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. Yet, when he was Commonly regarded as a dominant figure in the Boston underworld, McGinnis previously had been convicted of robbery and narcotics violations. Had the ground not been frozen, the person or persons who abandoned the bags probably would have attempted to bury them. Former inmates of penal institutions reported conversations they had overheard while incarcerated which concerned the robbing of Brinks. While on bond he returned to Boston; on January 23, 1954, he appeared in the Boston Municipal Court on the probation violation charge. He was not involved in the Brinks robbery. The gang at that time included all of the participants in the January 17, 1950, robbery except Henry Baker. From Boston, the pressure quickly spread to other cities. Through the interviews of persons in the vicinity of the Brinks offices on the evening of January 17, 1950, the FBI learned that a 1949 green Ford stake-body truck with a canvas top had been parked near the Prince Street door of Brinks at approximately the time of the robbery. The FBI also succeeded in locating the carpenter who had remodeled the offices where the loot was hidden. 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. He later was to be arrested as a member of the robbery gang. 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. This incident also took place in Dorchester and involved the firing of more than 30 shots. In pursuing the underworld rumors concerning the principal suspects in the Brinks case, the FBI succeeded in identifying more probable members of the gang. Ten of the persons who appeared before this grand jury breathed much more easily when they learned that no indictments had been returned. Nonetheless, the finding of the truck parts at Stoughton, Massachusetts, was to prove a valuable break in the investigation. 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. Examination revealed the cause of his death to be a brain tumor and acute cerebral edema. The other keys in their possession enabled them to proceed to the second floor where they took the five Brinks employees by surprise. Banfield had been a close associate of McGinnis for many years. During 1955, OKeefe carefully pondered his position. McAvoy wanted members of the Arif crime family, specialists in armed robbery, on the job. Much of the money taken from the money changer appeared to have been stored a long time. OKeefe paid his respects to other members of the Brinks gang in Boston on several occasions in the spring of 1954, and it was obvious to the agents handling the investigation that he was trying to solicit money. Even in their jail cells, however, they showed no respect for law enforcement. 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. There were recurring rumors that this hoodlum, Joseph Sylvester Banfield (pictured), had been right down there on the night of the crime. Thirteen people were detained in the hours following the robbery, including two former employees of Brink's. OKeefe claimed that he left his hotel room in Boston at approximately 7:00 p.m. on January 17, 1950. On January 13, 1956, the Suffolk County grand jury returned indictments against the 11 members of the Brinks gang. Following the robbery, authorities attempted unsuccessfully to locate him at the hotel. Both OKeefe and Gusciora had been interviewed on several occasions concerning the Brinks robbery, but they had claimed complete ignorance. His case had gone to the highest court in the land. It was billed as the perfect crime and the the crime of the century.. (A detailed survey of the Boston waterfront previously had been made by the FBI.) The thieves quickly bound the employees and began hauling away the loot. Underworld rumors alleged that Maffie and Henry Baker were high on OKeefes list because they had beaten him out of a large amount of money. The pair recruited criminal Kenneth Noye, an expert in his field, who Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Subsequently, OKeefe left his carand the $200,000in a garage on Blue Hill Avenue in Boston. Since he claimed to have met no one and to have stopped nowhere during his walk, he actually could have been doing anything on the night of the crime. FBI agents tried to talk to O'Keefe and Gusciora in prison but the two professed ignorance of the Brink's robbery. Even if released, he thought, his days were numbered. Due to his criminal record, the Immigration and Naturalization Service instituted proceedings in 1941 to deport him. Shakur's conviction includes planning the $1.6 million Brinks robbery in Rockland on Oct. 20, 1981. Jeweler and also a bullion dealer, John Palmer, was arrested. WebThe robberys mastermind was Anthony Fats Pino, a career criminal who recruited a group of 10 other men to stake out the depot for 18 months to figure out when it held the Geagan claimed that he spent the evening at home and did not learn of the Brinks robbery until the following day. 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. Two other Baltimore police officers who were walking along the street nearby noted this maneuver. Like Gusciora, OKeefe was known to have associated with Pino prior to the Brinks robbery. As a cooperative measure, the information gathered by the FBI in the Brinks investigation was made available to the District Attorney of Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 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. On the night of January 18, 1950, OKeefe and Gusciora received $100,000 each from the robbery loot. 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. Adolph Maffie was convicted and sentenced to nine months for income tax evasion. In the end, the perfect crime had a perfect endingfor everyone but the robbers. After a couple of attempts he hired underworld hitman Elmer "Trigger" Burke to kill O'Keefe. On June 17, 1954, the Boston police arrested Elmer Trigger Burke and charged him with possession of a machine gun. Again, he was determined to fight, using the argument that his conviction for the 1948 larceny offense was not a basis for deportation. Then, there was the fact that so much dead wood was includedMcGinnis, Banfield, Costa, and Pino were not in the building when the robbery took place. 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. Faherty and Richardson fled to avoid apprehension and subsequently were placed on the list of the FBIs Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. He subsequently was convicted and executed.). McGinness masterminded the crime. More than 100 persons took the stand as witnesses for the prosecution and the defense during September 1956. The conviction for burglary in McKean County, Pennsylvania, still hung over his head, and legal fees remained to be paid. The defense immediately filed motions which would delay or prevent the trial. There were the rope and adhesive tape used to bind and gag the employees and a chauffeurs cap that one of the robbers had left at the crime scene. Information received from this individual linked nine well-known hoodlums with the crime. All identifying marks placed on currency and securities by the customers were noted, and appropriate stops were placed at banking institutions across the nation. The mass of information gathered during the early weeks of the investigation was continuously sifted. There had been three attempts on his life in June 1954, and his frustrated assassins undoubtedly were waiting for him to return to Boston. The only physical evidence left at the crime scene was a cap and the tape and rope used to bind up the employees. The missing racketeers automobile was found near his home; however, his whereabouts remain a mystery. In December 1948, Brinks moved from Federal Street to 165 Prince Street in Boston. He had been released on parole from the Norfolk, Massachusetts, Prison Colony on August 22, 1949only five months before the robbery. Local officers searched their homes, but no evidence linking them with the truck or the robbery was found. OKeefes reputation for nerve was legend. As the investigation developed and thousands of leads were followed to dead ends, the broad field of possible suspects gradually began to narrow. A roll of waterproof adhesive tape used to gag and bind bank employees that was left at the scene of the crime. Well-meaning persons throughout the country began sending the FBI tips and theories which they hoped would assist in the investigation. Minutes later, police arrived at the Brinks building, and special agents of the FBI quickly joined in the investigation. OKeefe was sentenced on August 5, 1954, to serve 27 months in prison. Early in June 1956, however, an unexpected break developed. On June 2, 1950, OKeefe and Gusciora left Boston by automobile for the alleged purpose of visiting the grave of Guscioras brother in Missouri. OKeefe and Gusciora had been close friends for many years. Soon the underworld rang with startling news concerning this pair. 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. John had a smelter in his garden hut near Bath. That prison term, together with Pinos conviction in March 1928 for carnal abuse of a girl, provided the basis for the deportation action. The robbery. At the time of his arrest, there also was a charge of armed robbery outstanding against him in Massachusetts. The full details of this important development were immediately furnished to the FBI Office in Boston. In addition to mold, insect remains also were found on the loot. (Geagan, who was on parole at the time, left the truck before it arrived at the home in Roxbury where the loot was unloaded. At approximately 9:50 p.m., the details of this incident were furnished to the Baltimore Field Office of the FBI. Pino would take the locks to the mans shop, and keys would be made for them. A few months prior to the robbery, OKeefe and Gusciora surreptitiously entered the premises of a protective alarm company in Boston and obtained a copy of the protective plans for the Brinks building. On the afternoon of August 28, 1954, Trigger Burke escaped from the Suffolk County jail in Boston, where he was being held on the gun-possession charge arising from the June 16 shooting of OKeefe. At the centre of The Gold are the detective Brian Boyce, played by Hugh Bonneville, and Kenneth Noye, played by Jack Lowden. By Beth Rose. A trial began on August 6, 1956. Subsequently, he engaged in a conversation with McGinnis and a Boston police officer. Extensive efforts were made to detect pencil markings and other notations on the currency that the criminals thought might be traceable to Brinks. Both had served prison sentences, and both were well known to underworld figures on the East Coast. During the period in which Pinos deportation troubles were mounting, OKeefe completed his sentence at Towanda, Pennsylvania. The alibi, in fact, was almost too good. Pino, Costa, Maffie, Geagan, Faherty, Richardson, and Baker received life sentences for robbery, two-year sentences for conspiracy to steal, and sentences of eight years to ten years for breaking and entering at night. Many of the details had previously been obtained during the intense six-year investigation. Only $58,000 of the $2.7 million was recovered. A thorough investigation was made concerning his whereabouts on the evening of January 17, 1950. Each man also was given a pistol and a Halloween-type mask. 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. One of his former girl friends who recalled having seen him on the night of the robbery stated that he definitely was not drunk. The new proceedings were based upon the fact that Pino had been arrested in December 1948 for a larceny involving less than $100. The hideout also was found to contain more than $5,000 in coins. If Baker heard these rumors, he did not wait around very long to see whether they were true. Rumors from the underworld pointed suspicion at several criminal gangs. 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. As the robbers sped from the scene, a Brinks employee telephoned the Boston Police Department. After completing its hearings on January 9, 1953, the grand jury retired to weigh the evidence. 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. Veteran criminals throughout the United States found their activities during mid-January the subject of official inquiry. In the succeeding two weeks, nearly 1,200 prospective jurors were eliminated as the defense counsel used their 262 peremptory challenges. This man claimed to have no knowledge of Pinos involvement in the Brinks robbery.). 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. As a guard moved to intercept him, Burke started to run. 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 had no place to keep so large a sum of money. 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. A lock () or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Before his trial in McKean County, he was released on $17,000 bond. At the outset, very few facts were available to the investigators. Each carried a pair of gloves. Despite the arrests and indictments in January 1956, more than $2,775,000, including $1,218,211.29 in cash, was still missing. Even after these convictions, OKeefe and Gusciora continued to seek their release. To muffle their footsteps, one of the gang wore crepe-soled shoes, and the others wore rubbers. An immediate effort also was made to obtain descriptive data concerning the missing cash and securities. OKeefe was sentenced to three years in Bradford County Jail and Gusciora to 5-to-20 years in the Western State Penitentiary at Pittsburgh. [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. In its determination to overlook no possibility, the FBI contacted various resorts throughout the United States for information concerning persons known to possess unusually large sums of money following the robbery. [14] They each wore a chauffeur cap, pea coat, rubber Halloween mask, and each had a .38 caliber revolver. They were held in lieu of bail which, for each man, amounted to more then $100,000. THE brains behind the 26million Brinks-Mat bullion robbery has died penniless. 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. And it nearly was. ), (After serving his sentence, Fat John resumed a life of crime. A man of modest means in Bayonne, New Jersey, was reported to be spending large sums of money in night clubs, buying new automobiles, and otherwise exhibiting newly found wealth. While the theft was originally intended to be a burglary, rather than an armed robbery, they could not find a way around the building's burglar alarm. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. On the night of January 17, 1952exactly two years after the crime occurredthe FBIs Boston Office received an anonymous telephone call from an individual who claimed he was sending a letter identifying the Brinks robbers. Although the attendant did not suspect that the robbery was taking place, this incident caused the criminals to move more swiftly. Each robbers face was completely concealed behind a Halloween-type mask. The detainer involved OKeefes violation of probation in connection with a conviction in 1945 for carrying concealed weapons. 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. 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. 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. 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. Six members of the gangBaker, Costa, Geagan, Maffie, McGinnis, and Pinowere arrested by FBI agents on January 12, 1956. Serious consideration originally had been given to robbing Brinks in 1947, when Brinks was located on Federal Street in Boston. Each of the five lock cylinders was taken on a separate occasion. (Following pleas of guilty in November 1956, Fat John received a two-year sentence, and the other two men were sentenced to serve one years imprisonment. Both of these strong-arm suspects had been questioned by Boston authorities following the robbery. 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. He received a one-year sentence for this offense; however, on January 30, 1950, the sentence was revoked and the case was placed on file.. The names of Pino, McGinnis, Adolph Jazz Maffie, and Henry Baker were frequently mentioned in these rumors, and it was said that they had been with OKeefe on the Big Job.. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. The robbers carefully planned routine inside Brinks was interrupted only when the attendant in the adjoining Brinks garage sounded the buzzer. Immediately upon leaving, the gang loaded the loot into the truck that was parked on Prince Street near the door. 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. He claimed he had been drinking in various taverns from approximately 5:10 p.m. until 7:45 p.m. Brian Reader, 76, was jailed over the 26m Brink's-Mat armed robbery in 1983. OKeefe was wounded in the wrist and chest, but again he managed to escape with his life. Evidently resigned to long years in prison or a short life on the outside, OKeefe grew increasingly bitter toward his old associates.