Basil Hugh "The Owl" Banghart Jr. (September 11, 1901– April 5, 1982) was an American criminal, burglar, and prison escape artist.

Although a successful "stickup artist" during the 1920s and early 1930s, he is best remembered for his involvement in the hoax kidnapping of Chicago mobster Jake "the Barber" Factor, a crime for which Roger Touhy and he were eventually proven innocent after nearly 20 years in prison.

He continued claiming that "Banghart" had escaped after handcuffing him, and described the US marshal who was escorting him, noting that he was "a dangerous, armed felon and a police impostor".

He was arrested in Detroit for armed robbery in January 1932 and held in the South Bend, Indiana, jail, but escaped by throwing pepper in a guard's face, then using a machine gun to shoot his way out.

A week later, a man identified as Banghart returned to the nightclub, where he stepped out of a sedan and tossed a bomb through the front doors of the club.

On November 15, 1933, they teamed with Ike Costner and Ludwig "Dutch" Schmidt to hijack a U.S. mail truck of $105,000 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

[2] After years of unsuccessful appeals, Banghart and Touhy escaped Joliet with Edward Derlack, Martlick Nelson, William Stewart, St. Clair McInerney, and James O'Connor on October 9, 1942.

[3][4] The FBI immediately joined the manhunt, justifying its involvement charging that the convicts had violated the federal draft law by not informing Selective Service of their change of address.

Soon after their escape, Banghart and Touhy were suspected of taking part in a robbery at Melrose Park, Illinois, on December 19, which netted $20,000, although no charges were brought against them.

McInerney and O'Connor were killed in a gun battle with federal agents less than two weeks after their escape, and the rest were captured at a nearby address on December 29, 1942.

[2] Banghart was transferred back to Stateville in 1959, and eventually his kidnapping conviction was overturned and the mail robbery charges were dropped for time served.