Eugene Thomas King, Jr., the convicted bank robber who held up a young Paula Deen at gunpoint during a 1987 bank robbery, was found dead inside his Brooklyn apartment on Thursday. He was 75 years old.
Police found King unconscious in his apartment on Thursday night, and EMS declared him deceased at the scene. The medical examiner ruled his death was from natural causes. The Office of Chief Medical Examiner confirmed to TMZ that King died of hypertensive and arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease.
The NYPD directed inquiries to the city medical examiner, which did not immediately respond to a request for information.
King was convicted and served time for holding up a bank where Deen, not yet a celebrity, worked as a teller. In a statement to police after the robbery, Deen recalled that King "never took the gun out of my face." King also gave a statement to police following the crime.
I never intended to hurt anyone.
King's profile remained relatively obscure for decades, the New York Post reported. That changed in 2013, when Deen referenced the robbery during a deposition in a lawsuit. In that suit, a manager of a restaurant owned by Deen alleged that the Food Network star and her brother engaged in sexual and racial harassment. During the deposition, Deen was asked whether she had ever used a racial epithet. She answered plainly.
Yes, of course.
When pressed to clarify when, Deen responded: "It was probably when a black man burst into the bank that I was working at and put a gun to my head."
After Deen's deposition testimony became public, reporters sought out King for his reaction. In a 2013 interview with Inside Edition, King offered a surprising response, expressing sympathy for the chef rather than anger over the slur directed at him.
I really feel for her.
He continued, telling Inside Edition that Deen was "being persecuted because of that one little mistake in her judgment. She was acting out of anger."
It was a striking moment of grace from a man who had committed a serious crime and served his time for it, directed toward a woman whose own words upended her public life.
Authorities have not publicly confirmed the specific circumstances that led police to King's Brooklyn apartment on Thursday night. The exact address has not been disclosed. The unidentified report referenced in connection with his discovery has not been made public. The Office of Chief Medical Examiner's confirmation of the cause of death was provided to TMZ; no additional details about King's final years or living situation have been released.
Whatever else can be said about Eugene Thomas King, Jr., his criminal record was a matter of public record: convicted, sentenced, time served. The law held him accountable in 1987, and the system worked as designed. His quiet death in a Brooklyn apartment nearly four decades later closes a chapter that became famous not because of the crime itself, but because of a deposition answer that cost a celebrity chef her career.
