On January 17, 1950, eleven men conspired to steal over $2 million, which is equivalent to 29 million today, from the Brink’s Armored Car depot in Boston, Massachusetts. It was nearly the perfect crime, because the culprits were not apprehended until January 1956, just days before the statute of limitations for the expired. I guess, there really is no such thing as a perfect crime.
The Brink’s robbery was masterminded by Anthony “Fats” Pino, who was a career criminal. Pino recruited a group of 10 other men to stake out the depot for 18 months to figure out when it held the most money. Pino’s men then managed to steal plans for the depot’s alarm system, returning them before anyone noticed they were gone. This operation was one of patience and perseverance.
On January 17, the thieves entered the depot with copied keys. They were wearing navy blue coats and chauffeur’s caps, that were similar to the Brink’s employee uniforms, and they wore rubber Halloween masks. Their costumes surprised the employees, and the thieves tied up several employees inside the company’s counting room. They filled 14 canvas bags with cash, coins, checks, and money orders, for a total weight of more than half a ton. The men were out and in their getaway car in about 30 minutes. Their haul? More than $2.7 million, which was the largest robbery in US history up until that time.
The robbery was carried out with perfect precision. No one was hurt. Virtually no clues were left behind by the thieves, with the exception of the rope used to tie the employees and one of the chauffeur’s caps. Following the robbery, the gang promised to stay out of trouble and not touch the money for six years in order for the statute of limitations to run out. Once the statute had passed, they were home free. They might have made it too, except for the fact that one man, Joseph “Specs” O’Keefe got into trouble, and left his share with another member in order to serve a prison sentence for the other burglary. While in jail, O’Keefe began to break. He began to write bitter letters to his cohorts, demanding money and hinting he might talk if they didn’t get him some. They were getting so close to their goal, and they couldn’t let O’Keefe mess that us for them, so they decided to send a hit man to kill him, but the hit man got caught before completing his job. Knowing now that he had been betrayed, and the wounded O’Keefe made a deal with the FBI to testify against his fellow robbers.
Their perfect crime was quickly unraveling now. Eight of the Brink’s robbers were caught, convicted, and given life sentences. Two more died before they could go to trial. Only a small part of the money was ever recovered, with the rest said to be hidden in the hills north of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, which would be impossible to locate. So ended the perfect, but not so perfect Brink’s robbery. The money wasn’t recovered, but the robbers didn’t get it either.
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