WEBVTT - Hit the Drippini: Valerio Viccei and the Knightsbridge Security Deposit Robbery 0:00:00.560 --> 0:00:03.320 Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:03.680 --> 0:00:06.680 Zaren No Wake up. Hey, I was not sleeping my 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:07.800 eyes or just kidding. 0:00:07.600 --> 0:00:08.320 Me, Elizabeth. 0:00:08.480 --> 0:00:10.280 I know you, yeah, you do. 0:00:10.520 --> 0:00:11.560 You know what's ridiculous? 0:00:11.600 --> 0:00:15.840 I do? Clyde, Oh okay, you know, like I bring 0:00:15.880 --> 0:00:18.000 this up often karate masters. 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:19.279 Yeah, I know you did, ye right? 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:22.960 So I found this headline quote humans are no match. 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:27.040 End quote says japan karate master who fended off two 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:31.440 bears advises caution. Oh right, so I thought this was awesome. Right. 0:00:31.440 --> 0:00:34.839 There's this story of this dude's Matsato Fukuda. He's fifty 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:37.680 years old, Japanese cat. He lives up in Hokkaido, like 0:00:37.720 --> 0:00:40.320 the top of Japan. Right, So he's out he said 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:42.879 he's wanted to go out to these falls, the Yyoko 0:00:43.000 --> 0:00:45.879 Falls apparently spectacular, I don't know, okay, And he's going 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:47.800 out there. He wanted to see the winter snow mills. Right. 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:49.960 So we were in April and he's out there. The 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:52.839 road narrows. He gets out. He's walking and he's like, oh, 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:55.200 is the waterfall ahead? And he hears some rustling. All 0:00:55.200 --> 0:00:57.800 of a sudden, ow it comes these bears. He's like, oh, no, 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:01.279 like black bears. He's like, yeah, it was like it's on, right. 0:01:01.360 --> 0:01:04.039 He sees them, they see him, and these ones they're 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:07.560 like five feet six feet tall bears, right, big enough 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:09.440 that they can mess him up and most likely, you know, 0:01:09.600 --> 0:01:12.840 probably kill him. So what does he do? He remembers, Oh, 0:01:13.000 --> 0:01:14.959 if you turn your back, they'll chase you. So he 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:17.840 watches the bears and he keeps eyes on them, and 0:01:17.880 --> 0:01:21.000 he backs up and then doesn't matter. The bear circle 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:23.720 behind him. So now it's on. So what does the 0:01:23.800 --> 0:01:25.479 karate master do? Elizabeth? 0:01:25.880 --> 0:01:28.160 He should make noise and make himself look bigger. 0:01:28.280 --> 0:01:29.080 He does karate. 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:33.400 Oh man, he says, if I'm going to be attacked, 0:01:33.480 --> 0:01:34.959 there's no choice but to fight. 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:37.920 So he goes and I don't know how I love 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:40.039 this line. He also used a pair of scissors that 0:01:40.080 --> 0:01:41.840 happened to have he happened to have on him to 0:01:41.880 --> 0:01:46.040 strike the animal's body. I guess, I don't know. So 0:01:46.200 --> 0:01:48.520 apparently the scissors ended up cutting his hand right because 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:51.639 they glanced off the bear. The bears moving, not standing still, 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:53.720 it's not working out. So then he has to go 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:56.600 just and count on his karate. So now it's just 0:01:56.680 --> 0:01:59.400 him two bears in his karate. So he does it right. 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:02.160 He punches one bear and then he says, quote, my 0:02:02.200 --> 0:02:04.320 attack wasn't effective at all, but it seemed to make 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:06.480 the bears flinch for a moment. Like he punches one 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:08.840 bear and he does a flying kick on another bear. 0:02:09.240 --> 0:02:12.240 Oh yeah, the bears retreat and then fakuda, my man. 0:02:12.280 --> 0:02:14.120 He goes and gets close to his car because he 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:15.600 still hasn't left his car. He hasn't made it to 0:02:15.680 --> 0:02:17.640 the falls yet. So he gets to his car. Then 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:20.200 he slams the door and the bears run off. Now 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:23.360 the thing is it's funny, is he's not a karate master. 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:28.079 That was just stuf that the press threw in. What yes, 0:02:28.520 --> 0:02:31.800 he's like he mentioned occasionally that he had done karate 0:02:32.160 --> 0:02:34.919 and he was in junior high school. He's like, I 0:02:35.600 --> 0:02:38.400 did karate. That's how much karate. He has exactly as 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:41.679 much karate as I do. But everyone was like, oh yes, 0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:43.960 so tell me karate fighter guy, and they all turned 0:02:44.040 --> 0:02:46.520 him to a karate master and all the international stories, 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:49.520 and he resented it. He was like, you know, basically, 0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:51.480 he's like, yo, that's not fair to the bears. I'm 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:53.200 not a karate fighter. And he didn't want other karate 0:02:53.240 --> 0:02:55.280 fighters to come and be like, hey man, you, why 0:02:55.320 --> 0:02:58.839 are you fighting bears? We have rules against that belt. 0:02:58.880 --> 0:02:59.880 So how ridiculous? Is that? 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:04.000 Very ridiculous? Do you want to know what else is ridiculous? Ever? 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:07.920 Thinking that safety deposit boxes are actually safe? 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:28.360 Huh? 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:34.519 This is ridiculous crime A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists, 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:37.760 and cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder free and 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:39.960 one hundred percent ridiculous. 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:44.040 You damn right, zaren. 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:47.240 Do you know what the biggest heist in modern history was? 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:48.480 Is it in Brazil? 0:03:48.680 --> 0:03:50.520 I'll go ahead and tell you as a little treat 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:53.720 it was in two thousand and three. It was in Iraq, 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:57.960 that's the one. Yes, it was pulled off by Khusey Hussein. 0:03:58.440 --> 0:04:03.520 Oh you know, son of brother of Udai total goon. 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:08.040 Oh my god, I love that as a pejorative for 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:12.600 like brother of fail sons. So the US invaded Iraq 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:16.880 March nineteenth, two thousand and three. On March eighteenth, Kusey 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:20.120 showed up at the Central Bank of Iraq in Baghdad. 0:04:20.640 --> 0:04:22.919 He had with him a handwritten note from his dad, 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:28.279 Saddam Hussein. The note demanded one billion dollars with a 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:32.320 b in US dollars be handed over to him outside 0:04:32.839 --> 0:04:36.200 did had three trucks and a bunch of Iraqi officials. 0:04:36.200 --> 0:04:36.960 That's a lot of money. 0:04:37.040 --> 0:04:40.000 That's a lot. It's considered to be the largest heist 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:45.120 in modern history, one billion dollars. There's some who say 0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:48.400 that since Saddam Hussein was an absolute dictator. 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:49.120 I'm still in power at the moment. 0:04:49.160 --> 0:04:51.839 Yeah, he had every right to take the cash. And 0:04:51.920 --> 0:04:54.480 there is speculation that the money might have been his 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:58.520 own personal funds that he amassed while ruling Iraq with 0:04:58.560 --> 0:04:59.320 an iron fist. 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:01.760 Sure, we'll call them his thought from other people. 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:04.479 So the US government, they figured he was trying to 0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:06.479 like move the cash over the border to keep it 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:09.720 out of the hands of the invading Americans. US Army 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:13.440 special forces near the border with Syria, they saw trucks 0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:15.880 just like the three outside the bank crossing that border 0:05:15.960 --> 0:05:19.880 soon after. Others thought Hussain was using the money to 0:05:19.880 --> 0:05:22.400 like stir up resistance to the American troops and you 0:05:22.480 --> 0:05:26.360 go around paying castle. That's what a lot of Iraqi's thought, Yeah. 0:05:25.960 --> 0:05:27.200 To fight the Northern Front people. 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:30.520 Yeah, and there was enough cash to pay to get 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:33.480 his family and like government muckety MUCKs out of the 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:34.680 country ahead of the invaders. 0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:37.719 Yeah, there's always there's enough get them to London or where. 0:05:38.000 --> 0:05:41.880 After the heist, coalition forces tracked down about six hundred 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:45.080 and fifty million dollars of the bank's camp. Really yeah, 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:48.560 where was it, Sarah? Where was it was in Udai's palace? 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:54.320 One of them, Udai, Kusse and Saddam all met violent ends. 0:05:54.520 --> 0:05:55.200 You know, it's war. 0:05:55.640 --> 0:05:58.039 But three hundred and fifty million dollars of the cash 0:05:58.120 --> 0:06:01.719 was never recovered. So Iraq in those days was like 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:02.800 a black hole for US. 0:06:02.920 --> 0:06:04.200 Cast Wait, I've seen three kings. 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:08.040 In two thousand and four, the US flew almost twelve 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:12.040 billion dollars in shrink wrapped one hundred dollars bills into 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:15.400 Iraq and lost it. Yeah. About that's about two hundred 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:18.400 and eighty million notes, which is like three hundred and 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:19.799 sixty three tons of money. 0:06:19.800 --> 0:06:21.080 Have you ever seen them on the palace? Oh? 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:22.039 Oh yeah, it's crazy. 0:06:22.080 --> 0:06:23.000 Whears of cash. 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:25.599 They would fly from New York to Bagdad in these 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:28.920 c one thirties, and the flights were happening like twice 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:33.000 a month. The biggest load was two point four billion 0:06:33.120 --> 0:06:35.640 dollars on June twenty second, two thousand and four. So 0:06:35.760 --> 0:06:38.920 the thing is the cash. It was distributed, no real 0:06:39.000 --> 0:06:41.479 control over who was receiving it, how it was spent. 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:45.280 Where did all this cash come from? Great questions, Aaron. 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:47.000 Where did is all this cash come from? Elizabeth? 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:51.240 It came from Iraqi oil sales, surplus funds from the 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:56.120 UN Oil for Food program and seized Iraqi assets. So 0:06:56.240 --> 0:06:59.560 a government memorandum that was prepared for the House Committee 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:03.520 on Over and Government Reform said, quote, one contractor received 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:06.200 a two million dollar payment in a duffel bag stuffed 0:07:06.240 --> 0:07:09.840 with shrink wrapped bundles of currency. Auditors discovered that the 0:07:09.920 --> 0:07:12.600 key to a vault was kept in an unsecured backpack, 0:07:13.760 --> 0:07:16.560 and then quote they also found that seven hundred seventy 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:20.040 four thousand, three hundred dollars in cash had been stolen 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:23.160 from one division's vault. Cash payments were made from the 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:25.480 back of a pickup truck and the cash was stored 0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:29.720 in unguarded sacks in Iraqi ministry offices. One official was 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:33.320 given six point seventy five million in cash and was 0:07:33.440 --> 0:07:36.200 ordered to spend it in one week before the intraim 0:07:36.240 --> 0:07:38.840 Iraqi government took control of Iraqi funds. 0:07:38.680 --> 0:07:40.320 It's like brewsters millions of rock. 0:07:40.280 --> 0:07:42.520 Six point seven million got a week to burn it. 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:47.680 There are these minutes from a May two thousand and 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:51.400 four US led Coalition Provisional Authority. 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:52.840 CPA meeting the Green Zone people. 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:56.240 Yeah, and they reveal quote a single disbursement of five 0:07:56.320 --> 0:08:01.320 hundred million dollars in security fundled labeled merely T meaning 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:04.200 to be determined. Many of the funds appeared to have 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:07.280 been lost to corruption and waste. Thousands of quote ghost 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:12.160 employees were receiving paychecks from Iraqi ministries under the CPA's control. 0:08:12.600 --> 0:08:14.840 Some of the funds could have enriched both criminals and 0:08:14.880 --> 0:08:18.680 insurgents fighting the US. So the CPA, they're supposed to 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:23.040 like select an independent, certified public accounting firm to oversee 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:26.160 these payouts, and that is not what happened. No, they 0:08:26.240 --> 0:08:32.319 hired a quote obscure consulting firm called north Star Consultants Incorporated. 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:35.839 The firm was so small that it reportedly operates out 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:37.880 of a private home in San Diego. 0:08:37.800 --> 0:08:39.480 Oh in San Diego and San Diego. 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:43.520 So it looks like American officials didn't care what happened 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:46.520 to the cash because it wasn't US tax payer money. Yes, 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:49.079 and they were basically burning Iraqi assets. 0:08:49.160 --> 0:08:50.480 Yeah, it's like black box money. 0:08:50.559 --> 0:08:53.600 Yeah. So in those same minutes, retired Admiral David Oliver 0:08:53.800 --> 0:08:55.920 was asked, like, what happened to the eight point eight 0:08:56.120 --> 0:08:59.040 billion that you were in charge of? And he said, quote, 0:08:59.120 --> 0:09:01.240 I have no idea. I can't tell you whether or 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:03.240 not the money went to the right things or didn't, 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:07.560 nor do I actually think it's important. Wow, they said 0:09:07.559 --> 0:09:10.079 to him, quote, but the fact is billions of dollars 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:13.760 have disappeared without a trace. Here's how he answered, of 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:17.479 their money. Billions of dollars of their money. Yeah, I understand. 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:19.320 I'm saying, what difference does it make? 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:19.960 Wow? 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:20.840 That crazy? 0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:23.120 So they really were just like because it's their money 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:25.880 and this is therefore it's like casino money and still money. 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:29.000 Yeah. So that that Central Bank of Iraq job is 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:32.679 pretty much considered the biggest heist on record, even if 0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:35.760 it does kind of the military right thread thread the 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:39.319 notion that Saddam's thing threading the notion of legality. 0:09:39.480 --> 0:09:40.440 I'm going with the other one. 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:44.439 I'm going, what's the second biggest tyston. 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:46.679 The one you just said is also that one they're together. No, 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:48.120 it's in Brazil, right in Brazil. 0:09:48.160 --> 0:09:51.959 That would be the Bonco Central burglary in Brazil. That 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:55.760 one was for about seventy million dollars. It went down 0:09:56.000 --> 0:09:58.840 in two thousand and five after a criminal gang started 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:01.960 up a landscaping business that just so happened to be 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:04.559 right by the Brazilian Central Bank. 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:07.400 I think this kind of inspired the fast and the furious. 0:10:07.520 --> 0:10:10.839 Oh did it seriously? They have a big heightst well 0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:12.000 so over police station. 0:10:12.240 --> 0:10:15.080 Yeah. Over three months, the heist crew tunneled through more 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:18.760 than two hundred and fifty five feet of dirt and concrete. 0:10:19.200 --> 0:10:22.000 And then remember they had that landscaping company, so like 0:10:22.040 --> 0:10:26.079 no one suspicious of excavators or like truckloads of soil. 0:10:25.920 --> 0:10:27.520 Being driven off the property. 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:31.200 So they got into the bank. They disabled the security systems. 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:33.880 They busted through three and a half feet of steel 0:10:33.960 --> 0:10:37.199 reinforced concrete to get into the bank vault. That's crazy. 0:10:37.800 --> 0:10:39.680 So now you know it's the central bank. 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:41.679 So they had a powerful lance. 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:45.040 Yeah, so they're in control of the money supply at 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:47.040 this bank. All of the money in the. 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:49.839 Normal lance and a powerful jet exactly get it. 0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:53.040 Right, So all the money in the vault was supposed 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:57.240 to be checked and then tagged for either recirculation or 0:10:57.240 --> 0:10:58.119 to be destroyed. 0:10:58.280 --> 0:10:59.719 Oh yes, okay, And so the. 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:02.800 Bills they're not in sequence, and that means they can't 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:03.199 be traced. 0:11:03.240 --> 0:11:05.240 Yeah, it's a grocery store money, perfect. 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:06.920 Place to go. So the cops they did a pretty 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:09.640 good job of tracking down most of the crew, like 0:11:09.720 --> 0:11:12.280 in the grand scheme of things. And the reason I'm 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:15.400 not making this into an entire episode is because of 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:19.440 the absolute bloodshed and violence that radiates out from the heist. 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:21.680 And I was trying to avoid that. 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:24.640 But you know, a tonneal job is always ridiculous. And 0:11:24.679 --> 0:11:27.560 it is noted as the second largest heist in history. 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:29.679 Wait, wait to go. You know what, the top two 0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:31.079 have problems with blood, with a. 0:11:31.000 --> 0:11:33.360 Lot of blood. I know you like numbered lists. 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:34.480 I love them. 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:35.320 So what's the third? 0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:36.880 One of my third favorite things? 0:11:37.080 --> 0:11:38.520 That's the third largest bank? 0:11:38.559 --> 0:11:43.400 Ice, the third largest bank? Hest is it in? It's 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:49.559 not the same brings? Is it? The train rod? It's 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:51.959 not London, not New York, London. 0:11:52.040 --> 0:11:55.440 It was a heist London. It was are you going 0:11:55.520 --> 0:11:55.959 to tell it? 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:56.200 It was? 0:11:56.640 --> 0:11:58.959 It was in London and it was pulled off by 0:11:58.960 --> 0:11:59.760 an Italian. 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:01.480 Oh, is not the one I'm thinking of. 0:12:01.720 --> 0:12:06.040 No, So I'm talking about the Knightsbridge security deposit robbery 0:12:06.080 --> 0:12:07.000 in nineteen eighty seven. 0:12:07.240 --> 0:12:08.360 Oh nice. 0:12:08.679 --> 0:12:11.319 So I've done my share of British heists, and by 0:12:11.360 --> 0:12:13.080 that I mean I've told you about them, not that 0:12:13.120 --> 0:12:14.240 I've pulled the heist myself. 0:12:14.280 --> 0:12:14.439 Yes. 0:12:15.559 --> 0:12:18.760 So, in the Knightsbridge security deposit robbery, the crew made 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:22.720 off with sixty five million dollars. That's a lot of deposits. 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:24.280 Sixty five million, insane amount. Yeah. 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:27.240 So the robbery took place July twelfth, nineteen eighty seven, 0:12:27.480 --> 0:12:30.480 and as the name suggests, it went down in the 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:32.800 affluent district of Knightsbridge, London. 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:33.439 I've been there. 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:37.480 There was there was, as there always is in a heist, 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:38.520 a mastermind. 0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:40.320 Yeah yeah, tell me about it. 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:44.640 This time it was an Italian criminal named Valerio Vizzi. 0:12:45.240 --> 0:12:46.280 Valario Vizi. 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:49.440 Yeah, now, Valerio. He had already been involved in a 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:52.040 bunch of bank robberies in Italy. He was born in 0:12:52.120 --> 0:12:55.640 the town of Sulmona in the province of Lakila in 0:12:55.679 --> 0:12:58.960 the Abruzzo region of Italy. Very nice, so beautiful. You 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:00.959 know who else is from Solima. 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:02.840 Regis Philbin. 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:04.559 Yes, how did you get that one? 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:05.680 I think he's pretty sure he's. 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:07.760 Irish Pope Innocent the seventh. 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:09.480 Oh I'm so close though. 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:15.320 And you know who else? Roman? Covid Avid Roman, author 0:13:15.360 --> 0:13:19.880 of Metamorphosis. Yes, of course it was he who wrote quote, 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:23.600 we are ever striving after what is forbidden and coveting 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:24.920 what has denied us. 0:13:25.120 --> 0:13:28.240 Yes, true, appropriate. Oh, it's very that's it's timeless advice. 0:13:28.320 --> 0:13:32.120 So sulmona beautiful town according to Google street View. Can 0:13:32.160 --> 0:13:33.400 you guess if I want to go there? 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:36.400 Did you Google street view this one? Did you take 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:37.720 a drive and turn around? 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:39.839 Of course? And of course I want to go there, 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:44.280 even outside of the old town. The it's lovely. It's 0:13:44.360 --> 0:13:45.520 sort of a nestled. 0:13:45.240 --> 0:13:47.440 Among mountains in the he recommended. 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:51.480 You know, the town was leveled by an earthquake in 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:54.200 seventeen and it took a lot of hits in World 0:13:54.240 --> 0:13:54.600 War two. 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:56.680 Oh yeah, but they've lost a lot of old churches. 0:13:56.760 --> 0:13:58.640 Ten years after the end of that war. 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:02.840 A boy was born, a boy val Hey, a man. 0:14:03.080 --> 0:14:05.920 He started criming young, okay, and he came from a 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:10.040 respectable family. His dad was a lawyer, Like no lawyer jokes. Please, 0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:12.680 your family is crawling. 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:14.280 We've got tons. 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:20.320 So as a young man in the nineteen seventies, and 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:23.480 can we talk for a moment about how amazing Italian 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:25.840 style was in the seventies and eighties. 0:14:26.000 --> 0:14:28.240 Even throughund the sixties. And come on, they got a run, 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:29.440 just a three. 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:32.880 Decade run in fifties too, so we'll four decade run. 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:35.800 Really tough time. The warriors were tough, but other than that, 0:14:35.920 --> 0:14:36.880 just a solid run. 0:14:36.960 --> 0:14:39.880 I've been getting into the genre of Itallo disco. 0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:42.360 Yeah, I keep talking about this. How you digging it? 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:43.880 I'd say it was out of left field for me, 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:47.200 but I do love desperate styles of music. There's a 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:51.120 good Italo disco essentials set on Apple Music. It's a 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:54.320 good house cleaning music, or like walking at a track 0:14:55.240 --> 0:14:57.360 or conducting drug deals out of a ferrari. 0:14:57.440 --> 0:14:58.320 There you go. Yeah. 0:14:58.440 --> 0:15:03.680 So anyway, as young guy Vale, he became involved in 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:07.600 a series of armed robberies all across Italy, and at seventeen, 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:11.120 he and an Italian right wing terror group blew up 0:15:11.120 --> 0:15:12.480 an electricity substation. 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:17.960 Oh wow, so there's that. Okay, there's that. He was 0:15:18.080 --> 0:15:20.840 like me, trying to like slide the politics Yeah. 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:23.800 He was known for his intelligence. That guy was super smart, 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:26.560 and he was a planner, which you know I love, Yes, 0:15:26.720 --> 0:15:32.000 and he totally ruthless, which I don't really love. So 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:35.000 he built this reputation for himself in Italy as a 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:37.920 skilled thief, and that meant that the law would come 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:38.320 a calling. 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:40.040 Oh, they're like, how do you do it? 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:43.120 Yeah? Tell us more. The cops are like closing in 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:45.920 on him. He's feeling the pressure. So he leaves Italy. 0:15:46.280 --> 0:15:49.200 And at this point he'd been involved in like fifty 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:53.640 bank robberies. Was racking him up. So he leaves Italy. 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:55.080 Zaren Where did he go? 0:15:56.720 --> 0:15:57.360 New Italy? 0:15:57.600 --> 0:15:59.880 I have no idea. I was hoping you knew you. 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:03.800 He went to London. This is nineteen eighty five, so 0:16:04.080 --> 0:16:07.800 new place, new Valerio. Yes, not on your life, son. 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:11.040 In fact, he stepped it up a little. Yes, let's 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:13.360 take a break when we come back, We're going to 0:16:13.440 --> 0:16:36.360 meet up with Valerio in London, all right. So we 0:16:36.520 --> 0:16:42.880 met Valerio Vizzi bank Robert Italiano. He looks about how 0:16:42.920 --> 0:16:46.160 you'd imagine, by the way, not the tallest fella. 0:16:46.280 --> 0:16:48.320 Yes, does have kind of flowncy hair. 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:51.440 He has a head of like thick, lustrous black hair, 0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:52.880 a bit of a widow's piece. 0:16:52.960 --> 0:16:56.240 Oh perfect, Harry chest I don't care about that, but whatever, 0:16:56.280 --> 0:16:57.760 where's a gold chant? Good for the look? 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:01.000 Yeah, his eyebrows refused to be parted and they reach 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:03.520 over to kiss at the top of his Oh nice, 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:08.280 like Romeo and Juliet. Yeah, it's a never ending smoocher. 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:12.120 He could easily be an extra on The Sopranos, which 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:15.919 I watched and I loved because I watch and love television. 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:17.000 You know, I don't ever watch it. 0:17:17.359 --> 0:17:18.080 You've never seen it. 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:19.960 I'm just going to take it from you, right. 0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:26.000 Okay, So now let's direct our attention to the Knightsbridge 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:27.200 Safe Deposit Center. 0:17:27.480 --> 0:17:27.840 Please. 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:32.080 It's located directly across the street from Harrod's department store 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:33.000 on Brompton Road. 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:37.760 I've literally been the I got put up there, stayed 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:41.640 inherits No, No, they're in that neighborhood. Was right where 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:42.480 I kept walking, that's right. 0:17:42.520 --> 0:17:46.240 Okay. So the deposit center, it was in a basement 0:17:46.359 --> 0:17:49.760 across a building across the street. It catered to these 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:54.080 wealthy clients who used its vaults to store cash, jewelry, 0:17:54.119 --> 0:17:57.600 and other valuables. Some of the clients were known to 0:17:57.680 --> 0:18:01.920 be less than on the up and up. Oh yeah, 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:06.080 So if this sounds familiar, let's not forget the Lloyd's 0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:09.800 bank robbery in nineteen seventy Baker Street job. 0:18:09.720 --> 0:18:10.720 The Sexy Beast one. 0:18:10.800 --> 0:18:13.120 Yeah, that was about two and a half miles from 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:15.639 this location. And in that heist, the crew made away 0:18:15.680 --> 0:18:18.160 with somewhere between one and a half to three million pounds. 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:21.200 And then there was Hatton Garden twenty twelve. 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:23.560 Which one said the Princess Margaret photos. 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:28.440 That's uh Street, Baker Street, Yeah, Hatton Gardens. They got 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:32.399 almost fourteen million in valuables from the safe deposit boxes. 0:18:32.440 --> 0:18:34.440 And that's like three and a half miles from that's 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:38.280 the old hard night Bridge spot. Yeah, so decades and 0:18:38.520 --> 0:18:40.640 miles apart in all of them, but within the same 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:44.400 class of crime, looting safe deposit boxes on the sly 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:46.560 heists as we call them. 0:18:46.840 --> 0:18:50.560 So what about Vale, Yes, how's he going to make 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:50.800 it new? 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:53.440 He knew exactly what it took to pull it off. 0:18:54.040 --> 0:18:56.840 He was familiar. Yeah, he was familiar with these kind 0:18:56.880 --> 0:19:00.720 of targets. He devised a meticulous plan to get access. 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:03.400 So first he had to like scope the place out, 0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:06.800 but he did it in style. He rented two flats, 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:10.520 one in Saint John's Wood and the other in Hampstead. Okay, 0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:11.920 and then his car. 0:19:12.119 --> 0:19:14.000 I'm gonna need two apartments a ferrari. 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:19.040 Of course, he drove a white Ferrari Mondialo and I 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:23.000 made a joke about drug deals out of a ferrari before. Well, 0:19:23.119 --> 0:19:25.640 as you can probably guess. This guy who, by the way, 0:19:25.680 --> 0:19:27.720 people called the Italian Stallion. 0:19:28.160 --> 0:19:28.200 No. 0:19:28.600 --> 0:19:31.120 Yeah, he's got my friend's nickname, yes, but. 0:19:31.119 --> 0:19:34.680