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True Crime Documentary - Sophisticated Burglars Pull Off The Perfect Heist · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

0:00
Speaker 1: Hi, everyone.
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Speaker 2: My name is Joshua Miles, and I'm guessing if you're
0:03
Speaker 2: watching this then you are a massive true crime enthusiast
0:07
Speaker 2: just like me. For those of you who are in
0:09
Speaker 2: the US who are a true crime fans, you'll probably
0:12
Speaker 2: have heard about crime Con now. Crime con is the
0:15
Speaker 2: world's number one at true crime events, and I am
0:18
Speaker 2: delighted to let you know that crime Con has made
0:21
Speaker 2: the jump across the pond and has arrived in the UK.
0:24
Speaker 2: And I do hope that I will get to see
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Speaker 2: all of your lovely faces.
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Speaker 1: There. At a bank outside Los Angeles, a nighttime explosion,
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Speaker 1: no one hears, cunning criminals, no one sees. It's the
0:47
Speaker 1: perfect burglary in which cash and bandits vanish without a trace.
0:54
Speaker 1: With little to go on, the FBI must use instinct
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Speaker 1: and determination solm a case that seems impossible.
1:35
Speaker 3: Bank robbery is a brazen yet simple crime, a mask,
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Speaker 3: a gun, a note passed to a teller. But bank
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Speaker 3: burglary is different. It takes skill to disable an alarm
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Speaker 3: to penetrate a locked vault. I'm Jim Calstrom from ahead
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Speaker 3: of the FBI's New York office in nineteen seventy two,
1:54
Speaker 3: the largest bank burglary in US history went down without
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Speaker 3: a hitch. Eight million dollars gone. Now agents must track
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Speaker 3: a gang of sophisticated criminals with enough money to disappear.
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Speaker 1: Forever Lagoon and Miguel, California, March twenty seventh, nineteen seventy two.
2:20
Speaker 1: It's Monday morning at the United California Bank. Employees prepare
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Speaker 1: to open for business. When the bank manager tries to
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Speaker 1: unlock the vault door, it won't open.
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Speaker 4: Somebody called a safe company.
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Speaker 1: A technician from the vault manufacturer arrives twenty minutes later
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Speaker 1: to check the door's locking system. He works for hours.
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Speaker 1: The combination is right. The tumblers are in place, but unexplainably,
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Speaker 1: even the expert can't get it open.
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Speaker 4: It's not working.
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Speaker 1: Looking for another way in, the technician climbs into the
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Speaker 1: rafters above the vault. He is stunned to find a
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Speaker 1: hole cut in the roof below, a second gaping hole
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Speaker 1: leading to the vault. Agents from the FBI Santa Ana
3:32
Speaker 1: Resident Agency immediately respond to the bank. The first investigator
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Speaker 1: to survey the cluttered crime scene is Special Agent Jim Conway.
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Speaker 5: Upon arriving and getting up on the vault and looking
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Speaker 5: down at this hole, we could see a pile of
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Speaker 5: rubble I would say six feet tall and expanding out.
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Speaker 1: Once inside the vault, the technician discovers a screwdriver jammed
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Speaker 1: into the locks gears. Agents suspect the thieves wanted to
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Speaker 1: delay the discovery of the crime. The place is a
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Speaker 1: disaster now.
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Speaker 5: My first impression was there was going to be a
4:20
Speaker 5: lot of time and effort needed to work this out.
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Speaker 5: It was something we couldn't just plow into. Because we
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Speaker 5: had a crime scene. We were able to walk in
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Speaker 5: a few of us and look around and see what
4:31
Speaker 5: the extent was as best we could determine.
4:34
Speaker 4: But we're walking over.
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Speaker 5: Watches and rings and valuables and everything else because it
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Speaker 5: was all piled into this big cement mess.
4:45
Speaker 1: Special Agent Frank Kelly begins sorting through the chaos.
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Speaker 4: Everything was thrown all over the place.
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Speaker 6: There locks of hair, all kinds of check statements, photographs,
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Speaker 6: thing that people would normally put in the in the
5:03
Speaker 6: safety deposit box. I remember seeing urns with ashes deceased
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Speaker 6: to people.
5:10
Speaker 1: In their The agents begin the arduous task of determining
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Speaker 1: how the burglars entered the seemingly impenetrable vault. They noticed
5:22
Speaker 1: dark soil and pieces of burlap mixed with the cement rubble. Outside,
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Speaker 1: they find the bank's audible alarm disabled. They also find
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Speaker 1: a ladder. Interpreting the clues, investigators pieced together the burglar's
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Speaker 1: intricate plan to breach the vault. They disabled the alarm
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Speaker 1: by injecting it with liquid styrophoae. It hardened, freezing the
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Speaker 1: clapper in place and rendering the alarm useless. Then the
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Speaker 1: burglars climbed onto the roof. Investigators find tape on a
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Speaker 1: rooftop outlet suggesting the burglars use the bank's electricity. When
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Speaker 1: agents cannot find fingerprints on the tape, they conclude.
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Speaker 7: The burglars wore gloves fully powered.
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Speaker 1: The burglars saw the four foot opening into the roof good.
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Speaker 1: Once inside the rafters, they clearly knew how to bypass
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Speaker 1: the interior silent alarm system.
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Speaker 6: They took a couple of the wires and that who
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Speaker 6: had normally transmitted the alarm sail, and then they clipped
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Speaker 6: them both and sodded them together.
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Speaker 1: It was delicate, highly skilled work.
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Speaker 4: No bright away.
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Speaker 6: They were smart. They did the homework.
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Speaker 1: Even with the alarm disabled, sixteen inches of steel reinforced
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Speaker 1: concrete stood between the burglars and the contents of the vault.
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Speaker 1: The only way through an intensely powerful blast. Agents believed
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Speaker 1: the bandits drilled holes into the cement, then inserted dynamite
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Speaker 1: and electric blasting caps. The blast had to be precisely
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Speaker 1: directed to blow through the cement without injuring the burglars
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Speaker 1: or attracting attention. Agents conclude that the burlap fragments and
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Speaker 1: the soil and the vault indicate that the burglars came prepared.
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Speaker 6: They placed the bags over the explosive not only to
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Speaker 6: muffle the sound, but also it would direct they charged
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Speaker 6: into the into the vault itself and keep the charge
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Speaker 6: going into the concrete where they wanted it right in
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Speaker 6: coming back out where they were, the.
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Speaker 1: Investigators discovered burn marks on the steel rebar that reinforces
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Speaker 1: the cement. They conclude that the burglars knew the blast
9:10
Speaker 1: could not crack steel and kane prepared with an ascettlene torch.
9:20
Speaker 1: Agents turn their attention to assessing the total loss. Bank
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Speaker 1: officials report fifty thousand dollars as missing from cash drawers,
9:30
Speaker 1: but the thieves were not content with the cash, they
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Speaker 1: took the time to break into four hundred and fifty
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Speaker 1: eight safe deposit boxes. Investigators fine tool marks and the
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Speaker 1: locks of the boxes and deduce the burglars used a
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Speaker 1: pointed instrument and a lot of brute force to break
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Speaker 1: them open one by one. They carefully sorted through every item,
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Speaker 1: leaving behind what they didn't want. Amazingly, the bandits were
10:05
Speaker 1: so methodical that they got in and out without being
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Speaker 1: seen or heard. In nineteen seventy two, most banks were
10:13
Speaker 1: closed on weekends. Agents conclude that the suspects took full
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Speaker 1: advantage of that fact.
10:24
Speaker 6: Apparently they had been in there several times in and
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Speaker 6: out over the weekend. It probably went in on Friday night,
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Speaker 6: and they probably didn't get out there a late Sunday night.
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Speaker 1: Not only had the burglars pulled off such a lengthy,
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Speaker 1: complex crime, they did it without leaving a single fingerprint.
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Speaker 1: Although investigators do find a brown cotton glove and broken
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Speaker 1: drill bits, neither is unique enough to be traceable. Agents
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Speaker 1: and deputies collect the debris for further examination at the
11:00
Speaker 1: crime lab, but with no apparent evidence and no witnesses,
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Speaker 1: agents are facing the tough challenge of identifying and locating
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Speaker 1: a group of highly skilled criminals, including electronics and explosives experts.
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Speaker 1: Investigators turn their attention to determining the total loss from
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Speaker 1: the safe deposit boxes. It will be extremely difficult since
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Speaker 1: banks do not keep records of their contents.
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Speaker 5: Ordinarily, if you had a bank burglary you would be
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Speaker 5: missing cash. You'd go out and say, yes, we've got
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Speaker 5: to find three hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of cash.
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Speaker 5: At this point, we did not know what was gone.
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Speaker 5: It's a very affluid area, and so the possibilities of
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Speaker 5: a tremendous amount of money and bacteriol being lost was evident.
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Speaker 1: Investigators begin the arduous task of carefully sorting and cataloging
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Speaker 1: every item left in the vault. Then, by interviewing every
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Speaker 1: box holder, agents learned the details of missing jewelry, rare gold.
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Speaker 7: Coins, and bearer.
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Speaker 1: Bonds came as a shot. By a process of elimination,
12:16
Speaker 1: they slowly create a list of the stolen goods. The
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Speaker 1: bank's loss of fifty thousand dollars in cash pales by
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Speaker 1: comparison as the value of the missing items rises to
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Speaker 1: over eight million dollars. The heist has now become the
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Speaker 1: largest bank burglary in US history. With no physical evidence
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Speaker 1: to go on, investigators hope to develop leads by thinking
12:44
Speaker 1: like the bandits.
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Speaker 5: We felt that they would need oxygen to burn the rebar,
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Speaker 5: and so we canvas hospitals, oxygens to buy places, and
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Speaker 5: things like that.
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Speaker 1: Despite checking every oxygen sup in the area, agents come
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Speaker 1: up with nothing.
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Speaker 5: We also felt that a drill of some type had
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Speaker 5: to be used, obviously a large one, so we canvas
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Speaker 5: placed us to find if anybody had sold or rented
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Speaker 5: a large trail, as we felt that it'd.
13:15
Speaker 1: Have to be used again. Agents go to dozens of
13:20
Speaker 1: equipment shops checking records during the time surrounding the breakhead,
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Speaker 1: but they find no suspicious purchases.
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Speaker 4: Or rentals before.
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Speaker 1: Clearly the criminals in this case have masterminded and pulled
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Speaker 1: off a nearly perfect heist. With no witnesses, no direct clues,
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Speaker 1: and certainly no suspects, it seems impossible to solve, but
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Speaker 1: the FBI is determined to identify the burglars and find.
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Speaker 7: Them wherever they are.
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Speaker 1: In March ninth, seventy two, the professional crew of burglars
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Speaker 1: blasted their way into a bank vault in Laguna Miguel, California,
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Speaker 1: near Los Angeles. Over a weekend, they emptied hundreds of
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Speaker 1: safe deposit boxes, made off with more than eight million
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Speaker 1: dollars in cash invaluables, then disappeared without a trace. Agents
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Speaker 1: believe they are an experienced band of criminals.
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Speaker 7: The case is difficult to crack.
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Speaker 1: For the small Santa Anna FBI office. Needing more resources,
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Speaker 1: they seek the help of the larger Los Angeles FBI
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Speaker 1: Field Office. Special Agent Paul Chamberlain supervises the investigation.
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Speaker 8: At the time, it was our conclusion that this was
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Speaker 8: the largest bank burglary in the history of the United States.
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Speaker 8: We went to just about everyone in the office and
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Speaker 8: with several hundred agents, and that's not a typical response,
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Speaker 8: but they became a parent that the crime was the
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Speaker 8: signific the crime.
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Speaker 1: The Santa Ana agents quickly briefed the Los Angeles office
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Speaker 1: on the details.
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Speaker 8: We've not had a bank burglary like that and recorded
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Speaker 8: history in the Los Angeles Division.
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Speaker 4: Burglaries that did occur.
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Speaker 8: With banks involved a small effort, and this was a systematic,
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Speaker 8: big time operation that lasted over three days.
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Speaker 1: Since the burglars seem to be highly skilled professionals, yet
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Speaker 1: have not struck Los Angeles. Before agents conclude that they're
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Speaker 1: probably from out of town. An agent sends a teletype
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Speaker 1: to all other FBI offices asking if anyone knows of
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Speaker 1: similar bank burglaries. They get a hit from the Cleveland,
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Speaker 1: Ohio field office, where agents have been investigating similar bank heists,
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Speaker 1: thirteen of them. In fact, the description of the California
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Speaker 1: burglary immediately strikes a chord with them.
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Speaker 7: Including Buddy Nicks.
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Speaker 9: When knew from the motors operanda the mo the outside
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Speaker 9: alarm had styrofoam spray placed in it to keep the
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Speaker 9: audible alarm from activating, the fact that it was a
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Speaker 9: roof job, the fact that the alarm system had been
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Speaker 9: bypassed for all indications that bank burglery cruise in Youngstown
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Speaker 9: very well may have been involved.
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Speaker 1: The Ohio agents believe the thirteen Ohio bank heists were
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Speaker 1: committed by the Youngstown Erie bank burglary Group, a loose
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Speaker 1: association of criminals tied to organized crime. The California agents
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Speaker 1: were right, these are no small time crooks.
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Speaker 9: Youngstown at that time was just a mecca for organized
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Speaker 9: crime activities when they controlled the illegal gambling businesses and
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Speaker 9: they were very much involved in interstate transportation of stolen
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Speaker 9: property and tracked trailer thefts, and there were burglary crews
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Speaker 9: that were operating, and there were a lot of very
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Speaker 9: sophisticated burglaries that were taking place at that time.
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Speaker 1: As part of earlier investigations, the Youngstown, Ohio agents have
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Speaker 1: identified nearly one hundred men believed to be part of
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Speaker 1: the burglary group. They've collected intelligence on each of them.
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Speaker 1: Agents send the men's names in mug shots to the
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Speaker 1: Los Angeles FBI. Their investigators tried to narrow the list.
17:43
Speaker 1: Since the criminals must have traveled to California, agents check
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Speaker 1: airline passenger manifests from around the time of the burglary.
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Speaker 1: Without the benefit of modern computers, it is a time
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Speaker 1: consuming process done by hand. After an exhaustive search, they
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Speaker 1: find the names of five men from the Youngstown list
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Speaker 1: who had boarded a recent flight to Los Angeles. Amil Denzio,
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Speaker 1: Harry Barber, Charles Mulligan, Charles Brockels, and Philip Christopher arrived
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Speaker 1: in California nine days before the heist. The sixth man,
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Speaker 1: James Denzil, came in on a different flight the day
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Speaker 1: before the burglary. Finally, agents have developed suspects and.
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Speaker 4: His brother Emil.
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Speaker 1: Agents review the intelligence gathered on the six members of
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Speaker 1: the burglary group. All have long records for home and
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Speaker 1: small business burglaries and have done little jail time. Amil
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Speaker 1: Dinzio appears to be the brains of the gang.
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Speaker 7: The leader.
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Speaker 4: You need to pay attention for that picture of Rember
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Speaker 4: his face.
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Speaker 1: He plans the jobs and hand picks the team to
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Speaker 1: pull them off. Mister Charles Bronckles. Charles Brockles is an
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Speaker 1: explosives an electronics expert well versed in bank alarms. Agents
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Speaker 1: believe Philip Christopher is a lookout.
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Speaker 5: For the gang all right, He's known for his expertise.
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Speaker 1: In bank robb The other gang members are all relatives
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Speaker 1: of the leader and probably help with the grunt work.
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Speaker 7: There's Amiel's older brother.
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Speaker 1: James face only a mother could love.
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Speaker 7: And Charles Mulligan amles brother in law.
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Speaker 1: Here, you're gonna really appreciate this guy. Yeah, there's also
19:48
Speaker 1: amles nephew, Harry Barber.
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Speaker 5: Want you take a look at this guy.
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Speaker 1: The men are all seasoned professional criminals, well connected and
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Speaker 1: organized crimes. The Youngstown, Ohio FBI has linked them circumstantially
20:04
Speaker 1: to many bank burglaries, but never had direct evidence, and
20:08
Speaker 1: the charge is never stuck.
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Speaker 3: Nobody not a heavy weight, but we got.
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Speaker 1: A The only information that links the suspects to the
20:15
Speaker 1: crime is that they were all in Los Angeles at
20:18
Speaker 1: the time.
20:18
Speaker 6: Of the burglary.
20:21
Speaker 1: Agents begin the difficult job of tracking their movements, starting
20:25
Speaker 1: at the airport.
20:27
Speaker 8: We then canvassed and interviewed every cab driver at LAX
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Speaker 8: that was working that day. That was a massive project.
20:38
Speaker 1: Agents spend days interviewing dozens of drivers. It finally pays off.
20:45
Speaker 1: One cab driver recalls taking a group of five men
20:48
Speaker 1: to a home in the nearby community of Southgate. He
20:52
Speaker 1: remembers the trip well.
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Speaker 8: The cab drivers specifically remembered these folks for two reasons,
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Speaker 8: one because of a one hundred dollars tip. For the
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Speaker 8: other reason they were tough, mean looking guys.
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Speaker 1: Agents get the address from taxi records and decide to
21:07
Speaker 1: go there, but it is a risk. Agents fear that
21:13
Speaker 1: if the suspects find out they're investigating the burglary, they
21:16
Speaker 1: might skip town. They have to take the chance. It
21:21
Speaker 1: is their only lead. According to Special Agent Jim Conway.
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Speaker 4: But we had to interview somebody.
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Speaker 5: We had to get our investigations started, and we were
21:30
Speaker 5: concerned that naturally that the rest of them would be
21:32
Speaker 5: aware that we were at least that close to identifying them.
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Speaker 1: Agents learned that the Southgate house belongs to the Barber family.
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Speaker 1: Ronald Barber, the brother of suspect Harry Barber, agrees to
21:46
Speaker 1: an interview but is elusive.
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Speaker 5: We did not have a warrant or anything at that
21:53
Speaker 5: particular time. We had nothing positively to tie him to it.
21:57
Speaker 5: But the more he talked, the more he seemed to know,
21:59
Speaker 5: and the more we were impressed that he knows a
22:03
Speaker 5: whole lot.
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Speaker 1: Recently, Ronald Barber claims the six men were never at
22:08
Speaker 1: his house. Agents still have no direct evidence, yet they
22:14
Speaker 1: believe Barber's story may be at least partially true. They
22:20
Speaker 1: note that the house seems too small to accommodate Ronald
22:23
Speaker 1: and six other men staying there. Agents conclude that at
22:27
Speaker 1: least some of them likely stayed elsewhere, So agents spread out,
22:34
Speaker 1: checking one hotel after another, starting.
22:37
Speaker 7: With those closest to the bank.
22:39
Speaker 1: Especial Special agent Frank Kelly.
22:44
Speaker 6: We figured these fellows were high rollers. They knew they
22:46
Speaker 6: were going to get a bag halls that are going
22:48
Speaker 6: to stay at a nice place. So we were knocking
22:50
Speaker 6: on the doors of every fine hotel in the La
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Speaker 6: Orange County area.
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Speaker 1: It is more tedious, time consuming footwork, but they do
23:00
Speaker 1: not give up, sir. On a hunch, one agent decides
23:06
Speaker 1: to take a different approach.
23:08
Speaker 6: There was an agent who figured that maybe they didn't
23:12
Speaker 6: stay at the best hotels, and he took upon himself
23:15
Speaker 6: to walk into a truck stop hotel and lo and behold,
23:19
Speaker 6: he found out that Amil Denzio had stayed there.
23:24
Speaker 1: Positive am is the leader of the burglary group. Records
23:29
Speaker 1: show his brother in law, Charles Mulligan, also rented a
23:32
Speaker 1: room there around the time of the heist. Agents check
23:37
Speaker 1: Mulligan's registration card and find a license plate number Stenzio.
23:42
Speaker 1: They trace it to the south Gate address of Ronald Barber.
23:48
Speaker 1: Investigators now have seven suspects, the sixth from Ohio and
23:51
Speaker 1: the local Ronald Barber. They still have nothing directly linking
23:57
Speaker 1: them into the crime, but the investigation is finally rolling
24:02
Speaker 1: forward and the FBI is closing in. Weeks after a
24:11
Speaker 1: well planned multimillion dollar bank burglary in southern California. The
24:15
Speaker 1: FBI identifies seven suspects, ringleader Amo Dinzio and his brother
24:22
Speaker 1: James Dinco, Charles Mulligan, Philip Christopher and Charles Brockels, and
24:29
Speaker 1: Harry Barber and his brother Ronald Harber, a notorious gang
24:34
Speaker 1: of professional thieves based in Youngstown, Ohio. Agents determine at
24:40
Speaker 1: least two of the men stayed at an area hotel
24:43
Speaker 1: days before the heist. Special Agent Paul Chamberlain is convinced
24:51
Speaker 1: the men are responsible, but he has no evidence to prove.
24:54
Speaker 8: It by reference in innudo, you kind of knew who
24:59
Speaker 8: was an evolve, but you need to have the evidence
25:02
Speaker 8: in federal court.
25:04
Speaker 1: Agent subpoena the motel phone records and find a series
25:07
Speaker 1: of calls to a local man named Earl Dawson.
25:12
Speaker 8: Our background investigation concluded he was a former military marine
25:17
Speaker 8: guy with some training in munitions explosives, and inasmuch as
25:24
Speaker 8: we had major explosions that occurred at the bank, he
25:27
Speaker 8: became interesting to US.
25:29
Speaker 1: Special Agent Frank Kelly learns of another interesting connection. Yeah,
25:34
Speaker 1: Dawson is from Youngstown, Ohio, the base of operations for
25:38
Speaker 1: the burglary group.
25:41
Speaker 6: So there's the light goes off. Again, and we say, well,
25:45
Speaker 6: we got another break. We got the connection somehow between
25:48
Speaker 6: the boys from Youngstown to Denzios and their in their
25:52
Speaker 6: cohorts in Dawson got these pictures.
25:55
Speaker 1: The agents decide to approach Dawson at his house to
25:59
Speaker 1: convey some he should cooperate. They're show him pictures of
26:04
Speaker 1: Amyl Dencio and his associates and ask if he knows them.
26:09
Speaker 1: Dawson is reluctant to talk. I was as well. Knowing
26:13
Speaker 1: Dawson is a former Marine especial agent. Kelly appeals to
26:16
Speaker 1: his sense of duty country or was a very patriotic
26:20
Speaker 1: and I bet you and I'm a farmer Maraine, and
26:24
Speaker 1: we just kind of played that.
26:25
Speaker 6: I said, come on, Earl, you know you're a farm Moraine.
26:29
Speaker 6: You served your country. I said, what's important, Earl, it's
26:32
Speaker 6: a big case. And he said, what is it? I said,
26:35
Speaker 6: heard about that bank Burgerley down in the Glen.
26:36
Speaker 1: I Cally's tactic works. Dawson comes clean. He admits knowing
26:45
Speaker 1: three of the suspects, Amil Denzio, Amle's brother, James, and
26:49
Speaker 1: Charles Mulligan. He and Mulligan are old friends who grew
26:54
Speaker 1: up together in Youngstown. Dawson tells Cally that the day
27:00
Speaker 1: before the Laguna Miguel Heist, Mulligan came to his house
27:03
Speaker 1: with the other suspects. Mulligan gave him one hundred dollars
27:09
Speaker 1: to leave the house for a few hours so they
27:11
Speaker 1: could hold a meeting. Dawson left without hearing what they discussed. Appreciation,
27:21
Speaker 1: but Dawson adds that he does have something the agents
27:24
Speaker 1: might want to see. He shows up. The other day.
27:27
Speaker 1: Mulligan left a car in his garage.
27:30
Speaker 7: It's still there.
27:33
Speaker 1: It is a huge break. Perhaps the car holds the
27:37
Speaker 1: evidence they've been looking for. But before they can check
27:41
Speaker 1: it out, they're interrupted.
27:45
Speaker 6: While I'm talking to him, the phone rings. He answers
27:49
Speaker 6: the phone, and he picks it up, and he points
27:52
Speaker 6: to the phone and he mouths the word Mulligan.
27:57
Speaker 1: Thinking quickly, Agent Kelly asks Dawson's per mission to eavesdrop
28:02
Speaker 1: a legal requirement for using what he hears in court.
28:06
Speaker 1: Dawson signals that there is another phone in the bedroom.
28:13
Speaker 6: Mulligan comes out and says, is anybody at the FBI
28:16
Speaker 6: been around?
28:17
Speaker 4: Thus? It says, do that that around?
28:20
Speaker 6: I think I've almost had to laugh myself at the
28:23
Speaker 6: time listening this.
28:24
Speaker 4: He's playing a beautiful role out there. He's the really
28:26
Speaker 4: flip flop piece on our side.
28:28
Speaker 1: Now, Mulligan explains that he knows the FBI he has
28:32
Speaker 1: been asking questions about him and his cohorts, and that
28:35
Speaker 1: they're getting worried and he's heading back to the Los
28:40
Speaker 1: Angeles area.
28:42
Speaker 6: Mulligan said, I want to come out tonight and to
28:46
Speaker 6: see it.
28:47
Speaker 4: I'm going to move the car in the garage.
28:51
Speaker 1: Agent Kelly seizes the opportunity to trap Mulligan, but he
28:56
Speaker 1: fears that he might be setting up Dawson and the FBI.
29:02
Speaker 6: No for sure, seems he could be sitting across the
29:05
Speaker 6: street at the time watching us.
29:06
Speaker 4: For all we know. With EARTHBI car sitting out front.
29:09
Speaker 1: Cally instructs Dawson to arrange a meeting with Mulligan in
29:12
Speaker 1: a public place. Dawson tells Mulligan to meet him at
29:16
Speaker 1: his favorite bar, the Wall out Roman. Mulligan agrees. Now
29:25
Speaker 1: agents have a chance to inspect the car Mulligan left
29:28
Speaker 1: in the garage, but it does not belong to Dawson,
29:31
Speaker 1: so he cannot give them permission to search it. Through
29:37
Speaker 1: the window, they can see a pair of brown cotton
29:40
Speaker 1: gloves exactly like the one found in the vault. The
29:44
Speaker 1: back seat is covered in what appears to be cement dust,
29:48
Speaker 1: similar to the debris found at the crime scene. It
29:53
Speaker 1: is the probable cause agents need to obtain a.
29:56
Speaker 7: Search warrant for the car.
30:00
Speaker 1: They also obtained an arrest warrant for Charles Mulligan and
30:03
Speaker 1: set up surveillance at the Walnut Rome Plaine. Clothes agents
30:08
Speaker 1: position themselves inside the bar, not far from Dawson.
30:13
Speaker 4: We staked it out, so to speak.
30:15
Speaker 5: We four of us were inside waiting and we had
30:18
Speaker 5: a couple of men outside waiting for him to arrive.
30:22
Speaker 1: Dawson introduces Agent Callitus and Regulars as a buddy from
30:25
Speaker 1: the Marine Corps. The agents have to look natural while
30:29
Speaker 1: staying sharp. Earl Dawson's safety is their primary concern.
30:36
Speaker 4: We didn't know what was going to happen, so we
30:38
Speaker 4: had to protect.
30:40
Speaker 1: Agents devise a method for Calian Dawson to communicate. Either
30:45
Speaker 1: one of them can signal the other by simply going
30:47
Speaker 1: to the restroom where they will meet. Three hours later,
30:53
Speaker 1: Mulligan finally arrives. He appears to be alone and greets
30:59
Speaker 1: his old old friend, who tries to get him to
31:01
Speaker 1: talk about the heist.
31:04
Speaker 6: I didn't want to be close across the bar from him.
31:08
Speaker 6: Earl with talking to him and asking something about you
31:12
Speaker 6: involved in that that bailed down in l Gna Gell
31:16
Speaker 6: and all.
31:16
Speaker 4: Mulligan said, well what do you think?
31:19
Speaker 1: Unable to hear everything they're saying, Kelly heads to the restaurant.
31:27
Speaker 1: Dawson follows. In the men's room, Kelly asks for an update.
31:34
Speaker 1: Dawson explains that Mulligan is anxious to leave and to
31:37
Speaker 1: pick up the car from Dawson's garage. Calli tells him
31:42
Speaker 1: to go, but instructs Dawson not to get into Mulligan's vehicle.
31:45
Speaker 6: Whatever you do.
31:48
Speaker 4: Car.
31:48
Speaker 1: What Cally doesn't tell him is that agents are in
31:50
Speaker 1: the parking lot, poised to capture Mulligan. Agents finally make
32:01
Speaker 1: the first arrest of the kiss. As they take Mulligan
32:05
Speaker 1: into custody, they pretend to arrest Dawson as well to
32:08
Speaker 1: mask his involvement with authorities. Mulligan is charged with bank burglary.
32:15
Speaker 1: He does not resist to arrest, but when agents try
32:19
Speaker 1: to question him, he refuses to talk. They hope to
32:23
Speaker 1: find answers in the car he was trying to pick up.
32:28
Speaker 1: Agents returned to Dawson's house and searched the car in
32:31
Speaker 1: the garage.
32:33
Speaker 5: At this we found this large motor used as a
32:36
Speaker 5: drill and some other tools that we felt were very
32:39
Speaker 5: much probably the ones that.
32:42
Speaker 4: Were used in the actual committee of that crime.
32:46
Speaker 1: Agents recover stolen coins along with drill bits, the settling torches, hammers,
32:52
Speaker 1: and other items that could have been used for the
32:54
Speaker 1: Laguna Miguel.
32:55
Speaker 4: Heist exactly and we felt very good about it. We
32:59
Speaker 4: hit pay dirt. We hit a home run.
33:02
Speaker 1: Evidence technicians ship everything to the FBI lab in Washington,
33:06
Speaker 1: d C.
33:06
Speaker 7: For processing.
33:09
Speaker 1: As examiners take days to analyze the evidence, field agents
33:13
Speaker 1: follow up on more phone records from the motel. One
33:17
Speaker 1: number belongs to a real estate agency in Laguna Miguel, California.
33:23
Speaker 1: A manager shows agents at condo she rented to suspects
33:26
Speaker 1: Ronald and Harry Barber days before the burglary. The Barbers
33:34
Speaker 1: told her they planned to stay three months, but left
33:36
Speaker 1: after only three weeks.
33:41
Speaker 5: She was able to put the day that they got
33:43
Speaker 5: there and the day they left together for us run
33:46
Speaker 5: lot Barber.
33:48
Speaker 1: The men moved out suddenly on March twenty seventh. The
33:51
Speaker 1: day the crime was discovered, he.
33:53
Speaker 5: Read it for three months.
33:54
Speaker 1: The manager gives investigators permission to search the condo, which
33:57
Speaker 1: is within sight of the targeted.
33:59
Speaker 4: Bank in any foreign direct.
34:05
Speaker 1: Agents begin processing the condo for evidence, but initially find nothing.
34:11
Speaker 8: The entire inside had been wiped clean with some kind
34:15
Speaker 8: of a product.
34:17
Speaker 1: It seems the suspects were as meticulous there as they
34:19
Speaker 1: had been.
34:20
Speaker 7: During the burglary.
34:22
Speaker 8: There was no evidence recovered at the bank of any value,
34:25
Speaker 8: and therefore it was not surprising to see a place
34:28
Speaker 8: that had been wiped down and appears as if they
34:30
Speaker 8: had done everything to ensure there was no evidence. They'd
34:33
Speaker 8: done just about everything right.
34:37
Speaker 1: But in fact they made one crucial mistake.
34:43
Speaker 8: One of the evidence persons went to the dishwasher and
34:48
Speaker 8: opened a dishwasher and realized that it was loaded with
34:50
Speaker 8: dirty dishes and that someone had neglected to push the
34:53
Speaker 8: on button.
34:56
Speaker 1: The dirty dishes are covered with multiple latent fingerprints. At
35:04
Speaker 1: the FBI lab, examiners recover the prints from the dishes
35:08
Speaker 1: and from the tools agents found in Mulligan's car, and
35:11
Speaker 1: match them to five of the seven suspects. Tool Mark
35:21
Speaker 1: experts examine the damage on the safe deposit boxes and
35:24
Speaker 1: compare them to the striking point of a snout nosed
35:27
Speaker 1: hammer from Mulligan's trunk.
35:31
Speaker 7: They report another match.
35:34
Speaker 1: The FBI's case is gaining momentum. With good circumstantial evidence
35:39
Speaker 1: and one suspect in custody. All right, now agents must
35:45
Speaker 1: find the other six and enough evidence to put them
35:50
Speaker 1: away for good. In southern California, FBI connects a team
36:01
Speaker 1: of seven members of an organized crime ring based in Youngstown, Ohio,
36:05
Speaker 1: to a multimillion dollar bank burglary when they recovered tools
36:10
Speaker 1: used in the heist from the car of suspect Charles Mulligan.
36:15
Speaker 1: Mulligan's arrest puts the investigation into high gear. According to
36:20
Speaker 1: Special Agent Paul Chamberlain.
36:22
Speaker 8: We did realize that with the arrest of Mulligan, eventually
36:26
Speaker 8: and shortly thereafter, they were going to figure out that
36:29
Speaker 8: we had figured who this group was, and therefore we
36:34
Speaker 8: heightened our investigation. We did everything as fast as we
36:36
Speaker 8: possibly could.
36:40
Speaker 1: But since most of the evidence is circumstantial, the case
36:43
Speaker 1: hinges on the testimony of informant Earl Dawson, a man
36:47
Speaker 1: the FBI must.
36:48
Speaker 5: Protect or whatever you do.
36:51
Speaker 4: Whatever happens.
36:52
Speaker 6: Earl is probably the key witness because the case was
36:57
Speaker 6: kind of dry all along its physical evidence. It's Burger's
37:01
Speaker 6: very dry. Earl was able to put all the principles together.
37:05
Speaker 6: We charged with conspiracy in burglary, and they could put
37:08
Speaker 6: them all together.
37:08
Speaker 1: At his house, Dawson begins receiving threatening phone calls, pressuring
37:15
Speaker 1: him to keep quiet. The caller insists on a face
37:19
Speaker 1: to face meeting to discuss the matter, but the FBI
37:23
Speaker 1: learns the meeting may have a more sinister purpose.
37:27
Speaker 4: We received inform and information.
37:31
Speaker 6: That a contract was put out on Earl Dawson's life.
37:35
Speaker 6: I're gonna come out and to attempt to kill kill Dawson.
37:43
Speaker 1: Agents instruct Dawson to arrange a meeting at his favorite
37:46
Speaker 1: bar in the Walnut Room, but don't tell him about
37:50
Speaker 1: the planned hit. Agents want to confront the man to
37:55
Speaker 1: send a message to the Youngstown crime ring that the
37:58
Speaker 1: FBI is on to them. Agents are confident that they
38:02
Speaker 1: can protect Dawson as long as he stays in a
38:05
Speaker 1: public place.
38:07
Speaker 6: I told him, Earl, don't leave this bar. Whatever you do,
38:10
Speaker 6: don't go any place with they. You'll ever leave that room.
38:13
Speaker 6: You stay right in that bar.
38:14
Speaker 1: As before. If either Dawson or Cali needs to communicate.
38:17
Speaker 1: They will meet in the restroom. The alleged hitmen arrive.
38:24
Speaker 6: Instead of buying Earl some pretty heavy drinks, Earls basically
38:27
Speaker 6: a beer drinker, but then you they were trying to
38:29
Speaker 6: switch them off to that to stronger drinks.
38:34
Speaker 1: When Dawson starts to look concerned, Calli heads to the restaurant.
38:45
Speaker 1: Dawson tells the agent he's scared. The hit men wanted
38:48
Speaker 1: to leave with him.
38:50
Speaker 6: I said, early, you're not leaving this place with him.
38:53
Speaker 6: Believing you're not leaving, Agent.
38:56
Speaker 1: Calli tells Dawson to wait in the restroom.
38:58
Speaker 4: Listen to stay right. You know we were about to.
39:08
Speaker 1: The agents finally approached the men. They say they know
39:13
Speaker 1: what they came to do to get out to the
39:17
Speaker 1: hit and the message is clear, stay away from Dawson.
39:24
Speaker 4: They had no problem leaving.
39:26
Speaker 6: I went to record Lax where they were escorted by
39:30
Speaker 6: La Finest to an aircraft and they left southern California.
39:35
Speaker 1: To keep Earl Dawson safe for good, the FBI decides
39:38
Speaker 1: to put him in the witness protection program.
39:41
Speaker 4: You're gone.
39:42
Speaker 1: Agents then go after the remaining burglary suspects. Investigators secure
39:53
Speaker 1: warrants to search their last known addresses. A one house
40:00
Speaker 1: agents get their first direct link to the burglary. Inside
40:07
Speaker 1: a woman's purse, they find a new twenty dollars bill.
40:13
Speaker 1: They compare it to the list of serial numbers of
40:16
Speaker 1: sequenced bills taken from the bank. It's a match. Special
40:29
Speaker 1: Agent Buddy Nix at the Youngstown FBI office receives information
40:33
Speaker 1: from an informant indicating that these gang members had been
40:36
Speaker 1: known to bury the cash they stole until they could
40:39
Speaker 1: launder it safely.
40:40
Speaker 9: As we identified about a twenty twenty five acre field
40:47
Speaker 9: that we had information that some of the loop was
40:51
Speaker 9: buried in. We dug in that field for days on
40:56
Speaker 9: end and using picks and probes and uh, and we
41:03
Speaker 9: finally rented a bulldozer.
41:08
Speaker 1: The land is adjacent to property owned by James Dencio.
41:13
Speaker 1: After more than a week of digging, Hey agents hit
41:18
Speaker 1: the jackpot. They unearthed several foot lockers filled with millions
41:25
Speaker 1: of dollars in cash and bonds that they're able to
41:28
Speaker 1: trace back to the Laguna Niguel Bank. Burglary agents then
41:34
Speaker 1: get yet another tip. A neighbor of gang leader Amil
41:39
Speaker 1: Denzio calls police.
41:40
Speaker 4: A lot of money in there, He.
41:42
Speaker 1: Reports finding a cooler buried in his yard. It is
41:46
Speaker 1: filled with nearly one hundred thousand.
41:48
Speaker 9: Dollars right over there mister Denzio.
41:52
Speaker 1: Investigators match their serial numbers to those taken from the
41:55
Speaker 1: bank and recover Amil Denzio's prints from the cooler. With
42:02
Speaker 1: more direct evidence against the gang, agents begin making arrests.
42:07
Speaker 1: They first go to Ronald Barber's Southgate, California home. They
42:13
Speaker 1: are armed with search warrts. The only person they find
42:18
Speaker 1: is Ronald's mother. The brothers have disappeared. All six remaining
42:25
Speaker 1: suspects are still at large. Three months after a multimillion
42:32
Speaker 1: dollar bank burglary, the FBI has solid evidence against seven
42:37
Speaker 1: members of an organized crime ring. With only one suspect
42:42
Speaker 1: in custody, Charles Mulligan, they set out to arrest the others,
42:49
Speaker 1: Amel Dincio, James Dencio, Charles Brockles, Philip Christopher, Harry Barber,
42:58
Speaker 1: and Ronald Barber. Agents go to Amiel Denzio's home near Youngstown, Ohio,
43:05
Speaker 1: and discover he's made no attempt to run.
43:09
Speaker 8: Because of his attitude and his air of arrogance, mister
43:13
Speaker 8: Denzio actually believed he was above the lawn and was
43:17
Speaker 8: the kind of guy that could make things happen his way.
43:21
Speaker 1: When agent's arrest Denzio, he is carrying five hundred and
43:24
Speaker 1: thirty seven dollars in cash stolen from the Laguna Neguel Bank.
43:30
Speaker 1: Other gang members are also surprisingly easy to find. Within days,
43:38
Speaker 1: the authority's arrest Amiel's brother James Denzio at an Ohio airport.
43:43
Speaker 1: His carry on luggage is full of more money from
43:46
Speaker 1: the heist. Agents make their fourth arrest, nabbing Phil Christopher
43:52
Speaker 1: in his apartment, They discover over thirty two thousand dollars
43:55
Speaker 1: in stolen cash hidden in his closet. The three men
44:00
Speaker 1: and arrogantly maintain their innocence and refuse to cooperate. Two
44:07
Speaker 1: months later, agents nab alarm expert Charles Brockels and get
44:11
Speaker 1: a break. They decide to confront him with what evidence
44:17
Speaker 1: they have and explain they can put him away for decades.
44:21
Speaker 1: They offer him a deal. In exchange for his full
44:25
Speaker 1: cooperation and outlining the burglary group and their crimes, prosecutors
44:29
Speaker 1: will drop all charges against Brockles and place him in
44:32
Speaker 1: the witness protection program. He agrees. Authorities have captured five
44:42
Speaker 1: of the seven suspects, everyone except the Barber brothers. Authorities
44:51
Speaker 1: extradite them to California and indict them on charges of conspiracy, burglary,
44:55
Speaker 1: and larceny of a federally insured bank. While in jail,
45:02
Speaker 1: Amiel Denzio brags about the heist to another inmate and
45:06
Speaker 1: asks for his help in beating the charges.
45:10
Speaker 8: Mister Denzio confided in him a great many details that
45:15
Speaker 8: were not in his best interest to confide. He got
45:19
Speaker 8: this other inmate to help him buy an alibi for
45:22
Speaker 8: the time of the bank.
45:24
Speaker 1: But Denzil has chosen the wrong accomplice.
45:31
Speaker 8: The other inmate was someone who had had contact with
45:35
Speaker 8: law enforcement on many occasions in the past, and he
45:39
Speaker 8: realized that what he was being told would be of
45:41
Speaker 8: some importance to someone, and he came to us.
45:48
Speaker 1: Hoping to receive a lenient sentence for his own burglary case.
45:52
Speaker 1: The inmate tells agents of Denzio's confession and the plan
45:56
Speaker 1: to purchase an alibi, and that.
45:57
Speaker 3: Was Vegas in Vegas.
45:59
Speaker 8: Last word out the alibi was mister Denzil was going
46:03
Speaker 8: to be in a motel room, a hotel room in
46:06
Speaker 8: Las Vegas with a prostitute and with physical evidence that
46:12
Speaker 8: would show that he was there.
46:14
Speaker 1: The FBI sets up a sting agents give the inmate
46:18
Speaker 1: of contact to offer Denciot. The contact is actually an
46:23
Speaker 1: undercover agent who will provide Dinzio's alibi materials. Dinzio takes
46:30
Speaker 1: the bait at the jails visitation room, he meets the
46:35
Speaker 1: undercover agent, who plays the role of a fixer, a
46:39
Speaker 1: criminal expert in solving problems.
46:43
Speaker 4: Mister Denzio received what he asked for.
46:45
Speaker 8: He got a registration card which he registered in on
46:48
Speaker 8: he put his fingerprint on it. He got a listing
46:51
Speaker 8: of shows, and he got the name of a prostitute
46:53
Speaker 8: who he was with, and that became part of his
46:55
Speaker 8: subsequent defense.
47:01
Speaker 1: In October nineteen seventy two, the trials begin in Los Angeles.
47:09
Speaker 1: Anal Denzio offers his false alibi, but the FBI's undercover
47:13
Speaker 1: fixer testifies about the steam. The jury convicts Dnzio and
47:18
Speaker 1: the other four defendants. They receive sentences ranging from fifteen
47:24
Speaker 1: to twenty years, but it is not over. Two suspects,
47:30
Speaker 1: Harry and Ronald Barber, are still on the run. Within months,
47:35
Speaker 1: the FBI receives a tip that the two brothers are
47:38
Speaker 1: living in an apartment in Rochester, New York. Agents respond
47:44
Speaker 1: and Ronald Barber answers the door.
47:49
Speaker 7: They arrest him and return him to California, where a.
47:52
Speaker 1: Jury convicts and sentences into fifteen years. He refuses to
47:59
Speaker 1: say where his brother, Harry is. For eight years, Harry
48:05
Speaker 1: remains a fugitive. Then, in nineteen eighty, a woman in Brookville, Pennsylvania,
48:13
Speaker 1: contacts the FBI.
48:16
Speaker 5: I knew him as brands.
48:18
Speaker 1: She tells agents that her friend has been living with
48:20
Speaker 1: a man who told her he committed a famous bank
48:23
Speaker 1: burglary in California to the.
48:24
Speaker 4: Other day only because.
48:27
Speaker 1: And that his real name is Harry Barber.
48:30
Speaker 4: Harry Barber worried in.
48:33
Speaker 1: The way, The woman tells the FBI that, in an
48:35
Speaker 1: attempt to lead a legitimate life, the fugitive is working
48:39
Speaker 1: maintenance at a local campground. Agents move in and arrest him.
48:56
Speaker 1: Harry Barber is convicted and sentenced to twenty years. Agents
49:02
Speaker 1: can finally close the case on the largest bank burglary
49:06
Speaker 1: in United States history. Authorities believe Amiel Denzi owned his
49:13
Speaker 1: gang committed more than a dozen bank burglaries, stealing over
49:18
Speaker 1: thirty million dollars altogether.
49:22
Speaker 7: By putting them away.
49:24
Speaker 1: FBI agents from Ohio to California stopped one of the
49:28
Speaker 1: most sophisticated bank burglary rings of all time