“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 142

One thing that I love is a good caper.

Well, I do like capers. But what I really meant was “capers”. You know, heists. Daring robberies. That sort of thing.

Something called “Wonder” has been popping up in my recommendations. I’m a little hesitant about posting much from them, but these are fairly short and part of what appears to be the same series: “Daring Capers”.

The first one is the one that I really wanted to post, for reasons: the December 11, 1978 Lufthansa heist.

You remember the Lufthansa heist, don’t you? Jimmy Burke Jimmy Conway, Paul Vario Paulie Cicero, those guys, those Goodfellas?

I thought this was an interesting supplement, if you will.

Bonus: the January 2, 1972 Pierre Hotel robbery.

This robbery would later be listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest, most successful hotel robbery in history.

I chose this one because I’ve read Ira Berkow’s book about the Pierre, which tells the story mostly from Bobby Comfort‘s point of view. I note that the paper of record says $3 million, while the series claims $10 million. The $3 million figure is supported (to the extent anything can be supported) by Wikipedia. But as I recall, there are some questions about whether the robbery victims reported everything they lost: for example, stashes of untaxed cash.

One more: the July 16, 1976 robbery of the Société Générale bank in Nice.

Tunnel heists are awesome. Also, Lawrence gave me a much appreciated copy of The Gentlemen of 16 July for Christmas one year.

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