who was involved in the brinks robberywho was involved in the brinks robbery

(Following pleas of guilty in November 1956, Fat John received a two-year sentence, and the other two men were sentenced to serve one years imprisonment. 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. Gusciora also claimed to have been drinking that evening. Two weeks of comparative quiet in the gang members lives were shattered on June 5, 1954, when an attempt was made on OKeefes life. After these plans were reviewed and found to be unhelpful, OKeefe and Gusciora returned them in the same manner. In July 1956, another significant turn of events took place. Of the $4,822 found in the small-time criminals possession, FBI agents identified $4,635 as money taken by the Brinks robbers. He had been short changed $2,000. Soon the underworld rang with startling news concerning this pair. Instead, they said the trailer was targeted near Frazier Park in the mountains along I-5. Underworld sources described him as fully capable of planning and executing the Brinks robbery. The officer verified the meeting. Serious consideration originally had been given to robbing Brinks in 1947, when Brinks was located on Federal Street in Boston. An appeal was promptly noted, and he was released on $15,000 bond. In December 1954, he indicated to the agents that Pino could look for rough treatment if he (OKeefe) again was released. Prior to this time, McGinnis had been at his liquor store. 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. Several hundred dollars were found hidden in the house but could not be identified as part of the loot. In the hope that a wide breach might have developed between the two criminals who were in jail in Pennsylvania and the gang members who were enjoying the luxuries of a free life in Massachusetts, FBI agents again visited Gusciora and OKeefe. McGinnis, who had not been at the scene on the night of the robbery, received a life sentence on each of eight indictments that charged him with being an accessory before the fact in connection with the Brinks robbery. By fixing this time as close as possible to the minute at which the robbery was to begin, the robbers would have alibis to cover their activities up to the final moment. Former inmates of penal institutions reported conversations they had overheard while incarcerated which concerned the robbing of Brinks. Pino paid a small ransom but then decided to try to kill O'Keefe. If local hoodlums were involved, it was difficult to believe that McGinnis could be as ignorant of the crime as he claimed. other securities in the 1950 Brinks heist. O'Keefe received four years and was released in 1960. Investigation established that this gun, together with another rusty revolver, had been found on February 4, 1950, by a group of boys who were playing on a sand bar at the edge of the Mystic River in Somerville. Jeweler and also a bullion dealer, John Palmer, was arrested. WebSix armed men broke into the Brinks-Mat security depot near Londons Heathrow airport and inadvertently stumbled across gold bullion worth 26m. During 1955, OKeefe carefully pondered his position. 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. [21] Any information police could get from their informers initially proved useless. It was billed as the perfect crime and the the crime of the century.. When questioned concerning his activities on the night of January 17, 1950, Richardson claimed that after unsuccessfully looking for work he had several drinks and then returned home. 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. Again, the FBIs investigation resulted merely in the elimination of more possible suspects. 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. Vincent Costa was the group's lookout, and signalled with a flashlight from a nearby rooftop when he saw the vault being opened. Through the interviews of persons in the vicinity of the Brinks offices on the evening of January 17, 1950, the FBI learned that a 1949 green Ford stake-body truck with a canvas top had been parked near the Prince Street door of Brinks at approximately the time of the robbery. Then, there was the fact that so much dead wood was includedMcGinnis, Banfield, Costa, and Pino were not in the building when the robbery took place. Brink's 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. At approximately 9:50 p.m., the details of this incident were furnished to the Baltimore Field Office of the FBI. Even fearing the new bills might be linked with the crime, McGinnis suggested a process for aging the new money in a hurry.. In examining the bill, a Federal Reserve note, the officer observed that it was in musty condition. 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. [16] At 7:10 pm, they entered the building and tied up the five employees working in the vault area. Reports had been received alleging that he had held up several gamblers in the Boston area and had been involved in shakedowns of bookies. Nothing suggests it was a stick-em-up robbery or strong-arm heist. And it nearly was. Brinks Due to his criminal record, the Immigration and Naturalization Service instituted proceedings in 1941 to deport him. 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. Shortly after 6.40am, six armed robbers in balaclavas entered a warehouse at Heathrow airport belonging to security company Brinks-Mat. Andrew Cuomo commuted her 75-year-to-life sentence to time served and made her eligible for parole for the three slayings in the On March 4, 1950, pieces of an identical truck were found at a dump in Stoughton, Massachusetts. The missing racketeers automobile was found near his home; however, his whereabouts remain a mystery. 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. I think a fellow just passed a counterfeit $10.00 bill on me, he told the officer. Brinks During the trip from Roxbury, Pino distributed Navy-type peacoats and chauffeurs caps to the other seven men in the rear of the truck. All were denied, and the impaneling of the jury was begun on August 7. Only $58,000 of the $2.7 million was recovered. Commonly regarded as a dominant figure in the Boston underworld, McGinnis previously had been convicted of robbery and narcotics violations. WebTwo of the prime suspects whose nerve and gun-handling experience suited them for the Brinks robbery were Joseph James OKeefe and Stanley Albert Gusciora. 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. The removal of the lock cylinder from the outside door involved the greatest risk of detection. Almost immediately, the gang began laying new plans. The While some gang members remained in the building to ensure that no one detected the operation, other members quickly obtained keys to fit the locks. The person ringing the buzzer was a garage attendant. WebLASD confirmed this was not a typical Brinks armored car seen in a city environment. OKeefe paid his respects to other members of the Brinks gang in Boston on several occasions in the spring of 1954, and it was obvious to the agents handling the investigation that he was trying to solicit money. Brian The Colonel Robinson, 78, was cheated out of his share of the record haul. The Brinks Mat robbery gang now: What happened to Kenneth 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. WebMore than 6,000 gold bars were stolen in the robbery from a warehouse on the outskirts of Heathrow on 26 November, 1983. Because the money in the cooler was in various stages of decomposition, an accurate count proved most difficult to make. Thieves stole more than $1.2 million in cash and another $1.5 million in checks and. The robbers removed the adhesive tape from the mouth of one employee and learned that the buzzer signified that someone wanted to enter the vault area. Another week passedand approximately 500 more citizens were consideredbefore the 14-member jury was assembled. Even after these convictions, OKeefe and Gusciora continued to seek their release. Binoculars were used in this phase of the casing operation. (A detailed survey of the Boston waterfront previously had been made by the FBI.) O'Keefe pleaded guilty January 18. Edward O'Grady, Officer Waverly Brown and Brink's guard Peter Paige were killed during the Oct. 20, 1981, robbery in Nanuet, New York. From Boston, the pressure quickly spread to other cities. In addition, McGinnis received other sentences of two years, two and one-half to three years, and eight to ten years. A man of modest means in Bayonne, New Jersey, was reported to be spending large sums of money in night clubs, buying new automobiles, and otherwise exhibiting newly found wealth. Although the attendant did not suspect that the robbery was taking place, this incident caused the criminals to move more swiftly. [17] Approximately a million dollars in silver and coins was left behind by the robbers, as they were not prepared to carry it. 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. Pino also was linked with the robbery, and there was every reason to suspect that OKeefe felt Pino was turning his back on him now that OKeefe was in jail. Police heard through their informers that O'Keefe and Gusciora demanded money from Pino and MacGinnis in Boston to fight their convictions. At the time of his arrest, there also was a charge of armed robbery outstanding against him in Massachusetts. Richardson had participated with Faherty in an armed robbery in February 1934. [16] Brink's, Inc. offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those involved in the robbery, with an additional 5% of recovered cash offered by the insurance company. He had been released on parole from the Norfolk, Massachusetts, Prison Colony on August 22, 1949only five months before the robbery. Special agents subsequently interviewed Costa and his wife, Pino and his wife, the racketeer, and OKeefe. 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. All identifying marks placed on currency and securities by the customers were noted, and appropriate stops were placed at banking institutions across the nation. 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. Brink's Brink's-Mat robbery - Wikipedia The FBIs jurisdiction to investigate this robbery was based upon the fact that cash, checks, postal notes, and United States money orders of the Federal Reserve Bank and the Veterans Administration district office in Boston were included in the loot. On January 11, 1956, the United States Attorney at Boston authorized special agents of the FBI to file complaints charging the 11 criminals with (1) conspiracy to commit theft of government property, robbery of government property, and bank robbery by force and violence and by intimidation, (2) committing bank robbery on January 17, 1950, and committing an assault on Brinks employees during the taking of the money, and (3) conspiracy to receive and conceal money in violation of the Bank Robbery and Theft of Government Property Statutes. 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. The conviction for burglary in McKean County, Pennsylvania, still hung over his head, and legal fees remained to be paid. Even Pino, whose deportation troubles then were a heavy burden, was arrested by the Boston police in August 1954. In the deportation fight that lasted more than two years, Pino won the final victory. OKeefe was sentenced to three years in Bradford County Jail and Gusciora to 5-to-20 years in the Western State Penitentiary at Pittsburgh. The eight men were sentenced by Judge Forte on October 9, 1956. The robbery was first conceived in 1947; however, in 1948, after months of planning, the group learned that Brink's had moved to a new location. (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.). Underworld rumors alleged that Maffie and Henry Baker were high on OKeefes list because they had beaten him out of a large amount of money. After denying any knowledge of the escape of Trigger Burke, Pino was released. All were guilty. 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. Allegedly, he pulled a gun on OKeefe; several shots were exchanged by the two men, but none of the bullets found their mark. Pino, Richardson, and Costa each took $20,000, and this was noted on a score sheet. None of these materialized because the gang did not consider the conditions to be favorable. This man subsequently identified locks from doors which the Brinks gang had entered as being similar to the locks which Pino had brought him. Solicitor Michael Relton was jailed in 1987 for his part in the money From his cell in Springfield, OKeefe wrote bitter letters to members of the Brinks gang and persisted in his demands for money. On the afternoon of August 28, 1954, Trigger Burke escaped from the Suffolk County jail in Boston, where he was being held on the gun-possession charge arising from the June 16 shooting of OKeefe. (The arrests of Faherty and Richardson also resulted in the indictment of another Boston hoodlum as an accessory after the fact). This occurred while he was in the state prison at Charlestown, Massachusetts, serving sentences for breaking and entering with intent to commit a felony and for having burglar tools in his possession. Before the robbers could take him prisoner, the garage attendant walked away. 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. 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. Like the others, Banfield had been questioned concerning his activities on the night of January 17, 1950. 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. 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. This article is about the 1950 robbery. Both of these strong-arm suspects had been questioned by Boston authorities following the robbery. Five bullets which had missed their mark were found in a building nearby. The FBI also succeeded in locating the carpenter who had remodeled the offices where the loot was hidden. He was not with the gang when the robbery took place. Shortly after these two guns were found, one of them was placed in a trash barrel and was taken to the city dump. You get me released, and Ill solve the case in no time, these criminals would claim. The truck pieces were concealed in fiber bags when found. [15] Two vehicles were stolen: a truck, to carry away the loot from the robbery; and a car, which would be used to block any pursuit. Their plan was to enter the Brinks building and take a truck containing payrolls. Each robbers face was completely concealed behind a Halloween-type mask. One of his former girl friends who recalled having seen him on the night of the robbery stated that he definitely was not drunk. Banfield, the driver, was alone in the front. 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. Later, when he counted the money, he found that the suitcase contained $98,000. Other information provided by OKeefe helped to fill the gaps which still existed. In pursuing the underworld rumors concerning the principal suspects in the Brinks case, the FBI succeeded in identifying more probable members of the gang. [14] By 7:37, one of the Brink's employees managed to free themselves and raise the alarm. On September 8, 1950, OKeefe was sentenced to three years in the Bradford County jail at Towanda and fined $3,000 for violation of the Uniform Firearms Act. In addition, McGinnis was named in two other complaints involving the receiving and concealing of the loot. He claimed he had been drinking in various taverns from approximately 5:10 p.m. until 7:45 p.m. There were recurring rumors that this hoodlum, Joseph Sylvester Banfield (pictured), had been right down there on the night of the crime. It was later claimed that most of O'Keefe's share went to his legal defense. After receiving the go ahead signal from Costa, the seven armed men walked to the Prince Street entrance of Brinks. WebA Byte Out of HistoryThe Great Brinks Robbery. The Gold - Meet the cast of the drama inspired by the true story Costa was associated with Pino in the operation of a motor terminal and a lottery in Boston. Faherty and Richardson fled to avoid apprehension and subsequently were placed on the list of the FBIs Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. Another old gang that had specialized in hijacking bootlegged whiskey in the Boston area during Prohibition became the subject of inquiries. 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. The Gold true story where are Micky McAvoy and the other Ten of the persons who appeared before this grand jury breathed much more easily when they learned that no indictments had been returned. The discovery of this money in the Tremont Street offices resulted in the arrests of both Fat John and the business associate of the criminal who had been arrested in Baltimore. Robinson died in a London FBI agents tried to talk to O'Keefe and Gusciora in prison but the two professed ignorance of the Brink's robbery. Many of the details had previously been obtained during the intense six-year investigation. Brinks Robbery FBI - Federal Bureau of Investigation His records showed that he had worked on the offices early in April 1956 under instructions of Fat John. The loot could not have been hidden behind the wall panel prior to that time. Questioned by Boston police on the day following the robbery, Baker claimed that he had eaten dinner with his family on the evening of January 17, 1950, and then left home at about 7:00 p.m. to walk around the neighborhood for about two hours. 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. involved The hideout also was found to contain more than $5,000 in coins. He arrived in Baltimore on the morning of June 3 and was picked up by the Baltimore Police Department that evening. All had been published in Boston between December 4, 1955, and February 21, 1956. Brinks Robbery Building in Boston - Celebrate Boston After a couple of attempts he hired underworld hitman Elmer "Trigger" Burke to kill O'Keefe. Of the eleven people involved in the robbery, eight would receive life sentences after a trial, with two others dying before they could be convicted. Both OKeefe and Gusciora had been interviewed on several occasions concerning the Brinks robbery, but they had claimed complete ignorance. It was at the time the largest robbery in the history of the United States, and has been called "the crime of the century". A passerby might notice that it was missing. At least four movies were based, or partially based, on the Great Brink's Robbery: Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}422202N 710327W / 42.3672N 71.0575W / 42.3672; -71.0575. From left, Sgt. 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. Two hours later he was dead. When this case was continued until April 1, 1954, OKeefe was released on $1,500 bond. The loot was quickly unloaded, and Banfield sped away to hide the truck. Brink's robbery [14], Seven of the group went into the Brink's building: OKeefe, Gusciora, Baker, Maffie, Geagan, Faherty, and Richardson. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.