The convict who became infamous for holding up disgraced celebrity chef Paula Deen during a bank robbery in 1987 was found dead inside his Brooklyn apartment Thursday.
Eugene Thomas King, Jr. was found unconscious in his Brooklyn apartment by police and declared deceased by EMS on Thursday night, according to a report.
He died of natural causes, according to the medical examiner. He was 75.
His death had been caused by hypertensive and arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, the Office of Chief Medical Examiner confirmed to TMZ.
The convicted bank robber had held up Deen while sticking up a bank where the not-yet-famous chef had been working as a teller. Deen recalled that King “never took the gun out of my face” in a statement to police after the robbery.
King was later convicted and served time for the holdup. In a statement to police, he asked the police to tell Deen he was sorry, saying, “I never intended to hurt anyone.”
King’s profile was relatively low until Deen referenced the robbery incident during a 2013 lawsuit.
In a deposition for the suit – in which a manager of a restaurant owned by Deen alleged that the Food Network star and her brother engaged in sexual and racial harassment – Deen was asked if she had ever used any racial epithet, including the N-word.
“Yes, of course,” Deen told the examiner. When asked to clarify when, she said, “It was probably when a black man burst into the bank that I was working at and put a gun to my head.”
Deen’s admission to using the slur to describe the robber destroyed her career, while also bringing King to the public’s attention.
Reporters later asked King about his reaction to Deen’s use of the slur.
“I really feel for her,” King told Inside Edition in 2013. “She’s being persecuted because of that one little mistake in her judgment. She was acting out of anger.”
The NYPD directed inquiries to the city medical examiner, which did not immediately respond to a request for information.
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