Burlap money bags recovered in a Boston junk yard from the robbery, Some of the recovered money from the robbery. The Gold: The Inside Story will hear from the . OKeefe had no place to keep so large a sum of money. The men had thought they were robbing a sum of foreign money, but instead found three tonnes of gold bullion (6,800 ingots), with a value of 26 million back then, around 100 million today. 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. 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. He was through with Pino, Baker, McGinnis, Maffie, and the other Brinks conspirators who had turned against him. 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. On the night of January 18, 1950, OKeefe and Gusciora received $100,000 each from the robbery loot. 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. This phase of the investigation greatly disturbed many gamblers. 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.. 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. The Bureau was convinced that it had identified the actual robbers, but evidence and witnesses had to be found. How much money was stolen in the Brinks robbery? Other members of the robbery gang also were having their troubles. In the late summer of 1944, he was released from the state prison and was taken into custody by Immigration authorities. Serious consideration originally had been given to robbing Brinks in 1947, when Brinks was located on Federal Street in Boston. While Maffie claimed that part of the money had been stolen from its hiding place and that the remainder had been spent in financing OKeefes legal defense in Pennsylvania, other gang members accused Maffie of blowing the money OKeefe had entrusted to his care. This man subsequently identified locks from doors which the Brinks gang had entered as being similar to the locks which Pino had brought him. The Brinks Mat Robbery: The real story that inspired The Gold. His case had gone to the highest court in the land. Terry Perkins. He later was to be arrested as a member of the robbery gang. This cooler contained more than $57,700, including $51,906 which was identifiable as part of the Brinks loot. Three of the remaining five gang members were previously accounted for, OKeefe and Gusciora being in prison on other charges and Banfield being dead. A few years before the Brink's-Mat robbery . The hideout also was found to contain more than $5,000 in coins. ), (After serving his sentence, Fat John resumed a life of crime. At 10:25 p.m. on October 5, 1956, the jury retired to weigh the evidence. Perhaps most remarkable, its mastermind didn't even have a criminal record when he planned it out. 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. Banfield had been a close associate of McGinnis for many years. Again, he was determined to fight, using the argument that his conviction for the 1948 larceny offense was not a basis for deportation. On November 16, 1959, the United States Supreme Court denied a request of the defense counsel for a writ of certiorari. 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. (Investigation to substantiate this information resulted in the location of the proprietor of a key shop who recalled making keys for Pino on at least four or five evenings in the fall of 1949. 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 . 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. That prison term, together with Pinos conviction in March 1928 for carnal abuse of a girl, provided the basis for the deportation action. A passerby might notice that it was missing. Pino previously had arranged for this man to keep his shop open beyond the normal closing time on nights when Pino requested him to do so. Jewelers report over $100 million in losses after Brinks armored truck robbed in California. During these approaches, Costaequipped with a flashlight for signaling the other men was stationed on the roof of a tenement building on Prince Street overlooking Brinks. In the back were Pino, OKeefe, Baker, Faherty, Maffie, Gusciora, Michael Vincent Geagan (pictured), and Thomas Francis Richardson. As the robbers sped from the scene, a Brinks employee telephoned the Boston Police Department. There were recurring rumors that this hoodlum, Joseph Sylvester Banfield (pictured), had been right down there on the night of the crime. 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 Instead, they found three tonnes of gold bullion. Almost immediately, the gang began laying new plans. There had been three attempts on his life in June 1954, and his frustrated assassins undoubtedly were waiting for him to return to Boston. Two of the gang members moved toward the door to capture him; but, seeing the garage attendant walk away apparently unaware that the robbery was being committed, they did not pursue him. Due to his criminal record, the Immigration and Naturalization Service instituted proceedings in 1941 to deport him. 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. 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. Interviewed again on December 28, 1955, he talked somewhat more freely, and it was obvious that the agents were gradually winning his respect and confidence. 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. On October 20, 1981, a Brinks Company armored car was robbed of $1,589,000 in cash that it was preparing to transfer from the Nanuet National Bank in Clarkstown, N.Y. One of the guards of the. Before the robbery was carried out, all of the participants were well acquainted with the Brinks premises. All of them wore Navy-type peacoats, gloves, and chauffeurs caps. On August 1, 1954, he was arrested at Leicester, Massachusetts, and turned over to the Boston police who held him for violating probation on a gun-carrying charge. 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. This was in their favor. The results were negative. They moved with a studied precision which suggested that the crime had been carefully planned and rehearsed in the preceding months. In a report which was released on January 16, 1953, the grand jury disclosed that its members did not feel they possessed complete, positive information as to the identify of the participants in the Brinks robbery because (1) the participants were effectively disguised; (2) there was a lack of eyewitnesses to the crime itself; and (3) certain witnesses refused to give testimony, and the grand jury was unable to compel them to do so. Two other men, ex-Brink's guard Thomas O'Connor and unemployed teacher Charles McCormick, were acquitted. As the investigation developed and thousands of leads were followed to dead ends, the broad field of possible suspects gradually began to narrow. Had any particles of evidence been found in the loot which might directly show that they had handled it? Pino would take the locks to the mans shop, and keys would be made for them. During his brief stay in Boston, he was observed to contact other members of the robbery gang. It ultimately proved unproductive. 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 claimed he had been drinking in various taverns from approximately 5:10 p.m. until 7:45 p.m. Brinks customers were contacted for information regarding the packaging and shipping materials they used. Micky McAvoy, believed by police to be the mastermind behind the robbery, was arrested ten days after the robbery. Prominent among the other strong suspects was Vincent James Costa, brother-in-law of Pino. The loot was quickly unloaded, and Banfield sped away to hide the truck. The serial numbers of several of these bills were furnished to the FBI Office in Baltimore. 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. 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.. At 4:20 p.m. on January 6, 1956, OKeefe made the final decision. Micky McAvoy, who masterminded the 1983 robbery of 26million from Brinks-Mat's Heathrow depot, has died aged 70 and never got his hands on the money stolen in the mega-heist 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. Six armed men stole diamonds, cash and three tonnes of gold bullion from a warehouse close to . This man claimed to have no knowledge of Pinos involvement in the Brinks robbery.). On November, 26, 1983, three tonnes of solid gold bullion was taken by six armed robbers from the Brink's-Mat security depot near . One of the biggest robberies in U.S. history happened here. More than 100 persons took the stand as witnesses for the prosecution and the defense during September 1956. Inside the building, the gang members carefully studied all available information concerning Brinks schedules and shipments. His explanation: He had been drinking at a bar in Boston. On October 20, 1981, members of the Black Liberation Army robbed a Brink's truck at the Nanuet Mall. Minutes later, police arrived at the Brinks building, and special agents of the FBI quickly joined in the investigation. 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. During the period in which Pinos deportation troubles were mounting, OKeefe completed his sentence at Towanda, Pennsylvania. Faherty had been questioned on the night of the robbery. (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 heist happened on Prince Street in Boston's North End on Jan. 17, 1950. Race tracks and gambling establishments also were covered in the hope of finding some of the loot in circulation. On April 11, 1955, the Supreme Court ruled that Pinos conviction in 1948 for larceny (the sentence that was revoked and the case placed on file) had not attained such finality as to support an order of deportation. Thus, Pino could not be deported. During this operation, one of the employees had lost his glasses; they later could not be found on the Brinks premises. 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. It unleashed a trail of eight murders and a global hunt for. Although the attendant did not suspect that the robbery was taking place, this incident caused the criminals to move more swiftly. Pino was determined to fight against deportation. 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. At the time of the Brinks robbery, Geagan was on parole, having been released from prison in July 1943, after serving eight years of a lengthy sentence for armed robbery and assault. This man, subsequently identified as a small-time Boston underworld figure, was located and questioned. On January 12, 1953, Pino was released on bail pending a deportation hearing. Another week passedand approximately 500 more citizens were consideredbefore the 14-member jury was assembled. OKeefe was enraged that the pieces of the stolen Ford truck had been placed on the dump near his home, and he generally regretted having become associated at all with several members of the gang. McGinnis previously had discussed sending a man to the United States Patent Office in Washington, D.C., to inspect the patents on the protective alarms used in the Brinks building. Each of the five lock cylinders was taken on a separate occasion. As a government witness, he reluctantly would have testified against him. The Brinks case was front page news. Soon the underworld rang with startling news concerning this pair. The other gun was picked up by the officer and identified as having been taken during the Brinks robbery. Despite the arrests and indictments in January 1956, more than $2,775,000, including $1,218,211.29 in cash, was still missing. OKeefe and Gusciora had been close friends for many years. Following the federal grand jury hearings, the FBIs intense investigation continued. 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. Seventy years ago today, a group of men stole $1.2 million in cash and $1.5 million in checks. The. Almost. 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. OKeefe was the principal witness to appear before the state grand jurors. Using the outside door key they had previously obtained, the men quickly entered and donned their masks. A detective examines the Brinks vault after the theft. And what of McGinnis himself? At 6:30am, six armed robbers from a south London gang entered the premises of the Brink's-Mat warehouse at Heathrow. Within minutes, theyd stolen more than $1.2 million in cash and another $1.5 million in checks and other securities, making it the largest robbery in the U.S. at the time. In the series Edwyn Cooper (played by Dominic Cooper) is a lawyer who gets involved in the robbery, deciding he wants to earn some big bucks. The gang at that time included all of the participants in the January 17, 1950, robbery except Henry Baker. 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. 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. 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. 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. It was used by the defense counsel in preparing a 294-page brief that was presented to the Massachusetts State Supreme Court. 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. Pierra Willix Monday 13 Feb 2023 8:00 am. (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.). The amusement arcade operator told the officer that he had followed the man who passed this $10.00 bill to a nearby tavern. According to the criminal who was arrested in Baltimore, Fat John subsequently told him that the money was part of the Brinks loot and offered him $5,000 if he would pass $30,000 of the bills. All right, he told two FBI agents, what do you want to know?. 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. The Brinks Mat Robbery: The real story that inspired The Gold. However, the group were shocked to find a massive 26 million in gold . FBI.gov is an official site of the U.S. Department of Justice. In pursuing the underworld rumors concerning the principal suspects in the Brinks case, the FBI succeeded in identifying more probable members of the gang. The robbery. Two days before Maffies release, another strong suspect died of natural causes. The officer verified the meeting. 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. OKeefe and Gusciora reportedly had worked together on a number of occasions. OKeefe was bitter about a number of matters. When the pieces of the 1949 green Ford stake-body truck were found at the dump in Stoughton on March 4, 1950, additional emphasis was placed on the investigations concerning them. I think a fellow just passed a counterfeit $10.00 bill on me, he told the officer. Released to McKean County, Pennsylvania, authorities early in January 1954 to stand trial for burglary, larceny, and receiving stolen goods, OKeefe also was confronted with a detainer filed by Massachusetts authorities. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 1984 for involvement in the Brink's Mat job. Well-known Boston hoodlums were picked up and questioned by police. 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. An immediate effort also was made to obtain descriptive data concerning the missing cash and securities. 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. An appeal was promptly noted, and he was released on $15,000 bond. 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 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. 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. 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. Their plan was to enter the Brinks building and take a truck containing payrolls. 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. The month preceding January 17, 1950, witnessed approximately a half-dozen approaches to Brinks. Through long weeks of empty promises of assistance and deliberate stalling by the gang members, he began to realize that his threats were falling on deaf ears. The removal of the lock cylinder from the outside door involved the greatest risk of detection. He subsequently was convicted and executed.). Veteran criminals throughout the United States found their activities during mid-January the subject of official inquiry. 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. Three years later, Great Train Robber. If Baker heard these rumors, he did not wait around very long to see whether they were true. Some of the jewelry might. Apparently suspicious, OKeefe crouched low in the front seat of his car as the would-be assassins fired bullets that pierced the windshield. 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. Even after these convictions, OKeefe and Gusciora continued to seek their release. 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. Two died before they were tried. 00:29. Nonetheless, several members of the Brinks gang were visibly shaken and appeared to be abnormally worried during the latter part of May and early in June 1954. The team of burglars bypassed the truck's locking mechanism and used the storage containers to haul away precious gems, gold and other valuables. OKeefes racketeer associate, who allegedly had assisted him in holding Costa for ransom and was present during the shooting scrape between OKeefe and Baker, disappeared on August 3, 1954. Two of the participants in the Brinks robbery lived in the Stoughton area. From their prison cells, they carefully followed the legal maneuvers aimed at gaining them freedom. 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. He was not with the gang when the robbery took place. 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. The theft changed the face of the British underworld. The Great Brinks Robbery of 1950 met all of these requirementsa great pile of cash disappeared with no evidence, leads, or suspects. On March 4, 1950, pieces of an identical truck were found at a dump in Stoughton, Massachusetts. In addition, McGinnis was named in two other complaints involving the receiving and concealing of the loot. At that time, Pino approached OKeefe and asked if he wanted to be in on the score. His close associate, Stanley Gusciora, had previously been recruited, and OKeefe agreed to take part. T he robbers were there because they knew there was 3 million in cash locked in the . All had been published in Boston between December 4, 1955, and February 21, 1956. Allegedly, other members of the Brinks gang arranged for OKeefe to be paid a small part of the ransom he demanded, and Costa was released on May 20, 1954. In a film-style series of events, criminals broke into the. The FBIs analysis of the alibis offered by the suspects showed that the hour of 7:00 p.m. on January 17, 1950, was frequently mentioned. 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. None of these materialized because the gang did not consider the conditions to be favorable. 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. As this bag was being emptied later that evening, the glasses were discovered and destroyed by the gang. After completing its hearings on January 9, 1953, the grand jury retired to weigh the evidence. This was a question which preyed heavily upon their minds. He was granted a full pardon by the acting governor of Massachusetts. 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. Considerable thought was given to every detail. It was almost the perfect crime. Subsequently, he engaged in a conversation with McGinnis and a Boston police officer. Like the others, Banfield had been questioned concerning his activities on the night of January 17, 1950. Nonetheless, the finding of the truck parts at Stoughton, Massachusetts, was to prove a valuable break in the investigation.
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