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. Underworld sources described him as fully capable of planning and executing the Brinks robbery. 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.". From the size of the loot and the number of men involved, it was logical that the gang might have used a truck. Even after these convictions, OKeefe and Gusciora continued to seek their release. Estimates range from $10 million to $100 million. Occasionally, an offender who was facing a prison term would boast that he had hot information. During this operation, one of the employees had lost his glasses; they later could not be found on the Brinks premises. Micky McAvoy, believed by police to be the mastermind behind the robbery, was arrested ten days after the robbery. As the truck drove past the Brinks offices, the robbers noted that the lights were out on the Prince Street side of the building. The crime inspired at least four movies and two books, including The Story of the Great Brink's Robbery, as Told by the FBI. The Brinks Mat Robbery: The real story that inspired The Gold. Brinks customers were contacted for information regarding the packaging and shipping materials they used. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. The full details of this important development were immediately furnished to the FBI Office in Boston. Three of the remaining five gang members were previously accounted for, OKeefe and Gusciora being in prison on other charges and Banfield being dead. On June 2, 1950, OKeefe and Gusciora left Boston by automobile for the alleged purpose of visiting the grave of Guscioras brother in Missouri. The theft changed the face of the British underworld. In addition to mold, insect remains also were found on the loot. Before the robbery was carried out, all of the participants were well acquainted with the Brinks premises. However, the group were shocked to find a massive 26 million in gold . 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. Banfield, the driver, was alone in the front. All denied any knowledge of the alleged incident. Local officers searched their homes, but no evidence linking them with the truck or the robbery was found. At 6:30am, six armed robbers from a south London gang entered the premises of the Brink's-Mat warehouse at Heathrow. 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. The record of the state trial covered more than 5,300 pages. Due to his criminal record, the Immigration and Naturalization Service instituted proceedings in 1941 to deport him. Soon the underworld rang with startling news concerning this pair. Questioned by Boston police on the day following the robbery, Baker claimed that he had eaten dinner with his family on the evening of January 17, 1950, and then left home at about 7:00 p.m. to walk around the neighborhood for about two hours. 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. Both had served prison sentences, and both were well known to underworld figures on the East Coast. The hoodlum was taken to police headquarters where a search of his person disclosed he was carrying more than $1,000, including $860 in musty, worn bills. 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. 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. It was given to him in a suitcase that was transferred to his car from an automobile occupied by McGinnis and Banfield. On August 30, he was taken into custody as a suspicious person. From his cell in Springfield, OKeefe wrote bitter letters to members of the Brinks gang and persisted in his demands for money. Three and one-half hours later, the verdict had been reached. 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. He advised that he and his associate shared office space with an individual known to him only as Fat John. According to the Boston hoodlum, on the night of June 1, 1956, Fat John asked him to rip a panel from a section of the wall in the office, and when the panel was removed, Fat John reached into the opening and removed the cover from a metal container. Even in their jail cells, however, they showed no respect for law enforcement. Instead, they found three tonnes of gold bullion. That same afternoon (following the admission that Fat John had produced the money and had described it as proceeds from the Brinks robbery), a search warrant was executed in Boston covering the Tremont Street offices occupied by the three men. Each carried a pair of gloves. It unleashed a trail of eight murders and a global hunt for. 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. 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. Their success in evading arrest ended abruptly on May 16, 1956, when FBI agents raided the apartment in which they were hiding in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Two days before Maffies release, another strong suspect died of natural causes. 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. 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. 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. The stolen 6,800 gold ingots, diamonds and cash would be worth 100million today. OKeefe was the principal witness to appear before the state grand jurors. 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. Todd Williamson/Getty Images David Ghantt attends the 2016 after party for the Hollywood premiere of Masterminds, based on the Loomis Fargo heist that he helped carry out. 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. Until the FBI and its partners painstakingly solved the case. He was paroled in the fall of 1944 and remained on parole through March 1954 when misfortune befell him. Police who arrived to investigate found a large amount of blood, a mans shattered wrist watch, and a .45 caliber pistol at the scene. 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. In the end, the perfect crime had a perfect endingfor everyone but the robbers. He. 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. Early in June 1956, however, an unexpected break developed. They stole 26 million in gold bullion - the biggest robbery of . 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. Almost immediately, the gang began laying new plans. Like the others, Banfield had been questioned concerning his activities on the night of January 17, 1950. The Brinks Mat Robbery: The real story that inspired The Gold. Others fell apart as they were handled. 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. Gusciora also claimed to have been drinking that evening. He, too, had left his home shortly before 7:00 p.m. on the night of the robbery and met the Boston police officer soon thereafter. From interviews with the five employees whom the criminals had confronted, it was learned that between five and seven robbers had entered the building. You'd be forgiven for mistaking the 2005 Miami Brinks heist for a movie script. Faherty had been questioned on the night of the robbery. Sentenced to serve from five to seven years for this offense, he was released from prison in September 1941. Neither Pino nor McGinnis was known to be the type of hoodlum who would undertake so potentially dangerous a crime without the best strong-arm support available. In pursuing the underworld rumors concerning the principal suspects in the Brinks case, the FBI succeeded in identifying more probable members of the gang. The pardon meant that his record no longer contained the second conviction; thus, the Immigration and Naturalization Service no longer had grounds to deport him. During their forays inside the building, members of the gang took the lock cylinders from five doors, including the one opening onto Prince Street. A few weeks later, OKeefe retrieved his share of the loot. I think a fellow just passed a counterfeit $10.00 bill on me, he told the officer. By fixing this time as close as possible to the minute at which the robbery was to begin, the robbers would have alibis to cover their activities up to the final moment. The descriptions and serial numbers of these weapons were carefully noted since they might prove a valuable link to the men responsible for the crime. 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. In 1936 and 1937, Faherty was convicted of armed robbery violations. A t the time, the Brink's-Mat vault was thought to be one of the most secure facilities in the world. Many tips were received from anonymous persons. His explanation: He had been drinking at a bar in Boston. Geagan claimed that he spent the evening at home and did not learn of the Brinks robbery until the following day. As a government witness, he reluctantly would have testified against him. OKeefe wore crepe-soled shoes to muffle his footsteps; the others wore rubbers. Six members of the gangBaker, Costa, Geagan, Maffie, McGinnis, and Pinowere arrested by FBI agents on January 12, 1956. When the employees were securely bound and gagged, the robbers began looting the premises. The criminals had been looking to do a. On June 12, 1950, they were arrested at Towanda, Pennsylvania, and guns and clothing that were the loot from burglaries at Kane and Coudersport, Pennsylvania, were found in their possession. After being wounded on June 16, OKeefe disappeared. On February 5, 1950, however, a police officer in Somerville, Massachusetts, recovered one of the four revolvers that had been taken by the robbers. The gang at that time included all of the participants in the January 17, 1950, robbery except Henry Baker. Shortly after these two guns were found, one of them was placed in a trash barrel and was taken to the city dump. 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. Accordingly, another lock cylinder was installed until the original one was returned. The. On January 10, 1953, following his appearance before the federal grand jury in connection with the Brinks case, Pino was taken into custody again as a deportable alien. The Gold: The Inside Story will hear from the . The robbers did little talking. It was billed as the perfect crime and the the crime of the century..