Charleston Gazette: Baseball star John Kruk one of many fooled by bank robber

Creepier than Karpis…It’s the shocking story of the Krukster and serial bank robber Roy Plummer!

In February 1988 he went to spring training.

“I kept hearing more from spring training. When I got back for the season, I don’t know what excuse I made to him, but I said I needed to find my own place,” Kruk said. “Then, of course, the FBI comes in right before batting practice and it’s ‘Holy crap.’”

The FBI questioned Kruk and showed him a picture of Plummer robbing a bank wearing a hat that read, “American by Birth. West Virginian by the Grace of God.”

The FBI told Kruk that Plummer believed he was the one that turned him in.

“What I’m hearing from the FBI and other people is that he’s a drug-possessed, gun-toting psychopath now. Everyone is telling me, ‘He’s coming after you,’” Kruk said. “Every knock on the door could be a teammate or it could be him. It scared the #### out of you.”

John Kruk and serial bank robber Roy Plummer went way back. Plummer was a couple of years older than Kruk, but they went to high school together in Keyser and knew each other through Kruk’s older brothers.