More than 100 persons took the stand as witnesses for the prosecution and the defense during September 1956. 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. 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 last false approach took place on January 16, 1950the night before the robbery. In addition, McGinnis received other sentences of two years, two and one-half to three years, and eight to ten years. What happened in the Brink's-Mat robbery? A passerby might notice that it was missing. This underworld character told the officers that he had found this money. Serious consideration originally had been given to robbing Brinks in 1947, when Brinks was located on Federal Street in Boston. On November, 26, 1983, three tonnes of solid gold bullion was taken by six armed robbers from the Brink's-Mat security depot near . Allegedly, he pulled a gun on OKeefe; several shots were exchanged by the two men, but none of the bullets found their mark. 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. 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.. Rumors from the underworld pointed suspicion at several criminal gangs. On November 26, 1981, six armed men from South London broke into the Brink's-Mat warehouse near London Heathrow. Brinks customers were contacted for information regarding the packaging and shipping materials they used. This man subsequently identified locks from doors which the Brinks gang had entered as being similar to the locks which Pino had brought him. Prior to this time, McGinnis had been at his liquor store. Geagan claimed that he spent the evening at home and did not learn of the Brinks robbery until the following day. Each of them had surreptitiously entered the premises on several occasions after the employees had left for the day. The Bureau was convinced that it had identified the actual robbers, but evidence and witnesses had to be found. The public called the robbery the crime of the century: On January 17, 1950, armed men stole more than $2.7 million in cash, checks, money orders, and other securities from a Brink's in. The removal of the lock cylinder from the outside door involved the greatest risk of detection. Sentenced to serve from five to seven years for this offense, he was released from prison in September 1941. During November and December 1949, the approach to the Brinks building and the flight over the getaway route were practiced to perfection. This lead was pursued intensively. The gang at that time included all of the participants in the January 17, 1950, robbery except Henry Baker. 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. 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. 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. The Brink's-Mat robbery remains to this day one of Britain's biggest and most audacious heists. From their prison cells, they carefully followed the legal maneuvers aimed at gaining them freedom. The group had expected to find foreign currency at the security depot but instead happened upon 26 million worth of goods. In the fall of 1955, an upper court overruled the conviction on the grounds that the search and seizure of the still were illegal.). Three of the newspapers used to wrap the bills were identified. 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. 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. The robbers removed the adhesive tape from the mouth of one employee and learned that the buzzer signified that someone wanted to enter the vault area. Any doubts that the Brinks gang had that the FBI was on the right track in its investigation were allayed when the federal grand jury began hearings in Boston on November 25, 1952, concerning this crime. Adding to these problems was the constant pressure being exerted upon Pino by OKeefe from the county jail in Towanda, Pennsylvania. One of these officers quickly grabbed the criminals hand, and a large roll of money fell from it. And what of McGinnis himself? It was called the crime of the century, the largest heist in US history, an almost perfect robbery. After each interview, FBI agents worked feverishly into the night checking all parts of his story which were subject to verification. Pierra Willix Monday 13 Feb 2023 8:00 am. 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. The amusement arcade operator told the officer that he had followed the man who passed this $10.00 bill to a nearby tavern. 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. On August 30, he was taken into custody as a suspicious person. Years earlier, a private investigator, Daniel Morgan, was said to have been looking into the robbery. This is good money, he said, but you cant pass it around here in Boston.. They did not expect to find the Aladdin's cave to contain some 26m in gold bullion and diamonds that they stumbled upon. This phase of the investigation was pursued exhaustively. 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. The robbers carefully planned routine inside Brinks was interrupted only when the attendant in the adjoining Brinks garage sounded the buzzer. Tarr was doomed to the role of unlucky Brinks driver. The person ringing the buzzer was a garage attendant. Richardson had participated with Faherty in an armed robbery in February 1934. To muffle their footsteps, one of the gang wore crepe-soled shoes, and the others wore rubbers. Shortly after these two guns were found, one of them was placed in a trash barrel and was taken to the city dump. Other information provided by OKeefe helped to fill the gaps which still existed. The group were led . The Brinks Mat Robbery: The real story that inspired The Gold. This man claimed to have no knowledge of Pinos involvement in the Brinks robbery.). . Subsequently, he engaged in a conversation with McGinnis and a Boston police officer. T he robbers were there because they knew there was 3 million in cash locked in the . 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. Three and one-half hours later, the verdict had been reached. Stanley Gusciora (pictured left), who had been transferred to Massachusetts from Pennsylvania to stand trial, was placed under medical care due to weakness, dizziness, and vomiting. Underworld figures in Boston have generally speculated that the racketeer was killed because of his association with OKeefe. 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. When the employees were securely bound and gagged, the robbers began looting the premises. Veteran criminals throughout the United States found their activities during mid-January the subject of official inquiry. It ultimately proved unproductive. Those killed in the. Like Gusciora, OKeefe was known to have associated with Pino prior to the Brinks robbery. The Transit's heavily armed occupants had stolen the bullion less than an hour earlier from the Brink's-Mat security warehouse 12 miles away at Heathrow. His case had gone to the highest court in the land. 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 . 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. While some gang members remained in the building to ensure that no one detected the operation, other members quickly obtained keys to fit the locks. FBI.gov is an official site of the U.S. Department of Justice. (McGinnis trial in March 1955 on the liquor charge resulted in a sentence to 30 days imprisonment and a fine of $1,000. At 4:20 p.m. on January 6, 1956, OKeefe made the final decision. The Great Brink's Robbery was an armed robbery of the Brink's building in the North End of Boston, Massachusetts, on January 17, 1950. The criminals had been looking to do a. The full details of this important development were immediately furnished to the FBI Office in Boston. Due to unsatisfactory conduct, drunkenness, refusal to seek employment, and association with known criminals, his parole was revoked, and he was returned to the Massachusetts State Prison. Both had served prison sentences, and both were well known to underworld figures on the East Coast. 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. The police officer said he had been talking to McGinnis first, and Pino arrived later to join them. 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. Soon the underworld rang with startling news concerning this pair. (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. An immediate effort also was made to obtain descriptive data concerning the missing cash and securities. In September 1949, Pinos efforts to evade deportation met with success. Pino would take the locks to the mans shop, and keys would be made for them. Jewelers report over $100 million in losses after Brinks armored truck robbed in California. The recovery of part of the loot was a severe blow to the gang members who still awaited trial in Boston. The. 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. 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. Three years later, Great Train Robber. He was granted a full pardon by the acting governor of Massachusetts. All were denied, and the impaneling of the jury was begun on August 7. As long as he was in prison, he could do no physical harm to his Boston criminal associates. Despite the arrests and indictments in January 1956, more than $2,775,000, including $1,218,211.29 in cash, was still missing. He later was to be arrested as a member of the robbery gang. From Boston, the pressure quickly spread to other cities. A 32-year-old Cuban immigrant living in Miami, Karls Monzon was . Early in June 1956, however, an unexpected break developed. The team of burglars bypassed the truck's locking mechanism and used the storage containers to haul away precious gems, gold and other valuables. Costa was associated with Pino in the operation of a motor terminal and a lottery in Boston. The Brink's-Mat robbery occurred at the Heathrow International Trading Estate, London, United Kingdom, on 26 November 1983 and was one of the largest robberies in British history. As a government witness, he reluctantly would have testified against him. The truck pieces were concealed in fiber bags when found. This was a question which preyed heavily upon their minds. While the officer and amusement arcade operator were talking to him, the hoodlum reached into his pocket, quickly withdrew his hand again and covered his hand with a raincoat he was carrying. 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. An automobile identified as the car used in the escape was located near a Boston hospital, and police officers concealed themselves in the area. 00:29. 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. Two days after Christmas of 1955, FBI agents paid another visit to OKeefe. Chicago police said at about 3 p.m., a 38-year-old male armored truck . Former inmates of penal institutions reported conversations they had overheard while incarcerated which concerned the robbing of Brinks. BOSTON Friday, Jan. 17, 2020 marks 70 years since a group of armed and masked men stole millions of dollars from an armored car depot in the North End in what the FBI still calls "the crime of the century.". The thieves quickly bound the employees and began hauling away the loot. This chauffeurs cap was left at the scene of the crime of the centurythe 1950 robbery of a Brink's bank branch in Massachusetts. 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. In the end, the perfect crime had a perfect endingfor everyone but the robbers. The FBI further learned that four revolvers had been taken by the gang. 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. 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. Some of the bills were in pieces. 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 hideout also was found to contain more than $5,000 in coins. 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. Race tracks and gambling establishments also were covered in the hope of finding some of the loot in circulation. None proved fruitful. 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. Shortly thereafterduring the first week of Novembera 1949 green Ford stake-body truck was reported missing by a car dealer in Boston. There were recurring rumors that this hoodlum, Joseph Sylvester Banfield (pictured), had been right down there on the night of the crime. Again, he was determined to fight, using the argument that his conviction for the 1948 larceny offense was not a basis for deportation. All denied any knowledge of the alleged incident. Each robbers face was completely concealed behind a Halloween-type mask. 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. The officer verified the meeting. His explanation: He had been drinking at a bar in Boston. Many problems and dangers were involved in such a robbery, and the plans never crystallized. Following their arrests, a former bondsman in Boston made frequent trips to Towanda in an unsuccessful effort to secure their release on bail. In December 1954, he indicated to the agents that Pino could look for rough treatment if he (OKeefe) again was released.