Carl Gugasian - Early Life

Early Life

Carl Gugasian was born on October 12, 1947 in Broomall, Pennsylvania, to Armenian immigrant parents. At the age of fifteen, he was shot while attempting to rob a candy store and was sent to the State Youth Facility in Camp Hill for eighteen months. On his release in 1964, rather than attempting to live a normal life, he took deliberate steps not only to continue with a life of crime, but to excel in it. This decision was, in all likelihood, the result of a misunderstanding: FBI agent Ray Carr remarks, "He didn’t know that juvenile records get expunged. He thought he’d never be able to get a real job."

In 1971, while studying for bachelor's degree in electrical engineering at Villanova University, he enrolled in the ROTC, a college-based military recruitment program designed to produce officers for the US armed forces. After graduation, he served in the US Army at Fort Bragg and received special-forces and tactical weapons training. Following his stint in the military, he returned to college, earning a master's degree in systems analysis from the University of Pennsylvania, followed by doctoral work in statistics and probabilities at Pennsylvania State University.After his graduation Gugasian began to plan out mock robberies in his spare time. On eight separate occasions he was planning to commit his first bank robbery, however he repeatedly backed down before entering the bank. Eventually he committed his first offence using a stolen car as his getaway.