As long as he was in prison, he could do no physical harm to his Boston criminal associates. Thirteen people were detained in the hours following the robbery, including two former employees of Brink's. WebA Byte Out of HistoryThe Great Brinks Robbery. 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. 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. It was billed as the perfect crime and the the crime of the century.. WebMore than 6,000 gold bars were stolen in the robbery from a warehouse on the outskirts of Heathrow on 26 November, 1983. 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 Even after these convictions, OKeefe and Gusciora continued to seek their release. Because the money in the cooler was in various stages of decomposition, an accurate count proved most difficult to make. The families of OKeefe and Gusciora resided in the vicinity of Stoughton, Massachusetts. On January 11, 1956, the United States Attorney at Boston authorized special agents of the FBI to file complaints charging the 11 criminals with (1) conspiracy to commit theft of government property, robbery of government property, and bank robbery by force and violence and by intimidation, (2) committing bank robbery on January 17, 1950, and committing an assault on Brinks employees during the taking of the money, and (3) conspiracy to receive and conceal money in violation of the Bank Robbery and Theft of Government Property Statutes. Each robbers face was completely concealed behind a Halloween-type mask. Before removing the remainder of the loot from the house on January 18, 1950, the gang members attempted to identify incriminating items. (Geagan and Richardson, known associates of other members of the gang, were among the early suspects. The pair recruited criminal Kenneth Noye, an expert in his field, who Before the robbery was committed, the participants had agreed that if anyone muffed, he would be taken care of. OKeefe felt that most of the gang members had muffed. Talking to the FBI was his way of taking care of them all. This phase of the investigation greatly disturbed many gamblers. 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. 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. On September 8, 1950, OKeefe was sentenced to three years in the Bradford County jail at Towanda and fined $3,000 for violation of the Uniform Firearms Act. In the hope that a wide breach might have developed between the two criminals who were in jail in Pennsylvania and the gang members who were enjoying the luxuries of a free life in Massachusetts, FBI agents again visited Gusciora and OKeefe. Released to McKean County, Pennsylvania, authorities early in January 1954 to stand trial for burglary, larceny, and receiving stolen goods, OKeefe also was confronted with a detainer filed by Massachusetts authorities. They spent about twenty minutes inside the vault, putting money into large canvas bags. Special agents subsequently interviewed Costa and his wife, Pino and his wife, the racketeer, and OKeefe. THE Brink's-Mat robbery is one of the most notorious crimes in British history. After being wounded on June 16, OKeefe disappeared. For example, from a citizen in California came the suggestion that the loot might be concealed in the Atlantic Ocean near Boston. OKeefe was enraged that the pieces of the stolen Ford truck had been placed on the dump near his home, and he generally regretted having become associated at all with several members of the gang. It was reported that on May 18, 1954, OKeefe and his racketeer associate took Vincent Costa to a hotel room and held him for several thousand dollars ransom. Their success in evading arrest ended abruptly on May 16, 1956, when FBI agents raided the apartment in which they were hiding in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Investigation revealed that Geagan, a laborer, had not gone to work on January 17 or 18, 1950.). [15] Two vehicles were stolen: a truck, to carry away the loot from the robbery; and a car, which would be used to block any pursuit. A few weeks later, OKeefe retrieved his share of the loot. It was given to him in a suitcase that was transferred to his car from an automobile occupied by McGinnis and Banfield. Following the robbery, authorities attempted unsuccessfully to locate him at the hotel. (Investigation to substantiate this information resulted in the location of the proprietor of a key shop who recalled making keys for Pino on at least four or five evenings in the fall of 1949.