OKeefe was bitter about a number of matters. 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to unsatisfactory conduct, drunkenness, refusal to seek employment, and association with known criminals, his parole was revoked, and he was returned to the Massachusetts State Prison. 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. 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. 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. Since Brinks was located in a heavily populated tenement section, many hours were consumed in interviews to locate persons in the neighborhood who might possess information of possible value. Stanley Gusciora (pictured left), who had been transferred to Massachusetts from Pennsylvania to stand trial, was placed under medical care due to weakness, dizziness, and vomiting. Three of the newspapers used to wrap the bills were identified. Among the early suspects was Anthony Pino, an alien who had been a principal suspect in numerous major robberies and burglaries in Massachusetts. 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. All had been published in Boston between December 4, 1955, and February 21, 1956. There were recurring rumors that this hoodlum, Joseph Sylvester Banfield (pictured), had been right down there on the night of the crime. At 10:25 p.m. on October 5, 1956, the jury retired to weigh the evidence. They moved with a studied precision which suggested that the crime had been carefully planned and rehearsed in the preceding months. Then the lock cylinders were replaced. The Brinks vehicle, followed closely by guards traveling in an automobile, turned onto a stone-paved lane called Old Bethel Road. In addition, although violent dissension had developed within the gang, there still was no indication that any of the men were ready to talk. Based on the available information, however, the FBI felt that OKeefes disgust was reaching the point where it was possible he would turn against his confederates. Fat John announced that each of the packages contained $5,000. Even in their jail cells, however, they showed no respect for law enforcement. Underworld sources described him as fully capable of planning and executing the Brinks robbery. Each of them had surreptitiously entered the premises on several occasions after the employees had left for the day. From Boston, the pressure quickly spread to other cities. On January 13, 1956, the Suffolk County grand jury returned indictments against the 11 members of the Brinks gang. Banfield drove the truck to the house of Maffies parents in Roxbury. 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. OKeefe had no place to keep so large a sum of money. This lead was pursued intensively. Seventy years ago today, a group of men stole $1.2 million in cash and $1.5 million in checks. In December 1948, Brinks moved from Federal Street to 165 Prince Street in Boston. 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. And the gang felt that the chances of his talking were negligible because he would be implicated in the Brinks robbery along with the others. Paul Jawarski (sometimes spelled Jaworski) in a yellowed newspaper . None of these materialized because the gang did not consider the conditions to be favorable. 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. Costa was associated with Pino in the operation of a motor terminal and a lottery in Boston. During an interview with him in the jail in Springfield, Massachusetts, in October 1954, special agents found that the plight of the missing Boston racketeer was weighing on OKeefes mind. In the end, the perfect crime had a perfect endingfor everyone but the robbers. 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. This chauffeurs cap was left at the scene of the crime of the centurythe 1950 robbery of a Brink's bank branch in Massachusetts. The defense immediately filed motions which would delay or prevent the trial. This phase of the investigation was pursued exhaustively. At 6:30am, six armed robbers from a south London gang entered the premises of the Brink's-Mat warehouse at Heathrow. The serial numbers of several of these bills were furnished to the FBI Office in Baltimore. 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 He needed money for his defense against the charges in McKean County, and it was obvious that he had developed a bitter attitude toward a number of his close underworld associates. The criminal explained that he was in the contracting business in Boston and that in late March or early April 1956, he stumbled upon a plastic bag containing this money while he was working on the foundation of a house. OKeefes reputation for nerve was legend. This is good money, he said, but you cant pass it around here in Boston.. They stole 26 million in gold bullion - the biggest robbery of . A second shooting incident occurred on the morning of June 14, 1954, in Dorchester, Massachusetts, when OKeefe and his racketeer friend paid a visit to Baker. 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. He was found brutally murdered in his car in 1987. Their plan was to enter the Brinks building and take a truck containing payrolls. A roll of waterproof adhesive tape used to gag and bind bank employees that was left at the scene of the crime. He was paroled in the fall of 1944 and remained on parole through March 1954 when misfortune befell him. OKeefe claimed that he left his hotel room in Boston at approximately 7:00 p.m. on January 17, 1950. In addition, McGinnis was named in two other complaints involving the receiving and concealing of the loot. This incident also took place in Dorchester and involved the firing of more than 30 shots. LOS ANGELES COUNTY, Calif. (KGO) -- The FBI and the Los Angeles County. Chicago police said at about 3 p.m., a 38-year-old male armored truck . McAvoy had attempted to reach a settlement with prosecutors in the case when he offered to repay his share, but by that time the money was gone. It unleashed a trail of eight murders and a global hunt for. Fat John and the business associate of the man arrested in Baltimore were located and interviewed on the morning of June 4, 1956. He arrived in Baltimore on the morning of June 3 and was picked up by the Baltimore Police Department that evening. 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 . The Brink Mat robbery was a heist that occurred at Heathrow International Trading Estate on November 26, 1983, when six armed robbers broke into a warehouse run by a US and British joint venture, Brink's Mat. On February 5, 1950, however, a police officer in Somerville, Massachusetts, recovered one of the four revolvers that had been taken by the robbers. They did not expect to find the Aladdin's cave to contain some 26m in gold bullion and diamonds that they stumbled upon. The truck found at the dump had been reported stolen by a Ford dealer near Fenway Park in Boston on November 3, 1949. All right, he told two FBI agents, what do you want to know?. The record of the state trial covered more than 5,300 pages. The Brinks Job, 1950. 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.). 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. The descriptions and serial numbers of these weapons were carefully noted since they might prove a valuable link to the men responsible for the crime. Prominent among the other strong suspects was Vincent James Costa, brother-in-law of Pino. To muffle their footsteps, one of the gang wore crepe-soled shoes, and the others wore rubbers. The alibi was strong, but not conclusive. It appeared to him that he would spend his remaining days in prison while his co-conspirators would have many years to enjoy the luxuries of life. The gang at that time included all of the participants in the January 17, 1950, robbery except Henry Baker. During this operation, a pair of glasses belonging to one of the employees was unconsciously scooped up with other items and stuffed into a bag of loot. Two hours later he was dead. On January 10, 1953, following his appearance before the federal grand jury in connection with the Brinks case, Pino was taken into custody again as a deportable alien. 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. Despite the arrests and indictments in January 1956, more than $2,775,000, including $1,218,211.29 in cash, was still missing. Using the outside door key they had previously obtained, the men quickly entered and donned their masks. Neither had too convincing an alibi. Three years later, Great Train Robber. 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. 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. Adding to these problems was the constant pressure being exerted upon Pino by OKeefe from the county jail in Towanda, Pennsylvania. In the years following a shared event, like an assassination, everyone remembers where they were when it happened. On June 2, 1950, OKeefe and Gusciora left Boston by automobile for the alleged purpose of visiting the grave of Guscioras brother in Missouri. In the late summer of 1944, he was released from the state prison and was taken into custody by Immigration authorities. 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. A new BBC crime drama series follows the gripping twists and turns of what was dubbed the "crime of the century" in the 1980s. Two other men, ex-Brink's guard Thomas O'Connor and unemployed teacher Charles McCormick, were acquitted. 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.. Well-meaning persons throughout the country began sending the FBI tips and theories which they hoped would assist in the investigation. The crime inspired at least four movies and two books, including The Story of the Great Brink's Robbery, as Told by the FBI. This man subsequently identified locks from doors which the Brinks gang had entered as being similar to the locks which Pino had brought him. During their forays inside the building, members of the gang took the lock cylinders from five doors, including the one opening onto Prince Street. Pino would take the locks to the mans shop, and keys would be made for them. As a government witness, he reluctantly would have testified against him. Although he had been known to carry a gun, burglaryrather than armed robberywas his criminal specialty, and his exceptional driving skill was an invaluable asset during criminal getaways. 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. Seven months later, however, he was again paroled. Pino had been at his home in the Roxbury Section of Boston until approximately 7:00 p.m.; then he walked to the nearby liquor store of Joseph McGinnis. A t the time, the Brink's-Mat vault was thought to be one of the most secure facilities in the world. Early in June 1956, however, an unexpected break developed. In the years following the infamous 1983 Brink's-Mat robbery, many of the criminals and police alike were killed, leading to speculation there might be . The Brink's-Mat robbery occurred at the Heathrow International Trading Estate, London, United Kingdom, on 26 November 1983 and was one of the largest robberies in British history. The other keys in their possession enabled them to proceed to the second floor where they took the five Brinks employees by surprise. McGinnis had been arrested at the site of a still in New Hampshire in February 1954. And it nearly was. Many other types of information were received. The Brinks Mat Robbery: The real story that inspired The Gold. On November 26, 1981, six armed men from South London broke into the Brink's-Mat warehouse near London Heathrow. As this bag was being emptied later that evening, the glasses were discovered and destroyed by the gang. A number of them discontinued their operations; others indicated a strong desire that the robbers be identified and apprehended. Police recovered only $58,000 of the $2.7 million stolen. 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. Each of these leads was checked out. They did not expect to find the Aladdin's cave to contain some 26m in gold bullion and diamonds that they stumbled upon. 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. OKeefe and Gusciora had been close friends for many years. While the others stayed at the house to make a quick count of the loot, Pino and Faherty departed. After these plans were reviewed and found to be unhelpful, OKeefe and Gusciora returned them in the same manner. On March 4, 1950, pieces of an identical truck were found at a dump in Stoughton, Massachusetts. 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. The theft changed the face of the British underworld. Allegedly, he pulled a gun on OKeefe; several shots were exchanged by the two men, but none of the bullets found their mark. Thus, when he and Gusciora were taken into custody by state authorities during the latter part of January 1950, OKeefe got word to McGinnis to recover his car and the $200,000 that it contained.
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