), (After serving his sentence, Fat John resumed a life of crime. He was so cold and persistent in these dealings with his co-conspirators that the agents hoped he might be attempting to obtain a large sum of moneyperhaps his share of the Brinks loot. He. Jewelers report over $100 million in losses after Brinks armored truck robbed in California. 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. An automobile identified as the car used in the escape was located near a Boston hospital, and police officers concealed themselves in the area. He was found brutally murdered in his car in 1987. He received a one-year sentence for this offense; however, on January 30, 1950, the sentence was revoked and the case was placed on file.. The Bureau was convinced that it had identified the actual robbers, but evidence and witnesses had to be found. The Gold: The Inside Story will hear from the . Subsequently, this machine gun was identified as having been used in the attempt on OKeefes life. Using the outside door key they had previously obtained, the men quickly entered and donned their masks. He ran a gold and jewellery dealing company, Scadlynn Ltd, in Bristol with business partners Garth Victor Chappell and Terence Edward James Patch. He was not able to provide a specific account, claiming that he became drunk on New Years Eve and remained intoxicated through the entire month of January. Before removing the remainder of the loot from the house on January 18, 1950, the gang members attempted to identify incriminating items. Pino, Costa, Maffie, Geagan, Faherty, Richardson, and Baker received life sentences for robbery, two-year sentences for conspiracy to steal, and sentences of eight years to ten years for breaking and entering at night. In the end, the perfect crime had a perfect endingfor everyone but the robbers. As a guard moved to intercept him, Burke started to run. An appeal was promptly noted, and he was released on $15,000 bond. Pino admitted having been in the area, claiming that he was looking for a parking place so that he could visit a relative in the hospital. Binoculars were used in this phase of the casing operation. The amusement arcade operator told the officer that he had followed the man who passed this $10.00 bill to a nearby tavern. Gusciora also claimed to have been drinking that evening. After these plans were reviewed and found to be unhelpful, OKeefe and Gusciora returned them in the same manner. The other gun was picked up by the officer and identified as having been taken during the Brinks robbery. While the others stayed at the house to make a quick count of the loot, Pino and Faherty departed. Any doubts that the Brinks gang had that the FBI was on the right track in its investigation were allayed when the federal grand jury began hearings in Boston on November 25, 1952, concerning this crime. From his cell in Springfield, OKeefe wrote bitter letters to members of the Brinks gang and persisted in his demands for money. The fiber bags used to conceal the pieces were identified as having been used as containers for beef bones shipped from South America to a gelatin manufacturing company in Massachusetts. Accordingly, another lock cylinder was installed until the original one was returned. All efforts to identify the gang members through the chauffeurs hat, the rope, and the adhesive tape which had been left in Brinks proved unsuccessful. (Burke was arrested by FBI agents at Folly Beach, South Carolina, on August 27, 1955, and he returned to New York to face murder charges which were outstanding against him there. The group were led . 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.. Henry Baker, another veteran criminal who was rumored to be kicking in to the Pennsylvania defense fund, had spent a number of years of his adult life in prison. All identifying marks placed on currency and securities by the customers were noted, and appropriate stops were placed at banking institutions across the nation. At 6:30am, six armed robbers from a south London gang entered the premises of the Brink's-Mat warehouse at Heathrow. On March 4, 1950, pieces of an identical truck were found at a dump in Stoughton, Massachusetts. Their plan was to enter the Brinks building and take a truck containing payrolls. He was not with the gang when the robbery took place. Because the money in the cooler was in various stages of decomposition, an accurate count proved most difficult to make. Apparently suspicious, OKeefe crouched low in the front seat of his car as the would-be assassins fired bullets that pierced the windshield. The truck found at the dump had been reported stolen by a Ford dealer near Fenway Park in Boston on November 3, 1949. The trip from the liquor store in Roxbury to the Brinks offices could be made in about 15 minutes. (The arrests of Faherty and Richardson also resulted in the indictment of another Boston hoodlum as an accessory after the fact). Even with the recovery of this money in Baltimore and Boston, more than $1,150,000 of currency taken in the Brinks robbery remained unaccounted for. Terry Perkins celebrated his 67th birthday on the weekend of the Hatton Garden job, exactly 32 years after he'd taken part in another gigantic Easter raid: the 6 million armed robbery of a London security depot. The alibi, in fact, was almost too good. As the truck sped away with nine members of the gangand Costa departed in the stolen Ford sedanthe Brinks employees worked themselves free and reported the crime. Although the attendant did not suspect that the robbery was taking place, this incident caused the criminals to move more swiftly. Pierra Willix Monday 13 Feb 2023 8:00 am. It was given to him in a suitcase that was transferred to his car from an automobile occupied by McGinnis and Banfield. Again, the FBIs investigation resulted merely in the elimination of more possible suspects. Three of the newspapers used to wrap the bills were identified. Estimates range from $10 million to $100 million. The Brink's cargo trailer was. On 26 November, 1983, six armed men did break into the Brink's-Mat security depot near Heathrow Airport expecting to find around 1m in pesetas. 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. This is good money, he said, but you cant pass it around here in Boston.. After surrendering himself in December 1953 in compliance with an Immigration and Naturalization Service order, he began an additional battle to win release from custody while his case was being argued. Gusciora now had passed beyond the reach of all human authority, and OKeefe was all the more determined to see that justice would be done. A search of the hoodlums room in a Baltimore hotel (registered to him under an assumed name) resulted in the location of $3,780 that the officers took to police headquarters. OKeefe did not know where the gang members had hidden their shares of the lootor where they had disposed of the money if, in fact, they had disposed of their shares. This incident also took place in Dorchester and involved the firing of more than 30 shots. The. Born in Italy in 1907, Pino was a young child when he entered the United States, but he never became a naturalized citizen. On November 26, 1981, six armed men from South London broke into the Brink's-Mat warehouse near London Heathrow. None of these materialized because the gang did not consider the conditions to be favorable. While OKeefe and Gusciora lingered in jail in Pennsylvania, Pino encountered difficulties of his own. During 1955, OKeefe carefully pondered his position. Faherty and Richardson fled to avoid apprehension and subsequently were placed on the list of the FBIs Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. The wall partition described by the Boston criminal was located in Fat Johns office, and when the partition was removed, a picnic-type cooler was found. Two other men, ex-Brink's guard Thomas O'Connor and unemployed teacher Charles McCormick, were acquitted. Photo courtesy Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection. Examination by the FBI Laboratory subsequently disclosed that the decomposition, discoloration, and matting together of the bills were due, at least in part, to the fact that all of the bills had been wet. A few years before the Brink's-Mat robbery . After weighing the arguments presented by the attorneys for the eight convicted criminals, the State Supreme Court turned down the appeals on July 1, 1959, in a 35-page decision written by the Chief Justice. After denying any knowledge of the escape of Trigger Burke, Pino was released. Captain Marvel mask used as a disguise in the robbery. On November 16, 1959, the United States Supreme Court denied a request of the defense counsel for a writ of certiorari. Much of the money taken from the money changer appeared to have been stored a long time. He later was to be arrested as a member of the robbery gang. Pino would take the locks to the mans shop, and keys would be made for them. Of the hundreds of New England hoodlums contacted by FBI agents in the weeks immediately following the robbery, few were willing to be interviewed. The ninth man had long been a principal suspect. Before the robbers could take him prisoner, the garage attendant walked away. A roll of waterproof adhesive tape used to gag and bind bank employees that was left at the scene of the crime. (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.). When this case was continued until April 1, 1954, OKeefe was released on $1,500 bond. It was reported that on May 18, 1954, OKeefe and his racketeer associate took Vincent Costa to a hotel room and held him for several thousand dollars ransom. He was granted a full pardon by the acting governor of Massachusetts. A lock () or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. All were denied, and the impaneling of the jury was begun on August 7. He had been short changed $2,000. Pino had been questioned as to his whereabouts on the evening of January 17, 1950, and he provided a good alibi. As the loot was being placed in bags and stacked between the second and third doors leading to the Prince Street entrance, a buzzer sounded. OKeefe was the principal witness to appear before the state grand jurors. 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. If Baker heard these rumors, he did not wait around very long to see whether they were true. Between 1950 and 1954, the underworld occasionally rumbled with rumors that pressure was being exerted upon Boston hoodlums to contribute money for these criminals legal fight against the charges in Pennsylvania. The Brinks Mat Robbery: The real story that inspired The Gold. Three of the remaining five gang members were previously accounted for, OKeefe and Gusciora being in prison on other charges and Banfield being dead. The robbery of 26m of gold bars from a warehouse near Heathrow airport is one of Britain's most notorious - and biggest - heists. The officer verified the meeting. The Boston hoodlum told FBI agents in Baltimore that he accepted six of the packages of money from Fat John. The following day (June 2, 1956), he left Massachusetts with $4,750 of these bills and began passing them. Due to his criminal record, the Immigration and Naturalization Service instituted proceedings in 1941 to deport him. Reports had been received alleging that he had held up several gamblers in the Boston area and had been involved in shakedowns of bookies. . In addition, McGinnis was named in two other complaints involving the receiving and concealing of the loot. Seven months later, however, he was again paroled. In its determination to overlook no possibility, the FBI contacted various resorts throughout the United States for information concerning persons known to possess unusually large sums of money following the robbery. The casing operation was so thorough that the criminals could determine the type of activity taking place in the Brinks offices by observing the lights inside the building, and they knew the number of personnel on duty at various hours of the day. Fat John and the business associate of the man arrested in Baltimore were located and interviewed on the morning of June 4, 1956. Both OKeefe and Gusciora had been interviewed on several occasions concerning the Brinks robbery, but they had claimed complete ignorance. On the 26 November 1983, half a dozen armed men broke into the Brink's-Mat depot near London's Heathrow Airport, where they were expecting to find a million pounds worth of foreign currency.. The theft occurred in July when a Brink's big rig paused at a Grapevine truck stop while transporting jewelry from a Northern California trade show to the Southland. Even after these convictions, OKeefe and Gusciora continued to seek their release. Two of the prime suspects whose nerve and gun-handling experience suited them for the Brinks robbery were Joseph James OKeefe and Stanley Albert Gusciora. As the investigation developed and thousands of leads were followed to dead ends, the broad field of possible suspects gradually began to narrow. A federal search warrant was obtained, and the home was searched by agents on April 27, 1950. A gang of 11 men set out on a meticulous 18-month quest to rob the Brinks headquarters in Boston, the home-base of the legendary private security firm. Pino was known in the underworld as an excellent case man, and it was said that the casing of the Brinks offices bore his trademark.. As this bag was being emptied later that evening, the glasses were discovered and destroyed by the gang. (On January 18, 1956, OKeefe had pleaded guilty to the armed robbery of Brinks.) On November, 26, 1983, three tonnes of solid gold bullion was taken by six armed robbers from the Brink's-Mat security depot near Heathrow Airport. OKeefe immediately returned to Boston to await the results of the appeal. Others fell apart as they were handled. Despite the arrests and indictments in January 1956, more than $2,775,000, including $1,218,211.29 in cash, was still missing. After dousing security guards with petrol and threatening them with a lit match if they didn't open the safes, the six men made an amazing discovery when they stumbled upon 3,000kg worth of gold bars. But according to the ruling filed in B.C., Brinks paid the money back immediately after the victim bank notified the company that a robbery had occurred making use of "keys, access codes and . A few months prior to the robbery, OKeefe and Gusciora surreptitiously entered the premises of a protective alarm company in Boston and obtained a copy of the protective plans for the Brinks building. That same afternoon (following the admission that Fat John had produced the money and had described it as proceeds from the Brinks robbery), a search warrant was executed in Boston covering the Tremont Street offices occupied by the three men. From this lookout post, Costa was in a position to determine better than the men below whether conditions inside the building were favorable to the robbers. The Gold is a 2023 television series created for BBC One and Paramount+. As the robbers sped from the scene, a Brinks employee telephoned the Boston Police Department. On June 5 and June 7, the Suffolk County grand jury returned indictments against the three mencharging them with several state offenses involving their possessing money obtained in the Brinks robbery. Some of the jewelry might. A passerby might notice that it was missing. This vehicle was traced through motor vehicle records to Pino. His explanation: He had been drinking at a bar in Boston. They were held in lieu of bail which, for each man, amounted to more then $100,000. LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Jewelry, gems, high-end watches and other valuables worth millions of dollars were stolen from a transport vehicle in Southern California. Years earlier, a private investigator, Daniel Morgan, was said to have been looking into the robbery. Each man also was given a pistol and a Halloween-type mask. And what of McGinnis himself? In the fall of 1955, an upper court overruled the conviction on the grounds that the search and seizure of the still were illegal.). Police who arrived to investigate found a large amount of blood, a mans shattered wrist watch, and a .45 caliber pistol at the scene. Almost. OKeefe was wounded in the wrist and chest, but again he managed to escape with his life. He advised that he and his associate shared office space with an individual known to him only as Fat John. According to the Boston hoodlum, on the night of June 1, 1956, Fat John asked him to rip a panel from a section of the wall in the office, and when the panel was removed, Fat John reached into the opening and removed the cover from a metal container. The robbers did little talking. Both of these strong-arm suspects had been questioned by Boston authorities following the robbery. Shortly after 6.40am, six armed robbers in balaclavas entered a warehouse at Heathrow airport belonging to security company Brink's-Mat. Shortly thereafterduring the first week of Novembera 1949 green Ford stake-body truck was reported missing by a car dealer in Boston. Veteran criminals throughout the United States found their activities during mid-January the subject of official inquiry. The money inside the cooler which was concealed in the wall of the Tremont Street office was wrapped in plastic and newspaper. Costa was associated with Pino in the operation of a motor terminal and a lottery in Boston. Noye is currently being depicted in a new six-part BBC series into the infamous Brinks-Mat robbery, which took place in 1983. Interviews with him on June 3 and 4, 1956, disclosed that this 31-year-old hoodlum had a record of arrests and convictions dating back to his teens and that he had been conditionally released from a federal prison camp less than a year beforehaving served slightly more than two years of a three-year sentence for transporting a falsely made security interstate. Subsequently, he engaged in a conversation with McGinnis and a Boston police officer. Micky McAvoy, believed by police to be the mastermind behind the robbery, was arrested ten days after the robbery. This man, subsequently identified as a small-time Boston underworld figure, was located and questioned. From interviews with the five employees whom the criminals had confronted, it was learned that between five and seven robbers had entered the building. Charged with unlawful possession of liquor distillery equipment and violation of Internal Revenue laws, he had many headaches during the period in which OKeefe was giving so much trouble to the gang. The incident happened outside of a Chase Bank in . 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. Before the robbery was carried out, all of the participants were well acquainted with the Brinks premises. More than $7 million was stolen in a brazen holdup at a Brink's armored car service in Rochester in 1993. This was a question which preyed heavily upon their minds. Geagan claimed that he spent the evening at home and did not learn of the Brinks robbery until the following day. At the time of their arrest, Faherty and Richardson were rushing for three loaded revolvers that they had left on a chair in the bathroom of the apartment. Many problems and dangers were involved in such a robbery, and the plans never crystallized. There are still suspicions among some readers that the late Tom O'Connor, a retired cop who worked Brinks security during the robbery, was a key player, despite his acquittal on robbery charges at . 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. After nearly three years of investigation, the government hoped that witnesses or participants who had remained mute for so long a period of time might find their tongues before the grand jury. During this visit, Gusciora got up from his bed, and, in full view of the clergyman, slipped to the floor, striking his head. Somehow the criminals had opened at least threeand possibly fourlocked doors to gain entrance to the second floor of Brinks, where the five employees were engaged in their nightly chore of checking and storing the money collected from Brinks customers that day. July 18, 2022, 9:32 AM UTC. Todd Williamson/Getty Images David Ghantt attends the 2016 after party for the Hollywood premiere of Masterminds, based on the Loomis Fargo heist that he helped carry out. On June 12, 1950, they were arrested at Towanda, Pennsylvania, and guns and clothing that were the loot from burglaries at Kane and Coudersport, Pennsylvania, were found in their possession. Ten of the persons who appeared before this grand jury breathed much more easily when they learned that no indictments had been returned. Due to unsatisfactory conduct, drunkenness, refusal to seek employment, and association with known criminals, his parole was revoked, and he was returned to the Massachusetts State Prison. This chauffeurs cap was left at the scene of the crime of the centurythe 1950 robbery of a Brink's bank branch in Massachusetts. When the robbers decided that they needed a truck, it was resolved that a new one must be stolen because a used truck might have distinguishing marks and possibly would not be in perfect running condition. 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. A third attempt on OKeefes life was made on June 16, 1954. While on bond he returned to Boston; on January 23, 1954, he appeared in the Boston Municipal Court on the probation violation charge. Despite the lack of evidence and witnesses upon which court proceedings could be based, as the investigation progressed there was little doubt that OKeefe had been one of the central figures in the Brinks robbery. OKeefes reputation for nerve was legend. It unleashed a trail of eight murders and a global hunt for. 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. By this time, Baker was suffering from a bad case of nerves. Within two months of his return, another member of the gang suffered a legal setback. Even if released, he thought, his days were numbered. 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. 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 other gang members would not talk. A systematic check of current and past Brinks employees was undertaken; personnel of the three-story building housing the Brinks offices were questioned; inquiries were made concerning salesmen, messengers, and others who had called at Brinks and might know its physical layout as well as its operational procedures. There were the rope and adhesive tape used to bind and gag the employees and a chauffeurs cap that one of the robbers had left at the crime scene. What happened to the other half of the Brink's-Mat gold? Sentenced to serve from five to seven years for this offense, he was released from prison in September 1941. It was used by the defense counsel in preparing a 294-page brief that was presented to the Massachusetts State Supreme Court. When OKeefe admitted his part in the Brinks robbery to FBI agents in January 1956, he told of his high regard for Gusciora. During his brief stay in Boston, he was observed to contact other members of the robbery gang. The roofs of buildings on Prince and Snow Hill Streets soon were alive with inconspicuous activity as the gang looked for the most advantageous sites from which to observe what transpired inside Brinks offices. What happened to the other half of the Brink's-Mat gold? The FBI further learned that four revolvers had been taken by the gang. Even fearing the new bills might be linked with the crime, McGinnis suggested a process for aging the new money in a hurry.. 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 Great Brink's Robbery was an armed robbery of the Brink's building in the North End of Boston, Massachusetts, on January 17, 1950. Before fleeing with the bags of loot, the seven armed men attempted to open a metal box containing the payroll of the General Electric Company. Until the FBI and its partners painstakingly solved the case. OKeefe and Gusciora reportedly had worked together on a number of occasions. Adolph Maffie, who had been convicted of income tax violation in June 1954, was released from the Federal Corrections Institution at Danbury, Connecticut, on January 30, 1955. Occasionally, an offender who was facing a prison term would boast that he had hot information. And it nearly was. It was billed as the perfect crime and the the crime of the century.. Seventy years ago today, a group of men stole $1.2 million in cash and $1.5 million in checks. On June 2, 1950, OKeefe and Gusciora left Boston by automobile for the alleged purpose of visiting the grave of Guscioras brother in Missouri. Except for $5,000 that he took before placing the loot in Maffies care, OKeefe angrily stated, he was never to see his share of the Brinks money again. The full details of this important development were immediately furnished to the FBI Office in Boston. OKeefe was bitter about a number of matters. The door opened, and an armed masked man wearing a prison guard-type uniform commanded the guard, Back up, or Ill blow your brains out. Burke and the armed man disappeared through the door and fled in an automobile parked nearby. Commonly regarded as a dominant figure in the Boston underworld, McGinnis previously had been convicted of robbery and narcotics violations. The heist. More than 100 persons took the stand as witnesses for the prosecution and the defense during September 1956. Each robbers face was completely concealed behind a Halloween-type mask. The series surrounds the 1983 Brink's-Mat robbery in which 26 million (equivalent to 93.3 million in 2021) worth of gold bullion, diamonds, and cash were stolen from a storehouse near Heathrow Airport. After the truck parts were found, additional suspicion was attached to these men. In 1997, Loomis Fargo employee David Ghantt robbed the armored car company of $17 million. The eight men were sentenced by Judge Forte on October 9, 1956. Allegedly, he pulled a gun on OKeefe; several shots were exchanged by the two men, but none of the bullets found their mark. Jazz Maffie was convicted of federal income tax evasion and began serving a nine-month sentence in the Federal Penitentiary at Danbury, Connecticut, in June 1954. The planning and practice had a military intensity to them; the attention to detail including the close approximation of the uniform of the Brinks guards was near . Despite the fact that substantial amounts of money were being spent by members of the robbery gang during 1954, in defending themselves against legal proceedings alone, the year ended without the location of any bills identifiable as part of the Brinks loot.