Three years later, almost to the day, these ten men, together with another criminal, were to be indicted by a state grand jury in Boston for the Brinks robbery. In the deportation fight that lasted more than two years, Pino won the final victory. 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. On April 11, 1955, the Supreme Court ruled that Pinos conviction in 1948 for larceny (the sentence that was revoked and the case placed on file) had not attained such finality as to support an order of deportation.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. The money inside the cooler which was concealed in the wall of the Tremont Street office was wrapped in plastic and newspaper. On June 4, 1956 a man named "Fat John" admitted he had money that was linked to the Brink's robbery in his possession. Like the others, Banfield had been questioned concerning his activities on the night of January 17, 1950. 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. He told the interviewing agents that he trusted Maffie so implicitly that he gave the money to him for safe keeping. After each interview, FBI agents worked feverishly into the night checking all parts of his story which were subject to verification. 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. The Boston underworld rumbled with reports that an automobile had pulled alongside OKeefes car in Dorchester, Massachusetts, during the early morning hours of June 5. Where are gangsters from the Brink's-Mat robbery now? Both had served prison sentences, and both were well known to underworld figures on the East Coast. All of them wore Navy-type peacoats, gloves, and chauffeurs caps. In addition, McGinnis was named in two other complaints involving the receiving and concealing of the loot. Two died before they were tried. Mutulu Shakur, born Jeral Wayne Williams, is serving a 60-year sentence for organizing multiple bank and armored car robberies in New York and Connecticut. Accordingly, another lock cylinder was installed until the original one was returned. 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. A lock () or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. The Brink's-Mat robbery remains to this day one of Britain's biggest and most audacious heists. 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 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. In April 1950, the FBI received information indicating that part of the Brinks loot was hidden in the home of a relative of OKeefe in Boston. Although the attendant did not suspect that the robbery was taking place, this incident caused the criminals to move more swiftly. During November and December 1949, the approach to the Brinks building and the flight over the getaway route were practiced to perfection. The ninth man had long been a principal suspect. The Brinks Mat Robbery: The real story that inspired The Gold. As the truck drove past the Brinks offices, the robbers noted that the lights were out on the Prince Street side of the building. FBI investigating massive jewelry heist in SoCal - ABC7 Los Angeles After the heist was completed, one of the warehouse workers managed to free themselves from their restraints and notify the authorities, but the robbers were already long gone. During the period in which Pinos deportation troubles were mounting, OKeefe completed his sentence at Towanda, Pennsylvania. Within two months of his return, another member of the gang suffered a legal setback. The Bureau was convinced that it had identified the actual robbers, but evidence and witnesses had to be found. All efforts to identify the persons responsible for the theft and the persons who had cut up the truck were unsuccessful. While OKeefe and Gusciora lingered in jail in Pennsylvania, Pino encountered difficulties of his own. The conviction for burglary in McKean County, Pennsylvania, still hung over his head, and legal fees remained to be paid. 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. One of the biggest robberies in U.S. history happened here. 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. All were guilty. 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. That prison term, together with Pinos conviction in March 1928 for carnal abuse of a girl, provided the basis for the deportation action. The defense immediately filed motions which would delay or prevent the trial. Commonly regarded as a dominant figure in the Boston underworld, McGinnis previously had been convicted of robbery and narcotics violations. What happened in the Brink's-Mat robbery? Next year January 2023 to be precise will mark 30 years since the Brink's depot in Rochester was looted for $7.4 million, then the fifth largest armored car company heist in the country. The Gold: What was the Brinks Mat robbery 'curse'? | Metro News In the succeeding two weeks, nearly 1,200 prospective jurors were eliminated as the defense counsel used their 262 peremptory challenges. Many tips were received from anonymous persons. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. 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 a series of interviews during the succeeding days, OKeefe related the full story of the Brinks robbery. While on bond he returned to Boston; on January 23, 1954, he appeared in the Boston Municipal Court on the probation violation charge. They put the entire $200,000 in the trunk of OKeefes automobile. Underworld figures in Boston have generally speculated that the racketeer was killed because of his association with OKeefe. Members of the Purple Gang of the 1930s found that there was renewed interest in their activities. The Great Brinks Robbery of 1950 met all of these requirementsa great pile of cash disappeared with no evidence, leads, or suspects. 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 . As this bag was being emptied later that evening, the glasses were discovered and destroyed by the gang. "A search warrant was executed in Boston covering the Tremont Street offices occupied by the three men" (FBI). OKeefe had no place to keep so large a sum of money. Discover the true story of the Brink's-Mat Robbery that inspired BBC's From interviews with the five employees whom the criminals had confronted, it was learned that between five and seven robbers had entered the building. 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. As long as he was in prison, he could do no physical harm to his Boston criminal associates. Each robbers face was completely concealed behind a Halloween-type mask. In the hours immediately following the robbery, the underworld began to feel the heat of the investigation. At the outset, very few facts were available to the investigators. This phase of the investigation greatly disturbed many gamblers. As a protective measure, he was incarcerated in the Hampden County jail at Springfield, Massachusetts, rather than the Suffolk County jail in Boston. How much money was stolen in the Brinks robbery? Early in June 1956, however, an unexpected break developed. 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. OKeefe was bitter about a number of matters. He was found brutally murdered in his car in 1987. He claimed there was a large roll of bills in his hotel roomand that he had found that money, too. Tarr was doomed to the role of unlucky Brinks driver. Two weeks of comparative quiet in the gang members lives were shattered on June 5, 1954, when an attempt was made on OKeefes life. Geagan claimed that he spent the evening at home and did not learn of the Brinks robbery until the following day. 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.. OKeefe and Gusciora had been close friends for many years. The incident happened outside of a Chase Bank in . However, the group were shocked to find a massive 26 million in gold . On August 29, 1954, the officers suspicions were aroused by an automobile that circled the general vicinity of the abandoned car on five occasions. The trip from the liquor store in Roxbury to the Brinks offices could be made in about 15 minutes. Examination revealed the cause of his death to be a brain tumor and acute cerebral edema. The FBI further learned that four revolvers had been taken by the gang. A 32-year-old Cuban immigrant living in Miami, Karls Monzon was . After denying any knowledge of the escape of Trigger Burke, Pino was released. On the afternoon of July 9, he was visited by a clergyman. Subsequently, this machine gun was identified as having been used in the attempt on OKeefes life. They did not expect to find the Aladdin's cave to contain some 26m in gold bullion and diamonds that they stumbled upon. An official website of the United States government. 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. 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 . Adding to these problems was the constant pressure being exerted upon Pino by OKeefe from the county jail in Towanda, Pennsylvania. 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. Former inmates of penal institutions reported conversations they had overheard while incarcerated which concerned the robbing of Brinks. 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. The results were negative. 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. He had been convicted of armed robbery in 1940 and served several months in the Massachusetts State Reformatory and the Norfolk, Massachusetts, Prison Colony. (The arrests of Faherty and Richardson also resulted in the indictment of another Boston hoodlum as an accessory after the fact). All but Pino and Banfield stepped out and proceeded into the playground to await Costas signal. A passerby might notice that it was missing. 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. Two of the participants in the Brinks robbery lived in the Stoughton area. Continuous investigation, however, had linked him with the gang. Video captures attempted armored truck robbery in South Africa The officer verified the meeting. Inside this container were packages of bills that had been wrapped in plastic and newspapers. Despite the arrests and indictments in January 1956, more than $2,775,000, including $1,218,211.29 in cash, was still missing. (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. 26 million (equivalent to 93.3 million in 2021 [1]) worth of gold bullion, diamonds, and cash was stolen from a warehouse operated by Brink's-Mat, a former joint . 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. Serious consideration originally had been given to robbing Brinks in 1947, when Brinks was located on Federal Street in Boston. He. Sentenced to serve from five to seven years for this offense, he was released from prison in September 1941. 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. As a cooperative measure, the information gathered by the FBI in the Brinks investigation was made available to the District Attorney of Suffolk County, Massachusetts. With the death of Gusciora, only eight members of the Brinks gang remained to be tried. When this case was continued until April 1, 1954, OKeefe was released on $1,500 bond. 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. Revealed: What happened to the Brink's-Mat gold - Sky News The Great Brinks Robbery was the biggest armed robbery in U.S. history at the time. Each of these leads was checked out. 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. Considerable thought was given to every detail. 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. McGinnis had been arrested at the site of a still in New Hampshire in February 1954. They did not expect to find the Aladdin's cave to contain some 26m in gold bullion and diamonds that they stumbled upon. This chauffeurs cap was left at the scene of the crime of the centurythe 1950 robbery of a Brink's bank branch in Massachusetts. Inside the wild true story behind BBC's British gangland drama 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. The curse of Brink's-Mat: What happened to the Brink's-Mat robbers? Another old gang that had specialized in hijacking bootlegged whiskey in the Boston area during Prohibition became the subject of inquiries. And what of McGinnis himself? FBI investigates $150 million jewelry heist of Brinks truck traveling 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. The mass of information gathered during the early weeks of the investigation was continuously sifted. 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.. None of these materialized because the gang did not consider the conditions to be favorable. On November 26, 1983, six armed robbers broke into the Brink-Mat security depot near Heathrow Airport in hopes of stealing 3.2 million in cash. Pierra Willix Monday 13 Feb 2023 8:00 am. A few weeks later, OKeefe retrieved his share of the loot. On November 16, 1959, the United States Supreme Court denied a request of the defense counsel for a writ of certiorari. While action to appeal the convictions was being taken on their behalf, the eight men were removed to the State prison at Walpole, Massachusetts. Both OKeefe and Gusciora had been interviewed on several occasions concerning the Brinks robbery, but they had claimed complete ignorance. The loot was quickly unloaded, and Banfield sped away to hide the truck. 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 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. The police officer said he had been talking to McGinnis first, and Pino arrived later to join them. Special agents subsequently interviewed Costa and his wife, Pino and his wife, the racketeer, and OKeefe. In December 1954, he indicated to the agents that Pino could look for rough treatment if he (OKeefe) again was released. After completing its hearings on January 9, 1953, the grand jury retired to weigh the evidence. The families of OKeefe and Gusciora resided in the vicinity of Stoughton, Massachusetts. Heist! The True Story Of Charlotte's $17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft - WFAE 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 . 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. 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 Gold mixes fact and fiction for dramatic purposes Following their arrests, a former bondsman in Boston made frequent trips to Towanda in an unsuccessful effort to secure their release on bail. 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. A Secret Service agent, who had been summoned by the Baltimore officers, arrived while the criminal was being questioned at the police headquarters, and after examining the money found in the bill changers possession, he certified that it was not counterfeit. Perhaps most remarkable, its mastermind didn't even have a criminal record when he planned it out. The Brinks Mat Robbery: The real story that inspired The Gold. Brinks armored truck robbery leads to claims of $100 million in jewelry Instead, they found three tonnes of gold bullion. Where is Edwyn Cooper of the Brink's-Mat robbery now? | TV & Radio And it nearly was. Again, he was determined to fight, using the argument that his conviction for the 1948 larceny offense was not a basis for deportation. 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. On the night of January 17, 1952exactly two years after the crime occurredthe FBIs Boston Office received an anonymous telephone call from an individual who claimed he was sending a letter identifying the Brinks robbers. 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. (A detailed survey of the Boston waterfront previously had been made by the FBI.) Perkins was handed a 22-year jail sentence for that one, but absconded from open prison in 1995 and managed to . 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. 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. One of his former girl friends who recalled having seen him on the night of the robbery stated that he definitely was not drunk. 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. Those killed in the. This man, subsequently identified as a small-time Boston underworld figure, was located and questioned. 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. Reports had been received alleging that he had held up several gamblers in the Boston area and had been involved in shakedowns of bookies. 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. The robbery of 26m of gold bars from a warehouse near Heathrow airport is one of Britain's most notorious - and biggest - heists.