At 1:24 a.m. on March 18, 1990, as St. Patrick’s Day festivities
wound down in Boston, two men dressed as police officers rang the buzzer
at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston’s Fenway neighborhood.
Eighty-one minutes later, they vanished, taking
eleven paintings and two artifacts with them. None of the stolen works —
worth at least $500 million today — has ever been recovered. This week,
On Remand looks back at the Gardner heist and another set of stolen
paintings that found their way back the rightful owner — landing an
attorney in prison in the process….
The Gardner heist began when two men claiming to be police officers
investigating a disturbance in the courtyard were admitted to the museum
without question by the on-duty security guard. The imposter policemen
then tricked the guard into stepping away from his alarm button and
summoning the other on-duty guard. After taping the guards’ hands, feet,
and heads (leaving holes to breathe), the burglars handcuffed the
guards to pipes in the museum’s basement. With the guards disabled, the
burglars disconnected the museum’s video cameras. No one would discover
what happened next until 8 a.m., when the morning shift of employees
arrived.
That morning, Gardner staff and police discovered what remains the
largest property crime in U.S. history. In the Dutch room, a Rembrandt
self-portrait, which the thieves had unsuccessfully tried to pry from
its frame, laid discarded on the floor. Two frames — the former homes of
Rembrandt’s The Storm on the Sea of Galilee and A Lady and Gentleman in Black
— hung haphazardly without their contents, which had been cut out. A
Vermeer and a Govart Flinck painting were missing. Elsewhere in the
museum, five Degas drawings, a Manet, a bronze eagle from the top of a
Napoleonic flag, and a Chinese vase were also gone.
The burglary was beyond perplexing. The thieves operated with a
strange mix of professionalism and amateurism. Their method of entry,
treatment of the guards, and disabling of the museum’s security cameras
suggested they were professionals. Yet, only amateurs would risk
spending nearly an hour and a half in the museum (and, according to
motion trackers still active throughout the burglary, spend only half
that time stealing art). The thieves’ eclectic mix of stolen artwork —
Dutch, Asian, and Napoleonic — appeared to have no connection, and they
vastly devalued the two Rembrandts by cutting them out of the frames.
The thieves also left the museum’s most valuable painting, Titian’s Europa, hanging on the wall.
The crime remains unsolved, the theories as perplexing as the heist
itself. Those theories include the involvement of the Irish Republican
Army or possibly Whitey Bulger, the Boston mob boss and FBI informant.
Another theory posits that New England art thief, Myles Connor, asked an
associate to make the steal.
Contrary to the Gardner heist, and Hollywood’s treatment of other art
heists, most stolen art is taken without drama: museum employees simply
walk off with artwork in storage or opportunists snag small pieces from
the homes of collectors. Art thieves typically are not sophisticated
criminals in bowler hats.
Such was the case with a 1978 break-in in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
After Michael Bakwin left town for the Memorial Day weekend in 1978, his
house was broken into and seven paintings were stolen, including a
valuable Cézanne. The investigation quickly focused on David Colvin, a
small-time career criminal who was already in trouble with the law on an
unrelated firearms charge.
The day before his hearing in the firearms case, Colvin arrived at
his lawyer’s office with a bag containing the paintings stolen from the
Bakwin home. According to his attorney, Robert M. Mardirosian:
He was going to bring them to Florida to fence them, but I
told him that if he ever got caught with them with the other case
hanging over his head, he’d be in real trouble…. So he left them
upstairs in my attic in a big plastic bag.
In February 1979, Colvin was shot and killed over a $1,500 poker
debt, stalling the investigation into Bakwin’s stolen paintings. A few
months later, though, while cleaning the attic, Mardirosian rediscovered
the paintings. He didn’t contact the authorities. He didn’t call
Bakwin. Instead, he researched the best way to make a profit….
As Mardirosian quickly discovered, profiting from stolen art is not
easy. Instead of selling it, thieves (or their bosses) often use
valuable pieces as collateral in drug deals or hold the art in hopes of
creating leverage if (or more likely, when) they are charged with other
crimes. Mardirosian, who was experienced in criminal defense but not
criminal fencing, sat on the paintings for twenty years.
Finally, in 1999, Mardirosian, perhaps bored with his still life,
tried selling the Cézanne. To remain anonymous, he set up a shell
corporation and hired an intermediary in London. But when the
intermediary sought insurance to ship the painting, the insurer
contacted the Art Loss Register, a private organization that maintains a
database of stolen paintings. The ALR effortlessly identified the art
as the Cézanne stolen from the Bakwin home and notified British and
American authorities. Seeing an opportunity for itself as well, the ALR
reached an agreement with Bakwin to recover the seven stolen paintings
for a commission. The investigation, which had virtually stopped at
Colvin’s death, was back on.
Meanwhile, Mardirosian blundered on, demanding $15 million from
Bakwin for the return of the art. Bakwin initially refused, but then had
a change of heart. To save the Cézanne, he sacrificed the other six
paintings (together worth about $1 million), agreeing to convey those to
the still-anonymous Mardirosian. Mardirosian, now represented by a new
intermediary who was (of course) also a lawyer, agreed. Mardirosian’s
attorney Bernard Vischer met with Julian Radcliffe, the founder and
chairman of the Art Loss Register, in Geneva to execute the agreement.
They were accompanied by experts from Sotheby’s to verify the painting’s
authenticity.
As recounted in the First Circuit’s later opinion:
Vischer spoke with someone on his cell phone, and then
announced that he would retrieve the Cézanne and bring it to the
boardroom. He left the room and headed to the front of the building,
with Radcliffe and others in tow. Once outside, Vischer walked to a
nearby corner. A white car pulled up beside him, and the back passenger
window lowered. A passenger in the backseat, his face shrouded from
view, handed Vischer a black trash bag. The car sped away. Vischer
returned to the boardroom and handed the trash bag to the experts from
Sotheby’s, who carefully opened it to reveal the stolen Cézanne.
With his part of the 1999 Agreement satisfied, Mardirosian received a
bill of sale purportedly transferring title in the other six paintings.
He also agreed to sign an affidavit — using his real name — swearing
that he was not involved in the original theft. The affidavit was sealed
and sent to the London-based law firm Herbert Smith for safekeeping.
Mardirosian continued to work on selling the remaining six paintings.
After Bakwin refused to pay $1 million for them, in 2005, working
through a new intermediary (a real estate developer this time),
Mardirosian offered the pieces to Sotheby’s. Sotheby’s, predictably,
called the Art Loss Register to check the arts’ provenance. The ALR
identified the paintings as those stolen from Bakwin, but seeing an
opportunity to collect on its commission, the ALR instead told Sotheby’s
that title was clear. When the paintings arrived in London, Bakwin sued
to stop the sale. In the course of the case, the affidavit was
unsealed, revealing Mardirosian as the seller.
Soon after, Mardirosian was indicted in the U.S. under §2315
of the National Stolen Property Act, which makes it a crime to receive
or possess stolen goods worth $5,000 or more that have crossed a U.S.
boundary. In his defense, Mardirosian argued that the 1999 Agreement
(which allegedly gave Mardirosian title to the six paintings in exchange
for the Cézanne) terminated his illegal possession, and in the
intervening eight years, the statute of limitations had run. In affirming his conviction, the First Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the argument — contracts for illegal purposes are never valid:
The 1999 Agreement was illegal in that Mardirosian
conditioned the return of the stolen Cézanne on Bakwin’s relinquishment
of title to the six paintings. We tread no new ground in declaring that
the act of demanding a fee for the return of stolen property is
unlawful.
Mardirosian was sentenced to seven years, assessed a $100,000 fine,
and disbarred. In a later civil case, Bakwin and the ALR won $3 million
in damages from Mardirosian for all their trouble. Perhaps being both
disbarred and behind bars has changed his tune, but before his 2007
criminal trial, Mardirosian had this to say for himself:
I know some things don’t look good here, but I believe I
have a legitimate case to make…. I could have sold these a dozen times,
but never did. My whole intent was to find a way to get them back to the
owner in return for a 10 percent commission.
To be sure, some things don’t look good here for Mardirosian. But
they are looking up for Bakwin, who sold his Cézanne for $29 million
shortly after reacquiring it in 1999. Meanwhile, because Mrs. Gardner’s
will requires the Gardner to remain exactly as it was the day she handed
it over, empty frames and blank spots greet the museum’s guests where
the Rembrandts and the other stolen works used to hang. Last year, on
the heist’s anniversary, the FBI issued a press release announcing that
it knew the identities of the thieves, as well as the arts’ location in
the years immediately after the theft. The arts’ current location
remains unknown, however, and the Gardner’s $5 million reward for
information leading to the return of its stolen works is unclaimed. The
field is crowded, so bring your “A” game and join the professional art
investigators, petty criminals, psychics, and the rest of the motley
crew hoping to capitalize on the Gardner’s misfortune. Inside The Gardner Case [ARTnews] Ripped From the Walls (And The Headlines) [Smithsonian] Samantha Beckett (not her real name) is an attorney with
more than ten years of experience working in Biglaw. When not traveling
back in time, she is most likely billing it. Her writing has been
featured in state and federal courts across the nation and in the
inboxes of countless clients, colleagues, and NSA analysts. She can be
reached at OnRemand@gmail.com.
Infamous art thief revisits criminal past in Ellsworth
ELLSWORTH, Maine — It has been nearly 50 years since notorious
criminal Myles J. Connor Jr. stepped foot inside the old brick building
at 40 State St.
The last time he was there, when it was the old Hancock County Jail,
he confronted a jail guard with a bar of soap he had blackened with shoe
polish and carved into the shape of a gun. He used the fake firearm in a
brazen escape from the jail that earned him five days of freedom — two
of which he spent hiding in the attic of the Ellsworth Public Library —
before he was snagged in a manhunt in the neighboring town of Hancock.
Now 71 years old and a resident of Blackstone, Mass., Connor was back at the old Ellsworth jail on Wednesday with a documentary film
crew, recounting his first major criminal incident in a decades-long
career of flamboyantly breaking the law. Balding with gray hair, he wore
a long beige winter coat to stay warm inside the chilly building.
“I had no idea the commotion that I started by this stunt,” Conner
said Wednesday of his daring summertime jail break in Hancock County
when he was 22 years old. “And of course they had helicopters and guys
with bloodhounds and the whole thing after me.”
Connor first gained attention in the 1960s as leader of a Boston-area rock band called Myles and the Wild Ones.
He added to his reputation over the years with several high-profile art
thefts and, though he was in prison at the time, has been linked to the
infamous 1990 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art heist
in Boston. He also has been accused of assaults, drug trafficking,
shooting a police officer, and of murdering two Boston women in 1975,
the last of which he eventually was acquitted.
On Wednesday, Connor recounted how while visiting relatives 49 years
ago in Sullivan, he was captured after police caught him stealing
antiques from a local dead woman’s house. A copy of his 2009 book, “The
Art of the Heist,” lay on a table in the old jail booking room while
cameras recorded Connor looking in a dusty jail cell and talking to
relatives of Merritt Fitch, the sheriff who ran the jail at the time of
his escape.
Dorothy “Dot” Fitch, the wife of the now-deceased former sheriff,
said she cooked hot meals for inmates at the jail, including Connor.
“This is the first time I’ve seen him since I saw the back of him running out the door,” she said.
Ernest Fitch, the sheriff’s son and himself a former detective with
the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office, said he was in the attached house
where his family lived when Connor escaped. Recalling the commotion, he
said his father got on the phone and called for assistance after Connor
ran down the hill and jumped into the Union River.
“He said ‘Bring in the bloodhounds — we’re going to need them,’” the former detective said.
Connor, whose grandfather was from Sullivan, used to travel in the
summers from Milton, Mass., where his father was a police sergeant, to
visit his grandfather’s family. He already had developed an interest in
acquiring art and antiques when, one July night in 1965, he heard his
relatives talking about a neighbor.
“I was at the dinner table at my granduncle’s house and I remember
them talking about how sad it was that Mrs. so-and-so had passed on and
her children were going to get everything that she had and she despised
her children,” Connor said. “Being aware there was this house filled
with antiques and stuff, I decided to take a look.”
Connor went to the dead woman’s house and was carrying a grandfather
clock out to his car when a sheriff’s deputy, responding to a tip,
pulled into the driveway. But it wasn’t the clock in his hands that
worried Connor when he saw the officer, he said.
“In the trunk of my car I had some [illegal] firearms, heavy-duty
firearms that I had brought up to Maine to do some target practice
with,” Connor said. “They were machine guns.”
Connor got into a “tussle” with the deputy, snatching away his gun
and shooting out the communications radio in the cruiser before he drove
off in his own car. He was apprehended a short distance away on Route 1
by other officers responding to the call.
He was taken to the Ellsworth jail but soon hatched his escape plan.
Officials would not let him out on bail, he said, and he was desperate
to get back to his apartment in Revere, Mass.
“Back in Revere, my apartment was filled with high-quality antiques,” Connor said.
Among them was a silver plate made by Revolutionary War hero Paul
Revere that had been stolen from Harvard University’s Peabody Museum. He
was concerned that people he knew back home would help themselves to
the valuables while he was locked away in Maine.
“It was paramount that I get out and get down there,” Connor said. “That was the reason for the desperate act.”
So about 8 p.m. July 26, 1965, Connor sprung into action. He
brandished the blackened soap at a guard, knocked him down and ran out
through the booking room entrance, down the hill behind the jail and
jumped into the Union River. After seeing people with flashlights on the
far side of the river, he swam back to the eastern bank and ran into
the library, next to the jail.
“I reposed in the library for two days,” Connor said.
He found a ladder and hatch that led into the attic and crawled up, kicking the rolling ladder away as he went.
Two days later, he snuck out of the library, walked east a few blocks
through Ellsworth and then followed railroad tracks east toward
Hancock. He lived in the woods for a few more days until, after being
spotted a few times, he ended up being caught in a police dragnet.
This time he was taken to Penobscot County Jail in Bangor and, after
posting $15,000 bail, went back to Massachusetts, where he got into more
trouble that kept him from ever returning to Maine to serve time.
In the decades since, Connor has been connected with a 1974 theft of Wyeth paintings from the Woolworth estate in Monmouth, Maine; a 1975 theft of paintings from the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College; and a 1975 daylight robbery of a Rembrandt painting from Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, among other capers.
More recently, he has been implicated in more petty crimes — a 2011 sunglasses shoplifting attempt and a 2012 drug-related robbery of a cellphone, both in Woonsocket, R.I., and a 2011 hay theft in Mendon, Mass.
Connor is free after serving time in prison for his crimes. He was
incarcerated in Walpole, Mass., on assault and attempted murder charges,
and in Illinois for drug offenses and illegal transportation of stolen
art.
When asked Wednesday about the infamous, unsolved Gardner Museum
heist, Connor repeated what he has said in other previously published
reports: that the theft, which netted 13 works of art now estimated to
be worth up to $500 million, was his idea but that it was carried out by
two associates of his who have since died. He added that he believes
the stolen artworks are now in Saudi Arabia, “probably in some wealthy
sheik’s basement.”
FBI officials announced last year
that they have identified who the thieves were, but they declined to
release names, saying the case is still under investigation. Other
people with highly publicized criminal records have been linked to the Gardner heist, but none ever has been charged in the crime.
Myles
J. Connor Jr. (right) holds a bar of soap carved into the shape of a
gun Wednesday as Al Dotoli, a longtime friend who accompanied Connor on
his visit, holds up his hands in mock alarm at the old Hancock County
Jail in Ellsworth. Connor, a notorious art thief, escaped from the jail
in 1965 by using the fake firearm to fool a jail guard.
A
bar of soap blackened with shoe polish and carved into the shape of a
small gun sits in the bottom of a glass jar at the old Hancock County
Jail in Ellsworth on Wednesday. Notorious art thief Myles J. Connor Jr,
who was in Ellsworth this week to recount his criminal past, used the
fake firearm to escape from the jail in 1965.
Myles
J. Connor Jr., of Blackstone, Mass., stands in the doorway of a cell
Wednesday in the old Hancock County Jail in Ellsworth. Connor, a career
criminal and infamous art thief, escaped from the jail in 1965 by using a
bar of soap he blackened and carved into the shape of a gun.
Myles
J. Connor Jr., 71, of Blackstone, Mass., is recorded by a documentary
film crew in the old Hancock County Jail in Ellsworth on Wednesday.
Connor, an infamous art thief, revisited the jail to recount how he used
a bar of soap carved into the shape of a gun to escape from the jail in
1965.
Infamous art thief revisits criminal past in Ellsworth
Myles J. Connor Jr., right, holds a
bar of soap carved into the shape of a gun Wednesday as Al Dotoli, a
longtime friend who accompanied Connor on his visit, holds up his hands
in mock alarm at the old Hancock County Jail in Ellsworth. Connor, a
notorious art thief, escaped from the jail in 1965 by using the fake
firearm to fool a jail guard.
ELLSWORTH — It has been nearly 50 years since notorious criminal Myles
J. Connor Jr. stepped foot inside the old brick building at 40 State St.
The last time he was there, when it was the old Hancock County Jail,
he confronted a jail guard with a bar of soap he had blackened with shoe
polish and carved into the shape of a gun. He used the fake firearm in a
brazen escape from the jail that earned him five days of freedom — two
of which he spent hiding in the attic of the Ellsworth Public Library —
before he was snagged in a manhunt in the neighboring town of Hancock.
Now 71 years old and a resident of Blackstone, Mass., Connor was back
at the old Ellsworth jail on Wednesday with a documentary film crew,
recounting his first major criminal incident in a decades-long career of
flamboyantly breaking the law. Balding with gray hair, he wore a long
beige winter coat to stay warm inside the chilly building.
“I had no idea the commotion that I started by this stunt,” Conner
said Wednesday of his daring summertime jail break in Hancock County
when he was 22 years old. “And of course they had helicopters and guys
with bloodhounds and the whole thing after me.”
Connor first gained attention in the 1960s as leader of a Boston-area
rock band called Myles and the Wild Ones. He added to his reputation
over the years with several high-profile art thefts and, though he was
in prison at the time, has been linked to the infamous 1990 Isabella
Stewart Gardner Museum art heist in Boston. He also has been accused of
assaults, drug trafficking, shooting a police officer, and of murdering
two Boston women in 1975, the last of which he eventually was acquitted.
On Wednesday, Connor recounted how while visiting relatives 49 years
ago in Sullivan, he was captured after police caught him stealing
antiques from a local dead woman’s house. A copy of his 2009 book, “The
Art of the Heist,” lay on a table in the old jail booking room while
cameras recorded Connor looking in a dusty jail cell and talking to
relatives of Merritt Fitch, the sheriff who ran the jail at the time of
his escape.
Dorothy “Dot” Fitch, the wife of the now-deceased former sheriff,
said she cooked hot meals for inmates at the jail, including Connor.
“This is the first time I’ve seen him since I saw the back of him running out the door,” she said.
Ernest Fitch, the sheriff’s son and himself a former detective with
the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office, said he was in the attached house
where his family lived when Connor escaped. Recalling the commotion, he
said his father got on the phone and called for assistance after Connor
ran down the hill and jumped into the Union River.
Connor, whose grandfather was from Sullivan, used to travel in the
summers from Milton, Mass., where his father was a police sergeant, to
visit his grandfather’s family. He already had developed an interest in
acquiring art and antiques when, one July night in 1965, he heard his
relatives talking about a neighbor.
“I was at the dinner table at my granduncle’s house and I remember
them talking about how sad it was that Mrs. so-and-so had passed on and
her children were going to get everything that she had and she despised
her children,” Connor said. “Being aware there was this house filled
with antiques and stuff, I decided to take a look.”
Connor went to the dead woman’s house and was carrying a grandfather
clock out to his car when a sheriff’s deputy, responding to a tip,
pulled into the driveway. But it wasn’t the clock in his hands that
worried Connor when he saw the officer, he said.
“In the trunk of my car I had some (illegal) firearms, heavy-duty
firearms that I had brought up to Maine to do some target practice
with,” Connor said. “They were machine guns.”
Connor got into a “tussle” with the deputy, snatching away his gun
and shooting out the communications radio in the cruiser before he drove
off in his own car. He was apprehended a short distance away on Route 1
by other officers responding to the call.
He was taken to the Ellsworth jail but soon hatched his escape plan.
Officials would not let him out on bail, he said, and he was desperate
to get back to his apartment in Revere, Mass.
“Back in Revere, my apartment was filled with high-quality antiques,” Connor said.
Among them was a silver plate made by Revolutionary War hero Paul
Revere that had been stolen from Harvard University’s Peabody Museum. He
was concerned that people he knew back home would help themselves to
the valuables while he was locked away in Maine.
So about 8 p.m. July 26, 1965, Connor sprung into action. He
brandished the blackened soap at a guard, knocked him down and ran out
through the booking room entrance, down the hill behind the jail and
jumped into the Union River. After seeing people with flashlights on the
far side of the river, he swam back to the eastern bank and ran into
the library, next to the jail.
“I reposed in the library for two days,” Connor said.
He found a ladder and hatch that led into the attic and crawled up, kicking the rolling ladder away as he went.
Two days later, he snuck out of the library, walked east a few blocks
through Ellsworth and then followed railroad tracks east toward
Hancock. He lived in the woods for a few more days until, after being
spotted a few times, he ended up being caught in a police dragnet.
How is it
that Whitey received widespread national coverage during his trial, even
reports in some international media? What makes him such a figure that well
over two dozen books have been written about him in which he plays a prominent
part in one way or another? I’ve posited that Whitey was a
run-of-the-mill viscous gangster. Yet forces united to elevate him to
stratospheric levels.
One prominent media maven wrote that he “Corrupted Boston for a Quarter
Century.” From what I can tell there’s never been any public official in the
state or city convicted of corruption because of an involvement with Whitey. It
seems that the corruption we’ve seen among Massachusetts public office holders
or officials has not implicated anyone involved with organized crime.
However four different surveys ranks Massachusetts as follows: Center for
Public Integrity gives it a C placing it in the top ten least corrupt states;
the New York Times ranks it 18th in the number of officials
convicted; the federals show it ranks 27th in
per capital convictions; and Business Insider ranks it as the 21st most
corrupt.
If Whitey didn’t corrupt any public officials and if he didn’t terrorize the
city, then what is it that makes him such a matter of fascination? It
boils down to the smallness of Boston where something rather ordinary can be
made into something extraordinary. But why pick out Whitey? He wasn’t the worst
of the lot: John “Murderman” Martorano and Stevie “Benjiman”Flemmi, not to
mention Larry Baione (Zannino), Gerry Angiulo and Frankie
Salemme all surpassed him in cruelty and crime. I’ve suggested Whitey was made
into much more than he ever was because it sated the Boston media’s appetite to
foil his brother; and there was a need of other parties to jump on the ship to
inflate his reputation for their own less than straight forward purposes.
I’m sure most of you are scratching your head and wondering who is Jimmy the
Gent? You’re probably saying “there’s no way he’s in the same
league as Whitey.” And I’d have to agree. He makes Whitey look
like a small timer.
Burke was an outright mean murderer. You might have heard how Whitey didn’t
like a story Paul Corsetti of the Herald was planning to write. He made
a plan to confront him at the Dockside in Quincy Market (according to
Ralph Ranalli in 2001) or at P.J. Clark’s (according to Howie
Carr in 2006) or “a bar in Quincy Market” (according to Howie Carr in
2011). Whitey was upset because the story was about his brother Billy, or about
the Litif murder, or whatever.(Hard to pin down the reason.)
We’re told that Whitey interacted with Corsetti, a combat vet from
Vietnam, and whispered one of those “do you know who I am” talks
allegedly telling him “I’m Jimmy Bulger and I kill people.”
Many of the murders attributed to Whitey were done by others. He was allegedly
in a crash car for a half-dozen who were murdered
by Murderman nor did he have much to do with the Wheeler or Callahan
murders. Jimmy the Gent was all hands on. He is suspected in over 50 murders.
Most of the people who pulled the Kennedy heist with him he murdered so they
either wouldn’t talk or complain about their cut of the loot. Yet no one has
suggested that he terrorized New York City. He was but a minor blip in the
annals of crime.
How
is it that Whitey received widespread national coverage during his
trial, even reports in some international media? What makes him such a
figure that well over two dozen books have been written about him in
which he plays a prominent part in one way or another? I’ve posited
that Whitey was a run-of-the-mill viscous gangster. Yet forces united to
elevate him to stratospheric levels.
One prominent media maven wrote that he “Corrupted Boston for a
Quarter Century.” From what I can tell there’s never been any public
official in the state or city convicted of corruption because of an
involvement with Whitey. It seems that the corruption we’ve seen among
Massachusetts public office holders or officials has not implicated
anyone involved with organized crime.
However four different surveys ranks Massachusetts as follows:
Center for Public Integrity gives it a C placing it in the top ten least
corrupt states; the New York Times ranks it 18th in the number of officials convicted; the federals show it ranks 27th in per capital convictions; and Business Insider ranks it as the 21st most corrupt.
If Whitey didn’t corrupt any public officials and if he didn’t
terrorize the city, then what is it that makes him such a matter of
fascination? It boils down to the smallness of Boston where something
rather ordinary can be made into something extraordinary. But why pick
out Whitey? He wasn’t the worst of the lot: John “Murderman” Martorano
and Stevie “Benjiman”Flemmi, not to mention Larry Baione (Zannino),
Gerry Angiulo and Frankie Salemme all surpassed him in cruelty and
crime. I’ve suggested Whitey was made into much more than he ever was
because it sated the Boston media’s appetite to foil his brother; and
there was a need of other parties to jump on the ship to inflate his
reputation for their own less than straight forward purposes.
I’m sure most of you are scratching your head and wondering who is Jimmy the Gent? You’re probably saying “there’s no way he’s in the same league as Whitey.” And I’d have to agree. He makes Whitey look like a small timer.
Burke was an outright mean murderer. You might have heard how
Whitey didn’t like a story Paul Corsetti of the Herald was planning to
write. He made a plan to confront him at the Dockside in Quincy Market
(according to Ralph Ranalli in 2001) or at P.J. Clark’s (according to
Howie Carr in 2006) or “a bar in Quincy Market” (according to Howie
Carr in 2011). Whitey was upset because the story was about his brother
Billy, or about the Litif murder, or whatever.(Hard to pin down the
reason.) We’re told that Whitey interacted with Corsetti, a combat vet
from Vietnam, and whispered one of those “do you know who I am” talks allegedly telling him“I’m Jimmy Bulger and I kill people.”
Many of the murders attributed to Whitey were done by others. He
was allegedly in a crash car for a half-dozen who were murdered
by Murderman nor did he have much to do with the Wheeler or Callahan
murders. Jimmy the Gent was all hands on. He is suspected in over 50
murders. Most of the people who pulled the Kennedy heist with him he
murdered so they either wouldn’t talk or complain about their cut of the
loot. Yet no one has suggested that he terrorized New York City. He was
but a minor blip in the annals of crime.
- See more at:
http://www.patriotledger.com/article/20140124/BLOGS/301249982/2011/OPINION#sthash.1cJSsaBF.dpuf
How
is it that Whitey received widespread national coverage during his
trial, even reports in some international media? What makes him such a
figure that well over two dozen books have been written about him in
which he plays a prominent part in one way or another? I’ve posited
that Whitey was a run-of-the-mill viscous gangster. Yet forces united to
elevate him to stratospheric levels.
One prominent media maven wrote that he “Corrupted Boston for a
Quarter Century.” From what I can tell there’s never been any public
official in the state or city convicted of corruption because of an
involvement with Whitey. It seems that the corruption we’ve seen among
Massachusetts public office holders or officials has not implicated
anyone involved with organized crime.
However four different surveys ranks Massachusetts as follows:
Center for Public Integrity gives it a C placing it in the top ten least
corrupt states; the New York Times ranks it 18th in the number of officials convicted; the federals show it ranks 27th in per capital convictions; and Business Insider ranks it as the 21st most corrupt.
If Whitey didn’t corrupt any public officials and if he didn’t
terrorize the city, then what is it that makes him such a matter of
fascination? It boils down to the smallness of Boston where something
rather ordinary can be made into something extraordinary. But why pick
out Whitey? He wasn’t the worst of the lot: John “Murderman” Martorano
and Stevie “Benjiman”Flemmi, not to mention Larry Baione (Zannino),
Gerry Angiulo and Frankie Salemme all surpassed him in cruelty and
crime. I’ve suggested Whitey was made into much more than he ever was
because it sated the Boston media’s appetite to foil his brother; and
there was a need of other parties to jump on the ship to inflate his
reputation for their own less than straight forward purposes.
I’m sure most of you are scratching your head and wondering who is Jimmy the Gent? You’re probably saying “there’s no way he’s in the same league as Whitey.” And I’d have to agree. He makes Whitey look like a small timer.
Burke was an outright mean murderer. You might have heard how
Whitey didn’t like a story Paul Corsetti of the Herald was planning to
write. He made a plan to confront him at the Dockside in Quincy Market
(according to Ralph Ranalli in 2001) or at P.J. Clark’s (according to
Howie Carr in 2006) or “a bar in Quincy Market” (according to Howie
Carr in 2011). Whitey was upset because the story was about his brother
Billy, or about the Litif murder, or whatever.(Hard to pin down the
reason.) We’re told that Whitey interacted with Corsetti, a combat vet
from Vietnam, and whispered one of those “do you know who I am” talks allegedly telling him“I’m Jimmy Bulger and I kill people.”
Many of the murders attributed to Whitey were done by others. He
was allegedly in a crash car for a half-dozen who were murdered
by Murderman nor did he have much to do with the Wheeler or Callahan
murders. Jimmy the Gent was all hands on. He is suspected in over 50
murders. Most of the people who pulled the Kennedy heist with him he
murdered so they either wouldn’t talk or complain about their cut of the
loot. Yet no one has suggested that he terrorized New York City. He was
but a minor blip in the annals of crime.
- See more at:
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'Goodfellas' Cold Case Cracked With Witnesses, Secret Tapes
For decades, those responsible for a 1978 pre-dawn robbery at the Lufthansa cargo terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport, immortalized in the movie “Goodfellas,”
eluded authorities. Only one person, an airline employee, was
convicted, suspected organized crime associates were murdered and more
than $6 million in cash, gold and jewels was never recovered.
That
changed yesterday when authorities arrested Vincent Asaro, 78, alleging
he’s a Bonanno crime family captain who participated in the Dec. 11,
1978, heist, the largest U.S. robbery at the time and the biggest in New
York City history.
The break in the 35-year-old case came after the Federal Bureau
of Investigation recruited new cooperating witnesses, including a
cousin of Asaro who prosecutors said had been in on the heist.
Authorities used information from at least four cooperating witnesses,
DNA evidence and secretly made recordings in building a case that
resulted in five arrests of alleged Bonanno crime family members as part
of a broader organized crime sweep.
An indictment announced by U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch in Brooklyn, New York,
describes the trade craft of organized crime practiced by Asaro and his
four alleged Bonanno cohorts, including extortion, racketeering,
gambling, loansharking and threats of violence and murder.
‘Wise Guys’
“These
‘Goodfellas’ thought they had a license to steal, a license to kill and
a license to do whatever they wanted,” George Venizelos, head of the
FBI’s New York office, said in a statement. “It may be decades later,
but the FBI’s determination to investigate and bring wise guys to
justice will never waver.”
The defendants are charged with
racketeering, which carries a term of as long as 20 years in prison.
Asaro faces as long as life in prison, prosecutors said in a memo to the
court. Four of the five defendants pleaded not guilty before U.S.
Magistrate Judge Marilyn Go in federal court in Brooklyn. All five
remain in federal custody.
“This is the sequel to ‘Goodfellas,’’ Gerald J. McMahon, a lawyer for Asaro, said after court yesterday.
‘‘Marty needs a screenplay,’’ he said in reference to the movie’s director, Martin Scorsese. Asaro will go to trial, McMahon said. ‘‘He will walk out of the doors a free man,’’ he said.
McMahon denied that Asaro was involved in the Lufthansa heist. ‘‘He doesn’t even know how to spell it,’’ he said.
Gold, Jewels
According
to prosecutors, the team walked into the darkened Lufthansa Air Cargo
building and left with gold, jewels and 50 boxes of cash, each
containing $125,000.
Soon after the heist, federal authorities
suspected that at least 10 members of the team were murdered, said
Edward McDonald, then the federal prosecutor who oversaw the
investigation.
‘‘Many of the people we believed to be
participants were executed afterward, some within weeks, to silence
them,’’ McDonald, now a partner at Dechert LLP, said yesterday in an
interview. ‘‘There was a feeding frenzy in the press, and for months it
was the subject of an intense federal investigation.’’
No Money
Asaro,
the only one of the five defendants yesterday linked with the Lufthansa
heist, was rankled that he didn’t get his share of the spoils, which
was supposed to be $750,000 each, according to court documents. In a
Feb. 17, 2011, recording cited by prosecutors, he alleged that it was
kept by his associate James ‘‘Jimmy the Gent’’ Burke, who died in prison
in 1996, and in the Hollywood telling was played by Robert De Niro.
‘‘We
never got our right money, we were supposed to get, we got f---- all
around. Got f---- all around. That f------ Jimmy [Burke] kept
everything,’’ Asaro said in the recordings, according to court
documents.
‘‘Neither age nor time dimmed Asaro’s ruthless ways
as he continued to order violence to carry out mob business in recent
months,’’ Lynch said in a statement.
Asaro was also singled out
for his role in the murder of Paul Katz, who the U.S. said owned a
warehouse in Queens that Asaro and his associates used to store stolen
items. After the warehouse was raided in the late 1960s, Asaro and Burke
became concerned that Katz would become an informant. In 1969 Katz was
taken to a vacant home in Queens where Burke killed him with a dog chain
because it was believed ‘‘he was a rat who was cooperating with law enforcement,’’ according to court papers.
Buried Body
They
buried his body in the basement of a vacant Queens home where it
remained for about 20 years. Alerted that state law enforcement
officials were again investigating Katz’s murder, Burke told Asaro and
his son to dig up the body and move it to the basement of another Queens
home to avoid detection, the U.S. said. In June, after receiving a tip,
the FBI excavated the site and found human remains. DNA testing on a
human skull, bones and corduroy cloth found at the scene later
determined that the body was Katz’s.
After the FBI began
excavating the Queens home on Liberty Avenue on June 17, ‘‘Cooperating
Witness 1” made a secret recording of his conversation with Asaro, in
which Asaro asked, “What happened?” according to court papers.
“The feds are all over Liberty Avenue,” the witness said on the recording.
“For what?” Asaro asked.
“You know,” the cooperator said.
After the witness asks Asaro what he should do, Asaro replied, “Nothing,” adding later, “Don’t call me.”
The U.S. said FBI agents observed Asaro drive past the excavation site that same day.
Devoted Life
The
defendants, including Asaro, are his son, Jerome Asaro, 55, Thomas
“Tommy D” DiFiore, 70, John “Bazoo” Ragano, 52, and Jack Bonventre, 45.
Bonventre is scheduled to appear before a federal magistrate in Brooklyn today. All five are scheduled to appear before Judge Allyne Ross on Feb. 19.
“Vincent
Asaro devoted his adult life to the Bonanno crime family, with a
criminal career that spanned decades,” Lynch said in a statement. “Far
from a code of honor, theirs was a code of violence and brute force.”
Asaro’s
participation in the heist was corroborated by information provided by
more than four cooperating witnesses, including those who are associated
with three crime families, according to court papers. One of the
cooperating witnesses, who prosecutors identified as a cousin of Vincent
Asaro, participated in the heist, has pleaded guilty and is aiding the
U.S. in the hopes of getting leniency, authorities said.
The
cooperating witness wore a wire to make secret recordings for the U.S.
after he became suspicious that Asaro and his son intended to kill him,
according to the U.S.
Federal Informant
Henry Hill, a
federal informant whose life in organized crime was portrayed by Ray
Liotta in “Goodfellas,” said convicted Lucchese crime family captain
Paul Vario and Burke were the two behind the Lufthansa heist, according
to Nicholas Pileggi’s book “Wiseguy.”
Burke died in federal
prison while serving a 20-year prison term for murdering a drug dealer.
He was never charged with the airport robbery.
Burke had a
“close criminal association” with Vincent Asaro and shared an interest
in Robert’s Lounge, a Queens bar that was a meeting place for Burke and
his crew, according to papers filed by prosecutors.
Armed Holdup
According
to the book “The Heist” by Ernest Volkman and John Cummings, the
robbery was considered “the greatest cash robbery in American history,”
larger than the armed holdup of the Brink’s Armored Car Co. in Boston in 1950, in which $2.7 million was stolen.
McDonald,
who won the cooperation of Hill when he was a prosecutor, said that the
U.S. convicted only one person tied to the JFK heist, Louis Werner, a
Lufthansa cargo agent. Werner, arrested two months after the robbery,
was found guilty of accepting $80,000 to provide information to the
robbers to help them carry out the heist, McDonald said.
Hill also told federal investigators that Burke and Vario were behind the heist, McDonald said.
McDonald,
who played himself in “Goodfellas,” said the U.S. was unable to obtain
corroborating evidence to support Hill’s information and the probe also
was hindered by the execution of people authorities linked to the
robbery.
Eventually the U.S. won convictions against crime
family members for extortion of airport shipping companies as well as
the union that handled freight at the airport, McDonald said.
Vario
was one of the men convicted by a federal jury in Brooklyn 1986 for
running a protection racket at JFK airport. Hill testified against Vario
and his co-defendants at trial. Vario died in federal prison in Texas in 1988, while Hill died in 2012 in Los Angeles from heart problems tied to smoking.
“This case was larger than life,” McDonald said.
The case is U.S. v. Asaro, 14-cr-00026, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).
The real Goodfellas: FBI arrest New York mafia suspected of carrying out the infamous 1978 Lufthansa heist
Five
suspected mobsters have been arrested for their part in the 1978
Lufthansa heist at New York's Kennedy International Airport
The robbery was famously featured in the Martin Scorsese movie Goodfellas
The
arrests of four men and surrender of a fifth follows a discovery by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation of human remains at a New York property
in June
The home was once owned by James 'Jimmy the Gent' Burke last summer - who was played by Robert De Niro in Goodfellas
This is the first time any accused member of the mafia has ever faced charges in connection with the crime
The December 11, 1978, heist was one of the largest cash thefts in American history
The cash was never found and only one conviction has ever been made
It has taken them over 30 years, but
the FBI have finally charged members of the New York mafia with the 1978
Lufthansa heist at JFK - made famous by the movie Goodfellas. Five
high-ranking members of the Bonanno organized crime family were
arrested and charged in pre-dawn raids on Thursday morning in connection
with the $6 million robbery that is still one of the largest cash
thefts in American history. The
arrests took place across New York and included Thomas 'Tommy D'
DiDiore, who is believed to be the highest ranking member of the Bonanno
family outside of prison and Vincent Asaro, 78, who is alleged to be a
captain, or capo in the ranks of the crime family. Scroll Down for Video
Arrest 35-years later: Vincent Vinny Asaro
(2-R), a captain in the Bonanno crime family, is escorted by FBI agents
out of a federal building in New York, on Thursday 23 January 2014 -
Asaro is suspected of being involved in the infamous Lufthansa heist of
1978
Busted: Vincent Asaro, an alleged captain in the
Bonanno crime family, is led from Federal Plaza as he is charged in
connection with the 1978 Lufthansa heist at JFK International Airport
Boss: Thomas (Tommy D) DiFiore , reportedly
connected to the Bonanno crime family, is escorted by FBI agents out of a
federal building in Brooklyn, New York on Thursday after being charged
in connection with the Lufthansa heist of 1978
Pinched: Two of five men arrested by the FBI
this morning in connection with the infamous Lufthansa heist of 1978
leaves the court in Brooklyn
Bowed head: This morning 78-year-old Vincent
Asaro, 55-year-old Jerome Asaro, 70-year-old Thomas Tommy D DiFiore,
52-year-old John Bazoo Ragano and Jack Bonventre were arraigned in
Brooklyn for the 1978 Lufthansa heist
Tough guy: A man connected to the Bonanno crime
family is escorted by FBI agents today in Brooklyn. Court papers
unsealed in New York charge that the men were members of the Bonanno
crime family
This is the first time any accused member of the mafia has ever faced charges in connection with the crime. The
arrests of the five men follows a discovery by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation of human remains at a New York property tied to James
'Jimmy the Gent' Burke last summer. Burke,
the suspected mastermind of the heist, died in prison in 1996 while
serving time for the murder of a drug dealer. Actor Robert De Niro
played a character based on Burke in the film. Vincent
Asaro, identified as one of the leaders of the Bonanno gang, was
charged with the theft of $5 million in cash and $1 million in jewelry
from the Lufthansa Terminal at Kennedy on December 11, 1978. At
the time, it was the biggest cash heist ever in the United States. The
stolen $5 million would be worth $17.9 million in 2013 dollars,
according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The
crime stumped investigators for years, but a break in the case came
last summer during a search that turned up human remains buried at the
former home of Burke. The
indictment charges Asaro with the murder of Paul Katz in 1969, as well
as robbery, conspiracy and other charges tied to the 1978 heist. The
Asaros, both alleged captains in the Bonanno organized crime family,
also were charged together in a 1984 robbery of $1.25 million worth of
gold salts from a Federal Express employee. Information on their attorneys was not immediately available.
Iconic: More than $5 million in cash and $1
million in jewels were netted in the heist, which took place on Dec. 11,
1978 and was made famous in the 1990 film Goodfellas
Burke owned Robert's Lounge,
the saloon that a fellow Lucchese associate, the late Henry Hill -
played by Ray Liotta in Goodfellas - described as Burke's private
cemetery. 'Jimmy buried over a dozen bodies ... under the bocce courts,' Hill wrote in his book, 'A Goodfella's Guide to New York.'
Law
enforcement have said that the arrested are Bonanno crime family
members Vincent Asaro, 78; Jerome Asaro, 55; Thomas 'Tommy D' DiFiore,
70; John 'Bazoo' Ragano, 52; and Jack Bonventre, whose age isn't known. Two of the suspects live in Queens, two in Long Island and one in upstate New York.
Life and film: James "Jimmy the Gent" Burke is
led handcuffed from a law enforcenemt vehicle in this April 1979 file
photo - and (right) as portrayed by Robert De Niro in the 1990 film
Goodfellas
The exact
connection between the search of Burke's home in Queens and the
Lufthansa heist has not been made clear by the FBI as of Thursday. Before
today the only person ever convicted in connection with the robbery was
airport insider, Louis Werner - who tipped off the men who stole the
money. The theft occurred
in the middle of the night on December 11, 1978 and netted the robbers
more than $5 million in cash and $1 million in jewels. At
the time, it was the largest heist ever in America and led to a huge,
decades-long search for the perpetrators that until now has been
fruitless. Six masked gunman took 64 minutes to steal the packets of cash, toss them into a van and escape. The
FBI has always agreed with the plot of the movie Goodfellas about all
loose connections to the robbery being killed off by paranoid mob
bosses.
Anger: The character of Jimmy Conway - played by
Robert De Niro - becomes angry in the aftermath of the Lufthansa
robbery and begins to kill those associated with the heist
Iconic: The 1990 Martin Scorsese movie
Goodfellas is considered by some to be one of the best movies about
organized crime in modern American history
Federal agents believe
that Asaro was the key mafia overseer for JFK and as such would have
been informed of Burke's plan to rob the currency shipment from West
Germany. The indictment
charges Asaro with the murder of Paul Katz in 1969, as well as robbery,
conspiracy and other charges tied to the 1978 heist. ABC News reported Katz was killed, and his remains buried, because Burke believed he was working with law enforcement. Burke
was a specialist in hijacking and was arrrested in 1982 for a parole
violation and was sentenced to 12 years in prison for match fixing
involving the Boston College basketball team. During
his prison term, Burke was indicted for the murder of a known drug
dealer whose body was found tied up hanging in a freezer truck in
Brooklyn. He was sentenced
to 20 years to life for second-degree murder and died behind bars in
1996, at age 64, almost two decades after the airport robbery. The cash has never been recovered from the robbery.- -
There is no appetite for terror campaign, says top dissident
A republican parade in Lodnonderry in 2011.
There is no appetite for the ongoing campaign of dissident republican violence, a leading dissident has said.
Dominic McGlinchey Jnr, 36, whose father of the same
name was the notorious INLA leader before his 1994 murder, said that
republicans opposed to Sinn Fein’s strategy needed to “have a
conversation about the future of the republican movement”.
The
intervention by Mr McGlinchey comes as the latest in a lengthening line
of veteran republicans at variance with Sinn Fein who have spoken out
about the futility of the continuing campaign of bombings and shootings.
Several
former IRA men have given interviews to the News Letter in which they
have urged fellow republican opponents of Sinn Fein to desist from
violence.
In December, former prisoner Anthony McIntyre told this
newspaper: “Republicans lost the war and the IRA campaign failed and the
dissidents need to be told that it failed rather than be allowed to
continue thinking what they do.”
Richard O’Rawe said at that time that the dissidents’ “whole campaign is insane” and should stop.
Mr
McGlinchey — who has vigorously denied an allegation that he had any
involvement in the 2009 Massereene murders and has never been charged in
relation to the attack — told the Irish News: “I don’t believe the
appetite exists among the people. That’s not to say there is not
considerable support among certain segments of republicanism for
particular types of resistance but what is very clear is that the
appetite is not there for a full-blown campaign.”
He added that dissidents needed to consider if “certain tactics are holding you back from entering a new field of battle”.
