Touch of the Past: The Brinks Robbery

On January 17 a little before 7:30 pm, 1950, there was a robbery that marked its spot in history. A group of eleven men managed to do something that most people couldn’t get away with and almost did before getting caught a couple days later before the statute of limitations of theft expired.

The head of the whole operation was none other than Anthony Pino a.k.a. Fats. Pino recruited each man and for about eighteen months he and the others planed about everything to attempt to have the “perfect crime”.

Having a perfect crime is often fictionalized now since no one seems to be able to pull it off anymore, but there are many crimes that went unsolved ultimately becoming the perfect crime. Such as The 300 Million Yen Robbery in Tokyo was stolen - an equivalent of approximately $820,000.

Dressing up as Brink’s employees with a rubber mask and had copied keys, they sunk in. They took down the alarm system and tied up the real employees. They filled up countless bags quickly and rushed away from the scene. Leaving no trace behind them and no one hurt.

The Boston Police and FBI searched for clues but found nothing to help find the men. Five employees were interviewed but they couldn’t tell them much since everything was concealed. Their face and the sound of their footsteps. Keeping silent mostly.

Countless investigations were conducted but all led to dead ends. People from other states tried suggesting where the money and men were hiding- each fact useless.

Each man made a deal not to touch the money until the six years were up for the statute of limitations. They were doing really well for a while. Lasting that long knowing how much money you had would prove to be a difficult task.

So where did these men mess up? They were so close to freedom. Simple, it was all because of Joseph O’Keefe. Near the end, before the time was up he committed another burglary and was in jail. He threatened to spill the secrets about the money.

The other men not wanting to lose their money decided to send an assassin to keep his mouth shut for a long time. The assassin was caught- leading to everything falling apart. The FBI came into the picture and made a deal with O’Keefe to testify against the others.

They began federal grand juries on November 25, 1952. Most of the FBI’s reasoning was the evidence they found at the scene were the Ford was dumped. It was completed January 9, 1953, but the court was still on the fence. Mainly for three reasons “(1) the participants were effectively disguised; (2) there was a lack of eyewitnesses to the crime itself; and (3) certain witnesses refused to give testimony, and the Grand Jury was unable to compel them to do so”.

Eventually, eight men were arrested receiving a life sentence, two died before they were caught. Even with the testimony, only a portion of the money was recovered. Many said that the money was hidden in the hills north of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Creating a big mystery to solve and inspiring a movie adaptation called The Brink’s Job.