Big heists of history: dark history, #3

By Phillips Tahuer

The best robberies in the world have transcended the borders of the entire planet thanks to the characteristics of the events, which, as perfect and organized as they were, seemed to come from the script of a science fiction movie more than from real life.

Some thefts are nothing more than simple and petty thefts that have no relevance or media interest, but there are also other types of thefts, which are spectacular and have been carried out with great cunning and mastery, revealing how permeable the mechanisms are. that protected values and the police system itself.

These famous robberies have even become the inspiration for many series and movies. Perhaps we will not detail them all here, but perhaps, yes, the most spectacular.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ediciones Afrodita
• Release date: Mar 23, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215681329

Book preview

1. The theft of the Mona Lisa

It was on August 21, 1911, that, during one of his rounds, a Louvre guard noticed the disappearance of the most famous painting in the world: Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. Against all expectations, the employee did not raise the alert immediately. In fact, the mere idea that La Gioconda's portrait had been stolen before his eyes seems so incongruous to him that he thinks the work of art was simply moved by the curators.

It wasn't until the next day that officials became alarmed and the police were notified. The case is so serious that the authorities tightened border controls. Suspicion first focused on the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, implicated a few years earlier in the theft of some Iberian statuettes that his friend Géry Pieret had sold to Picasso. Apollinaire was imprisoned at La Santé from September 7 to 11, 1911.

For two years, the international press speculated on the matter. The incredible story of this disappearance is completed to bring the celebrity of Mona Lisa to the top. The magazine L'Illustration promises fifty thousand francs to whoever brings the painting to the newspaper's premises. Italian writer Gabriele D'Annunzio claims the artwork in the name of his Italian nationalism.

However, the motive was good: the thief was an Italian worker named Vincenzo Perugia, who worked at the Louvre. He kept the painting for two years, hidden in his room, before offering it, for 500,000 lire, to Alfredo Geri, a Florentine antique dealer. The latter examined the painting on December 11, 1913, in the company of a friend, Giovanni Poggi, director of the Uffizi museum. And they called the police.

On December 13, 1913, never too late for a scoop, the New York Times published Perugia's first statement Seeing him like this in a foreign country. Stealing it was very simple. I just had to choose the right moment. One morning, I met my fellow decorators at the Louvre, had a few words with them, then went, walked into the living room where the painting hung. The room was deserted. The painting smiled in front of me. In an instant, he had separated her from the wall. I placed the frame on the stairs and slid the panel under my blouse. Everything was done in a few seconds. No one saw me, no one suspected me... Taking into account his patriotic intentions, the court sentenced Perugia to one year and fifteen days in prison, a sentence he did not serve in its entirety. On January 4, 1914, the Mona Lisa returned to the Louvre,

2. Glasgow train robbery

At 18:50 sharp, Her Majesty's mail train leaves Glasgow station. His destination is London, where he is due to arrive at 3:41 am. Everything goes according to plan that night of August 7-8, 1963, at least until 3:05 am. The train stops due to a signal that is strangely red. Seconds later, the most spectacular robbery of the century begins. The objective of some 20 hooded men is the money cart, in which around 120 sacks lie that night. Its contents: £2,631,784 in small, used, and unregistered notes. Organized to the millimeter, the mobsters disarm all the guards and transport the sacks to the getaway vehicles using a human chain. The only really violent event during the action, which lasted only 15 minutes, was a blow to the driver's neck, who survives with a concussion.

In the morning, reports of the first successful heist on a rolling post office in 125 years raced around the world. Secretly, admiration spreads for the gentlemen thieves, who, according to today's value, stole more than 50 million euros, but did not leave a usable trace. A reward of £200,000 is being offered for his catches. Amid the flood of clues that began, Scotland Yard finally uncovered a useful tidbit about the mobsters' hideout on August 13. Two days later, the first two mail thieves are behind bars. Following what was then the longest and most complex trial in British judicial history, the judge sentenced the main defendants to unexpectedly draconian terms of between 20 and 30 years in prison. The mastermind of the gang, antique dealer Bruce Reynolds, however, is still missing from the dock. In 1966 he was played by Horst Tappert in the German film adaptation of the case (Die Gentlemen bitte zu Kasse).

In November 1968, the shackles also snapped around Reynolds' wrists. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison but was released after nine years.

The head of the gang was Ronald Biggs, sentenced to 30 years in prison. After 15 months in prison, he manages to escape from prison and flees to Brazil via France and Australia, with the sympathy of the world press, and makes a dazzling career there in the following years as a tourist attraction. As soon as he arrived in Brazil he began his libertine life, impregnating a striptease dancer, with whom he has a son; thereby achieving the legal protection of the authorities and that he cannot be extradited. He made headlines, among other things, as a guest singer with the Sex Pistols and Toten Hosen. Old, sick, and completely exhausted, Ronald Biggs returned to England in May 2001 after 35 years on the run. He was arrested by Scotland Yard while he was still at the airfield. He finds no mercy from the judicial authorities, on which he has danced