What turned a law-abiding grandfather into a robbery suspect?
TAMPA — Was something not right with James Bruce? The day after the 73-year-old man with a clean past was charged with robbing three South Tampa banks, those who knew him wondered. His wife told neighbors there might be something wrong with his brain. His family told detectives they worried about his memory. He kept asking friends for cash — $10 here, $20 there — even after the bank robberies. He told police he stole to pay the mortgage, they announced after his arrest Thursday. Maybe so. But two experts contacted by the Times on Friday offered a different take on those actions. They saw behavior consistent with a condition called frontotemporal dementia. That’s what happens when the front part of the brain — the internal boss that helps people act within social norms — starts to deteriorate. The experts, psychiatrist Daniel Amen and University of South Florida gerontologist Brent Small, haven’t met Bruce, but speculated based on reports of the case. Police say Bruce walked into a Bank
