Former inmates of penal institutions reported conversations they had overheard while incarcerated which concerned the robbing of Brinks. On the afternoon of July 9, he was visited by a clergyman. Brink's-Mat robbery - Wikipedia All had been published in Boston between December 4, 1955, and February 21, 1956. Banfield had been a close associate of McGinnis for many years. O'Keefe cooperated with writer Bob Considine on The Men Who Robbed Brink's, a 1961 "as told to" book about the robbery and its aftermath. Jazz Maffie was convicted of federal income tax evasion and began serving a nine-month sentence in the Federal Penitentiary at Danbury, Connecticut, in June 1954. From the size of the loot and the number of men involved, it was logical that the gang might have used a truck. Another old gang that had specialized in hijacking bootlegged whiskey in the Boston area during Prohibition became the subject of inquiries. 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. WebThe Brinks Robbery The idea for the heist came from Joseph Big Joe McGinniss, but career criminal Anthony Fats Pino. Both denied knowledge of the loot that had been recovered. WebMore than 6,000 gold bars were stolen in the robbery from a warehouse on the outskirts of Heathrow on 26 November, 1983. 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. Although the attendant did not suspect that the robbery was taking place, this incident caused the criminals to move more swiftly. All efforts to identify the persons responsible for the theft and the persons who had cut up the truck were unsuccessful. The money inside the cooler which was concealed in the wall of the Tremont Street office was wrapped in plastic and newspaper. He arrived in Baltimore on the morning of June 3 and was picked up by the Baltimore Police Department that evening. WebBrian Robinson was convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to 25 years in prison. John had a smelter in his garden hut near Bath. 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. Costa was associated with Pino in the operation of a motor terminal and a lottery in Boston. It was at the time the largest robbery in the history of the United States, and has been called "the crime of the century". A roll of waterproof adhesive tape used to gag and bind bank employees that was left at the scene of the crime. As long as he was in prison, he could do no physical harm to his Boston criminal associates. 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. As the truck drove past the Brinks offices, the robbers noted that the lights were out on the Prince Street side of the building. Using the outside door key they had previously obtained, the men quickly entered and donned their masks. 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. Before removing the remainder of the loot from the house on January 18, 1950, the gang members attempted to identify incriminating items. Before the robbers could take him prisoner, the garage attendant walked away. Minutes later, police arrived at the Brinks building, and special agents of the FBI quickly joined in the investigation. The hideout also was found to contain more than $5,000 in coins. 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 the time it was Britains 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. 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. McGinnis had been arrested at the site of a still in New Hampshire in February 1954. He later was to be arrested as a member of the robbery gang. Their plan was to enter the Brinks building and take a truck containing payrolls. 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. During this operation, one of the employees had lost his glasses; they later could not be found on the Brinks premises. On March 4, 1950, pieces of an identical truck were found at a dump in Stoughton, Massachusetts. A lock () or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. It was given to him in a suitcase that was transferred to his car from an automobile occupied by McGinnis and Banfield. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Great_Brink%27s_Robbery&oldid=1134169121, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 17 January 2023, at 09:19. OKeefe had no place to keep so large a sum of money. Gordon John Parry, Brian Perry, Patrick Clark, Jean Savage and Anthony Black were all given between five and 10 years in prison for their part in the crime. This phase of the investigation was pursued exhaustively. The removal of the lock cylinder from the outside door involved the greatest risk of detection. In December 1948, Brinks moved from Federal Street to 165 Prince Street in Boston. His case had gone to the highest court in the land. Because the money in the cooler was in various stages of decomposition, an accurate count proved most difficult to make. [18] The total amount stolen was $1,218,211 in cash and $1,557,183 in checks and other securities. McGinness masterminded the crime. On January 12, 1956, just five days before the statute of limitations was to run out, the FBI arrested Baker, Costa, Geagan, Maffie, McGinnis, and Pino. The mass of information gathered during the early weeks of the investigation was continuously sifted. After completing its hearings on January 9, 1953, the grand jury retired to weigh the evidence. Veteran criminals throughout the United States found their activities during mid-January the subject of official inquiry. The Great Brinks Robbery of 1950: Not Quite the Perfect Crime First, there was the money. 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. 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. After each interview, FBI agents worked feverishly into the night checking all parts of his story which were subject to verification. This lead was pursued intensively. Executive producers are Tommy Bulfin for the BBC; Neil Forsyth and Ben Farrell for Tannadice Pictures; and Kate Laffey and Claire Sowerby-Sheppard for VIS. OKeefe was the principal witness to appear before the state grand jurors. Examination revealed the cause of his death to be a brain tumor and acute cerebral edema. Both are real characters. As this bag was being emptied later that evening, the glasses were discovered and destroyed by the gang.

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