Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Zaren Elizabeth Zaren, It's ridiculous.
Speaker 3: Yes, I do okay, I got one for you? You ready?
Speaker 3: I do okay. Joey Henny, Joey Henny, you heard that name?
Speaker 3: No okay?
Speaker 2: Are we insulting Joey by saying he's ridiculous?
Speaker 3: No? Not at all?
Speaker 2: Oh he's not what's ridiculous?
Speaker 3: Not at all? Please? Joey Henny is a hero of
Speaker 3: mine to be a hero of yours. I think once
Speaker 3: I tell this story. He was a baseball lover like you.
Speaker 3: He wanted to go to a Phillies Pirates game, but
Speaker 3: he wanted to take with him his emotional support animal. Now, luckily,
Speaker 3: the Philadelphia Phillies they're very generous and open and inviting
Speaker 3: to all of this. They actually say on their Phillies
Speaker 3: official website quote guide Dog service animals or service animals
Speaker 3: in training are welcome. All other animals are prohibited. So
Speaker 3: Joey Henny's like, awesome, I can take my service animal
Speaker 3: with me to the Phillies game. Because he'd been battling depression.
Speaker 3: He's an older cat, this Joey, and he's been having
Speaker 3: a tough go so he brought with him his buddy Wally. Right,
Speaker 3: So he and Wally went to the Phillies game. The
Speaker 3: Phillies were like when he gets to the stadium, not
Speaker 3: the actual team, but the administ you know, like the
Speaker 3: officials for the stadium, They're like, oh, sorry, you can't come.
Speaker 3: He's like, what are talking about. I looked on the
Speaker 3: website says service animals, Like, sir, you cannot bring your
Speaker 3: animal in. He's like, it says I can. Have you
Speaker 3: seen your website It says I can bring service animals, Like, sir,
Speaker 3: that is an alligator.
Speaker 2: Yes, it is an emotional support His.
Speaker 3: Service animal was an alligator. He tried. He tried to
Speaker 3: take an alligator to a Phillies game. He was denied.
Speaker 3: He had him on a leash. It wasn't like he
Speaker 3: was just in a paper bag.
Speaker 2: I know there are people who use emotional support animals legitimately,
Speaker 2: but I also know that that is highly abused. There's
Speaker 2: a difference between a service animal and a support animal.
Speaker 3: Well, I know, but he said, Well, according to Henny,
Speaker 3: he told the Washington Post, when he turns his nose
Speaker 3: towards you, that means he expects a kiss. He's super
Speaker 3: sweet natured.
Speaker 2: Uh huh, sure, I don't know.
Speaker 3: It sounds like emotional support it.
Speaker 2: Did he buy a ticket for the wally had a seat?
Speaker 3: I suppose, so I don't know I was in it.
Speaker 2: I'm there with an alligator looking right at.
Speaker 3: Ridiculous, so hard, ridiculous, So phillies.
Speaker 2: Phillies, that's incredible. Do you want to what else is ridiculous?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 2: Yes, please waiting until the main course to strike. This
Speaker 2: is Ridiculous Crime A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists,
Speaker 2: and cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder free and
Speaker 2: one hundred percent ridiculous.
Speaker 3: Damn right.
Speaker 2: Sometimes Erin, I hear about crimes that are so well
Speaker 2: planned and so clever that I sort of don't feel
Speaker 2: bad about them.
Speaker 3: What do you mean? Like?
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm not talking about violent crimes or like
Speaker 2: the workers. No, my heart swells when I read about
Speaker 2: a crime against fat cats.
Speaker 3: Oh yes, I know you're pro crime and it comes
Speaker 3: to fat.
Speaker 2: Cats, especially when it's like really well thought out and
Speaker 2: it's super like you criminal too, goly, I do you
Speaker 2: know everything's so out of balance right that, like the
Speaker 2: richest of the rich, they live on another planet. Man
Speaker 2: like they're for most Like if they lost half of
Speaker 2: their worth, they wouldn't even feel it, which is crazy.
Speaker 2: Like if you took half my stuff, I'd be in
Speaker 2: a hole in the ground.
Speaker 3: I'd be like, give me back that five dollars exactly.
Speaker 2: Like so, like I wouldn't commit a crime unless someone
Speaker 2: I loved was in imminent danger.
Speaker 3: Yes, you are not a criminal.
Speaker 2: I'm not a criminal, but I silently root for the
Speaker 2: bad guys who do good in my opinion.
Speaker 3: Yes, you do, the moralistic outlaws.
Speaker 2: Boy, how do you do I have one for you?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, this crew chef's kiss.
Speaker 3: It's a crew.
Speaker 2: It's a crew. Peter Salerno. Is that name ring a bell?
Speaker 3: He kind of does say.
Speaker 2: It with me? Peters. He was born in nineteen thirty
Speaker 2: nine and grew up in a cold water flat in Yonkers,
Speaker 2: New York. He was raised by his factory worker single dad.
Speaker 2: His mom took off when he was young looking for
Speaker 2: a rich boyfriend. She was like upset that the dad
Speaker 2: didn't make any money and was like, I want a
Speaker 2: Cadillac by and then went and you know, hey, stranger, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: so she she wanted the fancy car, she wanted the
Speaker 2: cash Sealerno. He didn't want to wind up like his dad.
Speaker 2: He didn't want to slave at a job for a
Speaker 2: little recompense. And he was fit. He was like super buff.
Speaker 2: He's like, I'm buff, I want nice things.
Speaker 3: How do I make this colero.
Speaker 2: He befriended the boxers Rocky Graziano and Jake Lamatta. Wow,
Speaker 2: and they became his mentors and taught him how to fight.
Speaker 3: Oh so he's like a thick dude. Oh yeah, No,
Speaker 3: he's a thick boy. He is buff.
Speaker 2: He had anger issues.
Speaker 3: You told me he hung up with Jake Lamata.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right there, it's under standable.
Speaker 3: You can't hang out with Jaglamant unless you understand his
Speaker 3: angry so angry issues.
Speaker 2: Which I get. You know, there weren't a lot of
Speaker 2: therapies or outlets for young boys at the time in
Speaker 2: the mid fifties, and a lot of bad modeling, and
Speaker 2: a lot of bad modeling precisely. So he messed around,
Speaker 2: and he wound up in reform school, and then he
Speaker 2: messed around there and he wound up in sing sing,
Speaker 2: and he was sixteen years old in sing sing, Like
Speaker 2: you just try and get your head around that. So
Speaker 2: he gets out keeps getting into more trouble, so his
Speaker 2: dad reaches out to a pillar of the community, John Savino.
Speaker 2: Peter Sealerno, he had a friend named Johnny, Johnny Savino.
Speaker 2: So this is John John Senior, Big John Savino big,
Speaker 2: and he was.
Speaker 3: He was big John.
Speaker 2: He was like a huge dude. Like everyone knew him too,
Speaker 2: like physically, and then so sat So John Savino he
Speaker 2: was a mobbed up construction and waste management guy connected
Speaker 2: to the Genovesei crime family. Good for him, Uh, Sealerno,
Speaker 2: I knew you'd like that. Hey, So Seleerno, this troubled
Speaker 2: kid just gets out, just fresh out of sing sing.
Speaker 2: I'm sixteen years old. He moves in with the Savino
Speaker 2: family and they welcome him in as a son. They
Speaker 2: had an older daughter, and then they had Johnny, and
Speaker 2: then they had these twin girls. So Peter and Johnny
Speaker 2: they're lazy. They're just lazy teens. But they also couldn't
Speaker 2: keep jobs, and at this time, like they had to
Speaker 2: have a job to keep everything running. So Seleerno, he
Speaker 2: just drifted on. He tried a stint in college thanks
Speaker 2: to the beneficence of his mom's new rich boyfriend.
Speaker 3: Oh she did get herself.
Speaker 2: He hooked up with a rich dude. It's like, can
Speaker 2: you send my son to college? I wanted to be
Speaker 2: a doctor like you. And the guy's like, yeah, shoo, whatever, honey,
Speaker 2: and they send him and he's just bored. Like he
Speaker 2: he does not make it like a semester.
Speaker 3: Your son kind of thick in.
Speaker 2: Thinking the body. And so he made his way back
Speaker 2: eventually to the Savino family. He got a job as
Speaker 2: a milkman. He's doing he hated every second of it
Speaker 2: early and then he met Papa Savino's brother Nick, and
Speaker 2: so as a friend of the family Sealerno, he gets
Speaker 2: welcomed in. He's given the occasional errand one of the
Speaker 2: errands was driving Nick's daughter, Linda and all her friends
Speaker 2: to the mall Ta Can Go shopping. So on one trip,
Speaker 2: a friend of Nick's daughter was lamenting the fact that
Speaker 2: she'd run out of money and couldn't continue her shopping spree.
Speaker 2: That you know, there are all these other things she
Speaker 2: wanted to buy and I just don't have any more money.
Speaker 2: So the girl's brother's there. He whips out a hundred
Speaker 2: dollars bill and is teasing her with it, and she
Speaker 2: accuses him of taking it from their grandmother's hidden pocketbook
Speaker 2: back at the house, like, did you take grandma's hundred
Speaker 2: dollars ball? Ok And he's like, yeah, I took it,
Speaker 2: but you know there's so many she's not going to
Speaker 2: know it's missing. Okay. So Peter Sellerno's ears penny drops,
Speaker 2: so he takes the kids back home, takes note to
Speaker 2: the house. The girl was like bragging about how her
Speaker 2: family's going to go out to dinner that night. So
Speaker 2: that night Sealerno struck. He goes back to their brownstone
Speaker 2: and he starts to creep in, but he realizes that
Speaker 2: the other apartments in the bill we're gonna be able
Speaker 2: to hear him, you know, the floors are creaky. So
Speaker 2: he walks around to the side and he looks up
Speaker 2: and he sees an open window, and there are these
Speaker 2: brownstones all close. So he figures a way to shimmy
Speaker 2: up between the close buildings and slip in the open window.
Speaker 2: Like you know how when walls are close enough and
Speaker 2: you can wedge your back on one and feet on another,
Speaker 2: kind of crab walket. That's what he did. So he
Speaker 2: goes in, slips in the window. He finds a pocketbook
Speaker 2: full of cash. He takes it, the whole pocketbook, you know,
Speaker 2: empties it out, doesn't do anything else nowhere else, slips
Speaker 2: back out off into the night. A career is born.
Speaker 2: So you know, he was strong, he was nimble. He's
Speaker 2: aware of his surroundings, like just constantly clocking everything. He
Speaker 2: started watching other marks, like shopkeepers. There's one guy where
Speaker 2: he saw that he followed him back and forth from
Speaker 2: his green grocer stall every day, and notice that he
Speaker 2: would go home and he'd go back in. He never
Speaker 2: went to the bank. He's like, he's got to be
Speaker 2: keeping all this at home. Then he would strike. So
Speaker 2: he found out that John Savino, his oldest daughter, Dolores,
Speaker 2: she and her boyfriend had started a burglary ring of
Speaker 2: their own. He's got competition, yeah exactly. And they were
Speaker 2: operating under the guidance of John Savina.
Speaker 3: Oh so they were Big John's crew.
Speaker 2: They were Big John's crew. So you know, he's giving
Speaker 2: them tips and he's like sending him out on these
Speaker 2: little jobs. But sooner, yeah exactly. So Savino, though, he
Speaker 2: finds out about Sealerno's burglary skills, these new blossoming skills.
Speaker 2: So Savino starts giving him jobs and most of them
Speaker 2: involves stealing safes, and so they would wet. They would Yeah,
Speaker 2: they'd take the safe back to the Savino house, empty
Speaker 2: him out, somehow pop them open, and then they buried
Speaker 2: them in the backyard as a means of disposing of them.
Speaker 2: Which I just keep thinking the future residence, Like, is
Speaker 2: someone going to move into a house in Yonkers and
Speaker 2: then want to put a pool in Saints in the ground?
Speaker 3: Amazing?
Speaker 2: So Savino he sees big things for Seleerno and his
Speaker 2: criming arts. He knew just the thing to help that along.
Speaker 2: Do you know what Bova is? These nuts?
Speaker 3: Seriously, it's familiar.
Speaker 2: I'm talking about a man named Frank Bova.
Speaker 3: Thank you so you got me to I did.
Speaker 2: Frank Bova, he told which every time I was typing this,
Speaker 2: Frank Bova.
Speaker 3: You're still read in the face.
Speaker 2: So Frank Bova, these nuts told people that at one
Speaker 2: time he was an army ranger who was tasked during
Speaker 2: World War Two with stealing documents from the homes of
Speaker 2: Nazi officers. He was like, it was super secret, totally legal. Total.
Speaker 2: I snuck around and went in and I grabbed it
Speaker 2: and was like you know, I'm out of here. I'm
Speaker 2: a hero in us check me out. I'm a hero.
Speaker 2: And he said that all these top secret missions had
Speaker 2: trained him to become the best cat burglar both east
Speaker 2: and west of the Mississippi, like I'm the best there
Speaker 2: is now. Of course this was not true. No, he
Speaker 2: was a cook in the army during the war. But
Speaker 2: it was a good tale to tell Salerno, who was
Speaker 2: oddly naive about hearing such a shaggy dog story the
Speaker 2: origins of his burglary skills. But he did have skills.
Speaker 2: For twenty years, he was one of the world's best burglars. Bova.
Speaker 2: And you've never heard of him because he never got caught. Oh,
Speaker 2: the police never knew about him. During his active criming years.
Speaker 2: He was completely under the radar, like a good army ranger.
Speaker 2: Yeah he wasn't mobbed up, but he was in the periphery.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he'd kicked portions of his take for territory or
Speaker 2: like tip offs. But time started to catch up with him.
Speaker 2: He wasn't his nimble and spries before, and slowing down
Speaker 2: would speed up the chance of getting caught. So he
Speaker 2: kept an eye out for a protege and John Savino.
Speaker 2: He delivered with Peter Salerno. Bova's targets were generally wealthy. Uh,
Speaker 2: he was a jewel thief. He wasn't just a petty
Speaker 2: little thing. Bova trained Sealerno. He trained him how to dress.
Speaker 3: Uh, how to be invisible but also clean.
Speaker 2: Yeah, how to how to like train, how to how
Speaker 2: to work out, increase your your masks.
Speaker 3: To pull yourself up by just your.
Speaker 2: Fingers tape, yeah, exactly like swim and all this other stuff.
Speaker 2: So how to avoid the security and assorted pitfalls at
Speaker 2: these mansions. And he wanted that for Seleerno, but for
Speaker 2: a cut of course. Okay, So Bova had Selerno first
Speaker 2: burgle homes in Scarsdale, New York, and other southern Westchester
Speaker 2: municipalities just as a as a means to practice. The
Speaker 2: first one was selected because when they drove by, they
Speaker 2: saw that the mailbox was just stuffed with mail, so
Speaker 2: they're obviously out of town. They didn't just like or
Speaker 2: lazy like me, So they didn't just like park down
Speaker 2: the street and then sneak up. They saw that the
Speaker 2: house backed onto a course, so they went around to
Speaker 2: the country club and parked and then snuck across the
Speaker 2: green at night because they're like, there aren't going to
Speaker 2: be any golfers out. They're doing stuff that the car
Speaker 2: is not suspicious because they're having like you know, get together.
Speaker 3: And we used to do that to meet girls in
Speaker 3: high school.
Speaker 2: There you go, exactly, you were, Bova. So they climbed
Speaker 2: up this balcony at the house and they used a
Speaker 2: copper strip to override the window alarm upstairs, like change
Speaker 2: the current, he explained to Salerno, like that, if you're
Speaker 2: going to have a knife on you, it has to
Speaker 2: like you're gonna need it to pop out the window frame,
Speaker 2: but it can't be more than three inches because then
Speaker 2: it's a weapon.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: So once inside, Bova explained that they had to lock
Speaker 2: the bedroom door as soon as they got in there,
Speaker 2: or if there wasn't a lock, just like shoves up
Speaker 2: up against it. Give you some time, and then always
Speaker 2: start in the dressing room. That's that's your place. Don't
Speaker 2: trash it. Whatever you do. You have to gently push
Speaker 2: into the drawer of unmentionables to feel for something hard,
Speaker 2: something yeah, box on whatever, Take the stuff, put it
Speaker 2: in a pillowcase, drop that pillowcase out the window, and
Speaker 2: then shimmy down the way you came in. Now, the
Speaker 2: one problem is that when rich people go on vacation,
Speaker 2: a lot of times they'd take their jewels with them,
Speaker 2: like if they're going to go to like a fancy
Speaker 2: you know whatever.
Speaker 3: People fresh, Yeah and so.
Speaker 2: But the job that they were on was just a
Speaker 2: practice run. Now it was time for the real thing.
Speaker 2: They hit up a huge mansion in Scarsdale. They pull
Speaker 2: up driveway full of cars. They drove way down the
Speaker 2: road and approached the house from the woods behind the house.
Speaker 2: Wouldn't it be nuts to break into a house full
Speaker 2: of people?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I mean they could see everyone inside and enjoying. Cool
Speaker 2: cool man enjoying a lux dinner party. So Bova kept
Speaker 2: watch as Sealerno went to the back of the house
Speaker 2: and climbed up to a balcony off the master bedroom.
Speaker 2: He worked just as he had in the test house.
Speaker 2: So at first he found nothing, and then he stumbled
Speaker 2: onto a hidden safe. Not hidden enough, I guess he
Speaker 2: was able to extract a bunch of jewelry. He popped
Speaker 2: it right there, Diamonds on diamonds on diamonds and cash.
Speaker 2: This is a much bigger haul than anything he pulled
Speaker 2: on his own down in Yonkers, so he took the loot.
Speaker 2: He made us escape. Bova's still outside just sitting there
Speaker 2: watching the swells have their dinner. Now then you know
Speaker 2: they get out whatever. Meanwhile, Sealerno, he was growing sweet
Speaker 2: on one of the twins, Lauria, ten years his junior
Speaker 2: and a teen at this point.
Speaker 3: Like teen, my impulses, Stone, you can't be like.
Speaker 2: He bought her a car, but she just wasn't really
Speaker 2: feeling it because she had a boyfriend.
Speaker 3: Oh my god.
Speaker 2: As you can guess, though, he won her over. He
Speaker 2: took her whole family on vacation to Florida, spreading cash
Speaker 2: around like crazy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's a man competing with boys.
Speaker 2: Well there's a problem, though, Sellerno. He's twenty five. He's
Speaker 2: trying to woo a fifteen year old. But that's not
Speaker 2: the problem. He was married and had four kids. Oh.
Speaker 2: He and his wife got together when he was like seventeen, like.
Speaker 3: Fresh out of sing sing started early, but they.
Speaker 2: Had hadn't lived together in a while. They had this
Speaker 2: really chaotic, violent relationship, the violence on both of their parts.
Speaker 2: The kids were in foster care at one point, and
Speaker 2: I think that's where they were when he took up
Speaker 2: with Gloria. But either way, So, Gloria's parents less than
Speaker 2: thrilled that their teenager is dating a married father of four.
Speaker 3: This is the same guy who did not want to
Speaker 3: end up like his father. Yeah, and he totally exceeded.
Speaker 2: Yes, raced past him, raced right by. So Seleerno, he's like,
Speaker 2: I really want to get with Gloria. Gloria's parents not
Speaker 2: so thrilled. So he's like, look, I'm.
Speaker 3: Gary parents my boss.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's right, mobbed up, I mobbed up boss. He
Speaker 2: Sellerno had bought a house with all this money.
Speaker 3: He's been making money.
Speaker 2: So he gave his wife the house and then got
Speaker 2: a quickie divorce, and he and Gloria went to Maryland
Speaker 2: and they eloped. And then the marriage age there was sixteen,
Speaker 2: so she had just turned sixteen.
Speaker 3: Good to go there.
Speaker 2: No one knew about their secret marriage. And then a
Speaker 2: year later he bought her a four carrot diamond ring
Speaker 2: and they had a huge Italian She was already pregnant.
Speaker 3: When she was seventeen and pregnant.
Speaker 2: Okay, and the family, you know, so his family's growing,
Speaker 2: his criminal enterprises, everything's swelling, everything's swelling. Let's take a break.
Speaker 2: When we come back, we'll follow Sellerno as his star
Speaker 2: rises as a cat burglar. Hello Zaren, Hello Elizabeth, Hello,
Speaker 2: so nice to see you. Peter Sellerno.
Speaker 3: Yes, my guy, kind of I don't know.
Speaker 2: You'll see. He was quickly becoming the world's greatest cat burglar,
Speaker 2: replacing his teacher Frank Bova. Say it both of these
Speaker 2: my yeah, Bova, these nuts My.
Speaker 3: Wait, yours mine mine? Okay, So I'm not going to
Speaker 3: play along with your games making fun of me, Elizabeth.
Speaker 2: Back in nineteen sixties, there was someone else calling Peter
Speaker 2: Sellerno the world's greatest burglar. And this time someone said
Speaker 2: it while drunk and in public. And that's someone was
Speaker 2: John Saviano's thieving daughter, Dolores, of the crime ring.
Speaker 3: That she had.
Speaker 2: So she got wasted at a nightclub one night and
Speaker 2: said that she guess what, everybody, I'm paying everyone's tab
Speaker 2: and then she slams ten thousand dollars in cash on
Speaker 2: the bar. So she then announced that she got the
Speaker 2: money by working with quote, the best burglar in the world,
Speaker 2: Peter Salerno names names.
Speaker 3: She's de Niro's worst nightmare.
Speaker 2: I think I think most people in the club just
Speaker 2: roll their eyes and then ordered whatever was most expensive.
Speaker 3: Except for the one person who'd be listening.
Speaker 2: The guitar player.
Speaker 3: I see, there's always the one person.
Speaker 2: I think that's Sirio Dominic Lttella, the guitar player. He
Speaker 2: was intrigued.
Speaker 3: Of course.
Speaker 2: He was a posh mama's boy. When he was in
Speaker 2: high school, he was in a band called the two
Speaker 2: plus Two's. They played with Tony Orlando and don Zaren
Speaker 2: big time laugh at him. So Littella he fell in
Speaker 2: with bad kids though, and unlike the Savino family, his
Speaker 2: parents weren't about it. But yet the parents were kind
Speaker 2: of in the Savino orbit. But his mom was just
Speaker 2: like this crazy task master, like uber helicopter mom, like
Speaker 2: she did everything.
Speaker 3: Were they trying to be good Americans? They didn't want
Speaker 3: to have like yo, I think these other Italian Americans
Speaker 3: are making us look bad.
Speaker 2: He was her special, precious baby, should never do anything wrong.
Speaker 3: He's you know.
Speaker 2: So they told the parents told Littella that he had
Speaker 2: to sign up for military service. So in nineteen sixty
Speaker 2: three he enlisted in the Navy, and he did that
Speaker 2: to avoid the draft in Vietnam. He kind of jumped
Speaker 2: ahead of it when he got out of the service
Speaker 2: and needed a job, but he didn't feel like doing
Speaker 2: legitimate work. I mean, I know how that feels. So
Speaker 2: he fell back in with the bad boys.
Speaker 3: I know that feels.
Speaker 2: When he wasn't criming, he moonlighted as a guitar player
Speaker 2: at a nightclub, and that's where he heard Dolores Savino
Speaker 2: brag about working with Peter Salerno. He wanted to do that.
Speaker 2: I want to work with him.
Speaker 3: Does he take resumes? I just show him a job
Speaker 3: I've done.
Speaker 2: I get well, so Sealerno. Meanwhile, he had moved the
Speaker 2: entire Savino family down to Florida. He bought John and
Speaker 2: his wife a restaurant at the Tangiers Resort and motel.
Speaker 2: They're living the good life. Sealerno was down there too,
Speaker 2: he had a business. Gloria is down their whole family.
Speaker 3: He's like, bounce into Cuba at this point. Maybe no,
Speaker 3: it's sixty three. I've been waiting fie your family.
Speaker 2: He's doing so as luck would have it. Lttella's family.
Speaker 2: Like I said in the Savino Orbit, they're friends with
Speaker 2: the Savinos. The Savinos are feeling like there aren't a
Speaker 2: whole lot of Italian Americans down here right now that
Speaker 2: I know, and we're feeling a little lost. So they
Speaker 2: started inviting friends from back home to come and stay.
Speaker 2: One of them, the Lttella family, come down. Okay, Fate
Speaker 2: takes over because Latella, now, oh, I heard that Peter
Speaker 2: Sellerno is like the world's best burglar. He's right here.
Speaker 2: Lttella tracks him down, begs to be taught the ways
Speaker 2: of a burglary ninja.
Speaker 3: Please.
Speaker 2: He's working as Sealerno's accomplice logistics man lookout. But this
Speaker 2: was after a rocky start. At his first heist with Sealerno,
Speaker 2: Littella pooped his pants literally like a lot. Oh so
Speaker 2: much so that he had to wipe himself on the
Speaker 2: luxurious drapes in the homes dining room. It was so bad.
Speaker 2: Smell was terrible, it was everywhere.
Speaker 3: Was it nerves?
Speaker 2: It was nerves?
Speaker 3: Oh my god, he's the worst. He was not having
Speaker 3: a second job on my crew, that is it. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: In the early days of their career together, he would
Speaker 2: often get so nervous that he had to poop. No,
Speaker 2: he was always the lookout because you tell him, like
Speaker 2: you wait out here.
Speaker 3: In the bush. The whole car. Oh, the lookout. Okay,
Speaker 3: not in a car, stuck in the bushes.
Speaker 2: Letter rip. They gave him a nickname Diarrhea Don, and
Speaker 2: they kept it for his whole Everyone called him Diarrhea Do.
Speaker 2: But he was able to recover.
Speaker 3: You know, he worked through recovered from diarrhea.
Speaker 2: Wiping your poop on the on the drapes.
Speaker 3: Do you think he did like the towel move like baking,
Speaker 3: drying your back, but through the legs.
Speaker 2: I have all these these descriptors. I'm not going to
Speaker 2: say anything, so anyway, Lttella.
Speaker 3: The heavy side of the soft side, you know, there's
Speaker 3: like there's like the inner sheet. I think he's I
Speaker 3: didn't even for the thicker one. He wanted a maximum
Speaker 3: coverage and absorbancy.
Speaker 2: Just doing a lot of scooping. So Lttella, he's not
Speaker 2: only you know, covered in his own feces. He's also
Speaker 2: sweet on a Savino daughter one lucky girl Gloria's twins, Sondra. Now,
Speaker 2: like where Gloria was like the good girl, Sondra is
Speaker 2: kind of like a rare Yeah, maybe she likes the poop.
Speaker 2: She wasn't she wasn't interested, she wasn't interested in Diarrhia
Speaker 2: Don No, she had a creepy boyfriend and her parents
Speaker 2: were totally over him. So they're like, let's set her
Speaker 2: up with Diaria don.
Speaker 3: No, he's a nice boy. Why do they not like
Speaker 3: this girl?
Speaker 2: So Littella. He got the gig with Selearno basically because
Speaker 2: the Savino family was like, this guy looks good. He
Speaker 2: obeys his mom, like they don't really know about the poopins,
Speaker 2: and so they're like, let's get him a gig with
Speaker 2: Seleerno being the you know, the high skuy get some cash,
Speaker 2: and then that's wooing money. The rest is history. So
Speaker 2: they wind up together. Oh my god, Gloria.
Speaker 3: How did your mom meet your dad? Story?
Speaker 2: Well, actually, there's he dressed terribly here. He wore like
Speaker 2: shorts and sandals all the time. Don doesn't wear shorts, hello,
Speaker 2: And so it was Sandra who was like, no, I'm
Speaker 2: sorry that don doesn't wear shorts and you need actual
Speaker 2: She just taught him to dress because the mom was
Speaker 2: buying all this basically, So, Gloria, she's leaping through a
Speaker 2: copy of Town and Country magazine one day at a
Speaker 2: store and she notices that there are a lot of
Speaker 2: photos of like phenomenal homes and stories about upcoming parties.
Speaker 2: So she takes the magazine to her husband, Peter Salerno,
Speaker 2: and it's like, you know what, this is a great
Speaker 2: source of targets, just like a look book right here.
Speaker 2: So Sealerno and Tella they stopped finding homes to rob,
Speaker 2: either by like getting mob tips or just driving around neighborhoods. Instead,
Speaker 2: they prepared by creating a leads list. By using Forbes
Speaker 2: Magazine's list of the wealthiest people in America, they found
Speaker 2: addresses in Who's Who in America. They studied photo spreads
Speaker 2: and architectural digests and town and country, and then they
Speaker 2: went through all the society columns and newspapers for announcements
Speaker 2: of like who's in town and who's hosting big parties.
Speaker 3: Damn, ABC always be crimeing smart coffee is for closers.
Speaker 3: This is amazing. You got the good lead shit.
Speaker 2: And here's the thing, like people loved to show off
Speaker 2: their obscene wealthy and Seleerno and Lotella took advantage of that.
Speaker 2: You know, they're putting it out there in the public.
Speaker 2: All this information and the mansions were enormous. So Bova's
Speaker 2: technique of sneaking in while the parties were going on
Speaker 2: was perfect. So like guests, they get summoned by these
Speaker 2: butlers and these maids to go and have these absolutely
Speaker 2: huge dinners, multiple course dinners that could take hours and
Speaker 2: hours in this like you know, way situated dining room
Speaker 2: so they can see out to like maybe part of
Speaker 2: the yard, but it's it's not, you know, noisy for
Speaker 2: the rest of the house. It would have been rude
Speaker 2: to get up and leave the table. You don't, you know,
Speaker 2: you don't get up and wander around or anything, get bored.
Speaker 2: And the staff, the staff is super busy in the
Speaker 2: kitchen and the dining room.
Speaker 3: Can you imagine if you were like one of these guests, Elizabeth,
Speaker 3: and you're like, I am kind of nosy. Imagine if
Speaker 3: you excuse yourself to go the bathroom. You go to
Speaker 3: these second story upstairs bathroom. You're going down, you're feeling
Speaker 3: patting along the carpetage walk, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: you hear a noise and this guy pokes out. He's
Speaker 3: got on a mask and like a pillowcase diary. Don
Speaker 3: You're like, I've heard about you, no but honestly, like
Speaker 3: you had that moment. I can't imagine as a criminal
Speaker 3: thinking that that would be it's a good move, but
Speaker 3: it really limits.
Speaker 2: There are a couple of years random they're upstairs in
Speaker 2: these mansions. No one's going upstairs, Like if you have
Speaker 2: to step away to powder room, it's notstairs. So the
Speaker 2: rest of the house is like completely deserted.
Speaker 3: I get it.
Speaker 2: And so also when everyone's home, no alarms are set.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, genius. Isn't that incredible? And a lot of
Speaker 2: the things I read too, are that some of the
Speaker 2: older homes like they didn't have air conditioning the way
Speaker 2: that we did, so we leave the windows open air thing. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So according to Peter Sellerno quote, they never expect you.
Speaker 2: They don't expect anybody to be in there with them
Speaker 2: while they're having dinner.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're so busy and engage.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And then Ltela talking about Seleerno quote, it's remarkable,
Speaker 2: but he had this sixth sense of finding it. And
Speaker 2: you're talking about a big master suite with dressing areas,
Speaker 2: you know, closet areas. If it was there, he found it.
Speaker 2: And then Sealerno backs it up. A lot of them
Speaker 2: didn't even know it was gone till the following day.
Speaker 2: So it's just in and out they considered themselves gentlemen, thieves.
Speaker 2: They never carried guns, no weapons, they were never violent,
Speaker 2: and if they had to, they'd leave empty handed.
Speaker 3: Yeah you gotta yeah, cut and run.
Speaker 2: So there were this rash of burglaries in both New
Speaker 2: York and like the Tony areas.
Speaker 3: Connecticut, upstate in Connecticut.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then like Long Long Island, uh that way, yeah,
Speaker 2: and then it's Florida. So they're hitting both like they
Speaker 2: go for the winter, they go down winter in Florida. Precisely.
Speaker 2: The cops are catching on, they see the pattern. Some
Speaker 2: are calling them the fat Cat burglars, but they eventually
Speaker 2: became known as the dinner set gang. So they targeted
Speaker 2: the dinner set, the wealthy folks. You know, their schedules
Speaker 2: revolve around social events, not work. The dinner set.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So although I kind of like the fact a lot.
Speaker 2: So one day, sealernosaw ad for an inflatable raft.
Speaker 3: Like a zodiac with the out the harder kind.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, not like a pool float.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was.
Speaker 2: It was amazing, guys.
Speaker 3: It was a unicorn like the plastic candle paddles. They
Speaker 3: come apart with too much water.
Speaker 2: No zodiac, and so he knew it would be the
Speaker 2: perfect way to get at beach front properties because like
Speaker 2: Palm Beach, Long Island sounds Gold Coast. Those are the
Speaker 2: homes of some of the richest people in America, oh
Speaker 2: sometimes in the world, and they were pretty much inaccessible.
Speaker 3: On unless you get from the water.
Speaker 2: It's huge fences, long driveways, but not anything at the
Speaker 2: water line. So if you come in and out on
Speaker 2: the water, there are also no roadblocks, nothing.
Speaker 3: The thing is the sheriff's Yeah, sriff.
Speaker 2: Boats exactly, so Sealerno and Ltella. They followed their targets
Speaker 2: with the seasons. Like I said, north to Connecticut and
Speaker 2: New York, Palm Beach for the social season, and they
Speaker 2: hit all the big names. DeWitt Wallace, founder of Readers Digest,
Speaker 2: and from that family they got one hundred and sixty
Speaker 2: eight thousand dollars worth of jewels while Wallace and his
Speaker 2: wife were finishing their dessert. The heiress to the Flagler
Speaker 2: Railroad fortune five million dollars stolen while she hosted a
Speaker 2: black tie dinner nice in and out. From nineteen seventy
Speaker 2: one to nineteen seventy two, they hit more than a
Speaker 2: dozen homes on the Gold coast. Yeah, Zarin close you
Speaker 2: ass Oh yes, I want you to picture it. It's
Speaker 2: January nineteen seventy three. You are inside a large estate
Speaker 2: north of Palm Beach, Florida, on Juno Beach. There is
Speaker 2: but one road in and out from the mansion to
Speaker 2: the rest of the world. You are a spera fitted
Speaker 2: sheet belonging to Sir John Rupert Hunt Thoron and his wife,
Speaker 2: Lady Thoron, also known as Esther Driver DuPont, heir to
Speaker 2: the DuPont fortune.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, these are some rich.
Speaker 2: Folks, and you are a very expensive fitted sheet. You
Speaker 2: are a spa to be exact, the finest pure Egyptian
Speaker 2: cotton made in Italy, some of the most expensive bedding
Speaker 2: in the world. You aren't used much on the bed,
Speaker 2: but that doesn't mean you aren't doing a job. You
Speaker 2: are well laundered and you sit in the linen closet.
Speaker 2: You are wrapped tightly around a leather traveling case belonging
Speaker 2: to Lady Thoron. The case is covered in all manner
Speaker 2: of custom stamps and stickers from far flung exotic locales.
Speaker 2: As you sit in the linen closet, a lavender sachet
Speaker 2: tucked behind you. You hear the staff ring the dinner
Speaker 2: bell of Sir and Lady Thorn. You are a magical
Speaker 2: sheet that can hear and see, and taste and smell.
Speaker 2: You are a marvel. You are Italian.
Speaker 3: You dare right.
Speaker 2: After a while, you also hear the sound of an
Speaker 2: outboard motor out on hoby sound. It draws closer, but
Speaker 2: this is nothing new. Plenty of people toodle up and
Speaker 2: down the sound even after dark. You have an incredible
Speaker 2: bat like hearing, though I mean the sheets are expensive
Speaker 2: for a reason. You hear the sound of two people
Speaker 2: alighting from the boat you heard and making their way
Speaker 2: up the beach to the house. A moment later, you
Speaker 2: hear a quiet rattle at the French doors leading from
Speaker 2: the bedroom to a balcony, A little pop, and then
Speaker 2: you hear the wind outside. Someone has made it into
Speaker 2: the house. You hear footsteps approaching. Your cotton heart beats faster.
Speaker 2: The darkness of the linen closet is pierced with light.
Speaker 2: As the doors to the closet swing open, you can
Speaker 2: hear rustling. Someone is pawing their way through the either bedding.
Speaker 2: Please please, please please leave. You think I have a
Speaker 2: job to do. Then you feel it, hands, gloved hands.
Speaker 2: You are petrified as the hands squeeze you tight, violating
Speaker 2: your smooth fabric. The hands feel the leather, valise and
Speaker 2: freeze you let out a silent screen. You can see,
Speaker 2: you can hear, you can smell, but you can't speak.
Speaker 3: You are mute.
Speaker 2: As the hands unfold you're carefully tucked corners. Do you
Speaker 2: know how hard that was to achieve? Your charge is
Speaker 2: now exposed. The hands rub over the exterior of the case,
Speaker 2: taking in the stamps and stickers and fine leather. The
Speaker 2: hands open the case. You hear a little gasp. The
Speaker 2: owner of the hands is awestruck by what he sees.
Speaker 2: In the case are twenty five carrot and twenty two
Speaker 2: carrot sapphires, a five carrot marquise diamond, and a flawless
Speaker 2: seventeen carrot natural pink pear shaped diamond worth one point
Speaker 2: eight million dollars. That's almost twelve point five million dollars today.
Speaker 2: The hands set down the case and make a half
Speaker 2: hearted effort to fold you back up. Then, just as
Speaker 2: quickly as the two men arrived, they dash away into
Speaker 2: the night. Salerno and Littella made off with twelve million
Speaker 2: dollars of jewels that night in total, which is almost
Speaker 2: eighty three million dollars today. Wow, the DuPont's running deep
Speaker 2: with jewels. So the two of them go to New
Speaker 2: York to celebrate with their fence.
Speaker 3: Who's their fence, Elizabeth?
Speaker 2: In an interview with sixty Minutes, Salerno himself routed out
Speaker 2: the fence. Quote a guy named Wally Gans who was
Speaker 2: at the forty side. Who is It's the forty seventh
Speaker 2: Street Diamond Exchange, which is the biggest exchange in the world.
Speaker 2: To me, I mean, you know, I've been under the ground.
Speaker 2: They had their own vaults, they don't go to banks.
Speaker 2: They got more diamonds and cash there than God.
Speaker 3: Please tell me he was dead at the time.
Speaker 2: Yes, So, Salerno and Littella, they were paid ten cents
Speaker 2: on the dollar, and that was the going rate for
Speaker 2: stolen gems. Plus they had to kick up to the
Speaker 2: mafia on top of that. Plus Gans didn't always give
Speaker 2: them fair value.
Speaker 3: For the hot live of course not, but they still
Speaker 3: did quite all. It's all free money to him, exactly.
Speaker 2: So after the DuPont and Flagler jobs, Gans and his
Speaker 2: wife retired to North Miami, beach Gans was a suspect
Speaker 2: in all manner of illegal activities, but he was never indicted.
Speaker 3: No look at him slippery.
Speaker 2: I know. So Sealerno and a Latella flush with cash. Soandra,
Speaker 2: she said, the Lttella's wife bag's full suitcase is full.
Speaker 2: We would put it in envelopes of twenty thousand dollars
Speaker 2: at a time, and I can remember having to go
Speaker 2: to the safe deposit box and changing it because I
Speaker 2: couldn't put another envelope in it, like they had to
Speaker 2: keep upgrading.
Speaker 3: I were using it as like a paper weight. I
Speaker 3: was like reading something. I just put money on top.
Speaker 2: Well, no, listen, Gloria. She had a four hundred dollars
Speaker 2: a week allowance. She said she used to collect random
Speaker 2: cash that she found in her husband's pockets and she
Speaker 2: would then put it all in a bank account. And
Speaker 2: then once Selerno he needed cash to hire a lawyer,
Speaker 2: so she went to the bank and withdrew everything that
Speaker 2: she that she had found over the years, brought it
Speaker 2: home in an envelope. They dump it out on the
Speaker 2: dining room, able to count it. Two hundred and fifty
Speaker 2: thousand dollars.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, I mean this is they had pocket change
Speaker 3: that was literal pocket.
Speaker 2: Change, chump change. So an uncle of his like to
Speaker 2: joke quote, they're in the iron and steel business. She
Speaker 2: irons and he steals, hey, hey, please tip my waitress.
Speaker 2: And with that we'll take a break and then I'll
Speaker 2: let you know how things are going in the steel business.
Speaker 3: Welcome, hey Elizabeth, Hello Elizabeth.
Speaker 2: Ads so good. I want more. Welcome to Dateline nineteen
Speaker 2: seventy five.
Speaker 3: Oh I brought the wrong.
Speaker 2: Pants seventy five. Seleerno got arrested and convicted on a
Speaker 2: federal drugs charge. Oh, he got set up by a
Speaker 2: rival burglar and who wanted in on his turf. That's
Speaker 2: one of the stories that you hear. So he served
Speaker 2: time at the Atlanta Federal Correctional Facility.
Speaker 3: Not a place to do, no time.
Speaker 2: And he but like, here's the thing. He agreed to
Speaker 2: cooperate with the Feds in exchange for a shorter sentence.
Speaker 2: He's like, this is not good. I want out of here.
Speaker 2: What do you want?
Speaker 3: Yeah, who do you want?
Speaker 2: I'll tell you anything, because remember he's in the mob
Speaker 2: orbit but he's not made.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's not America. He has no vows of silence.
Speaker 2: Nope, so nineteen eighty he testified against a mob underboss
Speaker 2: on Yellow Delacroce. He stated that he was with mobsters
Speaker 2: in Lonzo's restaurant in New York Cities, Little Italy, and
Speaker 2: he heard Delacroce order a hit on a guy who
Speaker 2: was later found dead in a parking lot. So he
Speaker 2: was a witness to this order. In exchange for his testimony,
Speaker 2: he and his family went into witness protection.
Speaker 3: That's all it took.
Speaker 2: Round all took. He needed it, dude, Dela Croce put
Speaker 2: a price on his head of one hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 3: He was a mob boss, mob boss then he wasn't
Speaker 3: like he said, he was an underboss, but he actually
Speaker 3: had real power.
Speaker 2: He had power. Yeah. And so Peter Salerno's witsect name
Speaker 2: is amazing, by the way, Pierre John Carden really Yeah,
Speaker 2: Pierre Cardan the little John off.
Speaker 3: In Macy's, and they would kind of come up with
Speaker 3: a name like Pierre what's your middle name? John John Carden.
Speaker 2: So he was getting income from the Feds until he
Speaker 2: could get himself established, but he never really like got
Speaker 2: him self established. So but Sealerno and Ltella, as well
Speaker 2: as their families, they got new names, and then they
Speaker 2: spent the next eight years living in Washington, Minnesota, Oregon.
Speaker 2: They moved around a bit. While in protection, Selerno worked
Speaker 2: on a gym invention that he was calling the Mighty Bender.
Speaker 2: And it doesn't look like anything ever came of that.
Speaker 2: I tried to find it. That's a crime. There's my crime.
Speaker 3: Boom.
Speaker 2: Yeah, in eighty five, the government money ran out and the.
Speaker 3: Family how does that work? Do you know how the
Speaker 3: witness protection? Like do they give you, like, we'll give
Speaker 3: you ten years worth of money or what.
Speaker 2: I understand is that they'll get Yeah, they'll give you
Speaker 2: ten years or like if you can start generating enough money,
Speaker 2: like if you get a job and do that kind
Speaker 2: of stuff, then you know it tapers off or whatever.
Speaker 2: But there is like a hard deadline and it looks
Speaker 2: like it's five years of like get a job or
Speaker 2: we cut you off. And so then they just start
Speaker 2: moving from hotel to hotel because they don't have this
Speaker 2: solid income. Gloria, she didn't miss the jewels and the
Speaker 2: luxury cars. She missed like the simple days of Oregon.
Speaker 2: She was a girl Scout troop mom and like way
Speaker 2: all up in the PTA's all about it my drama.
Speaker 2: Salerno was a baseball coach. Here's my baseball coach, peerre Carden.
Speaker 2: How do you do? Who has like the coach? And
Speaker 2: he's got like a thick New York Italian American accent.
Speaker 2: They hung out at the library. The whole family went
Speaker 2: to the library all the time. Silerno did a little
Speaker 2: gem research there, but you know, as a treat. So
Speaker 2: when they were in Minnesota, they learned about the Pillsbury
Speaker 2: Mansion in Minneapolis, which has since been torn down.
Speaker 3: I understand.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they hit it successfully under the watch of
Speaker 2: the US Marshall Service. So he does he robs the
Speaker 2: Pillsbury mansiones while in witness protection.
Speaker 3: From his bosses, the US government. Yes, he was hitting
Speaker 3: his boss. I like this.
Speaker 2: Eighty six, Seleerno got busted for attempted burglary in Hollywood, Florida.
Speaker 2: The homeowner's son hits Seleerno over the head with a trophy.
Speaker 2: Oh and then he got convicted and sentenced to twelve years.
Speaker 3: These are the surprises I'm talking about in home at burglaries,
Speaker 3: getting hit in the head with the trophy.
Speaker 2: He's just all not on my.
Speaker 3: Watch, Yeah, exactly. Once again, teenagers always try me. I
Speaker 3: am not the one I've been waiting for this.
Speaker 2: I want this reason to dreaming of that. That's totally
Speaker 2: like you know when kids are like, I'll fight him,
Speaker 2: and I'll exactly I hit him with the trophy to me,
Speaker 2: I told Jim.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So, but here's the thing, Seleerno. He gets released in
Speaker 2: order to help law enforcement because agents told the judge
Speaker 2: that he was more helpful to them outside than inside.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So, in uh January of nineteen eighty eight, he gets
Speaker 2: caught again, this time tumbling over a wall in his
Speaker 2: subdivision in Boca Raton where there had already been two robberies. Like,
Speaker 2: how far has he fallen?
Speaker 3: He's now like an old cat where he can't make
Speaker 3: the same job, get a little clumsy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, to like a Boca Raton subdivision, subdivision.
Speaker 3: That's so believable. And he was nothing of offense subvision
Speaker 3: but for the thief.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was with his wife and his sister in law,
Speaker 2: and it didn't clarify. I don't know if that was Sandra,
Speaker 2: if it was Lttella's wife, or it was Dolores. Oh,
Speaker 2: that's another sister in law. Anyway, his wife was there.
Speaker 2: One of the sisters in law, and then another dude.
Speaker 2: He was wearing a ski mask and he had a
Speaker 2: stolen nine millimeters semi automatic gun on him, which is
Speaker 2: very out of care rules. Yeah, and he was ordered
Speaker 2: to continue that twelve year sentence that they had gotten
Speaker 2: him out of. An agent said to the judge, quote,
Speaker 2: he violated our trust and he violated your trust. And
Speaker 2: Salerno said, I have no guilt. I have nothing to hide.
Speaker 2: I did not disgrace this court and I did not
Speaker 2: disgrace you.
Speaker 3: Okay, dude, I don't think you get to decide that.
Speaker 3: Probably no offense. I mean it's a great theory.
Speaker 2: Salerno is a term Steve Cole. He said that it
Speaker 2: was Sealerno's winning personality, this likable personality that was helping
Speaker 2: him infiltrate other crime rings that were not affiliated with them.
Speaker 2: And so apparently he helped out with a narcotics investigation
Speaker 2: that spanned South Florida, Vegas, DC in New York. His
Speaker 2: attorney said, quote, these individuals will welcome him with open arms.
Speaker 2: So it was like, yeah, you know, it takes one
Speaker 2: in no one. So when Seleerno got out of jail,
Speaker 2: he learned that Gloria had been diagnosed with breast cancer
Speaker 2: and had no health insurance, and he needed money, so
Speaker 2: he and Lttella headed north in the winter of nineteen
Speaker 2: ninety one to kick off the mother of all crimesprees
Speaker 2: for real. Yeah, because they're doing it for real now.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Now they need the money desperately.
Speaker 2: Yeah. One of the first homes they'd hit was one
Speaker 2: they'd hit decades prior. The same people still lived there.
Speaker 3: I love the detective.
Speaker 2: Billy Adams sent out a bulletin alerting police that the
Speaker 2: Dinner Set gang was back.
Speaker 3: Baby.
Speaker 2: This is what Adam said, quote everything was identical except
Speaker 2: the date on the police. It was unbelievable. Same thing.
Speaker 3: As long as you don't do violence, cops. Really, this
Speaker 3: is a fun little games.
Speaker 2: Florno explains it. He said, quote. I was just obsessed.
Speaker 2: I wasn't going to let her die because of money.
Speaker 2: For the lack of money. That money saved her life Perlatella.
Speaker 3: Quote.
Speaker 2: We broke our rules, you know, not knowing your target,
Speaker 2: not knowing where you're going, and knowing your escape. Working
Speaker 2: in the winter, especially in the snow. They're men on
Speaker 2: a mission, right, Because here's what happens. January twenty first,
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety two. The two they targeted a home in Westport, Connecticut.
Speaker 2: Now remember normally they're down in Florida this time of here.
Speaker 2: So this is what Latella said about that day.
Speaker 3: Quote.
Speaker 2: I recall the woman being downstairs in her foyer and
Speaker 2: Pete says, put me up on the ledge. He went
Speaker 2: up and made entry into the bedroom, and all of
Speaker 2: a sudden, I noticed the woman look up, and I
Speaker 2: knew she heard something. The lady homeowner she called nine
Speaker 2: one one. Pretty soon the surrounding woods were crawling with cops,
Speaker 2: and the cops sweetie dogs, and then the set to
Speaker 2: freaked out their new ghetto driver because he hears all
Speaker 2: the dogs and he just blows. So Selerno and Littella
Speaker 2: they had to hoof it. Uh they This is how
Speaker 2: uh Lttella remembers it. I recall it was like blowing snow,
Speaker 2: maybe ten degrees out. And finally we just conceded to
Speaker 2: the fact, saying, you know, Pete, it doesn't look good.
Speaker 2: That's it. We're done. So basically they were in their
Speaker 2: own personal Sopranos's episode, which is still one of the
Speaker 2: greatest episodes of all time. You're not going to believe
Speaker 2: this guy killed sixteen Chechoslovakians. Guy was an interior decorator,
Speaker 2: so that was them. That was one in the house
Speaker 2: watching this. So anyway, the canine cuties, they found Selerno
Speaker 2: and Littella under a pile of leaves near I ninety five,
Speaker 2: and I hate when that happens to me. Yes, I'm
Speaker 2: getting found under a pile of so many times rible
Speaker 2: Sellerno and Littella. They get arrested, obviously, and then they
Speaker 2: get tied to a bunch of other burglaries. In the end,
Speaker 2: Littella ended up serving nine years in prison and Sealerno
Speaker 2: served four. Their wives got jobs working at a mall
Speaker 2: in Fort Lauderdale.
Speaker 3: And them, yeah, I guess.
Speaker 2: And when he got out on parole, thettele got a
Speaker 2: job selling used boats. And here's what he had to say.
Speaker 2: Quote the certain regrets I do have is if I
Speaker 2: scarred anybody from feeling violated, I'm sorry in that respect,
Speaker 2: you know, because I'm sure a lot of people felt
Speaker 2: that way, because I know how my wife would feel,
Speaker 2: you know, if it's any consolation, you know, and it
Speaker 2: was by us, Believe me, we were gentlemen and we
Speaker 2: weren't there to hurt anybody. Salerno. He shared that he
Speaker 2: had no regrets and enjoyed the jewel thief life and
Speaker 2: the excitement that came with it.
Speaker 3: I got to say, I like his approach.
Speaker 2: They asked him if he would do it again. He
Speaker 2: said no. But when then, like, do you have any
Speaker 2: plans and you know, would you tell anyone about it?
Speaker 2: He laughed and he said no, I wouldn't.
Speaker 3: Also, no, exactly in my.
Speaker 2: Work as a special investigator, I think I found the Sealernos.
Speaker 2: It looks like both Pete and Gloria are still alive.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, yeah, how did you doing.
Speaker 2: I'm not telling I'm not revealing my secrets. They have
Speaker 2: a lovely family. But yeah, it looks like they're both
Speaker 2: still alive in Florida.
Speaker 3: I'm so pridy, thank you.
Speaker 2: So all's well. That ends well, I suppose, But Gloria
Speaker 2: made it. Yay, Gloria. Detective Adams told sixty minutes, I
Speaker 2: can find anybody I know you can. The quote in
Speaker 2: anything that you read in the last forty years in
Speaker 2: regards to jewel thieves, Peter Salerno's name always comes up,
Speaker 2: and he's the standard by which all other jewel thieves
Speaker 2: are judged.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, big dog so for the goat trunk. Dolores was right,
Speaker 2: He's the best in the world. Sarah, what's too ridiculous takeaway?
Speaker 3: I gotta say that, I know this is a really
Speaker 3: base ridiculous takeaway, but I think boat theft is really
Speaker 3: where it's at. We've covered this a couple of times.
Speaker 3: If you don't mess that up, I'm thinking that's really
Speaker 3: the move via boat. You ride up in a boat, Yeah,
Speaker 3: you rob a house, it's on the water, and you're
Speaker 3: just it's it seems like, you know, I made a
Speaker 3: gun out of ice and I have ice bullets of murder.
Speaker 3: It's the version of her theba It's like the perfect
Speaker 3: all the.
Speaker 2: Smart stuff, like wait till they're having a dinner party,
Speaker 2: so the alarm's not on. That I think is huge.
Speaker 3: And also people, I think it would take a long
Speaker 3: time before cops would think to look for that as
Speaker 3: an escape route, especially if you were you made a
Speaker 3: couple of little signs that you walked away, yeah, or
Speaker 3: like he put some car whatever it is, you could
Speaker 3: throw them off. For the longest time, they would not
Speaker 3: think of that. I'd think if unless somebody saw you, well.
Speaker 2: And it's like, you know, I don't mind him hitting
Speaker 2: the DuPonts. No offense to the DuPont family, but like
Speaker 2: they're you know, they're still okay, like they didn't but
Speaker 2: like then when he's going after like a subdivision in Boca,
Speaker 2: that was.
Speaker 3: Yeah. They always get to a point.
Speaker 2: I mean the desperation sinks in.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And also they start slipping with age and they
Speaker 3: keep thinking that they can be doing what they were doing.
Speaker 3: And it's like Michael Jordan on the Whizz it.
Speaker 2: Should have been like boa these nuts to find a
Speaker 2: protege exactly, someone to come up through the ranks, someone
Speaker 2: who doesn't have diarrhea. It's always a good thing.
Speaker 3: Diamond Doors had the same issue diarrhea, no getting a hold.
Speaker 3: But yes, now that I can picture her crapping herself,
Speaker 3: thank you.
Speaker 2: We all have crapped ourselves.
Speaker 3: It's what gaves us all together. It bonds us circle. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that's it. That's all I have that we all have shadows.
Speaker 2: That's true.
Speaker 3: Those two things. That's it.
Speaker 2: Good pointing, good point.
Speaker 3: I'll duly noted.
Speaker 2: You can find us online at ridiculous Crime dot com.
Speaker 2: We're at Ridiculous Crime on Twitter and Instagram. I think
Speaker 2: there's an email leave us at talkback on the iHeart
Speaker 2: app and that's It. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth
Speaker 2: Dutton and Zaren Burnette, produced and edited by Diarrhea Dave Kusten.
Speaker 2: Research is by Marissa Queasy Stomach Brown and Andrea Slight
Speaker 2: Fever Song Sharpened Tear. The theme song is by Thomas
Speaker 2: Splitting Headache Lee and Travis Excessive Flatulence Dutton. Executive producers
Speaker 2: are Ben Blurred Vision Bowlin and Noel Trouble Swallowing Brown.
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