out of his apartment in the San Fernando Valley in southern California. The balding thirty-two-year-old had numerous clients, including a company that serviced the computers of the Security Pacific National Bank, headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Located in a room on the bank’s D-level was Operations Unit One—a wire transfer room. A nationwide electronic wire network allows banks—including Security Pacific—to transfer money from one bank to another. Operated by the Federal Reserve Board, a government agency, the network allows banks...