Scott McCarthy wasn’t supposed to be at United Bank on the day of his murder.
The 21-year-old new hire didn’t have a security guard uniform. He wasn’t even on the bank’s payroll yet. But as his supervisor later recalled, McCarthy pleaded to begin early because he was eager to join his best friend, Todd Wilson, who had started as a guard two weeks prior. Wilson, also 21, was the best man at McCarthy’s recent wedding. The pair met in high school while working as dishwashers, and now they were about to work together protecting Denver’s largest bank.
McCarthy’s first day on the job was Father’s Day, June 16, 1991. He and Wilson arrived at the downtown Cash Register building at 6 a.m., joining two weekend guards: 41-year-old Phillip Mankoff, a father of four who worked for Child Support Services, and 33-year-old William McCullom, who worked in computer operations at an insurance company…