Oswald’s Father Taught Son To Robbanks

WAUKESHA, Wis. - (05/10/05) – The father in a notoriousfather-and-son bank robbery team testified Monday he taught his sonto carry a gun and to rob banks but didn’t consider him anequal partner. “He was a child,” James Oswald told thejury of his then-17-year-old son of a three-year-crime spree thatincluded two credit union robberies and culminated in the murder ofa police officer. During his three-hour testimony the elder Oswald,serving a life term for his role in the spree, told the jury aboutforcing his children to eat garlic; why it was acceptable to referto their mother in vulgar terms; and the importance of training hisson to dual with loaded guns, among other things. “I testedTeddy. There were a lot of tests,” the 60-year-old fathertold the jury while wearing a green prison uniform and bound inhandcuffs. Once, he said, he pointed a loaded rifle at hisson’s head. The younger Oswald, now 29, is being tried afterhis 1995 conviction was thrown out by a court that found the jurytainted by bias. Ted Oswald stunned the court Friday by pleading nocontest to the charges as his retrial opened and he urged the judgeto proceed straight to his plea of insanity, which he claims wascaused by his abusive father. The father-and-son were convicted ofa variety of felonies, including armed robberies at Medical SystemsCU, in Waukesha, and Landmark CU, in Brookfield., in 1993, then arobbery at Bank One, which culminated in the shooting of WaukeshaPolice Capt. James Lutz.