WEBVTT - Be On The Lookout 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:18.000 With as much information as police had on Victor Harrana, 0:00:18.600 --> 0:00:21.840 they were surprisingly little to go off of. An A 0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:24.880 p B All points bulletin was put out on what 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:28.960 was believed to be the getaway car, a green seventy 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:33.879 three buick less Saber with Connecticut plates. Fortunately, that's all 0:00:33.920 --> 0:00:36.960 they needed. A car matching the description of the vehicle 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:41.000 used in the robbery had been spotted outside a nearby airfield, 0:00:41.760 --> 0:00:45.519 just five miles away from the Wells Fargo depot. It 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:49.880 was Victor's rented Buick backed into a parking spot outside 0:00:49.920 --> 0:00:52.520 the Swiss Shell, a inn and now defunct two story 0:00:52.600 --> 0:00:58.120 motel chain within walking distance to Brainard Airport. Federal agents 0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:01.320 got a warrant to go inside the vehicle. The cash 0:01:01.440 --> 0:01:04.039 was gone, of course, along with any traces of Victor. 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:08.920 Police reports show he had left the loaded thirty eight 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:13.920 caliber Smith and Wesson revolver and twelve gage pump shotgun 0:01:14.000 --> 0:01:17.839 he used during the robbery in the car, fully visible 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:23.120 with the safeties off in the trunk. Transmission parts and 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:26.240 a black beret from a military equipment store in New 0:01:26.319 --> 0:01:31.760 York City began to realize from there he had he 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:36.840 had away car there, like the clean car Victor Heraina 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:39.319 couldn't have picked a better place to dump the car. 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:43.360 In addition to being next to the airfield, the motel 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:47.840 was adjacent to Interstate which runs from Connecticut all the 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:51.720 way to Canada. Police recreating the drive said it would 0:01:51.720 --> 0:01:54.080 have taken Victor just twelve minutes to get to the 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:58.680 motel from the Wells Fargo depot, and that's if he 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:02.600 was going to speed limit. Detective Ken O'Brien helped with 0:02:02.680 --> 0:02:08.240 the investigation. There's some speculation about was there an airplane involved. 0:02:08.320 --> 0:02:11.800 It's a state airport, but it's a private planes flying 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:14.639 and the towers wasn't always means at the time, and 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:18.480 you can lean it's, you know, in the twin engine 0:02:18.480 --> 0:02:20.560 plane there easily, but there were no reports of Oh 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:23.880 my god, So the guy puts seven million dollars of 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:27.120 cash into a car and no one knows where he 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:30.639 is right, no no idea And it's fiance a Ledgers, 0:02:30.720 --> 0:02:33.880 she has no idea wi she has any contact with him. 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:37.480 Between the two consecutive car hanks, the security guards heard 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:41.360 during the robbery presumed signal to someone waiting outside the depot, 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:44.200 and approximately one thousand pounds of cash that needed to 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:48.000 be transported. Police were working under the assumption that victor 0:02:48.080 --> 0:02:52.079 had some help but from home. Now everything's going to 0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:54.480 our minds that he has to rent a van, something 0:02:54.480 --> 0:03:00.440 else the suspect was. He fled the area and another vehicle. 0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:11.200 Now beginning to realize maybe he wasn't alone. Previously on 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:14.400 White Eagle, I said, getting her right away. We just 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:19.480 had a robbery at Wells Fargo and it's a huge robbery, 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:23.079 and it looks like he had everything with it. He 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:27.840 needed to restrain one person, but there were two people. 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:31.480 I knew that that car was important in the case 0:03:31.600 --> 0:03:35.520 because it wasn't his and he could indicate a cole conspirator. 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:37.840 Why do you beat the horn? He's not saying goodbye 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:42.520 to these two guys. He's saying, I'm coming out. My 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:46.160 name is Zem William Phelps. I'm an investigative journalist and 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:49.680 author of more than forty true crime books. What you 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:52.600 were about to hear is the true story of a heist, 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:57.160 one that funded an international independence movement and sparked an 0:03:57.200 --> 0:04:03.080 investigation spanning nearly four day gates. This is White Eagle. 0:04:15.000 --> 0:04:18.919 The Wells Fargo depot robbery is arguably the most high 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:22.240 profile case to come across the West Harford Police Department 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:27.320 in Connecticut, an investigation ultimately involving the FBI's fifty nine 0:04:27.400 --> 0:04:31.839 field offices, scores of agents, other government agencies, and the 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:36.400 Hartford and West Harford Police all putting in hundreds of 0:04:36.520 --> 0:04:39.880 hours of work. It was the biggest robbery case we 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:42.760 ever had. We used all kind of manpower in this case. 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:46.039 During my research into the case, there were a number 0:04:46.080 --> 0:04:47.960 of people I knew I needed to speak with to 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:51.520 get a better sense of how things operated among law enforcements. 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:56.200 Detective kennel'brien was one of them. His resume is impressive. 0:04:56.839 --> 0:04:59.560 During his twenty eight years as a police officer with 0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:02.440 the West hard For Police Department, Ken was also on 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:06.839 the Arson Task Force and studied forensics before being sworn 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:10.719 in as a special federal agent with the State's Attorney's Office. 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:16.039 Ken is now retired. He's originally from Boston, but his 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:19.520 ties to Connecticut run deep. He's lived there with his 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:23.240 wife of fifty four years since nineteen sixty seven. Thank 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:26.640 you for the coffee. We had been in communication for 0:05:26.760 --> 0:05:29.800 months at this point, so he suggested we meet in 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:33.479 person and do our interview at his house. So I 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:36.839 have all the reports right here. Yeah, I have all 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:40.760 the reports from the case. Yeah. Kenn O'Brien is a 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:43.760 man of many words, sometimes too many when you get 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:47.320 him going. But it's impossible not to love the guy, 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:49.479 even when he screens his calls in the middle of 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:55.800 an interview. It's it's a depth of office. Somebody's got 0:05:56.000 --> 0:05:59.040 one of us has a depth of appointment, So can 0:05:59.080 --> 0:06:06.159 I talk to that? Go ahead? So then that doggedness 0:06:06.279 --> 0:06:08.760 to finish the story is part of what made Ken 0:06:08.920 --> 0:06:13.080 such a great detective all those years. It's been nearly 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:17.280 four decades and he still has a vivid memory of 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:21.400 what happened after the robbery. He says, the gravity of 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:26.000 the situation became utterly apparent when the FBI rolled into 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:30.159 town just hours after the heist. By four am, the 0:06:30.160 --> 0:06:33.920 West Harford Police Station was ground zero. They come in 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:35.599 with a team. I bet you that had to be 0:06:35.640 --> 0:06:38.960 a half dozen agents came in and we had a 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:42.200 conference room. Well we all gathered together and it's like 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:45.760 a briefing of his what we know, and everybody drew 0:06:45.839 --> 0:06:47.880 in a little bit of information they had, what they 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:50.240 had done that night before to bring them off the 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:58.720 speed By then Victor Haraina's photo was everywhere. I can 0:06:58.760 --> 0:07:01.720 remember as a six year old kid myself growing up 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:05.039 in the area seeing that image of Victor's head shot 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:08.600 from his Wells Fargo I D badge running across all 0:07:08.680 --> 0:07:11.360 the TV stations and printed above the fold in the 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:16.040 newspapers day after day. You just could not avoid it. 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:19.920 Since much of the stolen currency was Federal reserve money, 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:23.200 the FBI took the lead. Whoever in the charge of 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:26.880 the agents looked around and said where are the phones? 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:28.920 And there was only one phone in the conference room 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:31.760 sitting on a window sill, and he said, that's one phone. 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:34.440 That's not our phone. We'll get more phones, I guarantee. 0:07:34.560 --> 0:07:36.840 Within a few hours there was like six or eight phones. 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:40.040 Then they just make a call boom. I had six 0:07:40.120 --> 0:07:45.320 or eight phone, didn't no kidding, Yeah, unbelievable. They come 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:50.880 in and they like the statue they have that's for me. 0:07:50.960 --> 0:07:55.520 It's committee town committee with him you know here' even 0:07:55.520 --> 0:07:59.440 message goes on and on. How was that relationship between 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:02.760 the two apartments. We had a real good relationship with 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:06.200 the agents. In fact, we had behind the police station 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:08.880 was the old now it's called the town hall, but 0:08:08.920 --> 0:08:10.480 it was the old high school and had a track 0:08:10.840 --> 0:08:14.600 and the agents would come and go jogging on that track. 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:18.119 And we had a locker room and lockers, the amend 0:08:18.120 --> 0:08:20.640 and woman agents male and female, and we had a 0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:25.360 gym and the Remember the FBI actually paid for a 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:27.800 couple of pieces of equipment so they could use it. 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:39.000 The FBI working alongside the West Harford Police Department wasn't unusual. 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:43.440 The Bureau would routinely assist officers and state and local 0:08:43.480 --> 0:08:48.880 cases investigating organized crime, drug trafficking, or in this case, 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:53.800 the theft and transport of seven million dollars in cash, 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:58.240 but the manpower in this case was different. The FBI 0:08:58.360 --> 0:09:01.319 had even sent in profile is up from its headquarters 0:09:01.320 --> 0:09:05.600 in Quantico, Virginia. A state arrest warrant plus two federal 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:09.760 arrest warrants were signed, charging Victor Hereina with a number 0:09:09.800 --> 0:09:13.800 of offenses, theft from an interstate shipment of funds belonging 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:17.960 to Federal Reserve member banks, theft of those funds, and 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:21.160 using a weapon in the process of the crime, an 0:09:21.360 --> 0:09:26.720 unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. If Caughton convicted, victor was 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:30.240 likely looking at decades behind bars in a federal prison. 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:36.679 For Detective Kenn O'Brien, every little detail mattered. Take up 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:39.319 five thousand piece puzzle and dumping on a table, and 0:09:39.280 --> 0:09:41.720 now I'm started to try to put pieces together. To 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:44.040 each team, we'd go out, then at the end of 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:47.160 the day we'd meet again at the Detective Division and 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:51.640 there'd be exchange of information. Each day we put another 0:09:51.640 --> 0:09:54.600 piece at a puzzle together. They'd go out in teams 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:58.800 the West Hartford PD, driving federal aigents around town serving 0:09:58.840 --> 0:10:03.440 as backup. They also looked into local leads, friends of Victor, 0:10:03.559 --> 0:10:07.200 former co workers, his excess, as well as his bride 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:10.920 to be, twenty year old Anna Soda. I don't think 0:10:10.920 --> 0:10:12.520 he told any of his family what he was going 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:15.079 to do, and she was devastated. I don't think she 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:17.720 knew if she knew, she's a great actress, because she 0:10:18.040 --> 0:10:30.200 was devastated that night. During the first few days after 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:34.920 the robbery, Anna Soda wavered between witness and suspect. She 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:38.559 was engaged to Victor Harina. She had lived with him 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:42.360 for two years. Could she have had some knowledge of 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:47.679 his movements? Was he contacting her? Victor's bride to be 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:51.360 said she had no idea where he was or why 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:53.800 he'd robbed the depot in the first place. He was 0:10:53.880 --> 0:11:01.680 very nice, quite uh nervous, very nervous, but sto naive 0:11:01.720 --> 0:11:05.320 as Anna seemed. Investigators quickly learned she was hiding crucial 0:11:05.360 --> 0:11:09.240 details about Victor's getaway car. She claimed to have no 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:13.880 knowledge of the rented Buick, but neighbors and friends they 0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:18.160 told a different story. One witness reported seeing Victor with 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:21.120 the buick on Saturday the tenth, the same day he 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:24.679 got it from the rental agency. She said he used 0:11:24.720 --> 0:11:26.840 it to pick up a pizza for dinner and even 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:30.440 parked it on the street outside of his apartment, also 0:11:30.600 --> 0:11:34.680 enjoying the car's perks, Anna Soda. Others close to the 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:37.440 couple told police Anna was seen riding in the car 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:41.360 that weekend, and Victor even drove her somewhere the morning 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:46.000 of the robbery. When police found the buick, they noted 0:11:46.040 --> 0:11:48.720 that Victor had put eighty seven miles on the car 0:11:48.720 --> 0:11:51.640 in just two and a half days, meaning he'd driven 0:11:51.679 --> 0:11:55.600 it a hell of a lot. She's the greatest flying 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:59.239 in the world, and she's telling the truth despite the deception. 0:11:59.440 --> 0:12:03.440 To this a. Both detectives Ken O'Brien and Steve Luby 0:12:03.679 --> 0:12:07.480 describe Anna Soto as a nice person and think Victor 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:09.960 left her in the dark. I didn't know it at 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:13.640 the time, but other things were true about the marriage application, 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:16.400 that you know, we're living together, all the other background 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:18.600 stuff she gave me it was true. But the car 0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:22.280 became important because her lying about the car made us 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:25.080 think that she obviously knew more about the case. Was 0:12:25.160 --> 0:12:28.840 determined that I would arrest her for hindering prosecution and 0:12:28.840 --> 0:12:32.120 giving a false statement. Uh and maybe use that as 0:12:32.120 --> 0:12:36.120 a chance to get more out of her. Anna Soto 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:40.880 was arrested on September fift becoming the first arrest connected 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:45.400 to the Wells Fargo robbery. Detective Luby says they were 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:48.080 hoping the threat of jail time would convince Anna to 0:12:48.120 --> 0:12:52.480 offer more information, anything that might lead them to Victor. 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:59.040 It didn't work. Anna Soto lawyered up and stop talking. 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:03.920 He had an attorney, Mike Graham. Mike was a character. 0:13:04.000 --> 0:13:08.360 He was how can I say it nicely, He's a 0:13:08.360 --> 0:13:12.600 little slick. He was making early threats. You know, from 0:13:12.640 --> 0:13:16.319 the defense attorney's standpoint, they're good threats to be made, 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:20.120 that we were harassing her, that we there was talk 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:22.200 about how they took her out that night, out of 0:13:22.200 --> 0:13:26.160 her apartment and a nightgown at gunpoint to search the apartment. 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:31.320 So Mike was threatening lossuit for all of us involved. Obviously, 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:33.440 you're going to clear the house if he isn't there. 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:35.720 We know he's armed if he isn't there, So I 0:13:35.760 --> 0:13:38.160 don't care if she was completely naked. She's coming out 0:13:38.360 --> 0:13:44.360 quick and we're going in. Anna was released on bond 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:47.120 shortly after midnight. A little more than a month later, 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:51.440 a state prosecutor dropped the charges, telling reporters at the 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:55.760 time he was concerned it would hinder the federal investigation. 0:13:57.920 --> 0:13:59.840 I've reached out to Anna to see if she would 0:13:59.840 --> 0:14:02.960 be willing to share her story on the podcast, but 0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:07.320 I never heard back. She was young when she was 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:10.880 engaged to Victor, just twenty and studying to be a beautician. 0:14:11.520 --> 0:14:15.120 Like Victor, she was deeply connected to her Puerto Rican roots. 0:14:15.800 --> 0:14:18.600 Anna had lived there for a time with relatives and 0:14:18.679 --> 0:14:21.680 returned to the States a few years before the heist. 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:25.280 At first, it seemed as though Anna's relationship to Victor 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:28.720 made her a major player in this story, but within 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:32.280 days she turned into nothing more than a witness. With 0:14:32.440 --> 0:14:36.560 very little information upon In an elaborate chess game, the 0:14:36.600 --> 0:14:40.200 FEDS were still trying to win, and Victor Harraina seemed 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:45.160 to be one step ahead. Unlike his amateurish work restraining 0:14:45.160 --> 0:14:48.960 the two security guards at the depot, Victor's moves now 0:14:49.080 --> 0:14:53.520 felt more professional and calculated, far more than the West 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:59.360 Hartford police and FBI would have ever anticipated, promising leads 0:14:59.400 --> 0:15:04.080 would f allowed into nothing. Police reports detailed countless sightings 0:15:04.080 --> 0:15:06.960 of Victor, and yet none of them ever panned out. 0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:11.760 In all likelihood, was just someone who looked like the guy. 0:15:12.360 --> 0:15:14.800 There was an alleged sighting in Boston of a man 0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:17.720 fitting Victor's description. He was said to be high on 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:21.720 drugs and sleeping on a park bench days after the robbery. 0:15:22.080 --> 0:15:25.400 Another weeks later from a man claiming Victor asked him 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:29.120 for a ride to a West Harford apartment complex. One 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:31.640 man even came forward and said he was good friends 0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:36.440 with Victor, speculating that he probably fled the country, maybe 0:15:36.440 --> 0:15:40.720 to Argentina. And another so called acquaintance who happened to 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:44.040 rent a single engine airplane the night of the robbery 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:50.960 and flew from Brainard Airport to Boston and back I 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:53.400 believe the FBI followed up on that checking to see 0:15:53.400 --> 0:15:56.160 if the plane because they would have to do something, 0:15:56.240 --> 0:15:58.240 you know, before they could use the airport, they'd have 0:15:58.320 --> 0:16:00.160 to check in or do something a plane, and it 0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:01.880 would be some record of a plane coming to going, 0:16:02.640 --> 0:16:08.360 and soon they found nothing. There were several leads, however, 0:16:08.680 --> 0:16:13.360 that got law enforcements attention. Take for instance, an envelope 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:16.840 that arrived in November that year, postmark from Buffalo, New 0:16:16.920 --> 0:16:21.040 York and sent to Victor's lawyer's office in Hartford. Inside 0:16:21.520 --> 0:16:25.800 were three letters purportedly from Victor to his attorney Mike Graham, 0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:32.160 fiance Anna Soto, and Victor's mother Gloria. In one, Victor 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:36.000 thanks Graham for representing his fiance and others. He says 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:39.520 he's fine and apologizes for any of the trouble the 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:43.560 robbery may have caused. His mother and Anna. Graham told 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:47.880 police the letters contents made Victor's family doubt he'd written them, 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:51.920 but they did say the handwriting looked like his. Well. 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:56.000 The FBI agreed. A handwriting analysis and other lap tests 0:16:56.040 --> 0:17:00.440 confirmed that Victor Harraina was the author of the letters, 0:17:03.040 --> 0:17:06.159 yet there was no way to tell when the letters 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:11.560 were actually written, which now raises the question was Victor 0:17:11.680 --> 0:17:16.600 even still alive, and even if he was, why in 0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:25.359 the world would he risk getting caught. Because of this, 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:29.720 law enforcement stepped up at search at least twenty FBI 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:34.040 agents who are assigned to Canvas Buffalo's Latino neighborhoods. The 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:37.679 Bureau even asked Canadian authorities for help. They agreed and 0:17:37.760 --> 0:17:40.760 promised to search the area as far north as Toronto. 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:45.840 From the outside, it doesn't make much sense, really. A 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:48.399 twenty five year old who is engaged to be married 0:17:48.760 --> 0:17:52.760 overcomes two of his coworkers, steal seven million dollars in 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:57.480 cash and drives away no guarantee of contact with his 0:17:57.560 --> 0:18:02.400 loved ones ever again without going to prison. Who was 0:18:02.440 --> 0:18:08.639 this person? He was clean. Whiston was perfect guy for 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:28.040 the drop. It should come as no surprise that news 0:18:28.080 --> 0:18:32.080 of the Wells Fargo depot heist was everywhere. The thief 0:18:32.160 --> 0:18:34.119 had so much money to steal from here that he 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:36.879 couldn't even haul it all away. Police estimate that he 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:41.960 left about a million dollars behind. Everyone, including law enforcement, 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:46.240 was baffled. A tabloid in Boston called the robbery the 0:18:46.280 --> 0:18:49.760 Big Sleep Heist, a reference to Victor Harain has failed 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:53.760 attempt to drug his co workers. It was huge news. 0:18:53.840 --> 0:18:55.520 I mean it was all over the front page of 0:18:55.600 --> 0:18:58.280 every place in the world. Ed mahoney is the harf 0:18:58.280 --> 0:19:00.720 for Current Reporter. You heard in the last st episode. 0:19:01.440 --> 0:19:05.600 Everybody figured that they knew that Victor Herain, it was 0:19:05.640 --> 0:19:08.119 the inside man, and everybody was waiting for his body 0:19:08.160 --> 0:19:11.600 to pop up someplace because they figured Weber pulled this 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:14.280 thing off Houston and he would prove to be expendable. 0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:18.199 Years before Ed began investigating Victor Haraina's role in the 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:22.040 Wells Fargo robbery, he helped expose one of America's most 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:29.199 notorious violent organized crime figures, James Whitey Boulger. Whitey was 0:19:29.480 --> 0:19:32.840 under investigation for a million years in Boston to kill 0:19:32.880 --> 0:19:35.199 all kinds of people when he was responsible for all 0:19:35.280 --> 0:19:39.399 kinds of mayhem and violence and law enforcement corruption. But 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:41.440 I think one of the things that really put him 0:19:41.440 --> 0:19:46.400 on the national map was his involvement in the murder 0:19:46.440 --> 0:19:49.200 of two or three figures associated with a company called 0:19:49.200 --> 0:19:52.600 World Highlight. The World Highlight murders would end up being 0:19:52.640 --> 0:19:56.399 one of the stories that defined Ed Mahoney's career. Victor 0:19:56.440 --> 0:20:00.400 Haraina was another, and for anyone who thought they knew 0:20:00.480 --> 0:20:08.679 Victor Haraina, a broader picture was beginning to emerge. Victor was, 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:12.399 you know. He was from the Brooks in New York, 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:17.119 and for whatever reason, his mother moved the family from 0:20:17.200 --> 0:20:24.000 the Bronx two Hartford, presumably in search of a more tranquil, 0:20:24.119 --> 0:20:28.800 better safer life. They ended up in UH one of 0:20:28.800 --> 0:20:35.680 the housing projects, and Victor ended up being a good kid. 0:20:36.400 --> 0:20:39.840 Victor attended Buckley High School in Hartford. He was popular 0:20:39.880 --> 0:20:42.720 and well liked, a fairly good student. If you met 0:20:42.800 --> 0:20:45.239 him in the early seventies, you'd probably see him as 0:20:45.240 --> 0:20:48.800 a kind of guy who was going places. He played 0:20:48.880 --> 0:20:52.119 varsity football and was captain of the wrestling team. He 0:20:52.200 --> 0:20:54.240 was a trained peer counselor and a member of the 0:20:54.320 --> 0:20:58.199 Human Relations Club. He had little interest in politics, but 0:20:58.359 --> 0:21:01.080 was a member of the student council. He was a 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:04.359 kid from a very very immodest background in a touch life, 0:21:04.400 --> 0:21:07.440 and he was making something in it himself. Victor's junior year, 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:11.520 he was selected to participate in Upward Bound, a federally 0:21:11.520 --> 0:21:15.119 funded youth advancement program that allowed him to take an 0:21:15.200 --> 0:21:20.680 intensive curriculum of courses at nearby Trinity college. By senior year, 0:21:21.160 --> 0:21:24.280 he was awarded a thousand dollar scholarship and was chosen 0:21:24.320 --> 0:21:27.920 to be a legislative intern at the General Assembly. He 0:21:28.040 --> 0:21:31.720 get a job as some kind of an intern at 0:21:31.720 --> 0:21:34.840 the state capitol with a woman who was kind of 0:21:34.880 --> 0:21:41.040 a famous figure in the democratic politics. That woman was 0:21:41.160 --> 0:21:44.919 Maryan Delaney, a strong willed figure in politics who for 0:21:45.000 --> 0:21:48.600 twenty seven years helped run the clerk's office at the 0:21:48.640 --> 0:21:54.120 Connecticut House of Representatives. According to Ed Mahoney, Delaney took 0:21:54.119 --> 0:21:57.480 to Victor and advised him on everything from what he 0:21:57.520 --> 0:22:01.000 wore to how he spoke. Took him under a wing, 0:22:01.480 --> 0:22:05.679 and that was what went wrong. Victor had his choice 0:22:05.680 --> 0:22:09.879 of colleges to attend. He was reportedly considering the University 0:22:09.920 --> 0:22:14.600 of Connecticut and Trinity College, but Marion Delaney became a 0:22:14.760 --> 0:22:18.320 powerful influence over Victor and convinced him to go to 0:22:18.400 --> 0:22:22.159 her alma mater. She got him into this kind of 0:22:22.280 --> 0:22:29.280 really weird, strict Catholic college in Woodstock, Connecticut called Annehurst College, 0:22:29.640 --> 0:22:31.879 you know, which was run by a bunch of nuns 0:22:32.160 --> 0:22:35.320 and was on the verge of bankruptcy. The former all 0:22:35.359 --> 0:22:39.120 women's college was in such financial despair that they had 0:22:39.160 --> 0:22:42.919 recently expanded the student body to include men. In the 0:22:42.960 --> 0:22:45.920 fall of nineteen seventy six, Victor was one of two 0:22:45.920 --> 0:22:50.160 dozen male students among two hundred female classmates. A quarterly 0:22:50.200 --> 0:22:53.080 con kid from inner city Hartford just didn't fin in 0:22:53.119 --> 0:22:56.520 a place like this. Woodstock, Connecticut is only a forty 0:22:56.560 --> 0:22:59.640 five minute drive from Harvard, yet for a kid from 0:22:59.640 --> 0:23:02.760 the pro objects, it might as well be a world away. 0:23:03.000 --> 0:23:08.440 Woodstock is rural with rolling green hills, large estates, and wineries. 0:23:09.200 --> 0:23:11.760 And there's Victor, you know, penniless, stuck out in the 0:23:11.800 --> 0:23:15.160 middle of nowhere in the woods, with no money, no car, 0:23:15.280 --> 0:23:19.560 no nothing, and it just kind of fell apart. Victor 0:23:19.640 --> 0:23:23.199 left Annhurst without finishing his freshman year, and from that 0:23:23.240 --> 0:23:27.080 point on things took a turn. He jumped from one 0:23:27.200 --> 0:23:30.840 job to the next. Police reports show he worked at 0:23:30.840 --> 0:23:33.480 the state capitol, where he had interned as a student, 0:23:34.160 --> 0:23:38.000 before finding work as a roofer, a special education counselor 0:23:38.040 --> 0:23:41.320 at the Harford Board of Education, an apprentice at a 0:23:41.359 --> 0:23:45.600 local aerospace company, and at one point he even joined 0:23:45.600 --> 0:23:50.840 the National Guard. There were a series of relationships as well. 0:23:51.200 --> 0:23:56.800 In Victor left his longtime girlfriend Maggie not long before 0:23:56.880 --> 0:23:59.679 she was due to give birth to their daughter for 0:23:59.720 --> 0:24:03.600 an old friend from high school named Pamela. The two 0:24:03.640 --> 0:24:06.760 married and split up that same year, when Pamela was 0:24:06.800 --> 0:24:11.520 three months pregnant with Victor's second child. Pamela told police 0:24:11.520 --> 0:24:13.960 the marriage ended because it was clear he still had 0:24:14.040 --> 0:24:17.440 feelings for Maggie. For the next few years, Victor went 0:24:17.480 --> 0:24:21.399 back and forth between the two women. They eventually joined 0:24:21.400 --> 0:24:23.919 forces to get him to pay child support, and by 0:24:24.760 --> 0:24:27.720 two he was paying them and planning a new life 0:24:27.920 --> 0:24:36.879 with Anna Soda. Both exes described Victor as a loving father, 0:24:37.359 --> 0:24:41.560 though not always present. They said he was traditional. He 0:24:41.680 --> 0:24:44.560 liked to be the breadwinner, even though he had trouble 0:24:44.800 --> 0:24:49.160 holding down a job. Even the Wells Fargo depot job 0:24:49.240 --> 0:24:53.320 wasn't a given. Victor's brother told police Victor had actually 0:24:53.359 --> 0:24:56.920 been suspended for a month earlier that summer over an 0:24:56.920 --> 0:25:02.639 issue involving some missing money. Detective Steve Luby says police 0:25:02.640 --> 0:25:06.040 thought Victor saw an opportunity and seized on it. You know, 0:25:06.119 --> 0:25:08.320 some local kids saw this money. He's dealing with this 0:25:08.440 --> 0:25:10.840 money every day, figures this is gonna be an easy heist. 0:25:10.880 --> 0:25:14.760 These armored car people, they were notorious for being careless 0:25:14.800 --> 0:25:17.280 with money. I mean, we had reports in the past 0:25:17.320 --> 0:25:20.040 of five thousand dollars dropping off the rear bumper in 0:25:20.080 --> 0:25:22.040 a bag and these things when the guys drove off 0:25:22.080 --> 0:25:24.119 and forgot to put it in the truck. You know, 0:25:24.160 --> 0:25:27.200 they handled large amount of moneys. But the security, if 0:25:27.200 --> 0:25:29.360 you look back at the security, it was not that 0:25:29.400 --> 0:25:33.120 good at a lot of these companies. Pamela, Victor's ex 0:25:33.119 --> 0:25:35.679 wife and the mother of his second child, said she 0:25:35.800 --> 0:25:39.080 never understood why he went through with the robbery, but 0:25:39.240 --> 0:25:41.919 didn't think he could have pulled it off alone. She 0:25:41.960 --> 0:25:44.840 said she wouldn't be surprised if he wound up dead 0:25:44.920 --> 0:25:50.920 somewhere and maybe, just maybe he'd gotten in over his head. 0:25:52.080 --> 0:25:54.520 She also told pal Lae something that stuck with me, 0:25:54.800 --> 0:25:58.120 a potential motive even She said Victor had a tendency 0:25:58.160 --> 0:26:01.560 to run. He left mag when she was nine months pregnant, 0:26:01.960 --> 0:26:04.240 He left her when she was three months pregnant, and 0:26:04.280 --> 0:26:06.840 now it seems he ran out on Anna before they 0:26:06.880 --> 0:26:11.800 got married. The big question at the time, where would 0:26:11.880 --> 0:26:19.080 Victor run too? And all the stuff are getting early 0:26:19.080 --> 0:26:21.439 on him. It was like a longe wolf. He he 0:26:21.440 --> 0:26:23.720 would He was never involved in much of anything that 0:26:23.800 --> 0:26:26.199 we could determine. It's like, all of a sudden, this 0:26:26.240 --> 0:26:29.440 guy just existed and there wasn't a lot of background, 0:26:29.480 --> 0:26:32.520 a bottom to be had. Police thought Victor saw an 0:26:32.520 --> 0:26:36.760 opportunity and he took it. They didn't think for one 0:26:36.880 --> 0:26:41.639 minute was some kind of mastermind criminal. Then about six 0:26:41.680 --> 0:26:44.680