Guest Post by Stephanie Schorow
(Boston-based freelance writer Stephanie Schorow, former Boston Herald reporter and author of two books on the city's history, is writing a book about one of Boston's most notorious crimes. If this sounds more than familiar, she'd love to hear from you.)
It was a cold evening on Jan. 17, 1951, when seven bizarrely masked bandits crept into a Brink's armored car garage in Boston's North End, tied up the guards and made off with $2.5 million in cash, checks and securities. It was, said Life magazine, "the biggest cash robbery in U.S. history" and, according to Boston's newspapers, "The Crime of the Century."
Wild theories swept the city: the bandits were criminal masterminds from New York, Communist agents, or were Brink's employees doing an inside job. Six years later – just as the statue of limitations was running out – the true culprits were apprehended.
One of the robbers, who had been cheated out of his share, decided to rat out the others. The “masterminds” turned out to be a group of small-time hoods who thought they could pull off the score of a lifetime.
Books and movies have been made of the case, but it’s time to introduce a new generation to “The Crime of the Century.”
My name is Stephanie Schorow and I'm writing a book on the Brink's robbery of 1950 and the reaction of Boston -- and Hollywood – to the crime. I am hoping to reach relatives of people connected with the case – the investigators, detectives, reporters, Brink's guards, jurors on the trial or family of the robbers themselves (the culprits have all died).
Bostonians had a keen interest in the robbery and may have passed along information / scrapbooks / artifacts / photos to their children. Only $50,000 to $90,000 of the money from the robbery was recovered, so for years people here have spoken of find the missing "Brink's money."
I'm also looking for people who might have participated in the filming of the 1978 movie "The Brink's Job" – starring Peter Falk and directed by William Friedkin -- which was filmed in Boston on the actual site of the robbery.
Anyone who would like to share their memories may contact me at sschorow [at] comcast {dot} net. If you have memories of the "Brink's Job,” I would love to hear from you.
I love your site and appreciate your ability to dig up obscure cases--including the one I wrote on Edna Mumbulo. For the sake of clarity, however, I'd like to add sveral notes to your story on Edna. First, I firmly believe Edna did commit the crime. My point, however, was that Edna had been convicted in the public's mind long before they had an opportunity to review the evidence. In the end, I suppose, it makes little difference. BUT, had she been innocent, it would have been an even greater tragedy. Second, the photos you use to argue that Edna was beautiful were outdated even then. By the time of the murder, Edna was middle-aged and hardly what we'd consider a "beauty" today.
Overall, however, I appreciate your work and wish you a continued good luck.
Posted by: Joseph Laythe | April 04, 2007 at 09:51 AM