Did you know that Abilene is in the Guinness Book of Records?

ABILENE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) – Getting into the Guinness Book of Records is no small feat. Every year countless people try to stand out as the best of the best. But did you know that at least two world records were set right here in the Key City?

Longest freestyle rap

On October 22, 2011, Reid “ViP” Brown set a record for the longest freestyle rap at Primal Skateboards in Abilene, lasting an impressive 12 hours.

Brown’s record has since been surpassed, with PONEY now holding the title after swimming freestyle for 48 hours, 1 minute and 10 seconds in Japan from April 22-24, 2023.

Oldest convicted bank robber

At the age of 91, JL Hunter Rountree, also known as “Red,” made headlines when he robbed a bank in Abilene and was caught red-handed.

On August 12, 2003, Rountree walked unarmed into an Abilene bank, carrying two envelopes, one with the word “robbery” written on it in red ink. During a jailhouse interrogation, he admitted that he had ordered the teller to “fill it with money and fast.”

He immediately fled in a white 1996 Buick sedan, but was arrested about 20 miles away after a bank teller wrote down his license plate number.

According to the Guinness Book of Records, he had planned to cover the license plate with tape that morning, but failed to do so.

Rountree pleaded guilty to theft of $1,999 and was sentenced to 151 months in prison on January 23, 2004.

Rountree said he committed his first bank robbery when he was about 80 years old in retaliation for financial problems he had caused at banks. He was caught robbing a bank in Biloxi, Mississippi, in 1998 at age 87 and received three years’ probation.

In 1999, he robbed a bank in Pensacola, Florida, and spent three years as the state’s oldest prisoner.

He also noted that the food in prison is better than what is served in some nursing homes.

Rountree died on October 12, 2004 at the age of 92 at the US Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri and was buried in a cemetery near the prison.