One Massachusetts racketeer, a man whose moral code mirrored his long years in the underworld, confided to the agents who were interviewing him, If I knew who pulled the job, I wouldnt be talking to you now because Id be too busy trying to figure a way to lay my hands on some of the loot.. During the regular exercise period, Burke separated himself from the other prisoners and moved toward a heavy steel door leading to the solitary confinement section. On October 20, 1981, members of the Black Liberation Army robbed a Brink's truck at the Nanuet Mall. BOSTON Friday, Jan. 17, 2020 marks 70 years since a group of armed and masked men stole millions of dollars from an armored car depot in the North End in what the FBI still calls "the crime of the century.". Immediately upon leaving, the gang loaded the loot into the truck that was parked on Prince Street near the door. Before removing the remainder of the loot from the house on January 18, 1950, the gang members attempted to identify incriminating items. Neither Pino nor McGinnis was known to be the type of hoodlum who would undertake so potentially dangerous a crime without the best strong-arm support available. Prior to this time, McGinnis had been at his liquor store. Pino was determined to fight against deportation. Perhaps most remarkable, its mastermind didn't even have a criminal record when he planned it out. Two days before Maffies release, another strong suspect died of natural causes. As the investigation developed and thousands of leads were followed to dead ends, the broad field of possible suspects gradually began to narrow. His case had gone to the highest court in the land. A lock () or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Almost. After completing its hearings on January 9, 1953, the grand jury retired to weigh the evidence. Local officers searched their homes, but no evidence linking them with the truck or the robbery was found. On November, 26, 1983, three tonnes of solid gold bullion was taken by six armed robbers from the Brink's-Mat security depot near . Within two months of his return, another member of the gang suffered a legal setback. In the back were Pino, OKeefe, Baker, Faherty, Maffie, Gusciora, Michael Vincent Geagan (pictured), and Thomas Francis Richardson. The detainer involved OKeefes violation of probation in connection with a conviction in 1945 for carrying concealed weapons. On March 4, 1950, pieces of an identical truck were found at a dump in Stoughton, Massachusetts. Race tracks and gambling establishments also were covered in the hope of finding some of the loot in circulation. LOS ANGELES COUNTY, Calif. (KGO) -- The FBI and the Los Angeles County. The truck found at the dump had been reported stolen by a Ford dealer near Fenway Park in Boston on November 3, 1949. Both OKeefe and Gusciora had been interviewed on several occasions concerning the Brinks robbery, but they had claimed complete ignorance. On November 26, 1981, six armed men from South London broke into the Brink's-Mat warehouse near London Heathrow. On the night of January 18, 1950, OKeefe and Gusciora received $100,000 each from the robbery loot. Photo courtesy Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection. Andrew J. Whitaker/Pool/USA Today Network via REUTERSStanding in shackles and a beige prison jumpsuit, the once prominent South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh continued to swear he was innocent Friday as a judge slammed him as a "monster" whose conduct was worse than many offenders who got the death penalty.Judge Clifton Newman sentenced Murdaugh to life in prison for the June 7, 2021 . During this operation, one of the employees had lost his glasses; they later could not be found on the Brinks premises. The defense immediately filed motions which would delay or prevent the trial. Veteran criminals throughout the United States found their activities during mid-January the subject of official inquiry. After careful checking, the FBI eliminated eight of the suspects. To muffle their footsteps, one of the gang wore crepe-soled shoes, and the others wore rubbers. Brian Robinson was arrested in December 1983 after Stephen Black - the security guard who let the robbers into the Brink's-Mat warehouse, and Robinson's brother-in-law - named him to police. While OKeefe and Gusciora lingered in jail in Pennsylvania, Pino encountered difficulties of his own. During the period immediately following the Brinks robbery, the heat was on OKeefe and Gusciora. Subsequently, he engaged in a conversation with McGinnis and a Boston police officer. Following the federal grand jury hearings, the FBIs intense investigation continued. Six members of the gangBaker, Costa, Geagan, Maffie, McGinnis, and Pinowere arrested by FBI agents on January 12, 1956. Some of the bills were in pieces. Pierra Willix Monday 13 Feb 2023 8:00 am. He arrived in Baltimore on the morning of June 3 and was picked up by the Baltimore Police Department that evening. On January 12, 1953, Pino was released on bail pending a deportation hearing. Years earlier, a private investigator, Daniel Morgan, was said to have been looking into the robbery. Again, the FBIs investigation resulted merely in the elimination of more possible suspects. An official website of the United States government. Both had served prison sentences, and both were well known to underworld figures on the East Coast. OKeefe had left his hotel at approximately 7:00 p.m. Pino and Baker separately decided to go out at 7:00 p.m. Costa started back to the motor terminal at about 7:00 p.m. Other principal suspects were not able to provide very convincing accounts of their activities that evening. The BBC has greenlit a documentary telling the real story of the 26M ($31.2M) Brink's-Mat robbery spotlighted in Neil Forsyth drama The Gold. An automobile identified as the car used in the escape was located near a Boston hospital, and police officers concealed themselves in the area. The. On June 19, 1958, while out on appeal in connection with a five-year narcotics sentence, he was found shot to death in an automobile that had crashed into a truck in Boston.). The. Many problems and dangers were involved in such a robbery, and the plans never crystallized. Their hands were tied behind their backs and adhesive tape was placed over their mouths. This underworld character told the officers that he had found this money. Thorough inquiries were made concerning the disposition of the bags after their receipt by the Massachusetts firm. While on bond he returned to Boston; on January 23, 1954, he appeared in the Boston Municipal Court on the probation violation charge. While the officer and amusement arcade operator were talking to him, the hoodlum reached into his pocket, quickly withdrew his hand again and covered his hand with a raincoat he was carrying. Using the outside door key they had previously obtained, the men quickly entered and donned their masks. To his neighbors in Jackson Heights in the early 1990s, Sam . Even fearing the new bills might be linked with the crime, McGinnis suggested a process for aging the new money in a hurry.. OKeefe was bitter about a number of matters. A detailed search for additional weapons was made at the Mystic River. The gang at that time included all of the participants in the January 17, 1950, robbery except Henry Baker. Since the robbery had taken place between approximately 7:10 and 7:27 p.m., it was quite probable that a gang, as well drilled as the Brinks robbers obviously were, would have arranged to rendezvous at a specific time. A new BBC crime drama series follows the gripping twists and turns of what was dubbed the "crime of the century" in the 1980s. Returning to Pennsylvania in February 1954 to stand trial, OKeefe was found guilty of burglary by the state court in McKean County on March 4, 1954. Fat John announced that each of the packages contained $5,000. ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) _ A Catholic priest and an ex-guerrilla from Northern Ireland were convicted Monday of charges related to the $7.4 million robbery of a Brink's armored car depot. The Brink's-Mat robbery the name alone is enough to spark excitement in viewers of a certain age, such as your correspondent became one of the most celebrated cases, and convoluted plots . Underworld figures in Boston have generally speculated that the racketeer was killed because of his association with OKeefe. Since he claimed to have met no one and to have stopped nowhere during his walk, he actually could have been doing anything on the night of the crime. Members of the Purple Gang of the 1930s found that there was renewed interest in their activities. Estimates range from $10 million to $100 million. This incident also took place in Dorchester and involved the firing of more than 30 shots. During the preceding year, however, he had filed a petition for pardon in the hope of removing one of the criminal convictions from his record. The alibi, in fact, was almost too good. The names of Pino, McGinnis, Adolph Jazz Maffie, and Henry Baker were frequently mentioned in these rumors, and it was said that they had been with OKeefe on the Big Job.. Apparently, they had planned a leisurely trip with an abundance of extracurricular activities.. During his brief stay in Boston, he was observed to contact other members of the robbery gang. The eight men were sentenced by Judge Forte on October 9, 1956. He. The pardon meant that his record no longer contained the second conviction; thus, the Immigration and Naturalization Service no longer had grounds to deport him. Binoculars were used in this phase of the casing operation. He, too, had left his home shortly before 7:00 p.m. on the night of the robbery and met the Boston police officer soon thereafter. Inside this container were packages of bills that had been wrapped in plastic and newspapers. On the evening of January 17, 1950, employees of the security firm Brinks, Inc., in Boston, Massachusetts, were closing for the day, returning sacks of undelivered cash, checks, and other material to the company safe on the second floor. It was positively concluded that the packages of currency had been damaged prior to the time they were wrapped in the pieces of newspaper; and there were indications that the bills previously had been in a canvas container which was buried in ground consisting of sand and ashes. Kenneth Noye now: What happened to the criminal depicted in The Gold after the Brink's-Mat robbery,The Gold tells the remarkable true story of a heist that went almost too well, with success bringing a host of problems Those killed in the. The Gold: The Inside Story will hear from the . Much of the money taken from the money changer appeared to have been stored a long time. In the fall of 1955, an upper court overruled the conviction on the grounds that the search and seizure of the still were illegal.). (The arrests of Faherty and Richardson also resulted in the indictment of another Boston hoodlum as an accessory after the fact). An acetylene torch had been used to cut up the truck, and it appeared that a sledge hammer also had been used to smash many of the heavy parts, such as the motor. Costa claimed that after working at the motor terminal until approximately 5:00 p.m. on January 17, 1950, he had gone home to eat dinner; then, at approximately 7:00 p.m., he left to return to the terminal and worked until about 9:00 p.m. An appeal was promptly noted, and he was released on $15,000 bond. California thieves pulled off a heist straight out of "Ocean's 11'' swiping up to $150 million in jewels from a Brink's armored truck as it drove from one convention show to . The most important of these, Specs OKeefe, carefully recited the details of the crime, clearly spelling out the role played by each of the eight defendants. That prison term, together with Pinos conviction in March 1928 for carnal abuse of a girl, provided the basis for the deportation action. From masked gunmen and drugs to kidnappings and bags of cash, the $7.4 million robbery had it all. At the Prison Colony, Baker was serving two concurrent terms of four to ten years, imposed in 1944 for breaking and entering and larceny and for possession of burglar tools. At the time of Bakers release in 1949, Pino was on hand to drive him back to Boston. It was given to him in a suitcase that was transferred to his car from an automobile occupied by McGinnis and Banfield. After being wounded on June 16, OKeefe disappeared. The record of the state trial covered more than 5,300 pages. He received a one-year sentence for this offense; however, on January 30, 1950, the sentence was revoked and the case was placed on file.. While action to appeal the convictions was being taken on their behalf, the eight men were removed to the State prison at Walpole, Massachusetts. Other information provided by OKeefe helped to fill the gaps which still existed. Of the $4,822 found in the small-time criminals possession, FBI agents identified $4,635 as money taken by the Brinks robbers. Had any particles of evidence been found in the loot which might directly show that they had handled it? He was paroled in the fall of 1944 and remained on parole through March 1954 when misfortune befell him. Special agents subsequently interviewed Costa and his wife, Pino and his wife, the racketeer, and OKeefe. There was Adolph Jazz Maffie, one of the hoodlums who allegedly was being pressured to contribute money for the legal battle of OKeefe and Gusciora against Pennsylvania authorities. Shortly before 7:30 p.m., they were surprised by five menheavily disguised, quiet as mice, wearing gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints and soft shoes to muffle noise. (Costa, who was at his lookout post, previously had arrived in a Ford sedan which the gang had stolen from behind the Boston Symphony Hall two days earlier.). He had been questioned concerning his whereabouts on January 17, 1950, and he was unable to provide any specific account of where he had been. In the years following a shared event, like an assassination, everyone remembers where they were when it happened. Approximately one and one-half hours later, Banfield returned with McGinnis. On November 26, 1982, six armed robbers forced their way into the Brink's-Mat warehouse, the plan was to steal the 3.2m in cash they were expecting to find stored there. The group were led by Mickey McAdams and Brian Robinson who planned to find 3 million in cash. From their prison cells, they carefully followed the legal maneuvers aimed at gaining them freedom. The hoodlum was taken to police headquarters where a search of his person disclosed he was carrying more than $1,000, including $860 in musty, worn bills. Both of these strong-arm suspects had been questioned by Boston authorities following the robbery. There were recurring rumors that this hoodlum, Joseph Sylvester Banfield (pictured), had been right down there on the night of the crime. Faherty and Richardson fled to avoid apprehension and subsequently were placed on the list of the FBIs Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. Following their arrests, a former bondsman in Boston made frequent trips to Towanda in an unsuccessful effort to secure their release on bail. During questioning by the FBI, the money changer stated that he was in business as a mason contractor with another man on Tremont Street in Boston.