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JIM STINGL/MILWAUKEE JOURNAL  Surveillance photo Johnny Ray Bibbins is accused of wearing a wig and dress to rob a bank. A fake bomb turned out to be cans of vegetables from a food pantry. Johnny Ray Bibbins is charged with committing a robbery while disguised as a woman. The gender-bending ruse worked about as well as the last time he tried it. Once again, Bibbins, 35, finds himself locked up and probably wondering how his foolproof plan went awry. Crime can't possibly pay when you're this bad at it. You may have heard that Bibbins was charged this week with knocking off the M&I Bank at 83rd St. and Silver Spring Drive. At the time, he was wearing a curly wig, red lipstick and other makeup. I looked up his last felony case, from 2004, and, sure enough, Bibbins was dressed as a woman when a clerk became suspicious that he was about to rob the Family Dollar Store at 44th St. and Capitol Drive. Police rushed to the scene and arrested Bibbins after it became clear he had robbed the same store two weeks earlier. He tried to convince the officers he was just a cross-dresser who carried a pellet gun for protection. He also gave a fake name, but his fingerprints cleared that up. Upon conviction, it was off to prison with him. This was not a new experience for Bibbins. For yet another robbery case from 1992, he had spent six years in the slammer. He went free in 1999 and returned to prison in late 2004 for the Family Dollar Store case. He was released in June of 2008 but incarcerated again in December for breaking his parole rules. Finally, on Oct. 1 of this year, Bibbins was free and hopefully all rehabilitated. The M&I robbery happened just 12 days later. Bibbins was raised in a stable adoptive home, court files say, and crime was not his only career option. He was certified as a nursing assistant and had held that job in the past. He also was trained in prison as a welder, though fewer things need to be welded in these recessionary times. Bibbins confessed that he robbed the bank because, one, it was close to home, and, two, he wanted to help pay his girlfriend's bills. He should have known how easy he'd be to catch. Police probably went to their robbery files and said, let's see, who do we have that's done this female disguise thing before? Plus, the bank surveillance camera snapped a pretty good photo of him as a her. Bibbins talked a buddy into being his getaway driver. Bobby Ray McGhee had to wonder what he was getting himself into when he came over to Bibbins' house in the 6200 block of N. 84th St. and found him wearing the wig and preparing a fake bomb made from cans of peas and beans - obtained from a food pantry - taped together with wires and a piece of an old cell phone, the criminal complaint says. Bibbins said he got the idea from a TV crime show, so it's real comforting to know criminals are learning job skills that way. McGhee is charged as a co-actor to the same 40-year felony as his longtime friend. At the bank, Bibbins started with a miscue when he handed his robbery note to a receptionist. She had to direct him to a teller. The note was punchy and ultimately polite: "Give me cash ASAP, no die paks, no alarm, no death. Thanks." Leaving the suspicious canned goods behind, Bibbins ran from the bank with the loot and rode in the trunk of McGhee's fiancée's Chevy Lumina over to McGhee's house where they split the proceeds, but not evenly. Drivers apparently don't get half. Then McGhee drove Bibbins home. He again chose the trunk to avoid being spotted. Mission accomplished. All that was left to do was wait for the cops to show up at the door.
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