who was involved in the brinks robbery

Captain Marvel mask used as a disguise in the robbery. The person ringing the buzzer was a garage attendant. Gusciora also claimed to have been drinking that evening. 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. [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. O'Keefe pleaded guilty January 18. OKeefe was wounded in the wrist and chest, but again he managed to escape with his life. In June 1950, OKeefe and Gusciora were arrested in Pennsylvania for a burglary. 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. Subsequently, he engaged in a conversation with McGinnis and a Boston police officer. Ten of the persons who appeared before this grand jury breathed much more easily when they learned that no indictments had been returned. Each man also was given a pistol and a Halloween-type mask. 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. It was at the time the largest robbery in the history of the United States, and has been called "the crime of the century". As the truck drove past the Brinks offices, the robbers noted that the lights were out on the Prince Street side of the building. Each of the five lock cylinders was taken on a separate occasion. Another week passedand approximately 500 more citizens were consideredbefore the 14-member jury was assembled. Fat John and the business associate of the man arrested in Baltimore were located and interviewed on the morning of June 4, 1956. Both men remained mute following their arrests. OKeefe wore crepe-soled shoes to muffle his footsteps; the others wore rubbers. The conviction for burglary in McKean County, Pennsylvania, still hung over his head, and legal fees remained to be paid. 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. OKeefe and Gusciora reportedly had worked together on a number of occasions. He claimed there was a large roll of bills in his hotel roomand that he had found that money, too. Investigation revealed that Geagan, a laborer, had not gone to work on January 17 or 18, 1950.). From interviews with the five employees whom the criminals had confronted, it was learned that between five and seven robbers had entered the building. FBI agents tried to talk to O'Keefe and Gusciora in prison but the two professed ignorance of the Brink's robbery. Each of them had surreptitiously entered the premises on several occasions after the employees had left for the day. After a couple of attempts he hired underworld hitman Elmer "Trigger" Burke to kill O'Keefe. They spent about twenty minutes inside the vault, putting money into large canvas bags. Well-known Boston hoodlums were picked up and questioned by police. He was granted a full pardon by the acting governor of Massachusetts. 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. 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. Richardson had participated with Faherty in an armed robbery in February 1934. Two of the participants in the Brinks robbery lived in the Stoughton area. 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. The results were negative. Of the $4,822 found in the small-time criminals possession, FBI agents identified $4,635 as money taken by the Brinks robbers. Because the money in the cooler was in various stages of decomposition, an accurate count proved most difficult to make. On June 2, 1950, OKeefe and Gusciora left Boston by automobile for the alleged purpose of visiting the grave of Guscioras brother in Missouri. A federal search warrant was obtained, and the home was searched by agents on April 27, 1950. The truck pieces were concealed in fiber bags when found. The police officer said he had been talking to McGinnis first, and Pino arrived later to join them. The pair recruited criminal Kenneth Noye, an expert in his field, who As this bag was being emptied later that evening, the glasses were discovered and destroyed by the gang. The gang members who remained at the house of Maffies parents soon dispersed to establish alibis for themselves. 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. Prior to this time, McGinnis had been at his liquor store. That prison term, together with Pinos conviction in March 1928 for carnal abuse of a girl, provided the basis for the deportation action. Several hundred dollars were found hidden in the house but could not be identified as part of the loot. OKeefe and Gusciora had been close friends for many years. He was released in 2000, after serving 16 years of his term. 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. The alibi was strong, but not conclusive. (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. Following their arrests, a former bondsman in Boston made frequent trips to Towanda in an unsuccessful effort to secure their release on bail. 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. 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. 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. [18] The total amount stolen was $1,218,211 in cash and $1,557,183 in checks and other securities. OKeefe was bitter about a number of matters. Burlap money bags recovered in a Boston junk yard from the robbery, Some of the recovered money from the robbery. 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. After careful checking, the FBI eliminated eight of the suspects. On November 16, 1959, the United States Supreme Court denied a request of the defense counsel for a writ of certiorari. As a guard moved to intercept him, Burke started to run. 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. 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. O'Keefe received four years and was released in 1960. Speaking on film for the first time since the robbery almost 40 years ago, Detective Chief Superintendent Brian Boyce, head of the investigation and DC Tony Yeoman, disclose the challenges they faced and the strategy they used in Fat John announced that each of the packages contained $5,000. In the end, the perfect crime had a perfect endingfor everyone but the robbers. Before his trial in McKean County, he was released on $17,000 bond. The officer verified the meeting. At 4:20 p.m. on January 6, 1956, OKeefe made the final decision. 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. 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. When OKeefe admitted his part in the Brinks robbery to FBI agents in January 1956, he told of his high regard for Gusciora. And it nearly was. During the period in which Pinos deportation troubles were mounting, OKeefe completed his sentence at Towanda, Pennsylvania. 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. Other members of the group came under suspicion but there was not enough evidence for an indictment, so law enforcement kept pressure on the suspects. WebA Byte Out of HistoryThe Great Brinks Robbery. (The arrests of Faherty and Richardson also resulted in the indictment of another Boston hoodlum as an accessory after the fact). THE brains behind the 26million Brinks-Mat bullion robbery has died penniless. FBI.gov is an official site of the U.S. Department of Justice. 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. Pino could have been at McGinnis liquor store shortly after 7:30 p.m. on January 17, 1950, and still have participated in the robbery. Minutes later, police arrived at the Brinks building, and special agents of the FBI quickly joined in the investigation. Although the attendant did not suspect that the robbery was taking place, this incident caused the criminals to move more swiftly. Each robbers face was completely concealed behind a Halloween-type mask. A number of them discontinued their operations; others indicated a strong desire that the robbers be identified and apprehended. Pino also Local officers searched their homes, but no evidence linking them with the truck or the robbery was found. None of these materialized because the gang did not consider the conditions to be favorable. The gang at that time included all of the participants in the January 17, 1950, robbery except Henry Baker. The He was through with Pino, Baker, McGinnis, Maffie, and the other Brinks conspirators who had turned against him. WebMore than 6,000 gold bars were stolen in the robbery from a warehouse on the outskirts of Heathrow on 26 November, 1983. The trial of these eight men began on the morning of August 6, 1956, before Judge Feliz Forte in the Suffolk County Courthouse in Boston. The robbers killed Peter Paige at the Nanuet Mall in front of a bank. In pursuing the underworld rumors concerning the principal suspects in the Brinks case, the FBI succeeded in identifying more probable members of the gang. Shakur's conviction includes planning the $1.6 million Brinks robbery in Rockland on Oct. 20, 1981. 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. Banfield was already dead. There were recurring rumors that this hoodlum, Joseph Sylvester Banfield (pictured), had been right down there on the night of the crime. Commonly regarded as a dominant figure in the Boston underworld, McGinnis previously had been convicted of robbery and narcotics violations. [14] They each wore a chauffeur cap, pea coat, rubber Halloween mask, and each had a .38 caliber revolver. Brian The Colonel Robinson, 78, was cheated out of his share of the record haul. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. WebJudith Clark was paroled in 2019 after then Gov. 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. In December 1954, he indicated to the agents that Pino could look for rough treatment if he (OKeefe) again was released.

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