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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. The Brink's-Mat robbery remains to this day one of Britain's biggest and most audacious heists. Later, when he counted the money, he found that the suitcase contained $98,000. Many other types of information were received. Immediately upon leaving, the gang loaded the loot into the truck that was parked on Prince Street near the door. 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 crime inspired at least four movies and two books, including The Story of the Great Brink's Robbery, as Told by the FBI. In December 1948, Brinks moved from Federal Street to 165 Prince Street in Boston. In 1936 and 1937, Faherty was convicted of armed robbery violations. He was not involved in the Brinks robbery. As a protective measure, he was incarcerated in the Hampden County jail at Springfield, Massachusetts, rather than the Suffolk County jail in Boston. All had been published in Boston between December 4, 1955, and February 21, 1956. Shortly after these two guns were found, one of them was placed in a trash barrel and was taken to the city dump. How much money was stolen in the Brinks robbery? Years earlier, a private investigator, Daniel Morgan, was said to have been looking into the robbery. Shortly thereafterduring the first week of Novembera 1949 green Ford stake-body truck was reported missing by a car dealer in Boston. In December 1954, he indicated to the agents that Pino could look for rough treatment if he (OKeefe) again was released. None of these materialized because the gang did not consider the conditions to be favorable. Each robbers face was completely concealed behind a Halloween-type mask. Well-known Boston hoodlums were picked up and questioned by police. On January 12, 1953, Pino was released on bail pending a deportation hearing. For the Rockland County community, the Brink's Robbery rises to that historic standard. 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. To his neighbors in Jackson Heights in the early 1990s, Sam . The $2.775 million ($31.3 million today) theft consisted of $1,218,211.29 in cash and $1,557,183.83 in checks, money orders, and other securities. From Boston, the pressure quickly spread to other cities. The robbers did little talking. To muffle their footsteps, one of the gang wore crepe-soled shoes, and the others wore rubbers. 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. This incident also took place in Dorchester and involved the firing of more than 30 shots. Even Pino, whose deportation troubles then were a heavy burden, was arrested by the Boston police in August 1954. 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. 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. Two other men, ex-Brink's guard Thomas O'Connor and unemployed teacher Charles McCormick, were acquitted. Police who arrived to investigate found a large amount of blood, a mans shattered wrist watch, and a .45 caliber pistol at the scene. There was James Ignatius Faherty, an armed robbery specialist whose name had been mentioned in underworld conversations in January 1950, concerning a score on which the gang members used binoculars to watch their intended victims count large sums of money. 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. Two days after Christmas of 1955, FBI agents paid another visit to OKeefe. Pino admitted having been in the area, claiming that he was looking for a parking place so that he could visit a relative in the hospital. You get me released, and Ill solve the case in no time, these criminals would claim. OKeefe had no place to keep so large a sum of money. 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. An appeal was promptly noted, and he was released on $15,000 bond. Each of them had surreptitiously entered the premises on several occasions after the employees had left for the day. When OKeefe admitted his part in the Brinks robbery to FBI agents in January 1956, he told of his high regard for Gusciora. Examination revealed the cause of his death to be a brain tumor and acute cerebral edema. 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 . However, the group were shocked to find a massive 26 million in gold . He ran a gold and jewellery dealing company, Scadlynn Ltd, in Bristol with business partners Garth Victor Chappell and Terence Edward James Patch. That prison term, together with Pinos conviction in March 1928 for carnal abuse of a girl, provided the basis for the deportation action. Armed crooks wearing Halloween masks and chauffeur . Geagan claimed that he spent the evening at home and did not learn of the Brinks robbery until the following day. 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. On October 20, 1981, members of the Black Liberation Army robbed a Brink's truck at the Nanuet Mall. After the truck parts were found, additional suspicion was attached to these men. 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. 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. 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 . "A search warrant was executed in Boston covering the Tremont Street offices occupied by the three men" (FBI). On June 4, 1956 a man named "Fat John" admitted he had money that was linked to the Brink's robbery in his possession. The other gang members would not talk. He was found brutally murdered in his car in 1987. On June 2, 1950, OKeefe and Gusciora left Boston by automobile for the alleged purpose of visiting the grave of Guscioras brother in Missouri. 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. What happened to the other half of the Brink's-Mat gold? (A detailed survey of the Boston waterfront previously had been made by the FBI.) 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. Both of these strong-arm suspects had been questioned by Boston authorities following the robbery. Gusciora also claimed to have been drinking that evening. Had any particles of evidence been found in the loot which might directly show that they had handled it? The person ringing the buzzer was a garage attendant. Investigation revealed that Geagan, a laborer, had not gone to work on January 17 or 18, 1950.). They were checked against serial numbers of bills known to have been included in the Brinks loot, and it was determined that the Boston criminal possessed part of the money that had been dragged away by the seven masked gunmen on January 17, 1950. Inside this container were packages of bills that had been wrapped in plastic and newspapers. He was paroled in the fall of 1944 and remained on parole through March 1954 when misfortune befell him. Like Gusciora, OKeefe was known to have associated with Pino prior to the Brinks robbery. Richardson had participated with Faherty in an armed robbery in February 1934. Although the attendant did not suspect that the robbery was taking place, this incident caused the criminals to move more swiftly. Other information provided by OKeefe helped to fill the gaps which still existed. 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. 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. 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. Then the lock cylinders were replaced. Another old gang that had specialized in hijacking bootlegged whiskey in the Boston area during Prohibition became the subject of inquiries. The Gold is a 2023 television series created for BBC One and Paramount+. He claimed he had been drinking in various taverns from approximately 5:10 p.m. until 7:45 p.m. During questioning by the FBI, the money changer stated that he was in business as a mason contractor with another man on Tremont Street in Boston. 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. As the robbers sped from the scene, a Brinks employee telephoned the Boston Police Department. Two days before Maffies release, another strong suspect died of natural causes. While action to appeal the convictions was being taken on their behalf, the eight men were removed to the State prison at Walpole, Massachusetts. 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. 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. All were guilty. All efforts to identify the persons responsible for the theft and the persons who had cut up the truck were unsuccessful. It unleashed a trail of eight murders and a global hunt for. OKeefe was sentenced on August 5, 1954, to serve 27 months in prison. (The arrests of Faherty and Richardson also resulted in the indictment of another Boston hoodlum as an accessory after the fact). 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. During their forays inside the building, members of the gang took the lock cylinders from five doors, including the one opening onto Prince Street. In the years following a shared event, like an assassination, everyone remembers where they were when it happened. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. The hideout also was found to contain more than $5,000 in coins. 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. Costa was associated with Pino in the operation of a motor terminal and a lottery in Boston. A t the time, the Brink's-Mat vault was thought to be one of the most secure facilities in the world. As a guard moved to intercept him, Burke started to run. As long as he was in prison, he could do no physical harm to his Boston criminal associates. A thorough investigation was made concerning his whereabouts on the evening of January 17, 1950. One of these officers quickly grabbed the criminals hand, and a large roll of money fell from it. Masterminded by Brian 'The Colonel' Robinson and Mickey McAvoy, the gang hoped to make off with 3 million in cash, a sum that's now equivalent to just over 9 million. Each of the five lock cylinders was taken on a separate occasion. Allegedly, he pulled a gun on OKeefe; several shots were exchanged by the two men, but none of the bullets found their mark. The families of OKeefe and Gusciora resided in the vicinity of Stoughton, Massachusetts. He subsequently was convicted and executed.). 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. Special agents subsequently interviewed Costa and his wife, Pino and his wife, the racketeer, and OKeefe. The gang at that time included all of the participants in the January 17, 1950, robbery except Henry Baker. In addition, McGinnis was named in two other complaints involving the receiving and concealing of the loot. Of the hundreds of New England hoodlums contacted by FBI agents in the weeks immediately following the robbery, few were willing to be interviewed. In the new series, Tallchief tells the true story of the $3.1 million dollar Vegas heist she committed with her boyfriend Roberto Solis. Almost. Subsequently, this machine gun was identified as having been used in the attempt on OKeefes life. Several hundred dollars were found hidden in the house but could not be identified as part of the loot. On November 26, 1981, six armed men from South London broke into the Brink's-Mat warehouse near London Heathrow. 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 material to the company safe on the second floor. The defense immediately filed motions which would delay or prevent the trial. Well-meaning persons throughout the country began sending the FBI tips and theories which they hoped would assist in the investigation. An attempted armored truck heist in South Africa was caught on camera recently; it illustrates the dangers of the job. Despite the lack of evidence and witnesses upon which court proceedings could be based, as the investigation progressed there was little doubt that OKeefe had been one of the central figures in the Brinks robbery. 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. The criminals had been looking to do a. 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. 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. He was not with the gang when the robbery took place. The conviction for burglary in McKean County, Pennsylvania, still hung over his head, and legal fees remained to be paid. The truck found at the dump had been reported stolen by a Ford dealer near Fenway Park in Boston on November 3, 1949. The Brinks Mat Robbery: The real story that inspired The Gold. The trip from the liquor store in Roxbury to the Brinks offices could be made in about 15 minutes. At approximately 9:50 p.m., the details of this incident were furnished to the Baltimore Field Office of the FBI. It was used by the defense counsel in preparing a 294-page brief that was presented to the Massachusetts State Supreme Court. The group were led by Mickey McAdams and Brian Robinson who planned to find 3 million in cash. 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. The last false approach took place on January 16, 1950the night before the robbery. The ninth man had long been a principal suspect. Jewelers report over $100 million in losses after Brinks armored truck robbed in California. From this lookout post, Costa was in a position to determine better than the men below whether conditions inside the building were favorable to the robbers. On this day, Jawarski made history by pulling off the nation's first armored car robbery. On November 16, 1959, the United States Supreme Court denied a request of the defense counsel for a writ of certiorari. All of them wore Navy-type peacoats, gloves, and chauffeurs caps. 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. The Gold: The Inside Story will hear from the . 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. Some of the bills were in pieces. 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. The series surrounds the 1983 Brink's-Mat robbery in which 26 million (equivalent to 93.3 million in 2021) worth of gold bullion, diamonds, and cash were stolen from a storehouse near Heathrow Airport. The month preceding January 17, 1950, witnessed approximately a half-dozen approaches to Brinks. More than 100 persons took the stand as witnesses for the prosecution and the defense during September 1956. They did not expect to find the Aladdin's cave to contain some 26m in gold bullion and diamonds that they stumbled upon. Baker fled and the brief meeting adjourned. In the back were Pino, OKeefe, Baker, Faherty, Maffie, Gusciora, Michael Vincent Geagan (pictured), and Thomas Francis Richardson. 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. Rumors from the underworld pointed suspicion at several criminal gangs. 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. 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. A third attempt on OKeefes life was made on June 16, 1954. 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. (Geagan, who was on parole at the time, left the truck before it arrived at the home in Roxbury where the loot was unloaded. Serious consideration originally had been given to robbing Brinks in 1947, when Brinks was located on Federal Street in Boston. A passerby might notice that it was missing. Both men remained mute following their arrests. Officials said the incident happened at a Wendy's in a strip mall at 87th and Lafayette, right off the Dan Ryan Expressway. The robbery saw six armed men break into a security depot near London . 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 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. Early in June 1956, however, an unexpected break developed. Binoculars were used in this phase of the casing operation. 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. 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. In September 1949, Pinos efforts to evade deportation met with success. The planning and practice had a military intensity to them; the attention to detail including the close approximation of the uniform of the Brinks guards was near . Local officers searched their homes, but no evidence linking them with the truck or the robbery was found. The recovery of part of the loot was a severe blow to the gang members who still awaited trial in Boston. Banfield had been a close associate of McGinnis for many years. What happened in the Brink's-Mat robbery? Adding to these problems was the constant pressure being exerted upon Pino by OKeefe from the county jail in Towanda, Pennsylvania. In addition to mold, insect remains also were found on the loot. If passing police had looked closer early that Saturday morning on November 26, 1983, they would have noticed the van was weighted down below its wheel arches with three tons of gold. 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. 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. Three years later, Great Train Robber. 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. Ten of the persons who appeared before this grand jury breathed much more easily when they learned that no indictments had been returned. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. The results were negative. The heist happened on Prince Street in Boston's North End on Jan. 17, 1950. It ultimately proved unproductive. The record of the state trial covered more than 5,300 pages. At approximately 7:30 p.m. on June 3, 1956, an officer of the Baltimore, Maryland, Police Department was approached by the operator of an amusement arcade. Some of the jewelry might. This lead was pursued intensively. All five employees had been forced at gunpoint to lie face down on the floor. 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 . 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.