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[intense, pulsing music plays]
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[Ellis] In 1989,
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I set up the Art and Antique Squad
at Scotland Yard.
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I'd recovered a lot of stolen artwork.
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00:00:20,895 --> 00:00:23,523
I'd had a number
of international investigations.
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After the robbery
from the Gardner Museum,
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the FBI were in touch with us
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as soon as they took over
the investigation.
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We discussed the case in detail.
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Who did the thieves hand them over to?
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We don't know.
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Where would they have gone?
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We don't know.
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But what we do know is
art travels around the world every day.
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It's easy to smuggle
and use as an international currency.
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00:00:57,724 --> 00:00:59,893
In Boston in 1990,
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the two front runners, shall we say,
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is the Italian Mob or the Irish Mob.
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[plucked bass line plays]
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If it was the Irish Mob,
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that was gonna be used as collateral
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for buying arms for the IRA
by sympathizers in Boston.
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Which, let's face it, there were a lot.
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You begin with the premise
that there is a large presence
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of Irish-American gangsters in Boston.
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Whitey Bulger,
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Pat Nee,
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and Joe Murray,
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who'd not only sympathize with the IRA,
but provided them weapons.
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The most notorious case of that
is the Valhalla.
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[reporter] Officials suspect
the Valhalla of Gloucester
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was instrumental in delivering
almost ten tons of weapons and ammunition
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to a smaller ship seized last month
in Irish waters.
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At Scotland Yard,
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I was involved in the recovery
of a painting by Yates,
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which was commissioned by the IRA,
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and the artwork was to be used
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to raise money for arms.
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So, you know, there it is, 100% proof
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that stolen art is used to buy arms.
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[bagpipes playing]
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[Ellis] Paintings
wouldn't have had trouble
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crossing the international borders
into Northern Ireland.
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[lo-fi jazz music plays]
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[man] I call it the north of Ireland.
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To call it Northern Ireland
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is to recognize
the state of Northern Ireland.
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And Republicans don't do that.
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My name is Richard O'Rawe.
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I joined into the IRA in around 1971.
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The atmosphere was very heady.
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You went literally
from a very sort of happy youth to...
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It was as if you skipped
about ten years.
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[loud explosion]
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- [explosions boom]
- [man] Jesus!
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Down! Get down!
Get down, everybody! Get down!
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[woman on megaphone]
Good people, stay down and stay calm!
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By 1990, the IRA had developed
a whole sort of empire.
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They were raking in money hand over fist.
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Thirteen paintings
would have been the last thing
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that they would even bring up
at an Army council meeting.
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[gunshots]
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What are we talking about this shit for?
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The IRA had nothing to do with this.
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What's happened here is that someone
has introduced this IRA thing
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to deflect attention away from
who really has these paintings.
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[Ellis] On the other hand,
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if it was the Italian Mob,
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that was almost certainly
going to be used therefore
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in some other area of criminality,
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probably as a bargaining chip.
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[Cullen] In that period I could see
a serious organized criminal saying,
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"You know what?
This is a good time to do this."
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Who would be in a position
to do something like that?
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00:04:41,531 --> 00:04:42,949
[Murphy] Bobby Donati.
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[Connor] Donati.
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- [Leppo] Bobby Donati.
- [Kurkjian] Bobby Donati.
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[VCR clicking, whirring]
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[Abath] They said "Boston Police,"
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and I buzzed them in.
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[intense string music plays]
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Boston, a quiet museum, a daring robbery.
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[man] It was an easy, easy score.
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[man 2] The biggest art heist in history.
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The thirteen art treasures stolen
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are worth a half a billion dollars.
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Take a look at these composite drawings.
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[Murphy] These were
a get out of jail free card,
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everybody knew it.
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00:05:23,281 --> 00:05:26,659
[Cullen] You had this coalescing force,
La Cosa Nostra.
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- How you doing?
- I'm good.
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[Cullen] The Mafia.
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[man 2] Gardner Museum doubling its reward
up to $10 million.
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[Murphy] The racketeering
and loan sharking and murders.
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I stabbed him in the face and chest.
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[Green] Why not kill these people?
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[Hawley] I had no idea
what I was going into.
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It was just horrifying.
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[man 3] The empty frames
are all that remain on the museum walls.
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There's no shortage of possible suspects.
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That's part of the problem.
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Back in the '80s, Boston was like
the bank robbery capital of the world.
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It was the Wild West.
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[sirens squawking]
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[Murphy] There were so many
organized crime groups.
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They would be doing their own thing.
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It was huge.
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[officer] Come out with your hands up!
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[Brekke] In Boston, the complexity
of the cases was unbelievable.
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[officer] Police. Open the door!
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[Brekke] They would bring in
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a close-knit group of people
that were career criminals.
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Very planned out,
very well-done criminal activity.
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Sometimes they would go for months
before they'd actually strike.
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It was much more involved
and much more difficult
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to break into those groups.
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You're dealing with people
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that had a loyalty to their neighborhoods
and to their friends.
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[Murphy] There was this sort of,
like, code of silence.
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You know, you could have 20 people
in a bar witness a fatal shooting
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and nobody saw anything.
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[reporter]
Think people were surprised today?
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I don't know. I work in the back.
I don't know nothing.
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[Murphy] That's the way it was.
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It was this very sort of...
distrust of outsiders.
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Right, you ain't supposed to be down here.
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You ask permission to take pictures.
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You know better than asking questions.
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I don't want to answer.
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00:08:07,236 --> 00:08:11,073
[Murphy] Very "us against them"
kind of mentality in some neighborhoods.
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We have just as much rights
as anybody else.
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[crowd clamoring]
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Let us go to our neighborhoods,
where our kids are safe.
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We want our kids safe!
We want our children safe.
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[Cullen]
Boston is a city of neighborhoods.
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It's important to understand
how organized crime works in Boston.
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You had the Irish faction in Southie.
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Another Irish faction in Charlestown
bleeding into Somerville.
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00:08:41,187 --> 00:08:46,776
In the north end you had this sort of
coalescing force called La Cosa Nostra.
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"This thing of ours." The Mafia.
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At the end of the '80s,
going into the '90s,
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what we knew as organized crime
in the city of Boston had changed
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because the FBI had a national policy
to take out the Italians.
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Not only did they take out
the top tier of leadership,
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00:09:07,755 --> 00:09:08,839
but the second tier.
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00:09:08,923 --> 00:09:11,551
They weren't gonna stop
until there was nobody left.
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00:09:12,134 --> 00:09:14,971
The objective
of the organized crime program
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of the Department of Justice with the FBI
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00:09:17,640 --> 00:09:22,436
is to essentially and ultimately
destroy the La Cosa Nostra
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00:09:22,520 --> 00:09:26,065
as a functioning criminal conspiracy
in the United States.
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That's what I come to work
every day to do.
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What is really squeezing organized crime
is not just the prosecutions,
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but the change in culture.
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The revenue streams that organized crime
had traditionally relied on had dried up.
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So that's killing the wise guys.
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00:09:53,259 --> 00:09:57,555
There's a lot of dissension in the ranks,
and there's a lot of unhappiness.
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For the years building up to March 1990,
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there's already a family
in complete disarray.
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00:10:10,067 --> 00:10:14,697
There was this renegade faction that was
trying to wrest control of the family.
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00:10:16,991 --> 00:10:18,701
Vinnie Ferrara was a capo
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in the New England Mob.
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Allegedly behind an effort
to kill the family underboss.
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There's murders on both sides.
It's violent.
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[gunshots]
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[flash bulb popping]
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[indistinct radio chatter]
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And they have
this Mafia induction ceremony in 1989.
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[ominous music plays]
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It's supposed to be
a peacekeeping ceremony.
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Mobsters from around New England
gathered in this little house in Medford.
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00:10:59,784 --> 00:11:02,244
They pricked trigger fingers,
burned holy cards,
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00:11:02,328 --> 00:11:04,580
welcomed four new members
into the Mob.
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[man] If we ever, on anybody,
any of us, any one of us here,
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if we ever find out
that you've given the secret that we hold,
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you can never get out alive.
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[Murphy] The FBI had a bug in there.
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00:11:21,972 --> 00:11:23,557
They caught everything on tape.
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00:11:24,934 --> 00:11:27,144
And this was a huge coup for the FBI,
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not just locally,
but nationally, internationally.
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00:11:34,151 --> 00:11:36,904
[suspenseful beat playing]
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Vinnie Ferrara was arrested in late 1989.
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[reporter]
Vincent "The Animal" Ferrara.
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00:11:48,290 --> 00:11:52,461
A man with a college background,
described by police as a sadistic killer.
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- Don't put it too close to my eyes.
- [man] Okay.
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There continued to be
successful prosecutions.
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They know they're going away.
They know that they're in trouble.
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00:12:02,930 --> 00:12:04,056
Hey, how you doing?
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00:12:04,140 --> 00:12:06,308
- [man] Pretty good. How's it going?
- Good.
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[Cullen] These are not guys who say,
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00:12:08,310 --> 00:12:11,897
"Maybe I should go back to school
and get my degree in something."
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These guys are criminals,
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00:12:13,315 --> 00:12:15,443
always thinking,
"What's the next score?
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00:12:15,526 --> 00:12:18,237
How do I make money
so I don't become a civilian?"
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In that disarray,
somebody would be more emboldened
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to do something
as bold as the Gardner heist.
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It had been sort of a way
of criminals locally
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to barter for leniency, to steal art.
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I mean, this was a plausible theory.
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00:12:49,894 --> 00:12:52,688
[Kurkjian] The reporting showed
that the Mafia in Boston
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00:12:52,772 --> 00:12:54,523
and the Ferrara gang
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00:12:54,607 --> 00:12:57,318
knew about the vulnerability
of the Gardner Museum.
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00:12:59,028 --> 00:13:00,529
A get out of jail free card.
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00:13:03,407 --> 00:13:06,702
One of the first people
to visit Vinnie Ferrara in jail...
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00:13:08,746 --> 00:13:10,581
was his driver.
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00:13:11,874 --> 00:13:12,874
Bobby Donati.
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00:13:13,918 --> 00:13:16,545
Three visits: One before,
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00:13:16,629 --> 00:13:17,838
two after the theft.
208
00:13:19,215 --> 00:13:20,716
They were very good friends.
209
00:13:21,842 --> 00:13:26,305
Donati was a low-level,
more white collar criminal associate.
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00:13:28,015 --> 00:13:30,768
Had businesses in and around
East Boston and Revere.
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00:13:32,770 --> 00:13:34,146
An ice cream shop there.
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00:13:35,606 --> 00:13:37,566
I found that he was very good friends...
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00:13:38,943 --> 00:13:40,027
with Myles Connor.
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00:13:44,365 --> 00:13:47,159
One of the major art thefts
Myles pulled off...
215
00:13:48,202 --> 00:13:50,871
they stole five or six Wyeth paintings.
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00:13:50,955 --> 00:13:52,540
Important paintings.
217
00:13:54,667 --> 00:13:56,252
And he had a partner with him.
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00:13:58,671 --> 00:13:59,839
His great friend...
219
00:14:00,965 --> 00:14:01,965
Bobby Donati.
220
00:14:03,300 --> 00:14:07,388
Bobby... There's something
that I always liked about Italians.
221
00:14:08,681 --> 00:14:09,890
They're outgoing.
222
00:14:10,474 --> 00:14:11,767
They're boisterous.
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00:14:12,476 --> 00:14:14,103
Much more amicable.
224
00:14:16,063 --> 00:14:17,063
Wyeth...
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00:14:17,648 --> 00:14:19,733
that was the Woolworth estate.
226
00:14:20,609 --> 00:14:22,987
That was actually Bobby Donati's deal.
227
00:14:24,405 --> 00:14:27,992
And he had actually
put the whole thing together.
228
00:14:28,701 --> 00:14:31,453
That's how I ended up
getting grabbed by the feds.
229
00:14:31,996 --> 00:14:33,414
It was thanks to them...
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00:14:34,874 --> 00:14:36,458
that I stole the Rembrandt.
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[reporter] A year after the robbery,
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00:14:38,460 --> 00:14:41,505
Connor offered
to get the painting back... for a price.
233
00:14:42,089 --> 00:14:45,134
He wanted out of prison,
and a deal was made.
234
00:14:45,217 --> 00:14:49,388
Donati would have known
through the Myles experience
235
00:14:49,471 --> 00:14:53,684
that getting a piece of artwork
that's so important,
236
00:14:54,476 --> 00:14:56,353
the feds will do business with you.
237
00:14:56,437 --> 00:14:58,314
He would've had the idea in his mind.
238
00:15:02,568 --> 00:15:07,239
And Bobby felt that their gang
would not be able to survive,
239
00:15:07,323 --> 00:15:10,826
would not be able to win the gang war
that they had ongoing,
240
00:15:11,911 --> 00:15:15,164
unless Vinnie was on the street
and out of jail.
241
00:15:16,957 --> 00:15:19,835
So what Bobby Donati said to Vinnie...
242
00:15:19,919 --> 00:15:22,212
"We're going to pull off a theft
so shocking...
243
00:15:26,800 --> 00:15:28,886
that the feds will let you out of jail."
244
00:15:31,180 --> 00:15:35,517
But it seems to me that after the theft,
245
00:15:35,601 --> 00:15:39,271
Donati wanted to wait
for things to cool down,
246
00:15:40,230 --> 00:15:43,692
and then would approach the FBI
to get this artwork back
247
00:15:44,443 --> 00:15:46,445
and Vinnie Ferrara out of jail.
248
00:15:54,536 --> 00:15:56,914
Bobby Donati was found decapitated...
249
00:15:57,790 --> 00:15:59,625
in the trunk of his car...
250
00:16:02,044 --> 00:16:03,044
shot to hell.
251
00:16:08,759 --> 00:16:12,429
[Kurkjian] Donati's body was recovered
several days after his murder.
252
00:16:13,555 --> 00:16:18,519
News crews did show up at his home
to get video of the house and of the car.
253
00:16:19,353 --> 00:16:23,315
The police had already found remnants
of blood on the front porch.
254
00:16:24,775 --> 00:16:27,444
The speculation was
he had been attacked there
255
00:16:27,528 --> 00:16:29,863
and then put into the trunk of his car,
256
00:16:29,947 --> 00:16:32,658
where his body was found
several days later.
257
00:16:35,285 --> 00:16:38,038
His killing, as ghastly as it was,
258
00:16:38,122 --> 00:16:40,791
was never solved.
It was investigated by the FBI,
259
00:16:40,874 --> 00:16:44,003
and as I learned
when I sought his FBI file,
260
00:16:44,086 --> 00:16:46,296
he had been under surveillance
by the FBI,
261
00:16:47,172 --> 00:16:49,466
after the theft, but before his murder.
262
00:16:57,016 --> 00:16:59,768
I decided to go deeper on Donati,
263
00:17:00,519 --> 00:17:03,814
and made some friends
in the Revere, East Boston area,
264
00:17:03,897 --> 00:17:05,357
people who knew Donati.
265
00:17:06,191 --> 00:17:08,944
And one of them turned me onto a guy.
266
00:17:09,778 --> 00:17:12,823
He told me of an event
involving Bobby Donati
267
00:17:12,906 --> 00:17:14,825
that I was really intrigued by.
268
00:17:16,201 --> 00:17:19,997
Bobby, very soon before the theft,
269
00:17:20,080 --> 00:17:22,666
showed up at a place
they called the Shack,
270
00:17:23,667 --> 00:17:24,835
in Revere.
271
00:17:27,880 --> 00:17:30,507
He was there with a paper bag.
272
00:17:30,591 --> 00:17:34,136
And in the paper bag
were two Boston Police uniforms.
273
00:17:39,975 --> 00:17:42,394
Jesus. He's walking around
with police uniforms.
274
00:17:42,478 --> 00:17:44,480
What's he doing with police uniforms?
275
00:17:50,903 --> 00:17:53,572
Is Bobby Donati the key?
276
00:17:55,282 --> 00:17:57,534
That's the best scenario
I can come up with.
277
00:17:58,327 --> 00:18:00,370
That Donati had the paintings.
278
00:18:01,246 --> 00:18:04,333
[intricate piano music playing]
279
00:18:15,677 --> 00:18:17,930
Between 1990,
when the theft took place,
280
00:18:18,013 --> 00:18:20,390
and around 1997...
281
00:18:21,850 --> 00:18:23,143
there was nothing.
282
00:18:28,482 --> 00:18:31,443
[wind whistling]
283
00:18:33,445 --> 00:18:36,115
[Hawley] I think many people
in the Boston community
284
00:18:36,198 --> 00:18:39,159
did not realize the significance
of this place.
285
00:18:39,243 --> 00:18:40,243
They just didn't.
286
00:18:41,995 --> 00:18:46,416
To get the word out again
to a large audience is really important
287
00:18:46,500 --> 00:18:48,919
for the continued search for the work.
288
00:18:50,629 --> 00:18:54,633
I think that was one of the reasons
behind increasing the reward.
289
00:18:55,384 --> 00:18:58,887
The Bureau felt we needed to get
a larger number out there.
290
00:19:22,244 --> 00:19:26,790
I remember reading a clipping
in the newspaper that said,
291
00:19:26,874 --> 00:19:32,087
"Gardner Museum raises reward
for recovery of paintings,"
292
00:19:32,171 --> 00:19:35,549
and the first thought I had was,
"Wait, they're still missing?"
293
00:19:36,425 --> 00:19:40,721
Very remarkable
that between 1990 and 1997,
294
00:19:40,804 --> 00:19:43,390
there were very few stories
about the crime.
295
00:19:45,017 --> 00:19:49,688
There was never, say, an arrest
or a suspect being questioned.
296
00:19:50,522 --> 00:19:54,484
Bobby Donati, nobody ever had a chance
to ask him any questions, obviously.
297
00:19:55,319 --> 00:19:56,820
With him dead,
298
00:19:56,904 --> 00:20:00,908
whatever he might have done
to hide the art
299
00:20:00,991 --> 00:20:02,993
so it could be used as leverage...
300
00:20:03,076 --> 00:20:06,580
I mean, that mystery
would have disappeared with him.
301
00:20:08,498 --> 00:20:09,750
Right off the bat, to me,
302
00:20:09,833 --> 00:20:13,962
the obvious angle
was to look into Myles Connor again.
303
00:20:17,591 --> 00:20:21,261
He was in prison at the time,
which is a pretty solid alibi,
304
00:20:21,345 --> 00:20:24,806
but this guy Donati
was a close friend of Myles
305
00:20:24,890 --> 00:20:28,477
and had been involved
in helping him with a lot of cases.
306
00:20:29,770 --> 00:20:31,688
So I just jumped to this conclusion.
307
00:20:33,023 --> 00:20:34,524
The art had been stolen...
308
00:20:35,567 --> 00:20:40,155
and because he was in jail,
he needed a place to hide the art.
309
00:20:40,948 --> 00:20:42,532
So I call Myles,
310
00:20:42,616 --> 00:20:45,160
I get him on the phone,
'cause you can make calls.
311
00:20:46,745 --> 00:20:48,956
And he said that he had this trailer.
312
00:20:51,750 --> 00:20:53,335
Where better to hide it...
313
00:20:54,211 --> 00:20:55,587
than in Myles' trailer?
314
00:20:58,882 --> 00:21:01,093
[man] Is this the infamous Myles stuff?
315
00:21:01,885 --> 00:21:04,930
Nah, this is... this is just storage.
316
00:21:13,438 --> 00:21:15,857
I had a big trailer.
317
00:21:17,276 --> 00:21:18,819
You know, 40-foot trailer.
318
00:21:19,903 --> 00:21:21,029
Filled with stuff.
319
00:21:21,863 --> 00:21:25,993
Japanese swords
were what I really specialized in.
320
00:21:26,076 --> 00:21:31,999
I had a collection that rivaled
what they had at the MFA or at the Met.
321
00:21:32,916 --> 00:21:34,126
Two hundred blades.
322
00:21:34,209 --> 00:21:39,256
Most expensive ones
would be $500,000.
323
00:21:43,635 --> 00:21:44,970
[Mashberg] Out of nowhere,
324
00:21:45,053 --> 00:21:48,348
this petty criminal
named William Youngworth pops up.
325
00:21:49,599 --> 00:21:54,021
This guy Youngworth is a caretaker
of Myles Connor's property,
326
00:21:54,104 --> 00:21:55,981
which is essentially museum loot.
327
00:21:56,690 --> 00:21:59,651
Youngworth was a guy
who had done me a favor...
328
00:22:00,986 --> 00:22:03,613
that I could not get anybody else to do.
329
00:22:05,699 --> 00:22:10,704
So all my stuff went to Billy's place,
the trailer and everything else.
330
00:22:11,913 --> 00:22:13,081
In talking to this guy,
331
00:22:13,165 --> 00:22:15,250
I realized that he had at some point...
332
00:22:16,084 --> 00:22:19,129
opened up Myles' trailer,
333
00:22:19,212 --> 00:22:23,633
and was basically selling off items
of Myles' without telling Myles.
334
00:22:25,218 --> 00:22:27,262
There it went.
335
00:22:29,598 --> 00:22:34,436
[Mashberg] He was facing prison time
for an unrelated crime.
336
00:22:34,519 --> 00:22:37,064
He started trying
to negotiate his way out of that,
337
00:22:37,147 --> 00:22:39,733
and he said that he had information
338
00:22:39,816 --> 00:22:42,986
that could lead to the recovery
of the Gardner art.
339
00:22:53,413 --> 00:22:57,417
It's plausible that Youngworth
stumbled across those items
340
00:22:57,501 --> 00:23:00,837
while just sort of randomly
going through Myles' trailer.
341
00:23:00,921 --> 00:23:02,672
[man] How do you know they're real?
342
00:23:03,340 --> 00:23:05,342
I saw them in the Gardner Museum before.
343
00:23:07,219 --> 00:23:09,638
- I believe they're real.
- [man] You've seen both?
344
00:23:09,721 --> 00:23:11,431
[Mashberg]
I said to Youngworth,
345
00:23:11,515 --> 00:23:14,976
"You're never gonna get around
this problem of not being believed,
346
00:23:15,060 --> 00:23:17,145
unless you produce something
347
00:23:17,229 --> 00:23:19,189
that's gonna give credibility
to your claim."
348
00:23:19,272 --> 00:23:21,274
[indistinct speech]
349
00:23:22,109 --> 00:23:24,736
[Mashberg] But I convinced him
350
00:23:24,820 --> 00:23:28,573
to at least show me one of the items.
351
00:23:30,784 --> 00:23:32,953
I wouldn't be in any position to take it.
352
00:23:33,036 --> 00:23:34,955
I wouldn't even know where it was.
353
00:23:35,038 --> 00:23:38,166
You could put it in a location,
then move it right away.
354
00:23:39,042 --> 00:23:41,253
But you know, help me out here.
355
00:23:41,336 --> 00:23:44,172
Uh, show me something,
and I can at least report that.
356
00:23:44,256 --> 00:23:47,676
[tense music playing]
357
00:23:50,720 --> 00:23:54,683
One night I was at work,
working late, and I got a call saying,
358
00:23:54,766 --> 00:23:57,477
"Be at your office
a little before midnight...
359
00:23:59,521 --> 00:24:01,606
and we'll go from there."
360
00:24:08,071 --> 00:24:09,406
I'm very skeptical, right?
361
00:24:09,489 --> 00:24:12,242
I mean, to me,
this is sort of implausible.
362
00:24:14,161 --> 00:24:15,954
But I thought, "What's to lose?"
363
00:24:20,417 --> 00:24:22,210
We just took a long drive...
364
00:24:23,336 --> 00:24:24,629
to New York.
365
00:24:36,725 --> 00:24:40,061
There was another car
that was along behind for a while.
366
00:24:45,650 --> 00:24:47,986
Eventually, we pull up outside
367
00:24:48,069 --> 00:24:52,532
this very kind of basic-looking
warehouse structure in Red Hook.
368
00:24:56,328 --> 00:24:58,830
It was sort of a rough-looking building.
369
00:25:03,043 --> 00:25:06,004
Youngworth had the key
to get into the facility.
370
00:25:08,006 --> 00:25:09,216
He had a flashlight.
371
00:25:12,719 --> 00:25:14,971
We went up two or three flights.
372
00:25:18,183 --> 00:25:20,018
And he opens this storage locker,
373
00:25:20,810 --> 00:25:22,979
has me stand just outside of it.
374
00:25:24,689 --> 00:25:25,857
He gets a tube out.
375
00:25:27,776 --> 00:25:30,946
And he pulls out the tube
and then he holds up...
376
00:25:33,281 --> 00:25:36,326
what looks to be
The Storm on the Sea of Galilee.
377
00:25:36,409 --> 00:25:39,204
[inquisitive orchestral music plays]
378
00:25:40,622 --> 00:25:43,917
And he's kind of running the light
over it a little bit.
379
00:25:44,501 --> 00:25:47,754
Eventually,
the beam hits the Rembrandt signature.
380
00:25:48,505 --> 00:25:51,633
And then he says, "Okay, that's all.
381
00:25:51,716 --> 00:25:53,927
You've got to go. There's my proof."
382
00:25:57,722 --> 00:26:00,600
Obviously, I have no idea
whether this is a forgery.
383
00:26:00,684 --> 00:26:02,143
I'm no expert in art.
384
00:26:08,275 --> 00:26:10,986
It just seemed to me
that it was very plausible
385
00:26:12,279 --> 00:26:16,074
that the stolen art was stored here
at least temporarily.
386
00:26:22,747 --> 00:26:26,418
[Mozart's "Piano Quartet No. 2" playing]
387
00:26:37,053 --> 00:26:42,809
[man] If there is one master
who really interacts with the beholder,
388
00:26:42,892 --> 00:26:44,352
then it's Rembrandt.
389
00:26:44,436 --> 00:26:48,648
So you really need someone
in front of that painting to interact with
390
00:26:48,732 --> 00:26:54,863
to finally get out of it what Rembrandt,
as the master, intended to be there.
391
00:26:57,616 --> 00:27:00,702
Looking at
The Storm on the Sea of Galilee,
392
00:27:00,785 --> 00:27:03,079
that's one of these examples
393
00:27:03,163 --> 00:27:06,416
where we really see Rembrandt
as a storyteller.
394
00:27:07,250 --> 00:27:10,712
The focus and framing
is fully on this ship.
395
00:27:11,463 --> 00:27:15,925
Everyone seems to believe that they will
sink down in the next few seconds,
396
00:27:16,009 --> 00:27:17,510
except Jesus...
397
00:27:18,678 --> 00:27:20,639
fully in control,
398
00:27:20,722 --> 00:27:24,017
and then the contrast
with all of the other people around it
399
00:27:24,100 --> 00:27:25,810
and storm in the background.
400
00:27:25,894 --> 00:27:27,896
[storm rumbling]
401
00:27:28,813 --> 00:27:31,566
[Hawley] Christ on this storm-tossed sea
402
00:27:31,650 --> 00:27:33,526
is in motion,
403
00:27:33,610 --> 00:27:36,946
and you can feel the movement.
404
00:27:37,030 --> 00:27:39,115
That's why it's such a wonderful picture.
405
00:27:46,748 --> 00:27:49,959
[Roelofs] This young guy did something
he'd never done before,
406
00:27:50,043 --> 00:27:53,296
but also something that no one else
had ever done before.
407
00:27:54,381 --> 00:27:57,568
[Hawley] If you stare at it long enough,
you realize something strange is going on
408
00:27:57,592 --> 00:28:01,304
and you have Rembrandt
looking at you very wisely.
409
00:28:01,388 --> 00:28:02,681
[Hawley chuckles]
410
00:28:02,764 --> 00:28:04,974
Who's in charge here anyway?
411
00:28:05,058 --> 00:28:07,811
Is it the painter or the subject?
412
00:28:11,272 --> 00:28:15,110
The most interesting moments
in art history are the moments of change.
413
00:28:15,193 --> 00:28:19,197
Standing in front of that painting,
for me,
414
00:28:19,280 --> 00:28:22,742
would be an unbelievable experience.
415
00:28:29,374 --> 00:28:32,043
Before we even went with the story,
416
00:28:32,544 --> 00:28:37,632
we sat down for a long time with a curator
and the head of the Gardner Museum
417
00:28:37,716 --> 00:28:40,552
so I could describe in detail
everything I'd seen.
418
00:28:42,846 --> 00:28:45,598
[Hiatt] I think it was the FBI
that dismissed it.
419
00:28:47,475 --> 00:28:51,229
Having a sense of urgency
in the absence of them,
420
00:28:51,312 --> 00:28:53,898
I think we felt we had no choice.
421
00:28:57,193 --> 00:29:01,489
I asked Tom if he'd be willing
to talk with some of our curators
422
00:29:01,573 --> 00:29:03,783
so they could help him
identify the painting.
423
00:29:06,578 --> 00:29:08,705
[Mashberg]
They were looking for clues,
424
00:29:08,788 --> 00:29:13,877
like whether there was paint flaking off
in these little tiny, weird shape flakes.
425
00:29:13,960 --> 00:29:15,754
They call them craquelure.
426
00:29:15,837 --> 00:29:17,672
Then if you were to roll one up,
427
00:29:17,756 --> 00:29:20,383
the painting would crack along the lines.
428
00:29:22,886 --> 00:29:25,138
[Hawley] These objects are so old...
429
00:29:26,556 --> 00:29:28,475
rolling them would be devastating,
430
00:29:28,558 --> 00:29:30,518
because it would crack.
431
00:29:30,602 --> 00:29:33,813
It would put more cracks
into... into the paint.
432
00:29:34,397 --> 00:29:36,149
And they need to be stored flat.
433
00:29:38,193 --> 00:29:40,737
And also not in acidic boxes.
434
00:29:40,820 --> 00:29:43,740
You know,
they need to be in acid-free boxes.
435
00:29:44,616 --> 00:29:47,160
Everything has to be treated so carefully.
436
00:29:47,911 --> 00:29:49,788
Like a newborn baby, really.
437
00:29:52,248 --> 00:29:56,002
Mashberg was asked some questions
by one of our curators.
438
00:29:56,878 --> 00:30:00,465
Had he seen a tear
on the upper left hand corner,
439
00:30:00,548 --> 00:30:03,176
or some marks
on the back of the painting?
440
00:30:03,802 --> 00:30:06,721
And he seemed to give the right answers,
441
00:30:06,805 --> 00:30:09,307
so that kind of added credibility.
442
00:30:11,142 --> 00:30:12,685
And so we went with that.
443
00:30:15,855 --> 00:30:17,524
[man] In early October last year,
444
00:30:17,607 --> 00:30:20,485
the Boston Herald
was still the main player
445
00:30:20,568 --> 00:30:23,321
- keeping the Gardner story alive.
- [bell ringing]
446
00:30:25,365 --> 00:30:27,575
Reporter Tom Mashberg
asked Bill Youngworth
447
00:30:27,659 --> 00:30:30,203
for more proof
he had access to the paintings.
448
00:30:31,120 --> 00:30:34,457
[Mashberg] Youngworth kept calling,
saying, "What's going on?
449
00:30:34,541 --> 00:30:37,085
What's the progress?
We aren't hearing anything."
450
00:30:37,168 --> 00:30:39,712
I said, "They don't think
it's worth giving you
451
00:30:39,796 --> 00:30:43,049
complete immunity deal
based on just that."
452
00:30:43,132 --> 00:30:45,426
So I said,
"What else can you provide?"
453
00:30:46,094 --> 00:30:49,931
[man] Days later, a plain manila envelope
arrived at the Herald.
454
00:30:50,014 --> 00:30:52,016
Inside, a roll of photographs.
455
00:30:52,100 --> 00:30:54,477
This is probably the best one
for page one.
456
00:30:54,561 --> 00:30:56,271
It's gonna reproduce the best.
457
00:30:56,354 --> 00:30:58,523
[man] Were these two missing Rembrandts?
458
00:31:00,984 --> 00:31:03,319
[Mashberg]
The museum never issued a statement,
459
00:31:03,403 --> 00:31:08,324
but what I was told was essentially
that it was just too inconclusive.
460
00:31:08,408 --> 00:31:11,661
[suspenseful music playing]
461
00:31:11,744 --> 00:31:13,246
[puffing] You know...
462
00:31:13,329 --> 00:31:14,247
long story short,
463
00:31:14,330 --> 00:31:17,917
there was another possible
proof of life that collapsed.
464
00:31:18,001 --> 00:31:20,545
But we sort of thought about paint chips.
465
00:31:20,628 --> 00:31:25,049
And I said, "Would it be that hard
to scrape a little paint off?"
466
00:31:29,095 --> 00:31:34,309
Walter McCrone out of Chicago had done
a lot of work debunking frauds,
467
00:31:34,392 --> 00:31:36,352
using an electron microscope.
468
00:31:38,021 --> 00:31:40,231
So, we flew out there, he looked at them.
469
00:31:41,149 --> 00:31:42,400
Moment of truth here.
470
00:31:42,483 --> 00:31:46,112
I'm literally expecting him to say,
"What, are you kidding?" [chuckles]
471
00:31:46,195 --> 00:31:50,700
[man] I felt as though I was looking at
something that Rembrandt had produced,
472
00:31:50,783 --> 00:31:53,411
and it looked exactly like
the paint layers
473
00:31:53,494 --> 00:31:57,040
and the pigment that was produced
in Holland at that time.
474
00:31:57,123 --> 00:32:00,793
Everything was just perfect
for a Rembrandt paint layer.
475
00:32:00,877 --> 00:32:02,754
I've never experienced this before.
476
00:32:06,674 --> 00:32:09,802
Youngworth seemed to be credible.
477
00:32:11,554 --> 00:32:16,434
Somehow he always had just enough
information to keep us all interested.
478
00:32:21,773 --> 00:32:24,567
[Mashberg] When we sent the chips
over to the museum,
479
00:32:24,651 --> 00:32:27,028
they looked under their own microscopes
480
00:32:27,111 --> 00:32:29,864
and they saw that the color
481
00:32:29,948 --> 00:32:33,451
had not been used
in any of the Rembrandts that were stolen.
482
00:32:36,746 --> 00:32:39,666
They may be chips
from the 17th century,
483
00:32:39,749 --> 00:32:43,586
but, if the color doesn't match
the colors in the painting,
484
00:32:43,670 --> 00:32:46,005
then they can't come from
those paintings.
485
00:32:46,089 --> 00:32:47,757
'Cause it's very specific.
486
00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:53,805
The color of these chips, I learned,
was something called Red Lake.
487
00:32:53,888 --> 00:32:57,558
Red Lake is one of the materials
that an artist could use.
488
00:32:57,642 --> 00:33:00,687
We could come up with a conclusion
489
00:33:00,770 --> 00:33:04,273
that it is part of
a 17th-century Dutch painting.
490
00:33:04,357 --> 00:33:08,403
But identifying the artist
is the next step,
491
00:33:08,486 --> 00:33:12,532
and just on the basis
of one simple sample,
492
00:33:12,615 --> 00:33:15,785
that would be highly tricky, I believe.
493
00:33:21,416 --> 00:33:22,625
[Mashberg] At that time,
494
00:33:22,709 --> 00:33:26,254
I think the museum people
really wanted Youngworth and Connor
495
00:33:26,337 --> 00:33:30,425
to get a full immunity package
and a guarantee of reward money,
496
00:33:30,508 --> 00:33:33,136
and then let's see the art returned.
497
00:33:33,928 --> 00:33:36,472
It kind of became
a put up or shut-up moment.
498
00:33:38,141 --> 00:33:42,645
But at the time, the FBI
and law enforcement rejected that idea.
499
00:33:42,770 --> 00:33:47,650
They still felt that it was
caving in to extortion,
500
00:33:47,734 --> 00:33:52,864
and there was no way they were going
to shorten Myles Connor's prison term
501
00:33:52,947 --> 00:33:54,365
for the return of the art.
502
00:33:56,534 --> 00:33:58,995
Could this be just an elaborate hoax?
503
00:33:59,620 --> 00:34:00,830
Could it be?
504
00:34:02,373 --> 00:34:04,167
Anything's possible.
505
00:34:05,251 --> 00:34:06,627
Are you asking me if it is?
506
00:34:13,676 --> 00:34:15,094
Let's get outta here, honey.
507
00:34:22,101 --> 00:34:24,395
Youngworth had moved,
because he was afraid
508
00:34:24,479 --> 00:34:27,315
that Myles was gonna wreak revenge on him
509
00:34:27,398 --> 00:34:32,111
for basically ruining his collection
and selling it all off.
510
00:34:36,574 --> 00:34:39,243
As a result of that,
the whole thing went south.
511
00:34:40,119 --> 00:34:41,496
Nothing came of it.
512
00:34:41,579 --> 00:34:45,750
Nothing came of that or the paint chips
or anything else.
513
00:34:48,961 --> 00:34:51,089
I think Mashberg was truthful.
514
00:34:51,589 --> 00:34:52,965
He was just...
515
00:34:54,008 --> 00:34:56,511
He was a victim of selective information.
516
00:35:09,482 --> 00:35:13,402
You go through so many of these
that you just get exhausted
517
00:35:13,486 --> 00:35:17,031
from the high that you think you're on it,
518
00:35:18,074 --> 00:35:21,994
and then the terrible disappointment
when it's not real.
519
00:35:23,329 --> 00:35:27,667
So it's very, very hard
to keep your spirits up about the process.
520
00:35:33,422 --> 00:35:37,343
The enormity of it, you can imagine,
is just overwhelming.
521
00:35:38,594 --> 00:35:41,472
Did you think you'd be talking
about this ten years later?
522
00:35:41,556 --> 00:35:44,934
No, I really thought we would have
recovered these by now.
523
00:35:51,149 --> 00:35:55,111
[Hawley] What I cannot understand
is why no one has come forward.
524
00:35:55,194 --> 00:35:59,115
Because there have to be people
that know where it is.
525
00:36:07,957 --> 00:36:09,959
[man] So when the robbery happened,
526
00:36:10,042 --> 00:36:13,212
did you know or generally know
527
00:36:13,296 --> 00:36:16,549
where the art went after the robbery?
528
00:36:17,884 --> 00:36:18,884
No, I didn't.
529
00:36:21,888 --> 00:36:24,765
Whatever he showed to Mashberg,
I'm not sure.
530
00:36:24,849 --> 00:36:28,102
Mashberg swore up and down
it was the real thing.
531
00:36:32,815 --> 00:36:37,486
But, like I said,
it was set up by Bobby Donati.
532
00:36:40,364 --> 00:36:44,202
I sense the secret is the network of...
533
00:36:44,285 --> 00:36:45,536
where the paintings went
534
00:36:45,620 --> 00:36:49,540
on March 18th, 1990
in the early morning hours,
535
00:36:49,624 --> 00:36:51,459
where they were stashed,
536
00:36:52,835 --> 00:36:54,670
was through these hands of Donati.
537
00:36:56,881 --> 00:37:00,927
[man] Under the scenario that it's Donati,
do you think Donati went in himself,
538
00:37:01,010 --> 00:37:04,347
- or do you think he hired people to go in?
- He had to. No.
539
00:37:05,223 --> 00:37:06,223
Well...
540
00:37:10,978 --> 00:37:13,105
You don't just get somebody random.
541
00:37:13,189 --> 00:37:15,233
You get somebody who's connected,
542
00:37:15,316 --> 00:37:17,151
whom you know you can trust.
543
00:37:18,861 --> 00:37:22,782
You find your nearest and dearest
to do it with you.
544
00:37:25,201 --> 00:37:29,288
And the day after
Bobby Donati went missing,
545
00:37:30,665 --> 00:37:32,500
his son picked up the phone.
546
00:37:32,583 --> 00:37:34,752
Whom did he call looking for his father?
547
00:37:36,462 --> 00:37:37,880
He called Bobby Guarente.
548
00:37:38,881 --> 00:37:39,881
Donati...
549
00:37:40,591 --> 00:37:42,969
and Bobby Guarente were great friends.
550
00:37:46,305 --> 00:37:49,976
These guys grew up together
in East Boston. They knew each other.
551
00:37:52,311 --> 00:37:54,730
Bobby Guarente was somebody that...
552
00:37:55,856 --> 00:37:56,856
Very personable.
553
00:37:57,650 --> 00:38:02,071
Was not ashamed
to have his name be mentioned
554
00:38:02,154 --> 00:38:04,198
and associated with tough people.
555
00:38:04,282 --> 00:38:06,409
[atmospheric music playing]
556
00:38:15,793 --> 00:38:17,503
[Leppo] Bobby once robbed a bank.
557
00:38:19,422 --> 00:38:21,340
Getting away, they kidnapped somebody.
558
00:38:22,883 --> 00:38:25,386
They ran into a house and took a hostage.
559
00:38:25,469 --> 00:38:29,140
Unfortunately, it was a judge's daughter
who they took hostage.
560
00:38:30,933 --> 00:38:33,144
That's the story he tells me, Uncle Buck.
561
00:38:33,894 --> 00:38:36,439
That was his code name, Uncle Buck.
562
00:38:37,481 --> 00:38:38,983
Always carried a biscuit.
563
00:38:41,610 --> 00:38:44,238
Guarente sort of is a big thinker.
564
00:38:45,114 --> 00:38:46,866
I believe he was involved.
565
00:38:48,284 --> 00:38:54,040
It makes sense because it may have been
known to Guarente and the Rossetti gang.
566
00:38:55,207 --> 00:38:58,461
Guarente was a family relative
of the Rosetti's,
567
00:38:58,544 --> 00:39:01,505
and it was the Rosetti gang
that had cased the museum
568
00:39:01,589 --> 00:39:03,883
for a theft in the early '80s.
569
00:39:06,344 --> 00:39:09,305
[Hierdorn] It was September 1981.
570
00:39:10,014 --> 00:39:13,934
They were going to pull the Whistler,
the Matisse, and the Sargent.
571
00:39:16,354 --> 00:39:18,689
[tense music plays]
572
00:39:24,987 --> 00:39:28,157
[Kurkjian] There was a case
at the time of the theft
573
00:39:28,240 --> 00:39:30,493
being built by the state police
574
00:39:31,202 --> 00:39:36,665
involving TRC Auto Body Shop
on Dot Ave in Dorchester.
575
00:39:42,171 --> 00:39:45,841
Guarente is several times showing up
576
00:39:45,925 --> 00:39:49,720
during the state and federal
surveillance periods,
577
00:39:49,804 --> 00:39:51,806
at the auto repair shop.
578
00:39:53,766 --> 00:39:56,227
Bobby Guarente was in and out of TRC.
579
00:39:56,310 --> 00:39:58,562
I'm sure he was
a lot more involved than that.
580
00:40:01,982 --> 00:40:04,860
TRC was a place to go
581
00:40:04,944 --> 00:40:07,196
if you needed a particular item.
582
00:40:09,740 --> 00:40:11,826
We would park our surveillance van
583
00:40:11,909 --> 00:40:15,079
at the closest spot we could get
across the street from TRC.
584
00:40:19,875 --> 00:40:22,878
We'd just wait for them to open,
see who arrived.
585
00:40:28,384 --> 00:40:30,761
No one was getting their car fixed.
[chuckles]
586
00:40:34,515 --> 00:40:35,975
They were colorful.
587
00:40:36,058 --> 00:40:39,103
A bunch of colorful characters,
as we came to know them.
588
00:40:40,896 --> 00:40:43,274
Carmello Merlino
was kind of the godfather,
589
00:40:43,357 --> 00:40:46,068
the one that people would bring
problems or ideas to,
590
00:40:47,194 --> 00:40:48,904
who, everyone told me at the time,
591
00:40:48,988 --> 00:40:52,158
was a legitimately made guy in the Mafia.
592
00:40:53,826 --> 00:40:56,954
The other key people around him,
Charlie Pappas...
593
00:40:58,539 --> 00:40:59,665
David Turner,
594
00:41:00,374 --> 00:41:01,500
George Reissfelder,
595
00:41:02,126 --> 00:41:03,169
Leonard DiMuzio.
596
00:41:06,046 --> 00:41:08,757
Our information was that Carmello Merlino
597
00:41:08,841 --> 00:41:12,178
was supplying Robert Guarente
with drugs to sell.
598
00:41:14,722 --> 00:41:18,184
And Mello was doing
a million-dollar cocaine operation.
599
00:41:19,268 --> 00:41:21,896
There was a continual criminal enterprise.
600
00:41:21,979 --> 00:41:23,022
I mean, it went on...
601
00:41:23,105 --> 00:41:26,317
As long as we were there,
it went on and on and on and on.
602
00:41:28,444 --> 00:41:30,988
Armed robberies,
an armed home invasion,
603
00:41:31,071 --> 00:41:33,073
robbery of Cheers, the bar...
604
00:41:42,124 --> 00:41:45,794
[Whelan] Turner and Pappas,
I was looking at for homicide in Plymouth.
605
00:41:47,338 --> 00:41:51,008
It was clear very early, this group
needed to be taken off the streets.
606
00:41:51,091 --> 00:41:52,259
They were dangerous.
607
00:42:00,142 --> 00:42:04,480
We developed enough to charge them
with the conspiracy to traffic in cocaine.
608
00:42:09,485 --> 00:42:13,697
[Sikellis] Merlino and Pappas
are the two main people to get indicted.
609
00:42:13,781 --> 00:42:15,074
And they get five years.
610
00:42:17,535 --> 00:42:19,954
As a result,
Charlie starts cooperating.
611
00:42:20,788 --> 00:42:22,623
Carmello takes a different approach.
612
00:42:22,706 --> 00:42:27,127
He starts talking about returning artwork
with the Gardner Art Museum.
613
00:42:31,882 --> 00:42:36,262
Because we were
after the drugs and the murder,
614
00:42:36,345 --> 00:42:38,639
we didn't get involved
in people shoplifting.
615
00:42:40,849 --> 00:42:43,060
I believe it's very possible
616
00:42:43,686 --> 00:42:46,480
they would send out their teams of people,
617
00:42:47,106 --> 00:42:49,358
they'd find that item that you wanted,
618
00:42:49,441 --> 00:42:52,528
steal it, and bring it back to TRC.
619
00:42:56,657 --> 00:42:59,410
The feds in their account believe
620
00:43:00,077 --> 00:43:02,621
that the idea for this theft was hatched
621
00:43:02,705 --> 00:43:06,375
at Merlino's TRC Auto Body Shop
622
00:43:06,458 --> 00:43:08,460
on Dot Ave in Dorchester.
623
00:43:10,296 --> 00:43:14,300
They obviously have evidence
that leads them to this certain crew,
624
00:43:14,383 --> 00:43:18,220
and they think that they had
their hands on it at one point.
625
00:43:18,304 --> 00:43:20,222
You don't know who's sitting out there
626
00:43:20,306 --> 00:43:22,224
that has a little piece of the puzzle.
627
00:43:24,893 --> 00:43:26,729
So no one knows where they are.
628
00:43:27,396 --> 00:43:30,065
And their criminal associates
don't know anything.
629
00:43:30,733 --> 00:43:32,359
But their family know something.
630
00:43:33,235 --> 00:43:37,114
You know, we all know
what our brothers are involved with,
631
00:43:37,197 --> 00:43:39,658
what our brother-in-laws have done.
632
00:43:39,742 --> 00:43:40,993
Know something.
633
00:43:41,076 --> 00:43:44,330
[inquisitive orchestral music plays]
634
00:43:44,413 --> 00:43:45,456
I hate water.
635
00:43:48,334 --> 00:43:52,129
[man] George Reissfelder,
a garment worker in Boston's Chinatown,
636
00:43:52,212 --> 00:43:54,715
was arrested following an anonymous tip.
637
00:43:55,924 --> 00:43:59,553
Reissfelder had served time for murder.
638
00:43:59,637 --> 00:44:03,140
The conviction was overturned
and he was released.
639
00:44:04,808 --> 00:44:06,477
[woman]
The big breakthrough came
640
00:44:06,560 --> 00:44:09,688
when the Deputy Superintendent
of the Boston Police Department
641
00:44:09,772 --> 00:44:11,815
told me George was serving a bum rap,
642
00:44:11,899 --> 00:44:12,983
that he was innocent,
643
00:44:13,067 --> 00:44:14,943
that he was wrongfully convicted.
644
00:44:15,861 --> 00:44:19,573
He wasn't a member of the Mafia.
He fraternized with these guys, knew them.
645
00:44:21,700 --> 00:44:23,744
My ex brother-in-law,
646
00:44:23,827 --> 00:44:25,871
he was very stern looking.
647
00:44:25,954 --> 00:44:28,207
You'd look at him and you'd run.
648
00:44:28,332 --> 00:44:31,877
He would look intimidating,
but he wasn't.
649
00:44:33,045 --> 00:44:34,213
I loved George.
650
00:44:34,922 --> 00:44:37,007
George was like my big brother.
651
00:44:39,218 --> 00:44:43,180
He was best of friends
for a long, long time with Carmen Mello.
652
00:44:45,182 --> 00:44:47,935
He was very, very slow moving.
He really was.
653
00:44:48,018 --> 00:44:51,689
He wasn't a fast anything,
and he would drive like this.
654
00:44:52,439 --> 00:44:55,275
Like, I said,
"Oh my God, the old lady."
655
00:44:55,359 --> 00:44:56,443
[chuckles]
656
00:44:56,527 --> 00:44:59,863
[Reissfelder] It was being in the city
every day. All the people.
657
00:45:00,364 --> 00:45:02,449
I wanted to get away from all the people.
658
00:45:02,533 --> 00:45:04,410
In prison, you're in a cellblock,
659
00:45:05,119 --> 00:45:07,496
and day in and day out
you got no privacy.
660
00:45:08,163 --> 00:45:11,583
You can't go to the bathroom
without people looking at your, uh...
661
00:45:11,667 --> 00:45:14,378
[Donna Reissfelder]
When you come out 16 years from prison
662
00:45:14,461 --> 00:45:17,881
for something that they found out
that he wasn't involved in,
663
00:45:18,465 --> 00:45:21,593
there's no way that you can
really change that quick.
664
00:45:25,681 --> 00:45:27,558
Around eight o'clock,
665
00:45:28,434 --> 00:45:30,853
we went out to George's apartment.
666
00:45:32,604 --> 00:45:37,276
He said, "I have to hang a picture,
I need you to come up, help me do this."
667
00:45:39,403 --> 00:45:42,114
Reissfelder was standing against the wall,
668
00:45:42,197 --> 00:45:43,991
being his helpful self,
669
00:45:44,074 --> 00:45:45,409
while I'm in the middle,
670
00:45:45,492 --> 00:45:48,787
trying to get the picture
hanging straight on the wall.
671
00:45:51,957 --> 00:45:55,836
The frame was gold
and it had, I would say,
672
00:45:55,919 --> 00:45:57,921
fingertip marks all around it.
673
00:46:00,674 --> 00:46:03,594
It was a foo-foo frame.
It was a woman's frame.
674
00:46:03,677 --> 00:46:07,431
It didn't belong
in a bachelor's apartment.
675
00:46:07,514 --> 00:46:10,142
I said, "Go get a different frame."
He said, "No."
676
00:46:10,225 --> 00:46:13,937
I had to... I had to make sure
I got the right measurements.
677
00:46:17,149 --> 00:46:21,361
I mean, it's ugly enough,
never mind having a foo-foo frame on it.
678
00:46:22,654 --> 00:46:24,031
I mean, it really is...
679
00:46:24,114 --> 00:46:25,532
It's an ugly picture,
680
00:46:25,616 --> 00:46:28,035
or art, whatever you wanna call it.
681
00:46:28,118 --> 00:46:30,454
And I asked George if he posed for it.
682
00:46:31,079 --> 00:46:32,079
[chuckles]
683
00:46:36,710 --> 00:46:40,172
Finally we got it right,
but it was a lot of fun hanging it.
684
00:46:40,255 --> 00:46:41,840
[laughs]
685
00:46:45,677 --> 00:46:48,096
I don't read the paper or the news on TV.
686
00:46:48,180 --> 00:46:51,016
I didn't know there was
this big old robbery going on.
687
00:46:52,935 --> 00:46:54,895
Many years after the robbery,
688
00:46:54,978 --> 00:46:58,232
I got a phone call from Gardner Museum.
689
00:46:58,816 --> 00:47:00,400
I'm looking at the paintings.
690
00:47:00,484 --> 00:47:02,861
I'm saying, "I never seen any of these.
691
00:47:02,945 --> 00:47:03,946
He's too skinny.
692
00:47:04,029 --> 00:47:07,783
He wouldn't be able to lift that
Galilee thing if his life depended on it."
693
00:47:07,866 --> 00:47:10,035
So I turn around
694
00:47:10,118 --> 00:47:13,956
and I got down and I said, "Oh Jesus."
695
00:47:14,456 --> 00:47:16,041
I got sick to my stomach.
696
00:47:16,667 --> 00:47:19,044
Like someone punched me
right in the stomach.
697
00:47:19,127 --> 00:47:22,422
All of a sudden,
everything comes crashing in.
698
00:47:22,506 --> 00:47:26,552
It's like, "Well, well, well,
you know, you said you saw it."
699
00:47:26,635 --> 00:47:28,929
Yeah, but I wasn't
anything involved in it.
700
00:47:29,012 --> 00:47:31,098
I just was hanging it
on a freaking wall.
701
00:47:33,851 --> 00:47:36,478
[electronic beat plays]
702
00:47:41,358 --> 00:47:43,944
I liked calling him Tortellini.
703
00:47:44,027 --> 00:47:45,027
[laughs]
704
00:47:46,280 --> 00:47:50,242
I saw it hanging on a wall.
First and last time I ever seen it.
705
00:47:51,410 --> 00:47:54,413
When I was talking to Gardner Museum,
706
00:47:54,496 --> 00:47:57,082
I said, "My brother-in-law
couldn't do that."
707
00:47:57,165 --> 00:48:01,295
I said, "He's too slow, he drives
25 miles an hour on the expressway."
708
00:48:06,842 --> 00:48:09,094
"Donna, it took 'em 81 minutes."
709
00:48:09,177 --> 00:48:10,762
I said, "Well that could be."
710
00:48:10,846 --> 00:48:15,475
And then he said, "One of the thieves
kept going down to the basement
711
00:48:15,559 --> 00:48:17,603
where they tied the guards up,
712
00:48:17,686 --> 00:48:20,355
asking 'em, "Are you comfortable,
do you need water,
713
00:48:20,439 --> 00:48:21,732
is the tape too tight?'"
714
00:48:21,815 --> 00:48:24,693
And I said,
"Yeah, that's my brother-in-law.
715
00:48:24,776 --> 00:48:29,448
Because he knows how it is
to be treated in a bad way."
716
00:48:30,282 --> 00:48:34,953
[man] Suspect number one is described
as a white male in his early thirties.
717
00:48:36,622 --> 00:48:39,666
[Reissfelder] George had a, like...
Is that an egg shape?
718
00:48:41,168 --> 00:48:43,170
If I remember, an egg shape.
719
00:48:46,256 --> 00:48:47,424
His skin was olive.
720
00:48:48,592 --> 00:48:49,843
He had black hair.
721
00:48:51,011 --> 00:48:56,475
The first car that he had
was a red with a white top convertible.
722
00:48:57,184 --> 00:48:58,852
One was a hatchback.
723
00:49:00,020 --> 00:49:02,397
I think it was gray or blue or something.
724
00:49:05,484 --> 00:49:10,822
[Stratman] For uniformed policemen to be
in what I recalled as a Dodge Daytona,
725
00:49:10,906 --> 00:49:13,283
this little hatchback,
that seems odd.
726
00:49:17,162 --> 00:49:19,247
[Leppo] He died of cocaine ingestion.
727
00:49:22,960 --> 00:49:26,254
And two guys, including Merlino,
728
00:49:26,338 --> 00:49:28,715
were on their way to his apartment
to see him,
729
00:49:28,799 --> 00:49:30,300
and walked in and he was dead.
730
00:49:31,593 --> 00:49:32,886
There was speculation.
731
00:49:32,970 --> 00:49:35,555
Where did the painting go
that was over his bed?
732
00:49:35,639 --> 00:49:39,142
Was it the Chez Tortoni?
Did Carmello Merlino take it?
733
00:49:43,855 --> 00:49:46,817
[Donna Reissfelder]
I'm still trying to think what happened.
734
00:49:47,359 --> 00:49:49,695
What snapped him off
to do something like that?
735
00:49:51,154 --> 00:49:53,323
- [reporter] How do you feel?
- I feel great.
736
00:49:53,407 --> 00:49:54,825
Happiest guy in the world.
737
00:49:55,492 --> 00:49:58,620
- [reporter] Any bitterness?
- A little bit. A little bit.
738
00:49:59,454 --> 00:50:04,584
- [reporter 2] What kind of bitterness?
- I think it could have been avoided.
739
00:50:05,168 --> 00:50:06,962
You know, 16 years in prison,
740
00:50:07,796 --> 00:50:09,840
you know, and he got nothing for it.
741
00:50:11,758 --> 00:50:14,261
So I think that
with all that on top of it,
742
00:50:14,344 --> 00:50:16,430
I would blame the state of Massachusetts.
743
00:50:17,055 --> 00:50:19,433
I always remember,
my mother said to me,
744
00:50:20,142 --> 00:50:22,561
just a couple of days before she died,
she said,
745
00:50:22,644 --> 00:50:24,479
"Don't worry about it," she said,
746
00:50:24,563 --> 00:50:27,232
"because as long as
you didn't do anything,
747
00:50:27,315 --> 00:50:28,942
you got nothing to worry about."
748
00:50:29,526 --> 00:50:34,698
She believed that if you were innocent,
you got nothing to worry about.
749
00:50:36,283 --> 00:50:37,367
But she was wrong.
750
00:50:39,327 --> 00:50:42,539
You know, she believed
that what's right is right,
751
00:50:42,622 --> 00:50:44,458
but it doesn't always work that way.
752
00:50:48,086 --> 00:50:52,132
In terms of the thieves, there've been
different names raised over the years.
753
00:50:58,096 --> 00:51:01,391
Also David Turner's name came up.
754
00:51:04,936 --> 00:51:07,856
[Sikellis] Around March 18th of 1990,
755
00:51:07,939 --> 00:51:08,774
David Turner...
756
00:51:08,857 --> 00:51:12,652
he had gone dark on us
for a few days around that time.
757
00:51:12,736 --> 00:51:14,279
We didn't know where he was.
758
00:51:16,948 --> 00:51:21,578
I know a Weymouth detective
called his house, I believe,
759
00:51:22,204 --> 00:51:26,166
and his girlfriend answered
and she said he took a trip to Florida.
760
00:51:28,168 --> 00:51:32,255
There was no cell phones at that time,
so we couldn't call his cell,
761
00:51:32,339 --> 00:51:34,132
so we dunno if he was beside her.
762
00:51:37,969 --> 00:51:39,805
[Kurkjian] There is paperwork filed.
763
00:51:40,639 --> 00:51:44,768
That paperwork shows
that he had rented a house in Florida.
764
00:51:45,519 --> 00:51:47,687
February, March area.
765
00:51:49,064 --> 00:51:51,191
I find credit card receipts.
766
00:51:51,858 --> 00:51:55,987
Receipts that he's bought
hundreds of dollars' worth of equipment
767
00:51:56,071 --> 00:52:00,784
from something called
the Spy Shop in Miami.
768
00:52:04,788 --> 00:52:10,585
I also see a receipt
that's dated March 20th, 1990.
769
00:52:11,086 --> 00:52:15,549
And it's at a... auto rental place
in Fort Lauderdale,
770
00:52:15,632 --> 00:52:21,388
and it looks to be he's returning the car
that he had rented for a month down there.
771
00:52:23,140 --> 00:52:27,644
But on the receipt,
there is another license number.
772
00:52:28,603 --> 00:52:31,356
So in my mind, there is a possibility
773
00:52:31,439 --> 00:52:35,777
that David had given his credit card
to somebody else
774
00:52:35,861 --> 00:52:37,445
to give him an alibi
775
00:52:37,529 --> 00:52:40,157
that on March 20th,
two days after the theft,
776
00:52:40,240 --> 00:52:42,242
he was down there in Florida.
777
00:52:44,870 --> 00:52:48,874
The FBI didn't find anything
that looked like
778
00:52:49,416 --> 00:52:53,003
association or involvement
with the Gardner Museum case,
779
00:52:53,086 --> 00:52:55,005
except one surveillance report.
780
00:52:56,798 --> 00:52:59,009
[tense music playing]
781
00:53:03,138 --> 00:53:05,640
[Kurkjian]
One surveillance report of David Turner...
782
00:53:06,600 --> 00:53:08,810
David opens up the trunk of his car...
783
00:53:09,811 --> 00:53:13,190
and takes out what appears to be
a Ming vase.
784
00:53:24,951 --> 00:53:28,455
["I Need Money" by Marky Mark
and The Funky Bunch playing]
785
00:53:34,252 --> 00:53:36,546
[Sikellis]
Who are you gonna get to do this?
786
00:53:36,630 --> 00:53:38,215
Someone you know you can trust.
787
00:53:38,298 --> 00:53:42,010
Local made folks
who know their way around Boston
788
00:53:42,093 --> 00:53:44,095
and are cocky enough
789
00:53:44,179 --> 00:53:46,139
to pull something like this off.
790
00:53:46,223 --> 00:53:50,227
Where the paintings go within minutes
of them walking out of there,
791
00:53:50,310 --> 00:53:52,646
then it gets into
more sophisticated hands.
792
00:53:58,193 --> 00:54:01,154
All this, you're trying to put together,
painting a picture,
793
00:54:02,197 --> 00:54:05,659
and the key is usually informants
in these kinds of things.
794
00:54:05,742 --> 00:54:09,204
Someone or some group of people
gotta start talking to you.
795
00:54:10,163 --> 00:54:15,418
[man on tape] The date is 11/27/98.
This is Special Agent David T. Nadolski.
796
00:54:15,502 --> 00:54:18,255
The time is 5:35 a.m.
797
00:54:18,338 --> 00:54:22,467
The purpose of this tape
is a consensual voice recording
798
00:54:22,550 --> 00:54:26,596
between Anthony Romano
and Carmello Merlino
799
00:54:26,680 --> 00:54:29,224
to take place in Dorchester,
Massachusetts.
800
00:54:32,310 --> 00:54:34,896
[intricate string music playing]
65998
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