A Brief History
On May 9, 1671, Anglo-Irish Thomas Blood dressed up as a parson and attempted to steal the Crown Jewels of England. A scoundrel in multiple ways, Blood convinced King Charles II to grant him a pardon! The nerve required to try such a bold heist is incredible, especially since death would have been the expected punishment. Today, we list 10 of the most ridiculously daring heists in history, some successful, and some not so successful.
Digging Deeper
1. Theft of Crown Jewels, Tower of London, 1671.
As introduced above, Mr. Blood had the audacity to try the brazen theft of the English Crown Jewels right from the Tower of London. He and his henchmen were armed with canes and rapiers (light swords) under their cloaks, so it can be assumed they meant business. Professing a desire to view the jewels, a display open to the public for the payment of a fee, Blood and a female accomplice posing as his wife paid their admittance and the woman created a distraction by pretending to get violently ill. So far, the ruse was just the beginning of the long plan, which was to ingratiate himself with the 77 year old custodian of the Jewels. As Blood and his “wife” became friendly with the old man and visited several times, until one day Blood came with 3 other men to “see the Jewels.” These were the accomplices armed with guns, canes and rapiers. The robbers clobbered the old man with a mallet, bound and gagged him, and proceeded to abscond with the loot. Major pieces were hidden under the cloaks of the thieves, including the St. Edward Crown which had to be flattened with the mallet in order to hide within the robber’s cloak! The son of the custodian happened upon the robbery in progress and sounded the alarm, while the robbers fled to their horses, dropping the Royal Sceptre on the way and shooting at their pursuers. The brazen gang was captured and the accomplices were not punished. Blood demanded to see the King personally, which Charles II agreed to and subsequently pardoned the bold criminal! In fact, Blood had previously plotted the murder of his rival, the Duke of Ormonde, who was justifiably angry and aghast at the leniency shown to Blood. But wait, it gets even weirder! Blood, who at times supported both the Royalists (Cavaliers) and the anti-monarchists (Roundheads) in the Revolution, and admitted having plotted to murder the King, was granted land in Ireland and an annual stipend! Why Charles II acted in this manner is unknown.
2. French Blue Diamond, 1791.
During the pandemonium of the French Revolution, someone managed to steal the massive (115 carat) blue diamond known as the French Blue, originally Tavernier Blue, also known as the Blue Diamond of the French Crown. As perhaps the most valuable gem in the French Crown Jewels, the theft would certainly have gotten the thief killed in that time of summary executions. The original diamond, an incredibly rare virtually perfect blue diamond (IIb variety) was mined in India in 1666 and sold to the French King Louis XIV in 1668. The diamond was cut into the 68 carat French Blue and was set in gold, worn about the neck of the King hung by a ribbon. Later the diamond was reset in a pendant and worn by Queen Marie Antoinette. It was in this form when stolen. The unknown thief had the diamond cut again to conceal its origin, the largest part becoming what we call the Hope Diamond. A gang of thieves used the cover of the Revolution to raid the Royal places and steal many of the Crown Jewels, some of which were recovered. It is believed the French Blue made its way to London where it was recut to hide its identity. Although long believed to be the remnant of the French Blue, the Hope Diamond was not scientifically authenticated as being the French Blue until 2005. In the Hope Diamond form, the gem developed a reputation as being cursed, though the real history is not that dreadful. The Hope Diamond is on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The estimated value of the Hope Diamond is currently around $250 million. What the value of the French Blue would be today is mind boggling, making the theft of that gem alone probably the largest jewel heist in history.
3. Lufthansa Heist, 1978.
The largest theft of cash in the United States at the time, the take netted the thieves $5 million in cash and $875,000 in gems, a total of well over $20 million in today’s dollars. The subject of 2 made for television movies and the basis for the movie, Goodfellas, the bold crime has resulted in some arrests, but suspected ringleader Jimmy Burke has never been arrested for the crime. The decades long investigation is continuing, and most recently resulted in an arrest in 2014. Burke, an associate of the Lucchese crime family allegedly plotted the heist of untraceable US currency that was regularly transported by airplanes to Kennedy Airport in New York from money exchanges in Germany used by American military personnel. The elaborate plan included armed men in a van driven up to the vault at the airport where the robbers pistol whipped the money handlers and personnel at the ramp, securing them with handcuffs, in some cases taking the victims’ wallets and threatening to come after their families if the victims became witnesses. The robbers knew the names of the terrified employees, further establishing the threat against testimony against the gang. The employees were warned not to call the cops until at least 15 minutes had passed after the robbers left. This warning was obeyed. A “crash car” was detailed to interfere with any police effort to chase the getaway van, but the robbers got away clean. The robbery took 64 minutes, vehicle changes and license plate changes ensured an escape. Burke and the gang were stunned to find their haul to be about triple the expected take. Tribute payments were made to appropriate crime bosses for “permitting” the robbery. The robber tasked with taking the getaway van to be compacted at a junkyard instead drove to his girlfriend’s place, parked in a no parking zone and got high. The van was discovered and quickly linked to the robbery, with the driver’s fingerprints on the steering wheel. The prints led to the arrest of Parnell Edwards and of course his known associates became instant suspects. Nervous robbers ended up killing several of their own members as panic ensued over who would cooperate with authorities, starting with Edwards. Nine of them were murdered, probably under the direction of ringleader/mastermind Burke. Another 5 of the robbers died violently from 1979 to 1987 unrelated to the crime. Jimmy Burke died in prison, incarcerated due to unrelated crimes. Other members died in prison or entered the Witness Protection Program after testifying against their gang mates.
4. American Museum of Natural History (New York), 1964.
In a heist that would be right at home on the movie screen, two Miami based beach bums went to New York to pull off a monster heist of gems from the JP Morgan Hall of Gems and Minerals at the American Museum of Natural History. Alan Kuhn and Jack “Murf the Surf” Murphy climbed a fire escape and swung from a rope to a window, which they opened with their feet! The duct taped the glass display cases and used a glass cutter to get at the gems, including the Star of India sapphire, at 563 carats the largest in the world. Also taken were notable gems such as the world’s most perfect ruby, the DeLong Star Ruby (over 100 carats), and the world’s largest black sapphire, the Midnight Star (116 carats), along with other high value gems, while other lesser gems were ignored. The pair exited the museum and took separate cabs to get away. A third member of the crew was a lookout and driver, Roger Clark. Incredibly, the museum’s windows were left partly open for ventilation overnight, and none of the windows were alarmed. Although the display cases had alarms, the batteries powering the alarms were long dead! The routine of keeping a security guard in the room with the precious gems had been discontinued as well. The gang was tripped up by their penchant for living large and bragging, which led to their arrests. An unbelievable chain of slapstick legal events followed, with botched investigations, low bond and brazen attitude of defendants. Murphy and Kuhn ended up charged with an unrelated 1964 jewel robbery of actress Eva Gabor, whom they had pistol whipped during that robbery. In 1965, the three burglars were finally convicted of the museum heist and sentenced to 3 years in prison. The burglars continued their lives of crime, and eventually Murphy ended up with 2 life sentences for murders he committed. Murphy was paroled in 1986, and when he asked for clemency to have his citizen rights restored in 2012, Florida Governor Rick Scott moronically agreed, but since 2 other cabinet votes could not be obtained the clemency was not granted. Movies and books have been made about the famous heist, and the name of Murf the Surf has become famous. The main gems stolen in the heist are back on display at the museum.
5. Great Train Robbery, 1963.
A gang of 15 robbers plus a retired train driver pulled off a daring and meticulously planned robbery of the Royal Mail Train on its way from Glasgow to London, stopping the train at a railway bridge in Buckinghamshire. Although unarmed, the gang beat the train’s engineer badly enough to end his career. The train with its cargo of mail and 72 postal employees on board working to sort the mail was stopped using inside information about train procedures and signals provided by rail employees and another criminal gang with experience in robbing trains. Under the leadership of Bruce Reynolds, the main target of the gang was the High Value Packages (HVP) car, normally with a cargo worth around £300,000, but on this day carrying a larger value load due to a bank holiday. The take from the heist was about £3 million, or in today’s dollars about $70 million. Prior to the robbery, in 1960 the British government had implemented anti-robbery features such as barred windows and alarms on some of its HVP mail coaches, but those particular cars were not in service at the time of the robbery. (The HVP car from the robbery was later burned under police supervision to prevent souvenir taking.) Upon sighting the red ‘stop’ signal displayed by the robbers, the train was stopped and when a crewman checked the trackside telephone to call about the stoppage, he found the phone lines were cut. (Clue!) The plan was to have the gang’s train driver move the train to a waiting getaway truck where the loot would be unloaded, but it turned out the driver was unfamiliar with that particular locomotive. The gang assaulted the train armed only with “coshes,” a sort of club or sap, but as no armed guards were present that force was sufficient to subdue the crew and mail handlers. The getaway truck was loaded with 120 of the 128 mailbags from the HVP car and the gang made their escape. The gang met up at a farmhouse to split the loot into 16 shares of about $4 million apiece (today’s dollar value) with smaller splits to pay others who had assisted in planning and preparation of the robbery. All but five of the robbers were eventually captured, but not all the money was recovered. In a moment of chutzpah, the robbers played Monopoly with real money from the robber while in the farmhouse! Items from that game were later sold at auction in 2015. Gang leader Reynolds fled to Mexico with his wife, later moving to Canada when his money ran out, then on to France and finally back to the UK to pursue more criminal enterprises. He was arrested in 1968 and sentenced to 25 years in jail, though he served only 10 years. He continued his life of crime, but also worked as a consultant on crime movies and wrote an autobiography. He died at the age of 81 in 2013. Trivia note: Reynolds was a member of a band (Alabama 3) in Mexico that recorded the song used in the opening credits to the HBO series, The Sopranos (“Woke Up This Morning”). The legendary robbery has been the subject of books and movies.
6. Carlton Hotel (Cannes) Robbery, 1994.
This armed robbery netted about $136 million in gems and luxury watches from a display put on by an Israeli billionaire at the Carlton Hotel in Cannes, France (the setting of the 1955 Hitchcock film, To Catch a Thief). Incredibly, the understaffed guard force was unarmed. The thief entered through sliding French doors that may have been forced or negligently left open, and brandishing a semi-automatic pistol took his loot and fled. The robbery closely followed two other jewel heists in the Cannes area, possibly by the same robber. Authorities did not identify the thief, but believe he was not acting alone, though only he was at the scene. A criminal gang called The Pink Panthers was suspected of involvement, as was Milan Poparic, one of their members, but no charges have been brought. A reward of about $2 million has been offered. The Carlton Cannes heist remains the biggest heist in French history, and is among the largest heists of all time.
7. Iraq War Pallets of US Currency, 2004.
In the wake of the idiotic decision to invade Iraq in 2003, the US Government made an even dumber decision, which was to ship pallets of shrink wrapped $100 bills and not keep track of the money. We are talking 363 tons of $100 bills! About $12 to $14 billion worth, of which, a disputed amount has disappeared with no accountability. Another $5 billion was wired electronically. Amounts vary with the source, but there is a good chance as much as $8 billion was simply stolen, some of it by taking the entire pallet of money. Odds of recovery, zero. Stuart Bowen, Jr., a friend of George W. Bush, was assigned to investigate the path the money took, and he did find $1.6 billion in a bunker in Lebanon. Of course, we do not know how it got there! Perhaps half the money has been sort of accounted for, but no Americans have been held into account for the massive losses. Since the money was intended to fund the US installed Iraqi government and was in a manner of speaking Iraqi money, there does not seem to be much urgency about locating the money and discovering what happened to it, or who is responsible. Mr. Bowen has been tight lipped about his investigation. Unsubstantiated reports of entire pallets simply removed by forklift make for a pretty audacious heist.
8. Victor Belenko Steals MiG-25, 1976.
A lieutenant and pilot with the Soviet Air Force, Belenko was of Ukrainian nationality and was the pilot of a MiG-25 Foxbat, the most advanced fighter jet in the Soviet Union at the time. In fact, the Foxbat was the fastest fighter plane in the world and has not been beaten in raw speed yet by a combat aircraft. (The US SR-71 was faster but was an unarmed reconnaissance airplane.) One day in 1976 Belenko risked his life by flying his jet from Russia to Japan, risking not only being shot down by his Soviet comrades but also by the Japanese and American air defense forces in Japan. Belenko was granted asylum in the US, and his jet was extensively tested and diagrammed by American intelligence and engineers, a treasure trove of intelligence information, including the operator’s manual for the MiG-25. Surprisingly, the Soviets never assassinated Belenko (as they and their Russian heirs have with other defectors, as recently as 2018!) who became an aerospace engineer in the US. Belenko is now 71 years old, and in 1995 visited Russia on business. Sadly, he had left behind a wife and son, and once in the US he married an American despite never obtaining a divorce from his Soviet wife.
9. Theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre, 1911.
Perhaps the most famous and valuable painting in the world, the Mona Lisa painted by Leonardo da Vinci was originally sold to King Francis I of France in 1516, and then placed in the famous Louvre museum during the French Revolution. Napoleon Bonaparte took the painting to hang in his own quarters during his reign, and the painting of the enigmatic woman was returned to the Louvre upon his abdication. Then one day in August of 1911, it was noticed the picture was missing from the wall where it had been hanging! With no real clues as to who had stolen the painting or exactly when, authorities questioned a well known playwright and famous artist Pablo Picasso as well. Obviously, no evidence existed against these men and no charges were forthcoming. It turned out the theft was engineered by an Italian petty thief who had disguised himself in the white smock of museum employees, and then hid in the museum until closing time. The next day when the museum reopened, the thief walked out the front door with the painting concealed under his smock. The daring but unsophisticated thief tried to become an Italian hero by returning the painting to Italy (he mistakenly thought Napoleon had stolen it) 2 years later, seeking a large reward for reacquiring the masterpiece for his homeland. He was easily caught when the art dealer he contacted notified authorities. The painting was returned, and there it is for the world to enjoy, back in the Louvre. Prior to its return to the Louvre, the painting went on display in Italy to the joy of thousands of Italian art admirers.
10. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston) Art Heist, 1990.
Two men posing as police officers responding to a report of a disturbance at the museum turned out to be art thieves that made off with 13 pieces of valuable art worth around $500 million, a mind-boggling heist considering neither the art nor the robbers have been found in spite of a $5 million reward offered. In fact, the reward was increased to $10 million in 2017 in an attempt to generate new leads, but that reward has lapsed, and then been extended. Paintings, drawings and other works of art by artists Rembrandt, Manet, Flinck, Vermeer and Degas were stolen, including Rembrandt’s The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, the only known Rembrandt seascape. The most valuable painting taken was the Vermeer masterpiece, The Concert. Curiously, other more valuable paintings were not stolen. Some of the art was offered on the black market, but not recovered, and 2 men identified as suspects were never arrested and have since died. Theories about the heist include involvement by the Irish Republican Army as a means of financing their organization or ransoming their members held in prison, or that notorious gangster Whitey Bulger was behind the crime. Investigators believe the job was pulled by a larger criminal organization, not just 2 petty crooks. A ruse pulled by the robbers was to tell the guard behind the desk where the only alarm button was located that he looked like a wanted man. When the guard was asked to step out from behind the desk, any chance of raising the alarm was lost. The guards were taken to the basement and handcuffed to pipes. The robbers did manage to set off an alarm at Rembrandt’s Self Portrait, but they smashed the alarm which only sounded in the museum. This heist remains the largest private property heist in history. The handcuffs and duct tape used to bind the guards were thought to possibly contain DNA evidence of the robbers, but those items of evidence could not be located when the DNA inquiry was made in 2010, an admission made in 2017.
Question for students (and subscribers): What other heists would you add to the list? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Connor and Siler. The Art of the Heist: Confessions of a Master Thief. Harper Perennial, 2010.
Kurkjian, Stephen. Master Thieves: The Boston Gangsters Who Pulled Off the World’s Greatest Art Heist. PublicAffairs, 2016.