A detective inspects the Brink's vault
The Great Brinks Robbery occured on January 17, 1950 at the Brinks site on 169 Prince Street in Boston. The building still stands but it is now a parking garage. The robbers got off with more than $1.2 million in cash and $1.5 million in bonds and securities. At the time it was the biggest robbery in the history of the United States and the FBI dubbed it "The Crime of the Century."
There were 11 crooks who took part of the job. Eight of them ended up being charged with the crime. Two died before they were caught and one made a deal when he turned on the others.
The FBI estimates that it spent $29 million dollars to solve the crime and they only brought charges 11 days before the statute of limitations for the crime expired.
The Plan
Encyclopedia.com gives a great summary of how the job was planned out:
The robbery was the brainchild of Tony (the Pig) Pino, a professional safecracker who by his thirtieth birthday had been arrested some twenty-five times. Released from prison in 1944, Pino soon returned to his chosen career, making a modest living for himself by shoplifting and minor robberies. He was an ambitious criminal, though, and as early as 1945 he had started planning the job that would be his masterpiece. He was inspired one night as he happened to pass Brink's North Terminal Garage while employees loaded bag after bag of money into armored cars.
The Five-year Plan
For the next five years Pino worked out the details for the "Brink's job." In various disguises he entered the Brink's offices and memorized details of the office's layout. He followed the daily operations of the business to determine on what days the most money would be in the building. And he began to recruit the accomplices he would need: acquaintances from prison, small-time criminals like himself.
Golden Opportunities
Soon Pino and his group began testing the armored-car company's security in earnest. They followed the Brink's armored cars and learned all their routes. When the opportunity presented itself, they would sneak up on an unguarded car, open it with a key they had stolen from the company garage, and make off with a sack of money. They also robbed the safes of Brink's customers, using the security company's delivery schedule to determine when its customers would have the most money on the premises. In this way, reported Noel Behn in his Big Stick-Up at Brink's! (1977), the thieves stole almost four hundred thousand dollars from Brink's and its customers between 1946 and 1950.
No Security
In the last two years before the robbery, members of Pino's group broke into the Brink's offices repeatedly, researching their crime. Every detail of the company's operations was available to them. They discovered that the company's security system was amazingly primitive. Only the alarm system on the company vault gave them pause. So Pino made his last strategy decision: they would have to rob Brink's when the vault was open—armed robbery instead of burglary.
The Heist
A mask like this was used during the robbery.
The Examiner breaks down the night of the heist and how the crooks were almost perfect:
Just before 7:30 pm on January 17, 1950, five or six of them entered the building through several locked doors. They were wearing coats, masks and special shoes so their movements would be quiet. They also wore gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints. They managed to sneak right up on the Brinks employees who were moving the day's take into the safe. The men secured the employees by tying their hands behind their backs with lengths of rope. They also taped their mouths closed. Within minutes, they had moved all of the money and securities into a truck that waited outside. They also stole four revolvers from the Brinks Headquarters.
The only evidence left at the scene was the tape and rope used to secure the Brinks employees. Police began investigating minutes after the thieves left, but they had very little to go on. It would have been the perfect robbery, if the 11 men had not left evidence elsewhere and begun bickering amongst themselves. Police soon found one of the guns that had been stolen and pieces of the truck that had been used in the heist. It turns out that the truck had been stolen from a Ford dealership in the Fenway area the previous November.
The Brinks office was at the corner of Commercial and Prince streets. The structure is now a parking garage.
The Investigation
Brinks' employees are questioned by Boston Police at the vault.
BankRobberMagazine (yes…. it exists) goes over the investigation:
Boston police and Bureau agents got to work within minutes of the bank’s call – scouring the crime scene, identifying missing items, questioning the employees (and checking for possible disgruntled ones), and blanketing the wider community of criminals and their supporters.
Slowly key clues began to emerge. In February, a police officer found a gun stolen in the heist. The next month, Bureau agents located the getaway truck that was used – at least part of it, as the criminals had cut it to pieces and dumped it at a scrap yard.
Also taking shape was a group of key suspects:
- Anthony Pino, a local hood whose M.O. fit the crime;
- Joe McGinnis, a Boston underworld figure who’d been with Pino that night; and
- Joseph O’Keefe and Staley Gusciora, both local ex-cons who knew Pino, had a reputation for being able to handle guns (the strong arms needed for such a heist), had weak alibis, and had family near the getaway truck discovery.
They might have gotten away with it, but… The criminals had all agreed to sit on the money for a few years and slowly launder it to avoid detection. But with so much free time on their hands, they got into trouble. O’Keefe and Gusciora landed in jail for various crimes. The others also had problems keeping low.
Eventually, the oft-imprisoned O’Keefe grew bitter and began complaining that he didn’t get his fair share of the money. After several unsuccessful attempts on his life by his confederates, he decided to tell the full story of the 11-man job to our agents.
In the end, the painstaking work of the Bureau, the Boston police, and others led to the arrest of six gang members in January 1956. Two others were already in prison, one was dead, and two were placed on our Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list and later caught. Soon more than half of the money was recovered, and the suspects went to trial – except Gusciora, who had just died. On October 5, 1956, a Boston jury found each of them guilty.
The FBI site has much more detail on the investigaiton.
Some of the Brinks crooks at their trial in 1956. From left to right: Faherty, Geagan, Richardson,
McGinnis, Tony Pino, Costa, Maffie and Baker.
The 1978 Movie
There's been a few movies about the robbery. The most well known is this 1978 film starring Peter Falk. Its a bit of a comedy, but it has the outline of the robbery in place.
It is currently streaming on Netflix.
Here's a preview:
Vault picture from The Boston Public Library on Flickr