OKeefe immediately returned to Boston to await the results of the appeal. 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. They did not expect to find the Aladdin's cave to contain some 26m in gold bullion and diamonds that they stumbled upon. It appeared to him that he would spend his remaining days in prison while his co-conspirators would have many years to enjoy the luxuries of life. After completing its hearings on January 9, 1953, the grand jury retired to weigh the evidence. But according to the ruling filed in B.C., Brinks paid the money back immediately after the victim bank notified the company that a robbery had occurred making use of "keys, access codes and . They stole 26 million in gold bullion - the biggest robbery of . Had any particles of evidence been found in the loot which might directly show that they had handled it? Through long weeks of empty promises of assistance and deliberate stalling by the gang members, he began to realize that his threats were falling on deaf ears. Seventy years ago today, a group of men stole $1.2 million in cash and $1.5 million in checks. 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. None proved fruitful. Noye is currently being depicted in a new six-part BBC series into the infamous Brinks-Mat robbery, which took place in 1983. While some gang members remained in the building to ensure that no one detected the operation, other members quickly obtained keys to fit the locks. This lead was pursued intensively. The stolen 6,800 gold ingots, diamonds and cash would be worth 100million today. 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. Much of the money taken from the money changer appeared to have been stored a long time. In addition, McGinnis was named in two other complaints involving the receiving and concealing of the loot. In 1936 and 1937, Faherty was convicted of armed robbery violations. Inside the building, the gang members carefully studied all available information concerning Brinks schedules and shipments. The officer verified the meeting. 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. (On January 18, 1956, OKeefe had pleaded guilty to the armed robbery of Brinks.) It was billed as the perfect crime and the the crime of the century.. The group were led . A few weeks later, OKeefe retrieved his share of the loot. July 18, 2022, 9:32 AM UTC. The full details of this important development were immediately furnished to the FBI Office in Boston. 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. The group were led . Among the early suspects was Anthony Pino, an alien who had been a principal suspect in numerous major robberies and burglaries in Massachusetts. A federal search warrant was obtained, and the home was searched by agents on April 27, 1950. LOS ANGELES COUNTY, Calif. (KGO) -- The FBI and the Los Angeles County. Using the outside door key they had previously obtained, the men quickly entered and donned their masks. Fat John announced that each of the packages contained $5,000. Since the robbery had taken place between approximately 7:10 and 7:27 p.m., it was quite probable that a gang, as well drilled as the Brinks robbers obviously were, would have arranged to rendezvous at a specific time. Brian Robinson was arrested in December 1983 after Stephen Black - the security guard who let the robbers into the Brink's-Mat warehouse, and Robinson's brother-in-law - named him to police. The serial numbers of several of these bills were furnished to the FBI Office in Baltimore. The recovery of part of the loot was a severe blow to the gang members who still awaited trial in Boston. On November, 26, 1983, three tonnes of solid gold bullion was taken by six armed robbers from the Brink's-Mat security depot near . Veteran criminals throughout the United States found their activities during mid-January the subject of official inquiry. Jazz Maffie was convicted of federal income tax evasion and began serving a nine-month sentence in the Federal Penitentiary at Danbury, Connecticut, in June 1954. This vehicle was traced through motor vehicle records to Pino. The loot was quickly unloaded, and Banfield sped away to hide the truck. The conviction for burglary in McKean County, Pennsylvania, still hung over his head, and legal fees remained to be paid. In the years following the infamous 1983 Brink's-Mat robbery, many of the criminals and police alike were killed, leading to speculation there might be . Fat John and the business associate of the man arrested in Baltimore were located and interviewed on the morning of June 4, 1956. 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. Both denied knowledge of the loot that had been recovered. Their hands were tied behind their backs and adhesive tape was placed over their mouths. The group had expected to find foreign currency at the security depot but instead happened upon 26 million worth of goods. The robbers removed the adhesive tape from the mouth of one employee and learned that the buzzer signified that someone wanted to enter the vault area. 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.. Special agents subsequently interviewed Costa and his wife, Pino and his wife, the racketeer, and OKeefe. 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 continuing up the street to the end of the playground which adjoined the Brinks building, the truck stopped. The other keys in their possession enabled them to proceed to the second floor where they took the five Brinks employees by surprise. OKeefes reputation for nerve was legend. 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. Some persons claimed to have seen him. Many of the details had previously been obtained during the intense six-year investigation. OKeefe was the principal witness to appear before the state grand jurors. Unfortunately, this proved to be an idle hope. Terry Perkins. During questioning by the FBI, the money changer stated that he was in business as a mason contractor with another man on Tremont Street in Boston. On 26 November, 1983, six armed men did break into the Brink's-Mat security depot near Heathrow Airport expecting to find around 1m in pesetas. At 6:30am, six armed robbers from a south London gang entered the premises of the Brink's-Mat warehouse at Heathrow. During the period immediately following the Brinks robbery, the heat was on OKeefe and Gusciora. Apparently suspicious, OKeefe crouched low in the front seat of his car as the would-be assassins fired bullets that pierced the windshield. What Happened To The Brinks Mat Robbery? The incident happened outside of a Chase Bank in . From their prison cells, they carefully followed the legal maneuvers aimed at gaining them freedom. The FBIs analysis of the alibis offered by the suspects showed that the hour of 7:00 p.m. on January 17, 1950, was frequently mentioned. Masterminded by Brian 'The Colonel' Robinson and Mickey McAvoy, the gang hoped to make off with 3 million in cash, a sum that's now equivalent to just over 9 million. If Baker heard these rumors, he did not wait around very long to see whether they were true. They moved with a studied precision which suggested that the crime had been carefully planned and rehearsed in the preceding months. Several hundred dollars were found hidden in the house but could not be identified as part of the loot. Of the hundreds of New England hoodlums contacted by FBI agents in the weeks immediately following the robbery, few were willing to be interviewed. Thieves vanished after stealing $2.7 million, leaving few clues. 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. The other gang members would not talk. The Brink's truck was robbed in the early morning . In addition, McGinnis received other sentences of two years, two and one-half to three years, and eight to ten years. This underworld character told the officers that he had found this money. A thorough investigation was made concerning his whereabouts on the evening of January 17, 1950. During this operation, one of the employees had lost his glasses; they later could not be found on the Brinks premises. As the truck drove past the Brinks offices, the robbers noted that the lights were out on the Prince Street side of the building. 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. Reports had been received alleging that he had held up several gamblers in the Boston area and had been involved in shakedowns of bookies. (The arrests of Faherty and Richardson also resulted in the indictment of another Boston hoodlum as an accessory after the fact). Shortly thereafterduring the first week of Novembera 1949 green Ford stake-body truck was reported missing by a car dealer in Boston. 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. The Great Brinks Robbery of 1950 met all of these requirementsa great pile of cash disappeared with no evidence, leads, or suspects. Kenneth Noye now: What happened to the criminal depicted in The Gold after the Brink's-Mat robbery,The Gold tells the remarkable true story of a heist that went almost too well, with success bringing a host of problems For example, from a citizen in California came the suggestion that the loot might be concealed in the Atlantic Ocean near Boston. In the back were Pino, OKeefe, Baker, Faherty, Maffie, Gusciora, Michael Vincent Geagan (pictured), and Thomas Francis Richardson. 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. After the truck parts were found, additional suspicion was attached to these men. The eight men were sentenced by Judge Forte on October 9, 1956. There were recurring rumors that this hoodlum, Joseph Sylvester Banfield (pictured), had been right down there on the night of the crime. 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. Years earlier, a private investigator, Daniel Morgan, was said to have been looking into the robbery. Two other men, ex-Brink's guard Thomas O'Connor and unemployed teacher Charles McCormick, were acquitted. When the employees were securely bound and gagged, the robbers began looting the premises. During these weeks, OKeefe renewed his association with a Boston racketeer who had actively solicited funds for the defense of OKeefe and Gusciora in 1950. 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. 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. The theft occurred in July when a Brink's big rig paused at a Grapevine truck stop while transporting jewelry from a Northern California trade show to the Southland. While the others stayed at the house to make a quick count of the loot, Pino and Faherty departed. In the hours immediately following the robbery, the underworld began to feel the heat of the investigation. The robbery of 26m of gold bars from a warehouse near Heathrow airport is one of Britain's most notorious - and biggest - heists. At the Prison Colony, Baker was serving two concurrent terms of four to ten years, imposed in 1944 for breaking and entering and larceny and for possession of burglar tools. At the time of Bakers release in 1949, Pino was on hand to drive him back to Boston. The person ringing the buzzer was a garage attendant. It was almost the perfect crime. Following their arrests, a former bondsman in Boston made frequent trips to Towanda in an unsuccessful effort to secure their release on bail. At approximately 7:30 p.m. on June 3, 1956, an officer of the Baltimore, Maryland, Police Department was approached by the operator of an amusement arcade. After each interview, FBI agents worked feverishly into the night checking all parts of his story which were subject to verification. ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) _ A Catholic priest and an ex-guerrilla from Northern Ireland were convicted Monday of charges related to the $7.4 million robbery of a Brink's armored car depot. They were checked against serial numbers of bills known to have been included in the Brinks loot, and it was determined that the Boston criminal possessed part of the money that had been dragged away by the seven masked gunmen on January 17, 1950. 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. To his neighbors in Jackson Heights in the early 1990s, Sam . During the period in which Pinos deportation troubles were mounting, OKeefe completed his sentence at Towanda, Pennsylvania. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Following the robbery, authorities attempted unsuccessfully to locate him at the hotel. As a protective measure, he was incarcerated in the Hampden County jail at Springfield, Massachusetts, rather than the Suffolk County jail in Boston. 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. Well-known Boston hoodlums were picked up and questioned by police. Immediately upon leaving, the gang loaded the loot into the truck that was parked on Prince Street near the door. Considerable thought was given to every detail. Rumors from the underworld pointed suspicion at several criminal gangs. 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. Examination revealed the cause of his death to be a brain tumor and acute cerebral edema. Adding to these problems was the constant pressure being exerted upon Pino by OKeefe from the county jail in Towanda, Pennsylvania. 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 FBIs jurisdiction to investigate this robbery was based upon the fact that cash, checks, postal notes, and United States money orders of the Federal Reserve Bank and the Veterans Administration district office in Boston were included in the loot. T he robbers were there because they knew there was 3 million in cash locked in the . 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. Others fell apart as they were handled. Many problems and dangers were involved in such a robbery, and the plans never crystallized. In April 1950, the FBI received information indicating that part of the Brinks loot was hidden in the home of a relative of OKeefe in Boston. Paul Jawarski (sometimes spelled Jaworski) in a yellowed newspaper . The truck found at the dump had been reported stolen by a Ford dealer near Fenway Park in Boston on November 3, 1949. In the deportation fight that lasted more than two years, Pino won the final victory. The missing racketeers automobile was found near his home; however, his whereabouts remain a mystery. 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. It was positively concluded that the packages of currency had been damaged prior to the time they were wrapped in the pieces of newspaper; and there were indications that the bills previously had been in a canvas container which was buried in ground consisting of sand and ashes. 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. You'd be forgiven for mistaking the 2005 Miami Brinks heist for a movie script. All identifying marks placed on currency and securities by the customers were noted, and appropriate stops were placed at banking institutions across the nation. During 1955, OKeefe carefully pondered his position. At 10:25 p.m. on October 5, 1956, the jury retired to weigh the evidence. The Brinks Mat Robbery: The real story that inspired The Gold. After dousing security guards with petrol and threatening them with a lit match if they didn't open the safes, the six men made an amazing discovery when they stumbled upon 3,000kg worth of gold bars. 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. It unleashed a trail of eight murders and a global hunt for. From his cell in Springfield, OKeefe wrote bitter letters to members of the Brinks gang and persisted in his demands for money. There had been three attempts on his life in June 1954, and his frustrated assassins undoubtedly were waiting for him to return to Boston. His case had gone to the highest court in the land. In a series of interviews during the succeeding days, OKeefe related the full story of the Brinks robbery. On January 13, 1956, the Suffolk County grand jury returned indictments against the 11 members of the Brinks gang. Due to unsatisfactory conduct, drunkenness, refusal to seek employment, and association with known criminals, his parole was revoked, and he was returned to the Massachusetts State Prison. He was granted a full pardon by the acting governor of Massachusetts. 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. From the size of the loot and the number of men involved, it was logical that the gang might have used a truck. The Boston underworld rumbled with reports that an automobile had pulled alongside OKeefes car in Dorchester, Massachusetts, during the early morning hours of June 5. An automobile identified as the car used in the escape was located near a Boston hospital, and police officers concealed themselves in the area. Minutes later, police arrived at the Brinks building, and special agents of the FBI quickly joined in the investigation. He arrived in Baltimore on the morning of June 3 and was picked up by the Baltimore Police Department that evening. Two days before Maffies release, another strong suspect died of natural causes. 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. All of them wore Navy-type peacoats, gloves, and chauffeurs caps. On November, 26, 1983, three tonnes of solid gold bullion was taken by six armed robbers from the Brink's-Mat security depot near . Both OKeefe and Gusciora had been interviewed on several occasions concerning the Brinks robbery, but they had claimed complete ignorance. McGinnis had been arrested at the site of a still in New Hampshire in February 1954. During the trip from Roxbury, Pino distributed Navy-type peacoats and chauffeurs caps to the other seven men in the rear of the truck. At the time of their arrest, Faherty and Richardson were rushing for three loaded revolvers that they had left on a chair in the bathroom of the apartment. The FBI further learned that four revolvers had been taken by the gang. OKeefe had no place to keep so large a sum of money. Shakur, the stepfather of hip-hop star . Two of the participants in the Brinks robbery lived in the Stoughton area. The thieves quickly bound the employees and began hauling away the loot. On November 26, 1981, six armed men from South London broke into the Brink's-Mat warehouse near London Heathrow. McGinnis previously had discussed sending a man to the United States Patent Office in Washington, D.C., to inspect the patents on the protective alarms used in the Brinks building. All were guilty. It ultimately proved unproductive. Although the attendant did not suspect that the robbery was taking place, this incident caused the criminals to move more swiftly. 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. 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. That prison term, together with Pinos conviction in March 1928 for carnal abuse of a girl, provided the basis for the deportation action. Returning to Pennsylvania in February 1954 to stand trial, OKeefe was found guilty of burglary by the state court in McKean County on March 4, 1954. Inside this container were packages of bills that had been wrapped in plastic and newspapers. The Brinks Mat Robbery: The real story that inspired The Gold. From Boston, the pressure quickly spread to other cities. Underworld sources described him as fully capable of planning and executing the Brinks robbery. 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. To muffle their footsteps, one of the gang wore crepe-soled shoes, and the others wore rubbers. Both men remained mute following their arrests. He was through with Pino, Baker, McGinnis, Maffie, and the other Brinks conspirators who had turned against him. The robbery saw six armed men break into a security depot near London . Faherty had been questioned on the night of the robbery. OKeefe claimed that he left his hotel room in Boston at approximately 7:00 p.m. on January 17, 1950. Almost. 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. Pino had been at his home in the Roxbury Section of Boston until approximately 7:00 p.m.; then he walked to the nearby liquor store of Joseph McGinnis. Each of the five lock cylinders was taken on a separate occasion. The discovery of this money in the Tremont Street offices resulted in the arrests of both Fat John and the business associate of the criminal who had been arrested in Baltimore. However, by delving into the criminal world, Edwyn. This is good money, he said, but you cant pass it around here in Boston.. A gang of 11 men set out on a meticulous 18-month quest to rob the Brinks headquarters in Boston, the home-base of the legendary private security firm. An acetylene torch had been used to cut up the truck, and it appeared that a sledge hammer also had been used to smash many of the heavy parts, such as the motor. OKeefe and Gusciora reportedly had worked together on a number of occasions. 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. Each man also was given a pistol and a Halloween-type mask. On this day, Jawarski made history by pulling off the nation's first armored car robbery. Underworld figures in Boston have generally speculated that the racketeer was killed because of his association with OKeefe. He was not with the gang when the robbery took place. Pino, Richardson, and Costa each took $20,000, and this was noted on a score sheet. Pino was determined to fight against deportation. Of the $4,822 found in the small-time criminals possession, FBI agents identified $4,635 as money taken by the Brinks robbers. Thorough inquiries were made concerning the disposition of the bags after their receipt by the Massachusetts firm. The Brink's-Mat robbery remains to this day one of Britain's biggest and most audacious heists. Nonetheless, the finding of the truck parts at Stoughton, Massachusetts, was to prove a valuable break in the investigation. Other information provided by OKeefe helped to fill the gaps which still existed. When questioned concerning his activities on the night of January 17, 1950, Richardson claimed that after unsuccessfully looking for work he had several drinks and then returned home. During November and December 1949, the approach to the Brinks building and the flight over the getaway route were practiced to perfection. This phase of the investigation greatly disturbed many gamblers. Two hours later he was dead. On November 26 1983, six armed robbers entered the Brink's-Mat security warehouse at the Heathrow International Trading Estate. Henry Baker, another veteran criminal who was rumored to be kicking in to the Pennsylvania defense fund, had spent a number of years of his adult life in prison. 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. 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.. Early in June 1956, however, an unexpected break developed. An attempted armored truck heist in South Africa was caught on camera recently; it illustrates the dangers of the job. 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. Even with the recovery of this money in Baltimore and Boston, more than $1,150,000 of currency taken in the Brinks robbery remained unaccounted for. Estimates range from $10 million to $100 million. Subsequently, this machine gun was identified as having been used in the attempt on OKeefes life. Each of these leads was checked out. 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. In December 1954, he indicated to the agents that Pino could look for rough treatment if he (OKeefe) again was released.