Original subtitles

Ff of a lifetime:

30 million in untraceable cash,

Hidden in a tiny defenseless california bank.

The tipster?

One of the most notorious mobsters in history.

- Amil: The tipster was jimmy hoffa.

- Narrator: The alleged target?

The most powerful man in the free world.

- Well, I'm not a crook.

- Amil: We knew it was nixon's money.

- Narrator: The crew?

The best bank burglars this country has ever seen.

- They were sitting ducks.

We called them gifts.

- This bank burglary was the most amazing burglary ever.

- Narrator: Hunted by the largest task force assembled

Since the kennedy assassination.

- It makes you wonder.

Could the white house have had some type of leverage?

- Narrator: For the first time on national television,

The real mastermind who planned it.

- I thought it was a clean job.

- Narrator: And the cops who led the nationwide manhunt--

- We're talking about one of the most investigated cases

In the history of the fbi.

- Narrator: --Come together to tell their own stories,

As we follow the money and dissect a near-perfect crime--

- [loud whoosh]

- Narrator: --Plagued by a simple yet fatal flaw.

- They made one gigantic mistake.

- That was my biggest mistake.

I shouldn't have did it.

- And that's what changed everything.

- Narrator: This is "super heists."

- Man: Hey, we speeding on sound two?

- Man #2: Sound speed. - Go again?

- Man: Yeah, yeah, you ready? - Yeah, let's go.

- Man: Start.

- All I can say the fbi is, in our case...They framed us.

It's not that I'm an angel.

I did things, but they didn't do things in the right way.

That's what tees me off.

- Normally, if I was testifying, I'd say,

"not that I recall."

But absolutely not.

Amil alfred dinsio was not framed by the fbi ever.

- ♪

- Narrator: It's Monday morning at the united california bank

In the small town of laguna niguel, california.

- [phone ringing]

- Kelly: Bank manager walks in, just doing

A typical Monday activities.

- Narrator: An essential step upon opening for the day is

Unlocking the bank's main vault.

- He's just looking to go about his day, and dial the

Combinations, turn the handle.

Vault is open.

- [metal banging]

- ♪

- [metal banging]

- It won't budge.

It was stuck.

So they brought out an expert

Who had trouble opening the door.

When he couldn't get into the vault through the door, he went

To the roof to see if the alarm was working.

And that's when he noticed the roof has been breached.

- Narrator: Someone has somehow blasted a hole through the

Concrete ceiling of the vault without alerting anymore.

- The rebar is broken, dust everywhere, safe deposit boxes

Broken open, money, valuables, someone had busted up the place

Like a rock star in a hotel room.

- ♪

- So you start wondering like,

"how could something like this happen?"

- Narrator: The answer to that question lies 2,000 miles east

Of balmy laguna niguel in the hardscrabble city

Of youngstown, ohio.

Home to one of the most notorious bank burglars

This country has ever seen.

- I loved it.

I like money.

Everybody likes money, I guess.

If you don't have it, you're in trouble.

- ♪

- Kelly: Amil dinsio was legendary.

Still is legendary.

And he perfected the art of bank burglary

In a way that nobody else has.

- Amil dinsio had the best bank burglary team in the world.

- The best.

I would say the best.

For what we were doing, we were.

We went after a bank, we got it.

- ♪

- Narrator: Growing up with nothing, a young amil dinsio

Was determined to climb out of poverty any way he could.

- We never had money.

We had kerosene lamps in our house.

We didn't have electric.

We were as poor as poor can get.

- Narrator: Smart and fearless...Amil earns a rep in

Youngstown's criminal underworld as an expert bank burglar.

- Youngstown in that time, you know, the mob had it.

And that's how I met a lot of people.

- Narrator: One afternoon in 1972, dinsio gets a hot tip

About a bank in california through his underworld

Connections.

- The tipster was-was jimmy hoffa.

- Jimmy hoffa, the teamsters' president, who had connections

Anywhere there was a union.

- Narrator: An associate of hoffa's with ties to the

Cleveland mob presents dinsio with the score of a lifetime.

- There's $30 million hidden in a safe deposit box in this

Sleepy little town in southern california called laguna niguel.

- When he says 30 million bucks, ears perk up on that.

That would be a score of a lifetime.

- Narrator: But why would a tiny bank that seldom has more

Than $100,000 in cash on hand have $30 million stashed

In a safe deposit box?

According to dinsio, the answer lives just 15 miles south

In san clemente, california.

Then the home to the western white house.

- This money?

It belonged the president of the united states, richard nixon.

- Amil: The way I understand it was nixon's money.

Where he got it, who he got it from, I don't know.

- Narrator: In the beginning of 1972, nixon was in the middle of

A costly presidential campaign.

And there was supposedly a huge amount of dirty money

Earmarked for his run.

- It's allegedly president nixon's slush fund.

- Stories about tricky dick.

He'd taken all kind of money.

- Nixon would meet with donors, and nixon would say, "if you can

Give me a million dollars, you can give me $2 million."

Nixon would take their extorted campaign contributions and he

Would hide it somewhere and one of those places

Was in laguna niguel, california.

- ♪

- Narrator: Alleged to be one of nixon's biggest donors

Is teamsters president jimmy hoffa.

And hoffa has a bone to pick with mr. Nixon.

- Jimmy hoffa goes to jail because he's a mobster.

He wants a pardon from richard nixon.

In exchange for that pardon, he's going to get the teamsters

To endorse richard nixon.

- And he told me he paid $3 million

To get his sentence commuted.

Nixon commuted it.

- But nixon makes it impossible for hoffa to be the president

Of the teamsters ever again.

So hoffa was pissed off at nixon.

He wanted his $3 million contribution back.

And where was that $3 million?

In a little bank in southern california.

From dinsio's point of view, he's stealing money that

The president stole from somebody else.

It's not a crime.

- Yeah, if you take nixon's money, who's he gonna cry to?

He can't cry to nobody.

"hey, they stole my money.

They stole my money."

He ain't gonna say that.

You know that and I know that.

- Narrator: With an eye on the biggest bank heist in american

History, dinsio assembles his core team, starting with his

Trusted brother, james.

Rounding out the crew are a couple of dinsio's

Closest relatives--

His nephew harry barber, and his brother-in-law chuck mulligan.

- So we had a four-man team, you might say.

- Narrator: But to pull off the nixon job, dinsio would require

The services of a friend from cleveland

Named phil christopher.

- Amil and james, they told me about the score in california.

- I liked phil.

I always thought he was a pretty good guy.

- Amil and james, I felt the vibes, they were just like me.

And they seemed very smart.

- Narrator: Accompanying phil is an accomplished thief with a

Volatile track record named charlie broeckel.

- Charlie broeckel was a good friend of mine.

He was a firecracker.

But I always kept him under control.

- Narrator: With his team assembled and the job details

Outlined, dinsio breaks down the score.

But he doesn't let the outsiders in on the secret.

- I never told them about nixon's money.

Sure, let them make maybe $50-100,000,

Whatever they're gonna get.

The only big money was mr. Nixon's money.

- Narrator: Only amil, james and his brother-in-law, chuck,

Know the real value of the heist.

And after paying off jimmy hoffa and accounting for laundering

Expenses, the three of them stand to see the biggest take

When all is said and done: $8 million apiece.

Even if the score dwarfs anything they've done before,

The job itself is business as usual for the best bank burglary

Team in the country.

- Everything was kind of routine, what we did.

We knew what we needed to do to the job.

- Narrator: Years of experience had taught this crew the exact

Toolkit needed for the job.

- They needed torches, they needed wiring.

They needed explosives.

- Narrator: And you need a way to get them to california.

- I made good arrangement for that.

Girlfriend.

- Narrator: Next, the crew hops a flight to lax.

- ♪

- Narrator: When they arrive in l.A., they hunker down

In a seedy motel, where they search for the perfect heist

Headquarters within close proximity to their target.

- They ended up in this very nice condo

On a golf course.

- Amil: My nephew, he rented it for us.

- The condo from the bank, I would say it was probably good

About a half a mile.

- In fact, in 1972, you could see the roof of the bank

From the condo where they stayed.

- Beautiful area for a burglar.

[laughs]

- Narrator: Having secured the ideal location to set up home

Base, dinsio and his crew begin the final stage of preparation.

- Amil dinsio buys a 1962 oldsmobile.

He was attracted to the car

Because of the size of the trunk.

- It had the deep well where you could have the spare tire.

We took the spare tire out, so it was kind of like

A stash place for tools.

- Narrator: With the car registered under a bogus name

And the tools safely stored, dinsio's investment is complete.

- [cash register dings]

- They needed thousands of dollars in preparation

For this crime.

But if you spend a couple thousand dollars to set up the

Heist, you know that the payoff is gonna be so massive

That it's worth it.

- [dogs barking]

- ♪

- Week before the crime, they're watching

The comings and goings of this bank.

- How the bank sets.

If anybody lives close by.

- We watched it, and we just said, "no police ever drive

Around there at all."

And there was a good escape route out of there.

- It had a audible alarm hanging outside like.

You gotta know what you need to beat the alarm.

- Narrator: After casing the bank, dinsio realizes that this

Tiny branch is virtually defenseless

To a burglar of his talent.

Since ucb is a part of a strip mall, the trickiest variable

Isn't the bank itself.

It's the building surrounding it.

After disabling the bank's exterior alarm, they will need

To stealthily drill into the roof of the bank and explode

Through the reinforced concrete before busting open

The locked safe deposit boxes.

All without alerting anyone nearby.

A tall task.

But one dinsio feels his team is well-equipped to handle.

- It was a perfect setup, in a way.

And it was a sitting duck.

- This heist, piece of cake.

- [loud whoosh]

- Narrator: But even the most well-conceived heists

Don't always account for everything.

- Chuck says, "car pulling up, parking in front."

- He's walking to the door. "whoa, whoa."

- ♪

- Narrator: After months of intense planning, amil dinsio

And his crew are finally ready to pull off

The heist of a lifetime at the laguna niguel branch

Of the united california bank.

Dinsio's target?

Richard nixon's rumored slush fund valued at $30 million.

- Had to wait for the drugstore to close,

'cause it's right next to the bank.

Backed it straight up against the vault.

So we had to be careful.

- If you're not, you're gonna get caught,

And you're gonna go to jail.

- Narrator: The last thing dinsio wants to do is draw

Attention from local cops in the area.

- Amil: We had the police scanner set up and everything.

The guy outside is your eyes really.

- Narrator: The crew quietly sets up a ladder

Stolen from a nearby church.

- James and amil go to the roof.

Phil christopher stands guard with the shotgun.

The rest of them start to fill up burlap bags full of dirt from

The garden, because that's what they're gonna use to muffle

The sound of the explosion.

- Amil: We hoisted the bags of dirt up.

And then we pulled the tools up from down on the ground.

- Narrator: After their tools are smoothly transferred to the

Roof, the dinsio brothers turn their attention to job

Number one: Disabling the bank's alarm system.

- The only thing protects a bank is the alarm system.

That's all.

- Narrator: They start with the exterior alarm.

- So one of them dangled over the side of the building and

Sprayed liquid styrofoam into that alarm.

- It expands and it solidifies anything mechanical in there.

- It would harden, and the clapper couldn't clap.

- And that takes care of that alarm.

- Narrator: The dinsio brothers are now ready to make their way

Into the bank.

But they won't be using a door.

- [drill hums]

- We cut the hole in the roof, right above the door.

We put the tools on top of the vault, and we put

All the sand bags on top of the vault, too.

- Narrator: Next, the master thieves follow suit.

- They lower themselves onto the roof of the vault.

- Gotta be real quiet, because you make too much noise,

The sensors in the vault would set that alarm off.

- Narrator: After breeching the bank's first line of defense,

Dinsio now needs to disable its second.

- And I went and took care of that interior alarm.

- Narrator: Amil cuts the two wires in the telephone junction

Box hooked up to the alarm system, ultimately severing

The direct line between the bank and the laguna niguel

Sheriff department.

- It really wasn't a good alarm.

Really cheap.

No good for a bank, that's for sure.

- Narrator: With both the exterior and interior alarms

Disabled, dinsio can now set his sights on the ultimate prize.

- You're free to attack the vault then,

And that's what we do.

- The vulnerable part of this reinforced vault

Was its ceiling.

And amil dinsio was smart enough to pick that out.

- We went to work drilling the holes.

Drilled the first hole through to see how thick it was.

It was 18 inches thick.

Then, put five holes.

One in the middle, boom, boom, five all together.

- They place dynamite in each of the holes.

- Dynamite like the size of a chicken egg, 60% nitroglycerin.

- Narrator: They pile sandbags on top of the dynamite to stifle

The sound of the explosion.

But nitroglycerin is highly unstable,

And there's no guarantee things will go according to plan.

- ♪

- James is in place.

Amil's in place.

This is the moment of truth.

- Shoot the juice.

- [explosion]

- Boom.

- They got lucky they didn't get killed.

- Narrator: The crew outside the bank waits to see if the

Explosion has attracted any unwanted attention.

- They're monitoring the police, and nobody comes.

- In fact, chuck called and he says, "was that it?"

And I said, "that was it.

No more talk, we got work to do."

- ♪

- We cut the rebars out with a acetylene torch.

And I went down in and I turned the light on.

And the whole wall, you could see it

Just pretty with safety boxes.

- It must have looked like fort knox to them,

Like this is gonna be the promised land.

- Narrator: The next order of business is to find a way into

The safe deposit boxes.

- They devised a hammer that had a spiked end on it.

- It's made like a sledge.

One guy holds it to a lock, the other guy

With a 20-pound sledge, just one hit.

- [metal dinging]

- You'd pull the door right open.

- Narrator: But dinsio isn't busting open boxes at random.

He's after a few in particular.

- We had the box number for nixon's boxes.

And that's the ones we took out first.

When we open the lid, it was lines of money

Front to the back with $100 bills.

- Narrator: Dinsio estimates it's only about 2 million bucks.

But there's one more box that allegedly

Belongs to the president.

- You open the lid, there's white envelopes in there.

You could feel the envelopes, you could tell there's cash.

And when you pull it open, you could see thousand dollars bills

And 500s.

It was nixon's money, no question about it.

Nobody else would save money like that.

- Narrator: But dinsio was running

Into a potential problem.

The sun is on its way up.

And there are hundreds of safe deposit boxes

Still ripe for the taking.

- So we have 500 safe deposit boxes.

And we have one night?

No. We have to do this over multiple nights.

- The bank closed on saturdays and sundays.

So we had the whole weekend.

- Narrator: In order to ensure a safe return over the weekend,

Dinsio lays the cut piece of plywood over the hole

In the bank's roof and lines it up with tar.

From the rented condo, they spend Saturday afternoon keeping

Watch over the roof to make sure they haven't been found out.

- ♪

- Narrator: On night two, dinsio brings additional

Manpower down inside the vault to crack open as many

Safe deposit boxes as possible.

- We climbed down inside the vault.

And it was time to get to work, you know?

- ♪

- [metal dings] - one hit, it's open.

Next one, go down the line.

We'd bust open 25, 30 at a time.

You wanna dump that stuff, bam, into the bag.

- ♪

- It's an awesome feeling.

- ♪

- You get excited what's coming out of each box.

It's like robbing everybody at one time.

- ♪

- Narrator: As dinsio and his crew plunder the vault,

An unexpected surprise suddenly puts

Their entire operation in jeopardy.

- We got a call on the radio.

- [indistinct police radio chatter]

- Chuck says, "car pulling up.

Car pulling up, parking in front."

- He's walking to the door.

You know.

[laughs]

- ♪

- Cleaning crew came in.

They made an unscheduled stop.

I says, "set still, set still, they don't know we're in here."

- ♪

- But don't you know, my partner, charlie--

- [coughs]

- --He coughs.

- ♪

- We looked at him, and we were horrified.

- Yeah, that was--that was pretty close there.

- Should have left him at home.

[laughs]

- Narrator: In the wee hours of Monday morning, having emptied

458 of the 500 safe deposit boxes,

The crew was ready to exit the vault.

But not before dinsio delivers a coup de gras to the vault door.

- There's three precision time clocks in there.

- Dave: When the time runs down on one or more of the movements,

And the vault door will open.

If they ended up jamming time lock movements,

It would not open.

- And I took the hammer, and I just smashed each one of 'em.

- [metal dinging]

- They're not gonna get it open.

I wasn't worried one bit.

[laughs]

- ♪

- Overconfidence got into their minds.

And when you start feeling that way,

That's when you be discoverable.

- ♪

- Narrator: March 1972.

Police have been called to the scene of possibly

The greatest bank burglary in american history.

Someone's cleaned out the vault at the united california bank in

Laguna niguel.

Investigators have no clue as to why this modest branch

Would be the target of such a high-level crime.

- This case fell under the jurisdiction

Of the orange county sheriffs.

But when they saw how big the heist was, they knew they were

Out of their league, so they had to call in the fbi.

- ♪

- Man: Nixon job, a mark.

- By the way, it's not the nixon job.

[laughs] paul chamberlain.

I was special agent with the fbi and the case agent responsible

For the overall investigation.

But I'm not the only one doing what I'm doing.

- Want me to look like a marine.

- Man: [laughs]

- There you go, sir.

Francis a. Calley,

Better known as frank calley.

I was a special agent in the fbi in santa ana, california.

I loved working burglaries, robberies, just loved it.

- Frank calley was a hard-edged fbi agent.

He was a tough guy.

- My nickname in the bureau was yosemite sam.

- ♪

- I did not know him as yosemite sam.

But I could see how it fits.

- I like to get things done, get 'em done fast

And don't take no for an answer.

- ♪

- L.A. Is known as

The bank robbery capital of the world.

- We had bank robberies happening every couple of hours.

- Guy walks in with a gun and says, "give me all your money."

That was the normal thing.

- Narrator: But bank burglaries typically occur

In the dead of night when no one's around.

- Bank burglaries were relatively unheard of.

And if they did in fact occur, they were incredibly small

And barely worthy of note.

This bank burglary was the most amazing burglary ever.

- ♪

- I had not seen this before.

- Inside the vault was a scene of utter destruction.

The most amazing thing was the number of safety deposit boxes

That had been busted open.

- We spent the better part of that day just looking at it

And saying, "woe is me." [laughs]

"where do we go from here?"

- The hard part was trying to identify what was gone.

- When we landed, almost 500 boxes had been popped open.

We came to realize that the loss would be very significant.

My assumption at least, what is multiple of millions.

It could have been a lot more.

- Narrator: Whatever money was inside the united california

Bank of laguna niguel is now gone.

While a forensics team sifts through the pile of rubble in

The vault, agent calley heads outside to scan the exterior of

The bank for clues.

- [indistinct police radio chatter]

- The meantime, we looked around on the bank premises.

- ♪

- Frank: We found--

- Paul: --A long ladder going from the ground

To the roof of the bank.

- Frank: We saw where there was an audible alarm system

Which had neutralized.

Somebody had put styrofoam on the alarm, so if it was

Activated, it couldn't make any noise.

The clanger couldn't be clanged by the gong.

- Which was unheard of at that time.

- Exterior alarm had been beaten.

The interior alarm had been beaten.

- They bypassed all of those features,

And added some twists that we hadn't seen.

They were very different from our breed of criminal

Here in los angles.

- We knew immediately they weren't from the l.A. Area.

- Narrator: This was obviously no ordinary bank heist.

And in response, the fbi assigns a staggering

125 agents to investigate.

- This was probably one of the most investigated cases

In the history of the fbi.

- Narrator: Could this bank burglary be commanding the

Attention of the top players in us law enforcement?

- It just makes you wonder, "could the white house have had

Some type of leverage?"

- Narrator: Renowned bank burglar amil dinsio and his crew

Of professionals have blown a hole through the vault

Of the united california bank in laguna niguel.

While the fbi marvels at the destructively spectacular

Heist...

Dinsio and his team begin the meticulous process

Of covering their tracks.

- We're pretty careful with stuff like that.

- After every score, there was never no fingerprints.

- They cleaned the ceiling.

That's how detailed they were.

They wanted to make sure there was no trace of human existence

In that condominium.

- Narrator: 36 hours after the heist, dinsio and his crew leave

Laguna niguel in their rearview.

When it comes to the final tally of the loot, it isn't quite

$30 million, but it's still a significant take.

- Amil: Didn't get as much as we thought we'd get.

Twelve million dollars of nixon's money,

And about $800,000 out of safety deposit boxes.

- Most of the money went to las vegas to be laundered

By hoffa's connections in organized crime.

- Narrator: In the '40s, east coast mobsters took their money

West and built casinos with the sole purpose

Of hiding their ill-gotten gains.

And in the '60s and '70s, vegas became a hub for well-connected

Criminals to wash their dirty money.

The process was simple.

The criminals would convert their dirty money to chips,

Gamble away their agreed cut to the casino, and then convert

The remaining chips back into clean cash.

The casino claims the dirty money as earnings

Against a paying customer.

Everybody wins.

Dinsio and the casino agree to a cut of $450,000--

About 3.5% of the final take.

- I thought it was a clean job.

Clean job.

We weren't concerned about the fbi.

We just didn't leave nothing for the fbi to come after us with.

- Narrator: Without a trace of solid evidence left inside the

Vault, the fbi's investigation into the united california bank

Job is going nowhere fast.

- At the time, we didn't really know what we had here,

Because bank burglary was unknown.

Mere days into the investigation,

An unprecedented decision is made.

- Within a couple of days,

125 agents were assigned to the case.

- It was the most significant burglary in the country

At the time.

- Chamberlain said he didn't believe 125 agents had ever been

Assigned to a case, except once,

And that was the kennedy assassination.

- If you take nixon's money, who's he gonna cry to?

He can only cry to the fbi.

- ♪

- It just makes you wonder, "could the white house have had

Some type of leverage?"

- Narrator: Dinsio certainly believes that to be the case.

- We did other bank vaults.

Did they put 125 agents on that?

Come on.

- No, I would not have known about it if it was handled

At the highest level.

- Narrator: Regardless of whether or not president nixon

Is calling the shots, the pressure is on the fbi

To make an arrest.

So they bank on the idea that a burglary this ingenious could

Have a signature that fellow agents around the country

Might recognize.

- Frank: Gave 'em our m.O. And we sent it out,

"do you have any suspects or any informants

"that might be able to help solve this case,

Please let the fbi office in l.A. Know about it."

- Narrator: Weeks go by,

The investigation seems dead in the water.

Until one afternoon nearly two months after the heist.

- We heard back from our cleveland fbi office.

- And that's what changed everything.

- Narrator: Eight weeks into investigating the most

Sophisticated bank burglary they have ever seen, fbi agents

Discover that the genius of the crime itself is what makes

The thieves vulnerable,

When an agent across the country recognizes a familiar m.O.

- The cleveland fbi office subsequently came back

And said, "hey."

- They've had a burglary at a bank in lordstown, ohio.

- They had a similar thing.

Somebody had put styrofoam on the audible alarms.

- We've got entry involving explosives.

We got cutting the rebar.

We've got some boxes popped.

It's identical to ours.

Or at least very similar.

- Narrator: With bank burglaries being more common in

The midwest, the cleveland fbi office has more than a few

Possible suspects in mind.

- The cleveland office thereafter

Furnished us the names

Of up to 100 individuals, coalition of bad guys, who had

Specific expertise in dynamite and some with alarms

And some with bypassing systems.

And that's when we first realized we're getting close

To something.

- And so we checked with the airlines around this time and

Before to see if any of these people had flown

Into the l.A. Area.

- And what does he do?

He comes up with the name amil dinsio on one of those flights.

- I'd never heard the name before.

- The people in cleveland knew the name amil dinsio.

They'd been chasing him for years,

But they couldn't catch him.

- Amil was almost like a popular folk hero in his

Community, well-known to be beyond the law

And arrogant as hell.

- Narrator: Other names on the flight manifest to lax include

James dinsio, chuck mulligan, phil christopher,

Charlie broeckel, and harry barber.

- They were so sure that nobody would be chasing them,

That they used their real names.

- I definitely think it's a game between amil dinsio

And the fbi.

"can you catch me?

How long can I get away with it?"

- After that point, well, we figured they had to get from lax

To some place.

- So they started to ask all the taxi drivers

If they recognized pictures of the dinsio gang.

And one guy remembered amil dinsio.

- The guy said, "well, yeah, a bunch of these guys scared

The hell out of me, and then they tipped me $100."

Very unforgettable.

- I'm a good-hearted guy.

You might not think so, but I am.

- Narrator: A hint of generosity and a crisp $100 bill

Is all it takes to get fbi agents hot on dinsio's trail.

Now, investigators focus their efforts on finding where dinsio

And his crew laid their heads during the heist.

- Thought they were probably high rollers.

We figured that they would have gone into a good ritzy hotel.

- So he's going to all the five-star hotels

Showing pictures of the dinsio gang.

What he didn't realize was that they aren't five-star guys.

- We changed manpower.

And second time around, we found a motel.

- Fleabag hotel in a place called cudahy.

- Called the jubilee inn.

Mr. Mulligan checked in using his true identity.

- They were flawless at the bank job, but they made a number

Of mistakes prior to that.

- We obtained the telephone records of the calls that were

Made from that room during the period that the suspects

Were there.

- One of the calls mulligan made was to a guy named

Earl dawson in tustin, california.

- Earl dawson is from youngstown, ohio.

- He had a relationship with mulligan

From when they were younger.

- Narrator: Agent calley wastes little time

Making the 20-mile trek north to pay mr. Dawson a visit.

- ♪

- Earl dawson was a ruddy, red-faced marine.

And calley appealed to him as marine to marine.

- So we started asking questions, and he told us he's

Good friends of mulligan.

And through mulligan, he met the dinsios, and that they had come

Out twice to his house in tustin.

- Earl dawson said he didn't know anything about this heist.

All he knew was that his buddy wanted to store a car

In his garage.

- That was my decision to just take it and park it for now.

We'll come back later and destroy it, you know?

Thought it was safe.

- They made stupid mistakes that are consistent

With being arrogant.

- He looked through the windows into the car, I could see what

Appeared to be evidence--the concrete dust in the back.

So I called chamberlain and I told them, "hey, start getting

A search warrant for that car."

- So calley gets the search warrant, and they pop the trunk.

And it's all sitting right in front of them.

- In that false bottom trunk, there was shotguns, there was

Some drills in there, there was pepper spray, there was masks.

- Dust again from the vault of the bank.

- There was a snot-nose hammer that popped the 500

Safety deposit boxes.

- They found a flashlight whose batteries had amil dinsio's

Fingerprints on them.

- That vehicle was the goldmine.

- Narrator: The agents now have the tools, but they need

To uncover dinsio's hideout in order to further connect

He and his cohorts to the crime.

- In addition to the phone call from chuck mulligan's motel room

To dawson, there's another phone call that went

To a real estate broker in the laguna niguel area.

- ♪

- Condominium on the west 9 was rented by one of the suspects

By the name of barber.

- Narrator: Since barber had paid to rent the condo

For three months, nobody has been inside for weeks.

- They go there, and the place is spotless.

- And it appeared that the entire condo has been wiped down

With zero physical evidence left behind.

Zero.

- We had probably as good a crime scene investigator that

I've ever seen, and he couldn't come up with anything.

Except they made one gigantic mistake.

- This was an unforgivable error.

- And that was the beginning of the end for the bad guys.

- Narrator: After running in circles for months, fbi

Investigators are finally closing in on mastermind

Amil dinsio and his band of thieves.

- The fbi finds the condo where the dinsio gang stayed.

- We had our forensic team go to the condo.

- You could tell there was like an oily film.

It had been wiped pretty clean.

- But one of them notices the dishwasher.

They open the dishwasher, and there are dishes inside.

- And it was our conjecture that the dishwasher,

Although loaded, had never been turned on.

- ♪

- We were able to develop fingerprints on the dishes.

- ♪

- That's bingo.

- Narrator: After the fingerprints are analyzed

And compared against dinsio and his crew,

Arrests are imminent.

- Well, I was sleeping in bed when I heard a ruckus

Downstairs.

Then I see couple guys in suits look up the steps

And I hear him say, "there he is."

So...

- June 27, when I got arrested, I left the house in the morning.

- [siren wails]

- Pretty soon, they come from side streets to lights flashing.

- [siren wailing]

- Guns all out.

- ♪

- "amil dinsio, you're under arrest."

Don't say [bleep].

- During the search warrant at amil's house, thousands and

Thousands of dollars from the lordstown job was found

Just hidden in random locations in his garage.

We recovered a lot of valuable [unintelligible] instruments and

Cash in a nearby field and stuff stored everywhere.

- Narrator: Submitting to the same fate is amil's brother,

James, and his brother-in-law chuck.

But as each member of the gang is picked up, one in particular

Decides to cooperate.

- Charlie broeckel eventually turns state's evidence

And testified against the dinsios.

- Narrator: Charlie broeckel was never charged

In connection to the heist.

- My biggest mistake was taking charlie broeckel to california.

Biggest mistake.

- Narrator: Since james dinsio's fingerprints were never

Recovered in the oldsmobile, he gets 15 years for larceny and

Conspiracy, while amil dinsio, chuck mulligan,

Phil christopher, and harry barber all get 20

For conspiracy and bank burglary.

- People have gotta know whether or not their president's

A crook.

- Narrator: As for richard nixon, well, he found himself

In hot water of his own soon after the ucb heist.

- Well, I'm not a crook.

I've earned everything I've got.

- Narrator: Although nixon's crooked dealings are well

Documented, what remains up for debate is whether his rumored

Slush fund was truly housed in the vault

Of the united california bank in laguna niguel.

- ♪

- I think he kind of looked back and figured out, "I'll just

Say something about nixon's money being in the bank."

There's absolutely no chance whatsoever that nixon's money

Was in that bank.

- That's what you wanna believe, you believe it.

It don't matter to me.

I know what I got.

- ♪

- Narrator: While dinsio proudly admits to masterminding

The ucb heist, he insists he was too good to be caught, and even

Wrote a book claiming that the fbi had to plant evidence

In order to seal his fate.

- [laughing] oh.

- Narrator: Dinsio's conviction stems largely from

The fingerprint evidence found on the flashlight batteries

In the oldsmobile.

Evidence amil dinsio heavily disputes.

- They framed us.

No question about it.

They framed us.

Fbi agents went in my garage, took stuff to get this

Fingerprint right here on my right thumb on a battery.

Put those batteries in a flashlight, planted it

In the car in california, which then tied me to the car.

That's how they did that.

- Amil is out to lunch, that comment.

The fbi had nothing to do with planting evidence that led

To his conviction for anything.

- It's not that I'm an angel.

We rob banks.

We made money robbing banks.

And it took the fbi to do some underhanded stuff to get to us.

That's what tees me off.

- As a bank burglar, he was tops.

Best I've been across.

At the end of the day, we were better.

The fbi was better.

- Come on, no way. [laughs]

They put us in jail at the end of the day.

But the only thing they were better at?

Burglarizing my house and making false search warrant,

No question about it.

But like walter cronkite said, "that's the way it is."