Transcript

9.26.25 · History Hour

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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome. This is a radioized history show and
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I'm your host and reader for today, Joseph Bolt, so
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glad to be with you for this time. And before
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we begin today's show, we want to remind you that
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Radio I is listener driven, so that means you your
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listeners out there, and we welcome your comments are suggestions
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about what we do are programming this program or any program,
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So if you have any thoughts about any of that,
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please call us at eight five nine four two two
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six three nine zero and let us know what you
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are thinking. As you know, RADIOI is a reading service
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intended for people who are blind or have other disabilities
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that make it difficult to read printed material. I'll cite
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the sources as we go along. For today's program. Today,
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I thought we would uh go over a couple of
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old crime stories that I'm sure you're maybe partly familiar with,
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maybe maybe you know quite a bit about them, but
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I thought they were interesting and we'd bring them back
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up again and take a look at them historical perspective
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toward these criminals and crime. And the first one that
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I want to talk about. You may remember a bank
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robbery that involved the Brinks security firm in Boston. So
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let's go over that crime and the history of that first,
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and then we'll get into some others. It was the
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end of another evening for the employees at the Brinks
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Ink security firm in Boston. As they began to close,
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the workers carried sacks of undelivered cash and checks up
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to the company's safe on the second floor, when all
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of a sudden they were met by nine armed men
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wearing masks. What happened next on the night of January seventeenth,
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nineteen fifty was long dubbed quote the crime of the
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Century end quote by the FBI, and spawned at least
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four films about the robbery. Six Bridges to Cross in
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nineteen fifty five, Blueprint Print for Robbery in nineteen sixty one.
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The third film was Brinx The Great Robbery in nineteen
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seventy six, and the last one was The Brink's Job
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in nineteen seventy eight. Well that night, seven mask men
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quietly broke into the Brinks building in Boston's North End neighborhood,
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stealing more than one point two million in cash and
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another one and a half million in checks that would
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be equivalent to about twenty nine million dollars in today's money.
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They stole it from a vault on the second floor
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after tying up the workers with rope and adhesive tape.
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One robber wore a Captain Marvel mask to hide his identity,
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of course, others wore chauffeur's capps, and they all wore
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gloves and quiet rubber shoes to help conceal their tracks.
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All the employees could do was watch as the robbers
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pulled off the largest largest robbery in US history at
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that time, nearly getting caught when a garage attendant tried
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the buzz into the building while the robbers were organizing
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stacks of cash in bags next to the door. Two
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of the thieves quickly made a move toward the door,
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likely to try and capture the man, but then he
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walked away, seemingly unaware of what was taking place inside.
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According to a historical account of the incident from the
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f b I, authorities struggled to chase down the nine criminals,
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following hundreds of leads over the years. Nearly all of
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them hit a dead end, but after investigators began to
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identify likely suspects and began to apply pressure on certain
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members of the group, the Tight Lip Bandits began to
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crack and turn on one another. For years, investigators rounded
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up likely criminals in the New England area, whiskey bootleggers,
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gang members, high rolling gamblers, local rocketeers, and other well
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known hoodlums. Says the FBI, most suspect interviews went nowhere.
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If I knew who pulled the job, I wouldn't be
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talking to you now because I'd be too busy trying
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to figure a way to lay my hands on some
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of the loot. That's a quote from one suspect who
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was questioned in the case. Soon, however, investigators finally caught
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some breaks. A police officer in Somerville, Massachusetts found one
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of the revolvers used in the robbery discarded along the
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banks of the Mystic River. Investigators also soon haventified a
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nineteen forty nine green Ford truck with a canvas top
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that was likely used in the getaway. Nearly two months
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after the robbery, authorities tracked down pieces of the truck
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in a dump in Strawton, Massachusetts, having been torched and
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cut up into little pieces. That discovery led investigators to
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two of the robbers who lived in the Stratton area. First,
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investigators identified Anthony Pino, an immigrant who was known locally
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among criminals as a reliable caseman, and Joseph McGinnis, a
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local liquor store owner whom Pino was with the knight
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of the robbery. Through them, investigators were then led to
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Joseph James O'Keefe and Stanley Albert Gussauria, who were said
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to be the mussel behind the plot. O'Keefe later proved
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to be the domino that fell. He and Gussioria were
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arrested for a pair of burglars in Pennsylvania, leading O'Keefe
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to begin asking former cohorts in the Boston area to
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help him secure bond in order to be released. Those
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he asked for help, including Peno and mc ginnis, were
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said to be on the big job with him. According
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to the FBI, agents continually visited O'Keefe in jail in
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the hope that a wide breach might have developed between
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the two criminals who were in jail in Pennsylvania and
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the gang members who were enjoying the luxuries of a
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free life in Massachusetts. This, according to the FBI's historical
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account of the investigation, at first, O'Keefe claimed not just
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innocence but ignorance about the crime. O'Keeffe would serve his
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time and be released in early nineteen fifty four, embarking
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on a cold and persistent mission to pay his quote
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respects to the others involved in the Brinx robbery, who
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did little to help him, according to the FBI, Then,
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after visiting a number of forms associates, a car pulled
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up alongside O'Keefe's vehicle on June five, nineteen fifty four,
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and opened fire. He crouched in the front seat, avoiding
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the bullets and surviving the attempt on his life. Less
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than two weeks later, he'd be shot at again, this
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time taking bullets in the chest and the wrist. He
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disappeared from the Boston area on June sixteenth, nineteen fifty four,
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only to turn up again in August when he was
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arrested an hour outside of the city for carrying a weapon.
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During nineteen fifty five, O'Keefe carefully pondered his position. FBI
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said it appeared to him that he would spend his
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remaining days in prison, while his co conspirators would have
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many years to enjoy. The luxuries of life. After nearly
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another half year brewing in jail, O'Keeffe finally agreed to
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confess to the crime and told FBI agents in January
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nineteen fifty six what they needed to know about his
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co conspirators. O'Keefe shared there were actually eleven men on
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the job, with two having been outside when the robbery
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took place, one helping with the getaway and another helping
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signal to the burglary group from a nearby rooftop when
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the second floor vault was being opened. More than six
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years after the robbery, eight of the eleven men, including
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Pino O'Keefe McGinnis, were sentenced to prison for taking part
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in the crime, and Gussioria died before he could stand trial.
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And even though all eleven men involved in the plot
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have been identified, only a fraction of the two point
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seven million was ever recovered by authorities. That story came
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from the website people dot Com article entitled a bank
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robbery seventy four years ago baffled investigators for years until
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one of the thieves turned on the others. This was
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written by Sean Newman in January of twenty twenty four.
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The next story I'd like to read comes from the
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website history dot Com entitled Who was the Mysterious Hijacker? D? B? Cooper?
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Written by Ella Morton in May of twenty twenty five.
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It's the only unsolved hijacking case in the history of
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commercial aviation. On the afternoon of November twenty four, nineteen
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seventy one, Thanksgiving Eve, a man aboard a flight from
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Portland to Seattle threatened to debton made a bomb if
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he didn't receive a hefty ransom. Once he got the money,
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the hijacker released all passengers and ordered the crew to
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fly to Mexico. En route with cash in hand, the
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man parachuted from the aircraft. This man was known as D. B. Cooper.
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After more than fifty years of FBI investigations, his identity, whereabouts,
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and motive remained unconfirmed. No one even knows for certain
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whether he survived the jump. The FBI's extensive record on D. B.
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Cooper describes him as a white male six 't one,
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one hundred and seventy five pounds, aged mid forties, olive complexion,
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brown eyes, black hair, conventional cut, parted on left. Cooper
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boarded Northwest Oriental Airlines flight three o five. He settled
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in his aisle seat at the rear of the seven
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twenty seven lit a cigarette guests back then you could
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smoke on the plane, and ordered a bourbon and soda.
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Then he handed a note to Florence Schaffner, who was
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a twenty three year old flight attendant. The note read,
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I have a bomb in my briefcase and I want
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you to sit next to me. Shafner did as instructed.
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Cooper told her the rest of his demands two hundred
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thousand and four parachutes, delivered on landing at the Sea
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Tac Airport. While police and airline staff on the ground
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scrambled to assemble the money in shoots, the pilots flew
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in circles above Seattle. Passengers were told that a minor
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mechanical issue had forced the plane to burn fuel, prolonging
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the flight that would normally take thirty minutes. After three
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and a half hours in the air, the seven twenty
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seven finally landed. Having received his money in parachutes. Cooper
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dismissed all thirty six passengers and two of the six
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crew members. The plane refueled and took off for Cooper's
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next requested destination Mexico via Reno and Yuma to refuel.
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During the first leg, with the crew and the cockpit,
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Cooper lowered the rear stairs and parachuted into a thunderstorm.
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He has never been found. The FBI followed thousands of
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leeds to find Cooper, considering more than eight hundred suspects
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in the five years following the incident. Below are some
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men who have been considered suspects. The first one is
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a man by the name of Richard McCoy junior. On
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April seven, nineteen seventy two, a man traveling under a
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fake name boarded a rather Newark, Los Angeles flight. Shortly
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after takeoff, he handed a note to one of the
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flight attendants. The note demanded five hundred thousand and four parachutes.
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If these were not furnished, the man, a seasoned skydiver
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and helicopter pilot, would bomb the plane. The seven to
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twenty seven landed and refueled. Jack exchanged passengers for cash
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and parachutes, and en route to the next destination, he
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jumped from the rear stairs to freedom. Does this all
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sound familiar? This hijacking occurred less than five months after
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the dB Cooper incident, leading many to suspect that the
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same culprit may have been responsible. The perpetrator of the
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April crime, Richard McCoy Junior, was convicted of air piracy
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and received a forty five year prison sentence. On August tenth,
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nineteen seventy four. However, he and some fellow inmates hijacked
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a garbage truck and escaped their Pennsylvania penitentiary. When the
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FBI finally tracked McCoy down in Virginia three months later,
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a shootout left him dead. McCoy's children, Chante and Richard
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the Third, have long believed their father might have been
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behind the nineteen seventy one hijacking. They finally opened up
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about their suspicions to Dayan Grider in twenty twenty three
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after being repeatedly contact contacted by the amateur investigator. According
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to Grider, they presented the FBI with a parachute and
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harness that had been stashed in a storage shed on
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their families North Carolina property. That rig is literally one
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in a billion, Grider told Cowboy State Daily after posting
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a series on YouTube about his investigations. Also stored with
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a parachute was a log book that McCoy's daughter claims
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places their father at the site of the hijacking. Chantainne
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Rick have said they waited until their mother passed away
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before sharing the items with investigators. The evidence could prove
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revelatory in a case that the FBI officially closed in
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twenty sixteen. Could it finally be enough to put the
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dB Cooper case to rest? But wait a minute, what
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about shared in Peterson? A more under the radar suspect
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through the years has been shared in Peterson, who fell
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under suspicion within a week of the skyjacking, but wasn't
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interviewed by the FBI until decades later. Peterson, a former
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Boying employee, worked in the department that wrote the flight
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manual for the Boying seven twenty seven jet that was hijacked,
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a familiarity that may explain how the ptrator knew the
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aircraft had back stairs he could open and jump from.
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An accomplished skydiver, Peterson worked for a time as a
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smoke jumper in Montana. He also worked at a skydive
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center in the early nineteen sixties, the same place that
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would later provide parachutes used by Cooper in his escape.
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Unlike descriptions of Cooper. However, Peterson had blue eyes, not brown,
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and while Cooper had chain smoked on the flight, Peterson
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is not known to have been a smoker at the
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time of the hijacking. Peterson told authorities he was living
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with his wife and family in Nepal, although he offered
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no definitive proof that he hadn't traveled back at the
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time of the hijacking. And yet another suspect by the
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name of Robert Rackstraw. Back in the nineteen seventies, pilot
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and former paratrooper Robert Rackstraw had a lot going on.
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Grand theft, seventy five thousand dollars worth of bad checks,
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and the possible murder of his stepfather were just a
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few of the infractions for which authorities nabbed him. After
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being acquitted of the murder charge, Rackstraw saw fit to
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fake his own death in nineteen seventy eight by logging
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a false Mayday call from a rented plane in northern California.
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He spent two years in prison for check fraud and
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theft of an aircraft. In the nineteen sixteen book The
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Last Master Outlaw, authors Thomas J. Colbert and Tom Selosi
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presented evidence gathered during a five year investigation into Rackstraw's pass.
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They concluded he was a legendary hijacker and maybe the
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legendary hijacker acclaim. Rackstraw's lawyer called quote the stupidest thing
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I've ever heard. End quote. Well. Rackstraw died from a
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heart condition on July ninth, twenty nineteen. Kenneth Christiansen had
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a more direct link to the Cooper incident. He had
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worked for Northwest, the hijacked airline as a mechanic flight
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attendant and purser. Kenneth's brother Lyle claimed that when Kenneth
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was on his desk deathbed in nineteen ninety four, he said,
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quote there is something you should know, but I cannot
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tell you in quote. Kenneth had been a military paratrooper.
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The year after the dB Cooper hijacking. Despite being on
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a modest flights attendant's salary, he bought a house in
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cash Cannie. Cooper had taken his ransom note back from
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the flight attendant, so investigators were unable to examine it.
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Cooper did leave a few traces behind, though, some cigarette butts,
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a hair on the headrest of his seat and a
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clip on tie which he tore from his collar before
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hurtling himself from the plane. Unfortunately, the FBI could not
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get any fingerprints from this item. Although it was initially
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believed that Cooper was a battle scarred skydiver, perhaps a paratrooper,
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further analysis found that he was likely no expert. No
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experienced parachutist would have jumped in the pitch black night,
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in the rain with a two hundred mile an hour
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wind in his face, wearing loafers and a trench coat,
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said FBI Special Agent Larry Carr in two thousand and seven.
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Investigators also thought Cooper acted alone. If he had worked
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with an accomplice, he would have requested a much more
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specific flight plan, rather than saying quote, fly to Mexico
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end quote and jumping out when visibility was poor. In
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nineteen eighty, a child's discovery reignited interest in the mystery.
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Eight year old Brian Ingram was digging in the sand
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on the banks of the Washington's Columbia River when he
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found a bundle of rotting twenty dollar bills totaling five thousand,
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eight hundred dollars. When his parents contacted the police, they
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learned the serial numbers on the cash matched those from
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the stash given to Cooper. Aside from the few items
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left behind on the plane, this is the only material
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evidence found from the hijacking. Six years after he discovered
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the money, Ingram was allowed to keep two thousand, seven
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hundred and sixty dollars of it. In two thousand and eight,
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he sold fifteen of the fragmented twenty dollars bills at
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auction for thirty seven thousand, four hundred and thirty three
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dollars and thirty eight cents. In the wake of the hijacking,
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the Federal Aviation Administration ordered that Cooper vanes, named after
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the elusive dB, must be installed in all Boeing seven
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twenty seven aircraft. A Cooper vein is a small latch
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fitted to the outside of all planes with rear stairs.
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The latch prevents a anyone from opening the door mid flight,
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just as D. B. Cooper did as he leaped into
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the air and vanished into obscurity and finally from history
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dot com. Six Daring train robberies written by Evan Andrews.
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In May of twenty twenty five, the biggest train robbery
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in British history came in nineteen sixty three, when a
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gang of fifteen thieves stole more than seven million in
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banknotes the equivalent of sixty million today, from a Royal
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mail train. In the early morning of August eighth, the
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robbers rigged a false red signal light near the section
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of track called Seers Crossing. When the locomotive stopped at
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the light, more than a dozen men in ski mask appeared,
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beat the driver with a metal rod and uncoupled most
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of the cars. After forcing the driver to move the
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remaining cars to a rendezvous point a mile up the track,
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the thieves formed a human chain and quickly transferred one
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hundred and twenty bags of money, most of them containing
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bills set to be removed from circulation, into three waiting vehicles.
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After escaping the scene, the robbers hit out for several
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days in a nearby farmhouse, where they celebrated by playing
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monopoly with their two and a half tons of stolen cash.
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Spooked by the high police presence in the area, the
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men eventually divided the loot and split up. Police were
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later called to the scene, where they discovered heaps of evidence,
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including fingerprints on the gang's monopoly board that helped them
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track down the thieves. Twelve of the gang members were
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eventually arrested and sentenced to a total of three hundred
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and seven years in prison. Well that about does it
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for today's RADIOI History program. I sure hope you enjoyed
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today's readings as much as I did researching it and
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reading it to you. Thank you for giving me your
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time to day. I'm your host, Joseph Bolt, and I'll
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be back next time with another chapter of RADIOI History.
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Until then, happy trails.