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Officer: No Parole For '67 Cop Killer

UPDATED October 20, 2010 - 6:29 p.m.

CHICAGO (CBS) - A convicted cop killer made a plea for freedom on Wednesday, 43 years after killing two Northlake police officers during a bank robbery.

Ronald Del Raine is serving a 199-year sentence in a Colorado prison and is up for parole.

As CBS 2's John "Bulldog" Drummond reports, the victims' families were fighting to keep him behind bars at a parole hearing on Wednesday.

Relatives and friends of the two slain police officers were at the Dirksen Federal Building on Wednesday to testify by phone at Del Raine's parole hearing.

Del Raine, 80, is one of three men convicted of killing two Northlake police officers during a 1967 bank robbery. Del Raine was wounded in the shootout.

Northlake Police Chief Norman Nissen said, "Mr. Del Raine didn't put any evidence on that he deserves to be out in and we're happy to say that he's been tentatively denied parole."

A parole hearing officer recommended against granting Del Raine parole during a 90 minute parole hearing Wednesday morning.

The lone surviving wounded officer from that day was among those at the hearing.

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Michael Cain was a rookie cop that October day in 1967 when Northlake Bank was being robbed.

"I still think about it and I remember the date and for years, for years I had trouble sleeping at night and things like that," Cain said.

Ronald Del Raine
File Photo Of Ronald Del Raine (Booking Photo)

Cain and Perri were the first two to respond, and Cain says Ronald Del Raine and his two accomplices began shooting at them before the squad car had stopped in front of the bank.

Cain said he could "hear the bullets hitting the outside of the car…and whizzing across the seat".

Police cars were riddled with bullets during the gun battle. The gun battle in a bank parking lot was fierce. In about 90 seconds, more than 80 rounds were fired by police and the robbers.

Cain was hit in an arm. His partner, Officer Perri, and another officer, Detective Sgt. John Nagle, were killed. Del Raine and the others were given 199 year sentences.

Nagle's oldest son, John, said "My best friend was taken from me 43 years ago and hopefully this solves the things that have been going through my head."

Former FBI Agent Dick Stilling, who worked the case, said "it was described to me by one of the first FBI agents … who had been dealing with [George] "Machine Gun" Kelly and [George] "Babyface" Nelson and [John] Dillinger. He considered them (Del Raine and his accomplices) to be more dangerous, vicious than any of the Dillinger group."

Cain called Del Raine a cold-blooded killer who should never get out of prison.

Cain said he had been out of the police academy less than two months when the alarm went off at Northlake Bank, just a couple of blocks from the Northlake police station.

He said he suggested to Officer Perri that they grab a shotgun, but that Perri said not to bother because there were false alarms regularly at that bank.

Accomplice Michael Gargano is serving his sentence in the federal pen in Terre Haute, Ind. The parole commission had, at first, granted parole to Gargano, but when Chief Nissen and others found out, they objected and the commission called for a re-hearing.

Garango was an escape artist who broke out of two federal prisons, including the federal penitentiary in Marion, which had been considered impregnable.

Before the robbery, the three men broke into a National Guard armory in downstate Salem and stole several weapons, including a Browning Automatic Rifle that was used in the deadly shootout.

The third accomplice, Clifton Daniels, died in prison.

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