Lawrence "Larry" Dimmick (19 June 1950 — 1992), also know as "Mr. White", was an American criminal and bank robber who was affiliated with the Cabot Gang in Los Angeles from the 1970s to the 1990s. He was killed by Los Angeles Police Department officers in 1992 in the aftermath of a failed diamond heist after killing undercover policeman Freddy Newandyke when he revealed his identity to Dimmick.
Biography[]
Early life and crimes[]
Dimmick's mugshot from his crimes in Milwaukee
Lawrence Dimmick was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on 19 June 1950, the older brother of Jimmie Dimmick, and he grew up in a rough environment as a result of his abusive and alcoholic parents, who eventually divorced. This led to him opting for a life of crime, where he eventually became a highly experimented robber and killer, having little regard for the lives of policemen but still upholding some form of a moral compass. His first felony conviction occurred when he was 21 years old, after trying to rob a payroll officer at a lumberyard, where he was caught and sentenced to 18 months in prison. From then on, he continued being arrested for minor offenses, usually getting off by paying a fine. In 1977, he moved to Los Angeles in search of new opportunities for other scores and jobs, and he met and became a close friend of Irish Mob boss Joe Cabot and his son Eddie; Cabot offered Dimmick a chance to participate in heists with him, and he agreed, creating a fruitful partnership. Through the years, he made it a habit not to get caught for crimes, with his last major arrest coming in 1983, having to serve two years in prison.
Further criminal activities[]
At some point during the 1980s, Dimmick stopped working with Cabot and went out on his own again, forming a relationship with Alabama Whitman and committing about four robberies together. Although they worked well as a team together, the two broke off their association in the early 1990s after the "woman-man thing" got too old for them. Then, in 1990, Dimmick was recruited for another robbery in Sacramento, where police officer John Dolenz infiltrated their group. Although the officer was nearly successful in foiling the job, Dimmick and the rest of the robbers found out his identity at the last moment, so the day of his birthday, when Dolenz was going to receive a surprise party from his colleagues at his apartment, the policemen found Dimmick holding Dolenz at gunpoint; afterwards, he shot Dolenz and entered into a shootout with the rest of the officers, killing three of them and injuring six other people, including civilians. Though the police department tried to pin the killings on Dimmick, he hadn't been positively identified and they had no evidence to charge him or his associates for the heist, since they didn't ultimately commit it. By 1992, he was back in Los Angeles, still looking for more scores to pull off.
Diamond heist[]
Dimmick and Freddy Newandyke in the aftermath of the diamond heist, 1992
In 1992, Cabot got in contact with Dimmick again and enlisted him for a job he'd been planning where he would rob Karina's Wholesale Diamonds, a jewelry store in Los Angeles that would receive a load of Israeli diamonds to be trucked off to Vermont; Cabot's plan consisted of recruiting six different people, including Dimmick, none of whom knew each other and would go by color-coded aliases, to hit the store and make it off with the diamonds. Dimmick was given the moniker "Mr. White" and became tangentially acquainted with the other members of the heist crew in the weeks before the robbery, including Vic Vega, named "Mr. Blonde", "Mr. Pink", "Mr. Brown", "Mr. Blue", and Freddy Newandyke, named "Mr. Orange", an undercover Los Angeles Police Department officer who infiltrated Cabot's inner circle. Unfortunately for Dimmick, he got along best with Newandyke, who he took as a protégé and guided in handling the job. He was in charge of taking hold of the diamonds from the backroom along with Pink.
However, the day of the heist, the situation devolved into chaos after Mr. Blonde became irritated by some hostages pressing an alarm button against his instructions, so he shot dozens of innocent civilians and attracted an immediate police response. Dimmick was unable to get the diamonds and jumped in a car with Newandyke and Brown, their driver. During their escape, Brown was shot in the head and crashed their car, later bleeding to death, so Dimmick exited the vehicle and reloaded his revolvers to face the responding LAPD officers, shooting two of them to death before making his way out of there on foot with Newandyke. The pair carjacked a random woman, but she defended herself with a pistol, shooting Newandyke in the stomach who in turn shot and killed her, and Dimmick drove a bleeding Newandyke to their warehouse meeting place.
Aftermath of the heist[]
Dimmick and Mr. Pink after having tortured Marvin Nash
Once the pair arrived at the warehouse, Dimmick tended to Newandyke until Mr. Pink arrived, having grabbed and stashed the diamonds. After going over the situation with him, they concluded there must have been a rat who foiled the job, but they were still uncertain about the fates of Mr. Blonde and Mr. Blue and presumed either one of them could have been flipped or killed. Following a disagreement over whether or not to put Newandyke in a hospital at the risk of him turning on them, Dimmick kicked Pink to the ground and the scuffle became so heated that they both pulled guns on each other. At that moment, Mr. Blonde appeared, and though Dimmick was extremely infuriated with him due to having compromised the entire job, he refocused their efforts on finding the rat by revealing he had kidnapped a police officer, Marvin Nash, who the three of them tied to a chair and began to beat mercilessly hoping he could answer their questions. When Eddie joined them and got briefed on what happened, he took Dimmick and Pink with him to dispose of their getaway cars, leaving Blonde alone with Nash and Newandyke.
Death[]
Dimmick shortly before his death
Blonde ruthlessly tortured Nash, cutting his ear off and dousing him in gasoline with the intention of lighting him on fire, but Newandyke regained consciousness and unloaded his gun into Blonde, killing him. When Dimmick, Pink and Eddie returned, Newandyke invented a story about Blonde declaring he would kill Nash as well as them all when they got back and run off with the diamonds. Dimmick believed him as he was certain Blonde was a psychopath, but upon hearing Newandyke's retelling, Eddie shot Nash to death and countered that he knew Blonde as a loyal partner who would never do such a thing. He was backed up by Joe, who arrived at that moment revealing Mr. Blue was dead and that he believed Newandyke was the rat. Dimmick attempted to dissuade Cabot, but he interjected and said Newandyke was the only one out of the heist crew he wasn't entirely sure was reliable. When Cabot pointed his gun at Newandyke, Dimmick raised his against Cabot, prompting Eddie to do the same against Dimmick. Locked in a classic Mexican standoff, Eddie and Dimmick exchanged some words until Cabot took the shot against Newandyke, hitting him in the shoulder, which prompted Dimmick to shoot and kill him as well as Eddie, who nonetheless managed to hit Dimmick and leave him unconscious. With Joe and Eddie dead and Dimmick and Newandyke disabled, Pink took the diamonds and ran away, leaving them all in the warehouse. After regaining consciousness, Dimmick crouched over to Newandyke, hugging him and telling him they would go to prison as the police were about to storm the warehouse. At that point, Newandyke, on the brink of death and deeply guilty, confessed he was an undercover and Dimmick broke down in tears, gathering up the strength to put his gun against Newandyke's head. Police officers busted through the entrance and ordered Dimmick to put down his weapon, but he shot Newandyke in the head, and the policemen subsequently shot him to death.