Adolph Maffie, who had been convicted of income tax violation in June 1954, was released from the Federal Corrections Institution at Danbury, Connecticut, on January 30, 1955. WebGordon John Parry, Brian Perry, Patrick Clark, and Jean Savage were all convicted at the Old Bailey. He had been questioned concerning his whereabouts on January 17, 1950, and he was unable to provide any specific account of where he had been. Information received from this individual linked nine well-known hoodlums with the crime. [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. As the loot was being placed in bags and stacked between the second and third doors leading to the Prince Street entrance, a buzzer sounded. Three of the newspapers used to wrap the bills were identified. Although Gusciora was acquitted of the charges against him in Towanda, he was removed to McKean County, Pennsylvania, to stand trial for burglary, larceny, and receiving stolen goods. Other information provided by OKeefe helped to fill the gaps which still existed. Many problems and dangers were involved in such a robbery, and the plans never crystallized. Thorough inquiries were made concerning the disposition of the bags after their receipt by the Massachusetts firm. As the robbers sped from the scene, a Brinks employee telephoned the Boston Police Department. During this operation, one of the employees had lost his glasses; they later could not be found on the Brinks premises. As long as he was in prison, he could do no physical harm to his Boston criminal associates. 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. 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. OKeefe immediately returned to Boston to await the results of the appeal. 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. other securities in the 1950 Brinks heist. Local officers searched their homes, but no evidence linking them with the truck or the robbery was found. All right, he told two FBI agents, what do you want to know?. None of these materialized because the gang did not consider the conditions to be favorable. Each of these leads was checked out. As the investigation developed and thousands of leads were followed to dead ends, the broad field of possible suspects gradually began to narrow. Another old gang that had specialized in hijacking bootlegged whiskey in the Boston area during Prohibition became the subject of inquiries. On August 30, he was taken into custody as a suspicious person. This is not the first time that Cuomo has commuted a sentence for someone involved in the Brink's robbery. It ultimately proved unproductive. 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. On October 11, 1950, Gusciora was sentenced to serve from five to 20 years in the Western Pennsylvania Penitentiary at Pittsburgh. There was Adolph Jazz Maffie, one of the hoodlums who allegedly was being pressured to contribute money for the legal battle of OKeefe and Gusciora against Pennsylvania authorities. After completing its hearings on January 9, 1953, the grand jury retired to weigh the evidence. A thorough investigation was made concerning his whereabouts on the evening of January 17, 1950. The wall partition described by the Boston criminal was located in Fat Johns office, and when the partition was removed, a picnic-type cooler was found. [3] After five aborted runs, Costa finally gave the go-ahead on the night of January 17, 1950. During the trip from Roxbury, Pino distributed Navy-type peacoats and chauffeurs caps to the other seven men in the rear of the truck. Neither had too convincing an alibi. In the succeeding two weeks, nearly 1,200 prospective jurors were eliminated as the defense counsel used their 262 peremptory challenges. This is good money, he said, but you cant pass it around here in Boston.. 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. In addition, McGinnis was named in two other complaints involving the receiving and concealing of the loot. After O'Keefe was released he was taken to stand trial for another burglary and parole violations and was released on a bail of $17,000. Only $58,000 of the $2.7 million was recovered. Two days after Christmas of 1955, FBI agents paid another visit to OKeefe. 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. Brian The Colonel Robinson, 78, was cheated out of his share of the record haul. Soon the underworld rang with startling news concerning this pair. For other similarly-named robberies in 1981, 1983 and 2008, see, "Historical Photos: Boston's Great Brinks Robbery", "A quarter-century laterBrink's robber admits guilt to Globe", "O'Keefe Says Brink's Holdup Gang Vowed To Kill Any Member Who Periled Others", "Specs O'Keefe, Informant In Brink's Robbery, Dies", "Tony Pino, 67, Participated In '50 Boston Brinks Holdup", "Adolph (Jazz) Maffie; Last Survivor of Brink's Gang", "Six Arrests Break $1,218,211 Brink's Robbery", "Brink Robbery History Recalled After Decade", "$1,500,000 HOLDUP: 7 Masked Men Rob Brink's, Boston; Leave Another Million", "The False-Face Bandits: Greed Wrecked the Brink's Case Gang", "Gang of Nine Robs Brink's at Boston; $150,000 Reward Out", Historical Photos: Boston's Great Brinks Robbery. Much of the money taken from the money changer appeared to have been stored a long time. An immediate effort also was made to obtain descriptive data concerning the missing cash and securities. Due to his criminal record, the Immigration and Naturalization Service instituted proceedings in 1941 to deport him. 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. Thieves stole more than $1.2 million in cash and another $1.5 million in checks and. Pino also was linked with the robbery, and there was every reason to suspect that OKeefe felt Pino was turning his back on him now that OKeefe was in jail. 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. Although the attendant did not suspect that the robbery was taking place, this incident caused the criminals to move more swiftly. Members of the Purple Gang of the 1930s found that there was renewed interest in their activities. The Six members of the gangBaker, Costa, Geagan, Maffie, McGinnis, and Pinowere arrested by FBI agents on January 12, 1956. 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 detainer involved OKeefes violation of probation in connection with a conviction in 1945 for carrying concealed weapons. The police officer said he had been talking to McGinnis first, and Pino arrived later to join them. Prior to his murder, 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. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. OKeefe had no place to keep so large a sum of money. 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. On June 17, 1954, the Boston police arrested Elmer Trigger Burke and charged him with possession of a machine gun. 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. FBI agents tried to talk to O'Keefe and Gusciora in prison but the two professed ignorance of the Brink's robbery. For example, from a citizen in California came the suggestion that the loot might be concealed in the Atlantic Ocean near Boston. OKeefe was the principal witness to appear before the state grand jurors. 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. WebGordon 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. WebA Byte Out of HistoryThe Great Brinks Robbery. Fat John announced that each of the packages contained $5,000. 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. From his cell in Springfield, OKeefe wrote bitter letters to members of the Brinks gang and persisted in his demands for money. Richardson had participated with Faherty in an armed robbery in February 1934. Of the eleven people involved in the robbery, eight would receive life sentences after a trial, with two others dying before they could be convicted. Of the $4,822 found in the small-time criminals possession, FBI agents identified $4,635 as money taken by the Brinks robbers. Before the robbery was carried out, all of the participants were well acquainted with the Brinks premises. WebBrian Robinson was convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Of the hundreds of New England hoodlums contacted by FBI agents in the weeks immediately following the robbery, few were willing to be interviewed. On February 5, 1950, however, a police officer in Somerville, Massachusetts, recovered one of the four revolvers that had been taken by the robbers. Several hundred dollars were found hidden in the house but could not be identified as part of the loot. Inside the building, the gang members carefully studied all available information concerning Brinks schedules and shipments. The truck found at the dump had been reported stolen by a Ford dealer near Fenway Park in Boston on November 3, 1949. 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. Each of the five lock cylinders was taken on a separate occasion. He was released in 2000, after serving 16 years of his term. The robbers carefully planned routine inside Brinks was interrupted only when the attendant in the adjoining Brinks garage sounded the buzzer. This incident also took place in Dorchester and involved the firing of more than 30 shots. Police heard through their informers that O'Keefe and Gusciora demanded money from Pino and MacGinnis in Boston to fight their convictions. Two hours later he was dead. The officer verified the meeting. 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. By this time, Baker was suffering from a bad case of nerves. This man claimed to have no knowledge of Pinos involvement in the Brinks robbery.). Some persons claimed to have seen him. Commonly regarded as a dominant figure in the Boston underworld, McGinnis previously had been convicted of robbery and narcotics violations. It was at the time the largest robbery in the history of the United States, and has been called "the crime of the century". 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. The month preceding January 17, 1950, witnessed approximately a half-dozen approaches to Brinks. 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. A private security and protection company was co-ordinating the shipment of $20 million worth of gold and high-value goods when they were stolen from Toronto Pearson International Airport. [19] Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, J. Edgar Hoover, took over supervision of the investigation.[20]. 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. The missing racketeers automobile was found near his home; however, his whereabouts remain a mystery. Underworld sources described him as fully capable of planning and executing the Brinks robbery. The ninth man had long been a principal suspect. In the hours immediately following the robbery, the underworld began to feel the heat of the investigation. 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. Nothing suggests it was a stick-em-up robbery or strong-arm heist. After a period of hostility, he began to display a friendly attitude. Examination by the FBI Laboratory subsequently disclosed that the decomposition, discoloration, and matting together of the bills were due, at least in part, to the fact that all of the bills had been wet. Pino would take the locks to the mans shop, and keys would be made for them. This was a question which preyed heavily upon their minds.
Burnbrae Primary School Priesthill,
Articles W