Speaker 1: Ridiculous crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Zaren Elizabeth, Zaron Burnett.
Speaker 3: What's up a girl?
Speaker 2: How do you do?
Speaker 3: I'm doing pretty good. What's up at you?
Speaker 2: As much? Not that much?
Speaker 3: It's ridiculous. I'm so glad you asked.
Speaker 2: I know me too.
Speaker 4: You lived in the South for a while, as did I,
Speaker 4: so I know that you're familiar with biblical theme parks.
Speaker 3: Yeah, right, Well there was one in.
Speaker 4: Northern Kentucky called Arc Encounter, Okay, and it's an encounter
Speaker 4: with Noah's Ark, right, I want to make that clear. Yeah,
Speaker 4: So they had a huge Noah's Ark replica and like
Speaker 4: a bunch of other stuff. Right, it was just like
Speaker 4: a whole just imagine lots of like, oh, there's two
Speaker 4: animals and two animals.
Speaker 3: You get the idea, right. Well.
Speaker 4: In twenty nineteen, the Washington Post ran a headline updating
Speaker 4: people on how things are going at the Noah's Ark
Speaker 4: theme park Arc Encounter. And I love this headline just
Speaker 4: for the subtle irony. And I thought you would too. Yes,
Speaker 4: here's the headline. Lawyers for Noah's Ark Theme Park are
Speaker 4: suing it's in insurance company for rain damage. It turns
Speaker 4: out there was a landslide that encountered the arc encounter
Speaker 4: ruined it, like like a million dollars worth of damage,
Speaker 4: and the insurance companies were like, you should have seen
Speaker 4: this coming.
Speaker 2: I mean, really, repress.
Speaker 3: Anybody should see this coming.
Speaker 4: It's you, and you can't claim act of God, because
Speaker 4: come on now, I thought that was awesome.
Speaker 2: It's incredible.
Speaker 4: There's a whole lawsuit filed and everything. I didn't look
Speaker 4: to see if they want or lost. I just liked
Speaker 4: the lawsuit. I like the whole Yeah, nineteen if.
Speaker 3: You want to look it up, good luck, arc encounter encounter.
Speaker 3: So there you go. Ridiculous.
Speaker 2: That is ridiculous. Do you want to know what else
Speaker 2: is ridiculous?
Speaker 3: Oh my god?
Speaker 2: Yes, Ethical crime. This is Ridiculous Crime A podcast about
Speaker 2: absurd and outrageous caper's heists and cons. It's always ninety
Speaker 2: nine percent murder free and one hundred percent ridiculous.
Speaker 3: Oh damn right, hot dog.
Speaker 2: If I got a corker for you today, really.
Speaker 3: By this guy, he's the cork don't put it back in.
Speaker 2: He's He's destined to be a ridiculous crime all star.
Speaker 3: Really, yeah, I praise.
Speaker 2: And there's there's so much to him. I just need
Speaker 2: to dive right in.
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm here.
Speaker 2: Name Arthur Berry b A R R Y.
Speaker 3: Thank you for spelling. I would probably be my head
Speaker 3: be going. Is it the day? Is it with A?
Speaker 3: It's with with A? You?
Speaker 2: Ethnic background Irish American? Place of birth Worcestern, Massachusetts.
Speaker 3: Oh, I know.
Speaker 2: You're a birth eighteen ninety six. Number of siblings eleven.
Speaker 2: It was ninth of twelve kids. That's a lot of
Speaker 2: kids to keep track of.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you think you know.
Speaker 2: So it's not really shocking that he fell in with
Speaker 2: the wrong crowd pretty early.
Speaker 3: Because he was out of the house.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's like, please, there's no room in here. And
Speaker 2: he fell under the sway of a local hood fellow
Speaker 2: by the name of Loull Jack.
Speaker 4: Like from Lowell, Massachusetts. It's like, I'm Lowell Jack. Right
Speaker 4: to work on your nickname, son.
Speaker 2: According to the Utterly Interesting blog, that one Lowell Jack
Speaker 2: was quote a notorious safecracker known for brewing up nitro
Speaker 2: glycerine in back rooms. As a boy, Arthur's job was
Speaker 2: to ferry this volatile cargo to accomplices in nearby towns.
Speaker 3: That is both a dangerous job and hobby. Like, oh,
Speaker 3: what do you do?
Speaker 4: I'm mixed up nitro? I mean like you do know,
Speaker 4: like you drop a few drops, it can go boom.
Speaker 2: That's a great first job.
Speaker 3: Yeah, as a kid, like, don't spill this.
Speaker 2: My first job was tutoring reading when I was a
Speaker 2: freshman in high school. It was your first job.
Speaker 4: Technically it was paper boy, paper boy. Yeah, I started
Speaker 4: when I was like ten years old.
Speaker 2: You know, Arthur running nitro. Yeah, everyone's got a good
Speaker 2: first job. By the time he was fifteen, he was
Speaker 2: way beyond that. Those just like a nitro boy, I
Speaker 2: imagine he was a full time robber boy.
Speaker 3: Oh there you go. Yeah.
Speaker 2: His first job made him one hundred dollars and that's
Speaker 2: like thirty five hundred dollars today.
Speaker 3: So he wasn't a cut purse like sneak thiever.
Speaker 2: No, he was breaking any city.
Speaker 3: I got you.
Speaker 2: It's not bad, but it was. It wasn't elegant. It
Speaker 2: was dirty work, not wet work, but not posh, and
Speaker 2: Arthur wanted to eventually be posh.
Speaker 3: Yeah this matter to him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so he did. He did his first stint inside,
Speaker 2: he got arrested and went to jail. When he was eighteen.
Speaker 3: Oh it was actual jail, not like boys school.
Speaker 2: Well it kind of, he was all grows up. It
Speaker 2: was actually a wrongful conviction, but whatever. He got sent
Speaker 2: to reform school.
Speaker 3: Oh so he did, yeah, right at the line.
Speaker 2: And then he decided, you know what, this this is terrible.
Speaker 2: I'm going to join the army. That'll be better.
Speaker 3: Oftentimes then, especially because this is right around World War One,
Speaker 3: that's the thing.
Speaker 2: Nineteen eighteen rolls around. He gets sent to Europe to
Speaker 2: fight in World War One, and he was a hero
Speaker 2: there in flanders Field. He was a medic. He took
Speaker 2: a leg wound, breathed in some poison gas. The usual
Speaker 2: for that time and place. Now, a hero should get
Speaker 2: a medal.
Speaker 3: No, typically, Yes, he was.
Speaker 2: Recommended for the Distinguished Service Cross, but he didn't get it.
Speaker 4: Was he an official medic or more like in a
Speaker 4: like a volunteer working with the Red Cross where he's
Speaker 4: not going to get it.
Speaker 2: No, No, he was an official he was, Yeah, but
Speaker 2: he didn't get it because he failed the swimsuit category.
Speaker 3: He was actually did you know I picture everything? I
Speaker 3: know you do?
Speaker 2: He was actually disqualified because he'd gone a wall for
Speaker 2: a bit soaking up the nightlife.
Speaker 3: In Paris while he was injured.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he took off. It was worth itbsolutely worth it,
Speaker 2: I thought, you said, R and R. He comes back
Speaker 2: to the States in nineteen nineteen, a man who has
Speaker 2: seen a lot too much. Probably he couldn't get a
Speaker 2: legit job. You know, he had a record and he
Speaker 2: didn't have any marketable skills.
Speaker 3: He maybe suffering from the PTSD as we got.
Speaker 2: Her back then to shell shock one thousand yard stare.
Speaker 2: So he went back to the work that he did
Speaker 2: know criming. Ah, there you go, and like he had
Speaker 2: a taste of the good life in France. You know,
Speaker 2: he'd snuck into these nightclubs. He saw how the other
Speaker 2: half lived it down exactly. He set his sights on
Speaker 2: those swells. So, according to this author Joe Pompeio, great
Speaker 2: writer quote, he inserted himself into New York high society,
Speaker 2: crashed parties, seemed to fit in in his tucks. But
Speaker 2: what he was really doing was casing the mansion so
Speaker 2: he could come back later, put a ladder up against
Speaker 2: the window and steal as many jewels as he could,
Speaker 2: hitting the fat cats. You love to see it around,
Speaker 2: calling himself Arthur J.
Speaker 3: Gibson okay, and sounds fake.
Speaker 2: And he went all in on like the act, like
Speaker 2: you know, Ethos. He wore the right clothes. He used
Speaker 2: that mid Atlantic Eastern New England English like Boston Brahman accent. Yeah,
Speaker 2: what's sometimes called the Harvard lockjaw. So of course she's
Speaker 2: the greatest novels. The English language was lit soon like
Speaker 2: that coming you know, thank you. He was acting like
Speaker 2: he knew and so this let him crash some incredible
Speaker 2: parties filled with incredibly.
Speaker 3: Wealthy people names I would know well.
Speaker 2: At those parties, in these luxurious mansions he strolled around,
Speaker 2: he memorized floor plans, he cased the joint Martini in hand,
Speaker 2: and they are names you will know. He was still
Speaker 2: getting the hang of it, though, and he managed to
Speaker 2: get arrested in nineteen twenty two to the old time.
Speaker 2: When he got out, he started working with a guy
Speaker 2: named Boston Billy Williams. Boston Boston Billy aka James Monaghan,
Speaker 2: so close enough they did.
Speaker 4: His crime name was Boston Billy Williams Bustin Billy.
Speaker 3: That is not anywhere near his real name.
Speaker 2: No, his real name is James Monaghan.
Speaker 4: So he's like, no, call me. I want a name
Speaker 4: that's easy to remember, like William Williams. No, that's not right,
Speaker 4: Bill Williams.
Speaker 3: No, No, Boston, Billy, Boston, Billy Williams.
Speaker 2: They each did solo jobs, but mostly they worked as
Speaker 2: a team, and they'd sneak in and burgle homes that
Speaker 2: Arthur had already scoped out. So this is in Connecticut,
Speaker 2: and then like Nassan Westchester Counties in New York posh
Speaker 2: zones in nineteen thirty two. He later said, quote I
Speaker 2: only robbed the rich. If a woman can carry around
Speaker 2: a necklace worth seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars, she
Speaker 2: knows where her next meal is coming from. Right amen.
Speaker 2: So Arthur later wrote, quote I discovered that Thursday was
Speaker 2: the customary maid's day off in most wealthy communities. I
Speaker 2: cultivated these shy strollers and a gabby sorority. They turned
Speaker 2: out to be flattered at the notice of a man
Speaker 2: of apparent means. After a few cocktails, I was sympathizing
Speaker 2: with them over the large and small inhumanities inflicted by
Speaker 2: their employers, and gaining a rather complete picture of the
Speaker 2: workings of their households. Heart smart man of the.
Speaker 3: People, a good listener, good exactly.
Speaker 2: So he's even more a man of the people when
Speaker 2: you look at who he stole from. Per author Dean
Speaker 2: job quote. His targets were the Long Island, Westchester County,
Speaker 2: and Connecticut estates of the Ultra Ridge. His victims included
Speaker 2: Percy Rockefeller, nephew of John Dee and one of the
Speaker 2: richest men in America, Tulsa oil tycoon, Joshua Cosden, Lady
Speaker 2: Edwin and Mount Batten, a member of Britain's royal family,
Speaker 2: Wall Street investing legend, Jesse Livermore bankers and industrialists, executives
Speaker 2: of Chrysler and General Motors, a famous polo player, and
Speaker 2: Jesse Donahue airs to the Woolworths five and dime store Fortune.
Speaker 3: Oh five and dime. They still got rich.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so this is the big leagues. He's not messing around,
Speaker 2: and he would refer to them as his clients. No,
Speaker 2: And I have to say, like his sense of humor
Speaker 2: and style with his whole operation was just fantastic. He'd
Speaker 2: sneak up on people while they snoozed in bed at night,
Speaker 2: tap them awake at gunpoint, and then very politely ask
Speaker 2: where they kept their jewelry. Oh yeah, and he'd say,
Speaker 2: I don't mean you any harm, and then he let
Speaker 2: them hang on to pieces of like sentimental value too.
Speaker 2: According to the Express UK quote, one awakened woman was
Speaker 2: given an aspirin her bathrobe and a glass of water
Speaker 2: by Barry when he sensed she may faint from the
Speaker 2: fright at having her jewelry box stolen. So he's like,
Speaker 2: they're there.
Speaker 3: Calm yourself, you'll buy more. It'll be fine, It'll be fine.
Speaker 2: One socialite told the press after falling victim to him, quote,
Speaker 2: I know he's terrible, but isn't he charming?
Speaker 3: And the softest boys.
Speaker 2: I want people to say that about me. I know
Speaker 2: she's terrible, but isn't she charming? We're going on the
Speaker 2: charming part, zaren close your eyes what I want you
Speaker 2: to picture.
Speaker 3: We're going in really, yes, blood blood.
Speaker 2: It's early October nineteen twenty five, and you, Arthur Berry,
Speaker 2: are strolling into the lobby of the Plaza Hotel in
Speaker 2: New York. You leave behind the crisp autumn air and
Speaker 2: the din of Fifth Avenue and enter the cavernous yet
Speaker 2: warm reception area. It smells of bees wax, polish and
Speaker 2: subtle scents from the finest candle makers in France. It's
Speaker 2: all gleaming marble and oriental rugs, gilding silver vases stuffed
Speaker 2: with fresh flowers, and an enormous crystal chandelier. It is impressive.
Speaker 2: You are nonplussed. You cross the lobby and head for
Speaker 2: the elevators, your tailored suit cutting a fine figure and
Speaker 2: blending you in with the rest of the elite visitors
Speaker 2: to the hotel. Step inside the elevator. It's mirrored outer
Speaker 2: doors and deeply polished wood gleaming. The elevator operator asks
Speaker 2: you which floor. You tell him you're visiting the Donahues
Speaker 2: and their suite. They're expecting you. He nods and presses
Speaker 2: a heavy button high on the panel. The doors glide closed,
Speaker 2: and the elevator creaks into light. You full silk gloves
Speaker 2: from your pocket and nonchalantly put them on. The elevator
Speaker 2: operator continues to stare forward. Finally you reach your destination.
Speaker 2: The door's open with the faint thing of a bell.
Speaker 2: You nod to the operator and step into the landing.
Speaker 2: The gold leaf doors to the elevator's slide closed.
Speaker 3: When they do.
Speaker 2: You walk to the door of the suite. This is
Speaker 2: the current abode of James and Jesse Donahue. He a stockbroker,
Speaker 2: she the heir to the Woolworth fortune. You've been to
Speaker 2: a party here a couple weeks ago. It's basically an apartment,
Speaker 2: huge plays with large windows overlooking Central Park. You've memorized
Speaker 2: the floor plan and know exactly where you're going. As
Speaker 2: you expected. The door to the suite is unlocked. You'd
Speaker 2: heard the missus joking about not remembering where the key was,
Speaker 2: as there was simply no need to lock the place.
Speaker 2: It was also cozy and secure, she crowed. It's late
Speaker 2: afternoon and that pre gloaming glow lights the sweet and
Speaker 2: warm light. You don't expect anyone to be home. You
Speaker 2: step quietly inside, and then you hear faint chatter and
Speaker 2: laughter coming from somewhere deep to your right. It's Missus Donahue,
Speaker 2: and it's coming from the master bedroom. No problem, nerves,
Speaker 2: a steal you've got. You turn to your right and
Speaker 2: head for the living room area, which you know leads
Speaker 2: to that main bedroom, and it's on sweet bath. You
Speaker 2: know there's nothing of value in the living room, nothing
Speaker 2: of value to you. Missus Donahue's voice gets only a
Speaker 2: little louder. You hear a second voice. It sounds like
Speaker 2: an older Russian lady. You freeze for a second and
Speaker 2: then proceed. You know that once you're in the bedroom,
Speaker 2: the cavernous bathroom is to your right and around a corner.
Speaker 2: In the bathroom cannot see those in the bedroom, and
Speaker 2: vice versa. But the dresser you need to access sits
Speaker 2: just outside the bathroom door. You peer around the corner
Speaker 2: and you see that the dual pocket doors to the
Speaker 2: bathroom are almost completely closed, but a sliver ajar. Through
Speaker 2: that sliver, you see Missus Donahue in the tub, feet
Speaker 2: propped up at the end of it, surrounded by bubbles,
Speaker 2: a glass of champagne resting on a ledge beside her.
Speaker 2: On a stool next to the tubsits a large woman
Speaker 2: in nurses whites the Russian. She rubs Missus Donahue's feet
Speaker 2: and nods along to her stories, occasionally contributing a pleasant,
Speaker 2: muttered acknowledgment. The hotel massuse perfect. You turn back toward
Speaker 2: the dresser and scope it out. Jackpot before you sit.
Speaker 2: Two pearl necklaces, one ten carrot diamond ring, one jeweled
Speaker 2: vanity case, one diamond bar pin and two diamond set rings.
Speaker 2: You lift the valuables one by one and slip them
Speaker 2: into the interior pocket of your suit jacket. You slowly
Speaker 2: and quietly close the dresser drawer while Missus Donnahue chats
Speaker 2: away about trying to decide on which first coach she
Speaker 2: likes best at the shop down the street. As you
Speaker 2: walk back through the bedroom, you spuy Missus Donohue's pocketbook.
Speaker 2: Might as well grab that too, and you peek inside
Speaker 2: and quickly count the money. Two hundred and seventy five dollars.
Speaker 2: Not bad. Before you know it, you're back down in
Speaker 2: the lobby again, the doorman opening the enormous art deco
Speaker 2: doors for you, nodding good evening to you as you
Speaker 2: step lightly down the red carpeted stairs and onto the
Speaker 2: sidewalk of bustling Fifth Avenue. You've just made off with
Speaker 2: seven hundred thousand dollars worth of loot. Not bad for
Speaker 2: fifteen minutes work.
Speaker 3: You know, I love that kind of work.
Speaker 2: If I can get it right, that heist would be
Speaker 2: worth more than thirteen million dollars today. So well done, Saron.
Speaker 3: You need to get a job on that. Sometimes you
Speaker 3: get lucky Elizabeth.
Speaker 2: Right, let's take a break and then I'll get back
Speaker 2: to you with more arthur Berry antics.
Speaker 3: All right, Zaron, you don't know that's my name?
Speaker 2: Is it? How dare you ask me that?
Speaker 3: No one ever calls me Dizzy around here anymore? Nor Woody?
Speaker 3: Is there both self given nickname Dizzy Woody.
Speaker 2: That's a new one.
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, that was before like things went bad for
Speaker 4: the Uh.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry to hear about that anyway.
Speaker 2: Arthur Berry. Nineteen twenty five was a good year for
Speaker 2: Arthur Berry.
Speaker 3: Nineteen twenty five.
Speaker 2: Nineteen twenty five. Big scores in the criming and a
Speaker 2: big score when it came to romance. He got together
Speaker 2: with a political worker named Anna Blake.
Speaker 3: Political worker. I don't know.
Speaker 2: I saw her described as such, and I going with that,
Speaker 2: figure it out, and I dug around, didn't get any clarification,
Speaker 2: and so I thought, okay, So I just kind of
Speaker 2: imagined her sitting in like an office, like scribbling on
Speaker 2: a pad and handing out campaign buttons to people.
Speaker 4: Oh see, I'm over here, picturing her as part of
Speaker 4: like the New York political machine, like Tammany Hall style,
Speaker 4: Like she's an operative, like.
Speaker 2: Could be who knows such a wide category.
Speaker 3: Worker could be.
Speaker 2: She could be pulled, ancer could be working. Then politicians,
Speaker 2: that's a political worker. Anyhow, she didn't know how Arthur
Speaker 2: had the money he had.
Speaker 3: Don't have to ask any questions, just just go with it.
Speaker 2: No exactly. She never suspected it was from crime.
Speaker 3: Really, it's kind of a sweet anothing girl.
Speaker 2: I guess over seven years, Arthur continued his career in jewelry.
Speaker 3: Jobs, and she didn't know over seven years.
Speaker 2: His total hal would add up to more than seventy
Speaker 2: five million dollars today.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he wasn't seeing that kind of money though on
Speaker 2: a regular basis. Like he had to run everything through
Speaker 2: a fence, and that meant he was getting pennies on
Speaker 2: the dollar something.
Speaker 3: So he stole seventies, he got.
Speaker 2: Dollars, and it was still a lot what he was
Speaker 2: pulling in, and he certainly spent what he made, which
Speaker 2: I could then maybe see why Anna Blake was like
Speaker 2: not aware that all this money had come in because
Speaker 2: it went out before she knew about it.
Speaker 4: H So you like telling her like he went at
Speaker 4: the ponies, I was like suddenly flushing suddenly.
Speaker 2: I don't know he was known to blow twenty five
Speaker 2: thousand dollars in a night on booze and gambling.
Speaker 3: Wow, and that's like, that's mostly gambling.
Speaker 2: That's almost three hundred thousand dollars for those playing along
Speaker 2: at home.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he wasn't good at gambling or drinking. No.
Speaker 2: According to the Winnipeg Free Press quote, Barry invested his
Speaker 2: winnings in a gambling club called the Harlequin, spent thousands
Speaker 2: in the city these clubs and speakeasies, and lived the
Speaker 2: high life while traveling to Miami in Paris. Yeah, so
Speaker 2: I mean I think that maybe she thought he just
Speaker 2: was like came from money, really, yeah, because that's what
Speaker 2: he was like pling around. Yeah, maybe she's so pretty. So,
Speaker 2: as we know, Arthur had a gift for insinuating himself
Speaker 2: into the world of America's moneyed elite, and on occasion
Speaker 2: their house guests, one of whom happened to be the
Speaker 2: Prince of Wales, the future Edward the Eighth. What Yeah,
Speaker 2: nineteen twenty four, Edward was nearing thirty and only like
Speaker 2: a decade away from his very famous brief turn on
Speaker 2: the throne. He crossed the Atlantic a lot came over here.
Speaker 3: Wasn't Wallace from over here in Simpsons. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And among his closest American friends were Joshua and
Speaker 2: Nellie Cosden, who had ridden one of the world's largest
Speaker 2: oil refineries in Tulsa.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the Tulsa Oil Boom. Things is like.
Speaker 2: Multi million dollar fortune there long island to state, the
Speaker 2: cedars in Sands Point became the Prince's favorite haunt. He
Speaker 2: loved going there, and the estate was like among the
Speaker 2: North Shore's finest. There were over three hundred acres of
Speaker 2: meadow and forest, three hundred acres of meadow and forest,
Speaker 2: nearly a mile of shoreline, a mile water views in
Speaker 2: two directions toward Manhasset Bay and Hempstead Harbor Tonya.
Speaker 4: Stealing resources from an indigenous population pays off, doesn't it?
Speaker 2: Though?
Speaker 4: I think the Prince and him or her them they
Speaker 4: would definitely see eye eye on that exactly.
Speaker 2: So he put up this mansion among the old trees there,
Speaker 2: laid out his own nine hole golf course, Yeah, moored
Speaker 2: his steam yacht, the Crimper at the dock.
Speaker 3: Crimper. But the crime crimping, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, crimp ain't easy. So the old Shanghai Kelly by
Speaker 2: the time he finished the place was valued at one
Speaker 2: point five million dollars, so that's more than thirty million today,
Speaker 2: and the Daily News had christened it Castle Petroleum Castle.
Speaker 2: So the neighbors they called it the Cedars, though they're like,
Speaker 2: come on now. The neighbors read like this, like directory
Speaker 2: of old New York money, Gugenheim's Astors, Vanderbilts, Whitneys.
Speaker 3: Us suspects.
Speaker 2: Right next door was Cloverly Manner that had just been built.
Speaker 2: That's where Vincent Aster Aster because he he's the one
Speaker 2: who when he was twenty inherited seventy million dollars when
Speaker 2: his dad went Titanic. Gotcha, that's like inheriting two point
Speaker 2: five billion today. It's that nuts.
Speaker 3: I'll try it, Yeah, give it a shot.
Speaker 2: Well, then, don't forget you would inherit you give them anyway.
Speaker 2: I already called DIBs on anything you don't want.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'd have fun giving it away. But yeah.
Speaker 2: So in September nineteen twenty four, the guest list at
Speaker 2: the Cedars grew even more glittering. So Edward's cousin, Lord
Speaker 2: Lewis Mountbatten was staying there with his wife, Lady Aduena,
Speaker 2: along with the Prince's close friend Gene Norton, whose husband
Speaker 2: would later become Lord Grantly. Oh wow, Barry knew exactly
Speaker 2: who the Coustins were. Uh, they were in the Social Register,
Speaker 2: Like all their comings and goings were always in the
Speaker 2: society pages.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean they got Castle Patrol.
Speaker 2: Castle Castle and the Castle Grayskull. They that's where like
Speaker 2: he looked through the Register and the and the society
Speaker 2: pages for his quote clients.
Speaker 3: He probably knows them better they know themselves.
Speaker 2: Probably their jewelry made the papers too, the spreads. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Nellie Cousden, she wore this ring set with a large
Speaker 2: black pearl that was so lustrous that one newspaper's roundup
Speaker 2: of famous gems ranked among the world's best. How like,
Speaker 2: how crappy does that feel looking through the paper? Like
Speaker 2: you're struggling and they're like, these are the amazing gems
Speaker 2: that these people.
Speaker 3: Twenties were wild.
Speaker 2: Elizabeth Lady mount Batton, for her part, was like practically
Speaker 2: never photographed without a strand of super expensive pearls on her.
Speaker 4: By the way, the nineteen twenties are very similar to
Speaker 4: the twenty twenties in terms of the huge disparity and
Speaker 4: the celebration of wealth, and look what they're doing with
Speaker 4: all that money.
Speaker 2: They had to be happy for them. Yeah, no, no,
Speaker 2: I will not so. Lady mount Batten, she traveled with
Speaker 2: most of her jewelry collection, and she was absolutely undeterred
Speaker 2: by the fact that a burglar had already broken in
Speaker 2: and taken some of her collection when she was staying
Speaker 2: on the Isle of Wight, oh, Isle of White. Yeah,
Speaker 2: what did she care? She's like, I got plenty of this.
Speaker 3: I loved shopping anyway.
Speaker 2: I want to make sure I have all my options
Speaker 2: with me. So the cousins they threw this little party
Speaker 2: for the prince in early September, and Arthur's like, I
Speaker 2: smell an opportunity.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, maybe more.
Speaker 2: He wasn't, I guess you'd say officially invited, or invited
Speaker 2: at all. He drove this red Cadillac coupe and he
Speaker 2: parked it on a quiet lane at the edge of
Speaker 2: the property and then kind of like around the side
Speaker 2: of this fieldstone gatehouse at the entrance, and then he
Speaker 2: went into the bushes in a tuxedo until like the
Speaker 2: time was right, pops out of the bushes looking like
Speaker 2: a guest lends in with the crowd on the terrace.
Speaker 3: I got lost, plucks.
Speaker 2: The cocktail from a passing waiter's tray as he goes,
Speaker 2: very James Bond, and then soon he melts back into
Speaker 2: the dark, and he made his way along the side
Speaker 2: of the mansion. He found like a little secluded corner
Speaker 2: and he climbed up a rose trellis onto a porch roof.
Speaker 3: Oh those are dangerous because they break off. Yeah, what
Speaker 3: you're doing exactly.
Speaker 2: It was a warm night and a second floor window
Speaker 2: is open, so he hangs onto the ledge, pulls himself in.
Speaker 2: When he gets in there, he puts on his white
Speaker 2: silk gloves for no fingerprints, and he goes from bedroom
Speaker 2: to bedroom. He scans the dressing tables, opens up bureau drawers,
Speaker 2: and then like the music and the party chatters all
Speaker 2: going on downstairs. He figured like if anyone came across
Speaker 2: him up there, he was going to either play lost
Speaker 2: or drunk or just be like I was looking for
Speaker 2: the bathroom. You know, he'd have some story ready. He
Speaker 2: comes up empty, right, He's figuring whatever fortune in jewels
Speaker 2: that he was looking for is either locked up or
Speaker 2: is downstairs on some ladies. Oh yeah, and so he
Speaker 2: goes back to the window and there are all these
Speaker 2: guests who had like started hanging out beneath the porch.
Speaker 2: You know, they're getting their drinks topped up. They don't
Speaker 2: want to move.
Speaker 3: This is this lovely place he stept up for some
Speaker 3: cool air.
Speaker 2: They're like, that's how he was supposed to get out, right,
Speaker 2: you know. So he's like, there's only one other way
Speaker 2: to get out of here. So he turns confidently, walks
Speaker 2: down the main staircase and straight into the middle of
Speaker 2: the party. That's the way act like, you know, pats
Speaker 2: his hair into play, suggests his bow tie. Head's right
Speaker 2: for the punch bowl, and he's like, you know, the
Speaker 2: burglary was a bust, but the evening with the Prince
Speaker 2: of Wales is a pretty good consolation prize. And like
Speaker 2: now he also he has the total upstairs floor plan memorized,
Speaker 2: like come back, Oh yeah, I need to be back.
Speaker 2: So when introductions came around, he said, his name is Gibson,
Speaker 2: doctor Gibson, and he has this like thick dark hair,
Speaker 2: blue eyes, kind of matinee idol looks. He fits the
Speaker 2: part beautifully and he wastes no time charming the Prince
Speaker 2: and his inner circle. Oh yeah. And then someone in
Speaker 2: the group is like, let's get away from the ladies
Speaker 2: for a while, which are just like okay, like boys time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you old man.
Speaker 2: So yeah. Then he's like, well, you know, I, doctor Gibson,
Speaker 2: would maybe want to go somewhere livelier, like we don't
Speaker 2: need to go and just cigars. Yeah, what about we
Speaker 2: drive into Manhattan and take a look around the class
Speaker 2: I'll be the guide. Yeah. And so a few of
Speaker 2: the Prince's minders objected naturally, and the plan kind of
Speaker 2: died down right, but like Edward didn't want this to
Speaker 2: slip away. So they're all still sitting around, you know, hobnobbing,
Speaker 2: and the Prince of Wales pulls his new friend to
Speaker 2: the side. He's like, you know, doctor Gibson, we must talk.
Speaker 2: I don't have if I go, I don't have any
Speaker 2: reporters following me. This is my chance to experience the
Speaker 2: city as a tourist rather than as someone in line
Speaker 2: to the throne. Let's go. So off they go. Their
Speaker 2: first stop on West forty fifth Street was the El
Speaker 2: Fay Club. I know all of New York knew it
Speaker 2: as uh Texas Guynan's place, Texas Gyan was Mary Louise
Speaker 2: Cecilia guynan brassy broad from Texas. That's the nickname. She
Speaker 2: was a former vaudeville and film actress, veteran of dozens
Speaker 2: of Westerns, and she then reinvented herself as a nightclub
Speaker 2: empresario and she would greet high paying guests with this
Speaker 2: trademark line of Hello suckers.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, I've mention her.
Speaker 2: L FA club. So you know, Arthur and the Prince
Speaker 2: of Wales and like a couple of Prince's pals, they go,
Speaker 2: they walk in there. It's this narrow, hazy, smoke filled room.
Speaker 2: If you really packed it in, it could fit like
Speaker 2: two hundred people, but the dance floor could only hold
Speaker 2: like six couples, and that you had to be like
Speaker 2: intimate between the jazz band and like, you know, uh,
Speaker 2: the larger than life persona of Texas Guyan. The club
Speaker 2: drew names like Al Jolson, Jack Dempsey for prohibition, though
Speaker 2: they they had it handled. It's not a problem. The
Speaker 2: liquor lived in the building next door and was passed
Speaker 2: through a hole in the wall that was hidden behind
Speaker 2: a loose brick, so if federal agents came in Brick went,
Speaker 2: so the Prince and doctor Gibson. They got on famously.
Speaker 2: Edward struck his companion as like a genuinely good sport,
Speaker 2: and Arthur played the role flawlessly.
Speaker 4: Taking the future king to basically speakeasy in New York
Speaker 4: and wow.
Speaker 2: But he was. Arthur's acting like he knows, he's like
Speaker 2: he's of the world. Is name dropping, but not in
Speaker 2: an obnoxious way. It's just that like, oh, I grew
Speaker 2: up with all these people totally. He has this wit
Speaker 2: in like very polished manners, and so you know, he
Speaker 2: makes it seem like he comes from a very well
Speaker 2: healed family, right, and he's got everybody snowed. So from
Speaker 2: the LFA they moved to what Gibson promised was a
Speaker 2: swell spot on East fifty ninth Street, the Club Duville.
Speaker 2: They had an air of mystery there they and there
Speaker 2: was a pretty socially prominent crowd. They had a famous
Speaker 2: jazz orchestra that would play. Stop three was the Florida
Speaker 2: Club on West fifty fifth, where a piano sat in
Speaker 2: the center of the room and the group settled in
Speaker 2: for like a musical review. So come five thirty in
Speaker 2: the morning, Arthur's like, you know what, I'm heading out.
Speaker 2: I'm going to bid you all farewell. He flags down
Speaker 2: a taxi, goes to his Manhattan apartment. The Prince and
Speaker 2: his entourage climb into their car for this like thirty
Speaker 2: five mile drive.
Speaker 3: Back to the estate.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh yeah. So at around four in the morning,
Speaker 2: September ninth, nineteen twenty four, so later on, Arthur pulls
Speaker 2: his Cadillac up to the edge of the Cosden estate
Speaker 2: and finds the mansion lit up like a stage, and
Speaker 2: he learned the reason from the paper afterwards. The Cosdens,
Speaker 2: the mount Battens, and their traveling companion Jean Norton had
Speaker 2: just rolled home from a dance across Hempstead Bay, and
Speaker 2: so Arthur just waited, and an hour or so later,
Speaker 2: house starts to go dark, lights are going out, and
Speaker 2: he just simply re ran the choreography he established at
Speaker 2: the party a few nights earlier.
Speaker 3: Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2: At the Rose Cut across the grounds Rose Trellis porch
Speaker 2: roof through a window that someone left open. His scouting
Speaker 2: mission the evening he'd befriended the Prince was now paying
Speaker 2: off seriously. He knew the upstairs cold he knew the
Speaker 2: location of the Cosden's five room suite on the west
Speaker 2: side of the house. Nelly Couseden had like taken off
Speaker 2: her party jewels before bed, left him sitting on her
Speaker 2: dressing table, and Barry's like, okay, see you innocence, gift
Speaker 2: wrap this for me into his pockets. They went next
Speaker 2: door in the mount Batten's room, Lady mount Batten had
Speaker 2: likewise deposited her jewelry on a bedside dray scoops those up.
Speaker 2: He had his eye on a wallet as well. But
Speaker 2: Lord mount Batten shows that moment to kind of like stir,
Speaker 2: like he's gonna wake up a little bit.
Speaker 4: I was wondering, because you've got the chances of both
Speaker 4: like creaky hinges and creaky floors. I mean, he's having
Speaker 4: to get really lucky to push a door open, walking around.
Speaker 3: Get some rusty nail, and all of a sudden it's screaming.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So Arthur slipped behind a window drape just as
Speaker 2: the light snapped on, and he waited in the dark
Speaker 2: until he was sure that like the mount Batons had
Speaker 2: drifted back to sleep, yeah, and then he eased back
Speaker 2: into the main hallway. When you add everything up, that
Speaker 2: he got. It's pretty impressive. So from the caused and sweet,
Speaker 2: that famous black pearl ring, oh, heap, diamond pins, ruby bracelets,
Speaker 2: everything added up to about one hundred and thirty thousand
Speaker 2: dollars in those days from Lady mount Batten. Three rings
Speaker 2: covered in diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, plus a platinum bracelet
Speaker 2: that had more than thirty square cut rubies on it.
Speaker 2: Forty two thousand dollars through in there, and Arthur was like,
Speaker 2: I think there's even more stuff here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's like.
Speaker 2: These legendary Fletcher pearls. But you know, he's like, I
Speaker 2: just had to hide behind a curtain because a lord
Speaker 2: was waking up, like I know when to call it
Speaker 2: another yet pressure lone. So half an hour later he's
Speaker 2: back in Manhattan, and by noon the next day he
Speaker 2: had fenced every single piece, and even at the fence's
Speaker 2: standard rate of like ten cents on the dollar, his
Speaker 2: seventeen thousand dollars cut would translate to more than half
Speaker 2: a million in today's money. I'll take it, yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: and then he disposed of it in the traditional manner,
Speaker 2: extended an enthusiastic gambling. So the cousins. They were terrified
Speaker 2: of scandal and they tried to keep the whole thing quiet,
Speaker 2: but that didn't take.
Speaker 3: Also, they don't want to look like marks for other criminals.
Speaker 4: Don't bring up one. It's embarrassing too. It's like, we
Speaker 4: have this happen again, right, So.
Speaker 2: The story hit the front page of September tenth, and
Speaker 2: it shared space with the life sentences just handed down
Speaker 2: to Chicago's notorious thrill killers Leopold and Low.
Speaker 3: Oh okay, that's.
Speaker 2: The time frame here, huh. The Scotland yardmen and state
Speaker 2: troopers guarding the Prince tightened the perimeter obviously. The next night,
Speaker 2: William K. Vanderbilt the racing car and Yachts Vanderbilt he
Speaker 2: hosted the Royal Guest and everyone was screened at the
Speaker 2: gates of his Long Island estate. Among those guests, incidentally,
Speaker 2: were Nelly Caused it in the Mount Batons.
Speaker 3: Yeah, unlucky ones.
Speaker 4: I'm surprised these people don't have like Scots with dogs
Speaker 4: roaming the grounds.
Speaker 2: They showed up right from playing golf, but they were like,
Speaker 2: no big deal, We're totally unbothered.
Speaker 3: I bet they are easy, commuisy governments.
Speaker 4: And when you know you're grabbing resources and then you're like,
Speaker 4: these are mine, someone else grabs them.
Speaker 3: What are you going to say?
Speaker 2: Right? Exactly a full week went by before the Cosdens
Speaker 2: bothered to sit down with the cops and they were like,
Speaker 2: you know something, there's no point insurance, there is investigating
Speaker 2: Lloyd's in London, and a second insure they're going to
Speaker 2: pay us out, which they did. Oh really, yeah, yeah exactly,
Speaker 2: And that brings us to Percy and Isabelle Rockefeller.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 2: So, Percy Rockefeller came into his money through his dad,
Speaker 2: William John Dee's brother, co founder of the oil colossus,
Speaker 2: major New York banker, and at forty eight, Percy was
Speaker 2: among the richest men on the planet. He was worth
Speaker 2: about one hundred million dollars. It's like a multi billionaire
Speaker 2: of these truths. So he was a heavyweight on Wall Street,
Speaker 2: he sat on dozens of corporate boards. Blah blah blah,
Speaker 2: blah blah blah. His wife, she brought her own fortune
Speaker 2: to it. Her dad was James Stillman, one time president
Speaker 2: and chairman of National City Bank and William Rockefeller's close
Speaker 2: friend and business partner. Oh and when her dad Stillman
Speaker 2: died in nineteen eighteen, his multi millionaire status passed to
Speaker 2: his daughter.
Speaker 3: Okay, so these two the business partners like marry my son.
Speaker 2: Basically my family exactly. So the couple lived at Owen
Speaker 2: Oak Farm in Greenwich, Connecticut, and farm is kind of
Speaker 2: underselling it. There sixty four rooms, three floors, and it
Speaker 2: also kind of functioned as a private museum for their
Speaker 2: collection of fine arts and antiques.
Speaker 3: Saying like no farm I ever been on. Yeah.
Speaker 2: October nineteen twenty six, Barry just happened to be in
Speaker 2: the neighborhood and it was like, you know, he kind
Speaker 2: of jazzed it up. He was an improv burglary, so
Speaker 2: he'd driven out alone to rob a different estate in
Speaker 2: the area. And then he's like, oh, I was too
Speaker 2: crowded with visitors, Like too many people.
Speaker 3: Vibes are not right.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Then he's had back to New York and then
Speaker 2: he sees the farm. He's like, oh, hold up. He
Speaker 2: didn't even realize it was Percy Rockefeller's place until later.
Speaker 3: He just went off of like place is huge and
Speaker 3: it looks like let's get it done.
Speaker 2: He at first he's like, Okay, I'm going to go in.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna scout it and then I'll come back later.
Speaker 2: And then he saw the jewelry there and he's like,
Speaker 2: I have no discipline, I'm taking it. So he does
Speaker 2: this like brief detour into the bedroom, gets a four
Speaker 2: diamond set piece worth twenty five thousand dollars, gold, wristwatch,
Speaker 2: gold bracelet, pendant, ring. Isabelle Rockefeller, as it happened, had
Speaker 2: no idea of their market value. She told the Daily News, Well,
Speaker 2: I didn't buy any of them. They're all gifts. Like
Speaker 2: the watch was like when one of her daughters was born.
Speaker 2: The rest was like for other milestones, and that they're
Speaker 2: worth priceless is what she was saying. Naturally, So you know,
Speaker 2: Arthur's gathering the pieces in his silk gloves hands, and
Speaker 2: then the scream cuts through the house and it's the
Speaker 2: Rockefeller's twenty two year old daughter, win Fred. She walked
Speaker 2: past the bedroom and spotted him, so he don't the
Speaker 2: window caught him. When he caught him, he dives out.
Speaker 2: The windows servants night watch.
Speaker 3: Sorry, window dives out.
Speaker 2: Hope, hopefully it's not the third.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm just saying, I don't know how many.
Speaker 2: Windows we got, Arthur. Yeah, this is three story building.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I've jumped out of a third story window
Speaker 4: blind and once you're on the air, you're like, this
Speaker 4: was not a good.
Speaker 2: Arthur was thinking. So the servants, night watchmen, they all
Speaker 2: rush outside and they see him hit the ground and
Speaker 2: then take off running to the edge of the property.
Speaker 3: Okay, good, didn't break a bone.
Speaker 2: Moments later he's in the car.
Speaker 3: He's gone, good friend.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's take a break. We come back more stealing
Speaker 2: from the swells and a little jail break is a treat.
Speaker 2: Arthur Barry, what a guy? Uh?
Speaker 3: What an athlete?
Speaker 2: What an athlete? Right? This superhuman? Let's talk about when
Speaker 2: he encountered the Livermores. Yeah, Jesse Lawrenceton Livermore was the
Speaker 2: original Wolf of Wall Street. He was the pioneer of
Speaker 2: day trading. What do you mean, like invented it?
Speaker 3: Thank you? I got that part.
Speaker 2: Some say Livermore was the greatest trader who ever lived. Really,
Speaker 2: like he's a wizard, he's amazing. He's a wolf.
Speaker 3: So he also is all about that action. So he'd
Speaker 3: be like bye bye bye bye.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly exactly, that's totally. His second wife, Dorothea, She
Speaker 2: was a dancer in the Zigfield Follies, and she was
Speaker 2: known for her like flapper lifestyle. She loved expensive art,
Speaker 2: lavish home decorating, and as you can guess, they were
Speaker 2: a hot mess, very turbulent.
Speaker 3: Imagine some like bathtub jens of cocaine.
Speaker 2: Oh I think there was plenty of cocaine.
Speaker 3: Bye bye.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So Arthur himself gave an account of the Livermore
Speaker 2: job in a nineteen fifty nine magazine article Arthur May
Speaker 2: nineteen twenty seven. So by his telling, it was like
Speaker 2: a masterclass in preparation. Really yeah, so word it reached
Speaker 2: him that a consignment of jewelry, like maybe a million
Speaker 2: dollars worth of stuff would be at the Livermore mansion
Speaker 2: that weekend, waiting for Livermore to inspect it as like
Speaker 2: potential gift purchases.
Speaker 4: Do we know if he's still talking to like house
Speaker 4: staff and maids and stuff.
Speaker 3: And that's how I find so I think so.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So Arthur and an accomplice he referred to only
Speaker 2: as Ryan. Ryan from the office drove out to the estate,
Speaker 2: hopped ahdge into like these immaculately groomed grounds and like
Speaker 2: settled into Watch.
Speaker 3: Here's my crew. Boston Billy and.
Speaker 2: And Ryan Ryan. I imagine Ryan's like an eight year
Speaker 2: old kid.
Speaker 3: Freckles.
Speaker 2: Ryan gets distracted and I gotta go pete Ryan. All right,
Speaker 2: So they're waiting, right the Livermore's leave with their dinner guests,
Speaker 2: mister and missus Henry Aronson and the two burglars. They like,
Speaker 2: you know what, let's not go in while they're not here.
Speaker 2: Let's wait till they come back, because they looked and
Speaker 2: Missus Livermore was wearing tons of jewelry, like.
Speaker 3: That's what we want that stuff.
Speaker 2: So like they wait, the two couples come home, Arthur
Speaker 2: and Ryan are sitting in the bushes together. You need
Speaker 2: to peek.
Speaker 3: Ryan, did you bring ice cream in your back pocket? Ryan?
Speaker 5: Ryan?
Speaker 2: So, like an hour goes by of them sitting and
Speaker 2: then they're like, okay, time to move. So they put
Speaker 2: a ladder against a second story window. They climb in silently.
Speaker 2: Arthur crossed the room and turned on the lights, at
Speaker 2: which point it became clear that they were in the
Speaker 2: Aaronson's bedroom, not the Livermores, and the Aaronsons were in it.
Speaker 2: They're like the yeah, and so before either of the
Speaker 2: Aaronsons could say anything. Arthur like assures them is this
Speaker 2: like soothing bedside manner he has, we don't intend you
Speaker 2: any harm, and like Ryan's keeping watch Arthur. Arthur goes
Speaker 2: to the dressing table and they're all all this jewelry
Speaker 2: on there. He's like maybe like five K worth a jewelry.
Speaker 2: So he picks up a man's watch and mister Aronson
Speaker 2: is like, no, no, no, please leave that it was
Speaker 2: a keepsake from my mother and it's only nickel plated,
Speaker 2: and so Arthur is like piped down and then he
Speaker 2: kind of like hints with a tilt of his head
Speaker 2: that he has this whole squad of goons waiting under
Speaker 2: the window with like itchy trigger fingers.
Speaker 3: Total lie, I like it.
Speaker 2: And so mister Aronson's like, okay, okay, missus Aaronson. She
Speaker 2: comes back into the bedroom. I guess like maybe she fresheningroom.
Speaker 3: She finds Arthur.
Speaker 2: Arthur and Ryan are like trying to cut the telephone
Speaker 2: wires and Arthur steps into the hall tries the liver more.
Speaker 3: Crying do they have like a butter knife? Like how
Speaker 3: can you not?
Speaker 2: Ryan? Dude? Like Arthur.
Speaker 3: Like, my first scissors, these are plastics?
Speaker 2: Got a butter knife, and he's just like hacking away
Speaker 2: at it. Ryan Arthur goes over and he tries the
Speaker 2: Livermore's bedroom door locked, which I think is funny because
Speaker 2: it's like they don't trust the Aaronson.
Speaker 3: Lock the door, you know, they wander.
Speaker 2: So Arthur pushes the Aaronson's back into their bedroom and
Speaker 2: locks them in.
Speaker 4: You know, by the way, they could have been just
Speaker 4: doing a bunch of drugs and they don't want anyone
Speaker 4: to come in the door exactly.
Speaker 2: So the Aaronson's they get shoved back in. Arthur locks
Speaker 2: them in there and he's like, don't worry, I'm going
Speaker 2: to leave the key with the Livermores after I robbed them.
Speaker 2: You'll be let out. So he and Ryan go back outside,
Speaker 2: go down the ladder, get the ladder carried around to
Speaker 2: the other window where the Livermores are.
Speaker 3: Take two and so.
Speaker 2: By this point, as soon as they pop in the window,
Speaker 2: the Livermore's wake up.
Speaker 3: They were able to bang a ladder up against the
Speaker 3: house did not wake them. Well that's good.
Speaker 2: Well they get they opened the window. Livers are like ah,
Speaker 2: and he's like no, no, no, don't shout. I just
Speaker 2: want jewelry, and so Livermore glared and told him like
Speaker 2: take it and clear out, and then he like was
Speaker 2: all fussy and fuming, while you know, Arthur and Ryan
Speaker 2: just kind of did their usual sweep, like took their
Speaker 2: sweet time. So Arthur he grabbed diamond rings, necklaces, pearls,
Speaker 2: one hundred thousand dollars worth of stuff.
Speaker 3: Meanwhile Ryan's grabbing snacks.
Speaker 2: Ryan's just standing in the corner picking his nose. Ryan.
Speaker 3: So what followed is.
Speaker 2: The part that makes the story a legend. So he's
Speaker 2: rummaging through a dressing alcove for smaller pieces, and missus
Speaker 2: Livermore asks Arthur, like, what are you after now? And
Speaker 2: Arthur's like, cash man, I just want some your cash.
Speaker 2: And so instead of making him hunt for it, she's like,
Speaker 2: let me show you. And there's like this half hidden
Speaker 2: drawer underneath a shelf of these like frilly, colorful hats
Speaker 2: that she had a lot of, like one hundred dollars
Speaker 2: in bills. And she got all puppy dog eyed and
Speaker 2: she's like, are you really going to take my spending money?
Speaker 2: And so, like Arthur looks up at the hat collection
Speaker 2: and there is like you have immaculate taste, and he
Speaker 2: hands her the bills and he's like, go buy some
Speaker 2: veils to go with those hats. She's like, oh, okay,
Speaker 2: thank you, and she's like, oh, well, as long as
Speaker 2: we're negotiating about that too. Diamond and sapphire ring set
Speaker 2: you pocketed. It's a matching set. Those were gifts exchanged
Speaker 2: between me and my husband, and they're very sentimental. So
Speaker 2: he's like all right. Arthur gives them back to her,
Speaker 2: and then, remembering mister Aaronson's quote nickel plated, he hands
Speaker 2: that over too, and he knows it's worth like several
Speaker 2: thousand dollars. But he tells missus Livermore, hey, tell your
Speaker 2: house guests that he has to learn the difference between
Speaker 2: nickel plate and platinum.
Speaker 3: Oh. I didn't even need a magnet to.
Speaker 2: MESSI. At one point, Missus Livermore is like, I really
Speaker 2: need a cigarette, and Arthur pulls one out and lights
Speaker 2: it for her, like while he's robbing that, and then
Speaker 2: she's like, wait, please don't take my pinky ring. He's like, fine, yeah,
Speaker 2: take the ring. He gives her back her pinky ring
Speaker 2: and it's like wear it for good luck. So Ryan
Speaker 2: apparently the only person in the room still focused on
Speaker 2: the burglary, is like, you know, let's quit. Let's well,
Speaker 2: we're Ryan's walking around in like big girl high.
Speaker 4: Heels on his hands, daddy.
Speaker 2: So on the way to the window, Arthur hands Missus
Speaker 2: Livermore a key and it's like, hey, can you let
Speaker 2: your guests out? They happen to be locked in their bedroom,
Speaker 2: and so the two of them, Arthur and Ryan, they
Speaker 2: climbed down, walked to the car, drove to Manhattan, and
Speaker 2: within an hour they were on the Upper West Side
Speaker 2: prying stones from the settings. Later, in a second apartment
Speaker 2: in the Theater District, they sold the whole lot to
Speaker 2: a fence for twenty percent of its value. That yeah,
Speaker 2: So when the Livermore Aaronson robbery was reported, the police
Speaker 2: like didn't believe it at first. Why well, they're like,
Speaker 2: what burglars joke with their victims and like hand back
Speaker 2: voluntarily return thousands of dollars in July to them, Like
Speaker 2: this had to have been a prank. This is rich
Speaker 2: people pranking things. I don't even get it. And so
Speaker 2: then but while the cops are taking the statement, a
Speaker 2: neighbor comes in and it's like, you know, my canary
Speaker 2: yellow Chrysler roadster vanished overnight. This is the getaway car.
Speaker 4: For a second there, I thought he had named his
Speaker 4: pet canary bird.
Speaker 3: Long Mare.
Speaker 2: A boy named Ryan came and ate my canary last night.
Speaker 2: He broke in. I watched him just bite.
Speaker 3: The head off.
Speaker 2: So that's the getaway car, Canary Chrysler. The press charmed
Speaker 2: by this, and they call him the gentleman Burglars okay,
Speaker 2: because they have this quiet, courteous conduct. And they describe
Speaker 2: them as two well built, impeccably dressed young men in
Speaker 2: matching gray suits and gray felt hats. They were straight
Speaker 2: up suits and hats as.
Speaker 3: Whole the fashion poort.
Speaker 2: Ryan was dressed for his first Holy Communians. So a
Speaker 2: week later, same papers are announcing the arrest of one
Speaker 2: of them, Arthur. Oh, they caught one of the most
Speaker 2: prolific society jewel thieves in America. And so the break
Speaker 2: came on the evening of June fifth, nineteen twenty seven.
Speaker 2: A woman calls in a tip that Arthur, who's calling
Speaker 2: himself Arthur Gibson, was on a train to Lake Ronkacoma
Speaker 2: with a blonde lady. And Arthur was like positive. He
Speaker 2: always from that moment on believed that the tipster was
Speaker 2: either his old partner James Monaghan, Boston Billy, or Monaghan's girlfriend,
Speaker 2: and that Monahan had deliberately handed him a box of
Speaker 2: jewelry before he got on the train to guarantee he'd
Speaker 2: be caught holding evidence. The blonde Anna Blake, remember her,
Speaker 2: So she was carrying fifteen thousand dollars in unsold jewels
Speaker 2: that Boston Billy had passed to Arthur.
Speaker 3: So they're basically working as a connect to his fence.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay. So Arthur steps off the train, walks toward
Speaker 2: a waiting red Cadillac. Six cops jump out and grab him.
Speaker 3: I think that sounds like a set up. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Anna, by all accounts, had spent years in the dark
Speaker 2: about how he actually earned his living. He's the self
Speaker 2: imposed yea.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: Carmela, she was like, as soon as he gets arrested,
Speaker 2: She's like, this is the first time I'm hearing of
Speaker 2: any of this, which is a great, great bit.
Speaker 3: I was just about to take Ryan to the Candy Star.
Speaker 2: So this is saved by son Ryan. In exchange for
Speaker 2: a promise of her freedom, Arthur made a full confession.
Speaker 3: Oh that's decent.
Speaker 2: And he was like he listed off like forty homes
Speaker 2: that he had robbed. Yeah, he got twenty five years.
Speaker 2: His confessions had been expected to earn him forty, but
Speaker 2: the DA told the court that his cooperation had actually
Speaker 2: really helped the police and then justice.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so you had twenty five years.
Speaker 2: Twenty five. He all still collected public sympathy because he
Speaker 2: got duped by Boston Billy, and because he was like,
Speaker 2: you know, it's really Boston Billy who planned all this stuff,
Speaker 2: and he.
Speaker 3: Was always always.
Speaker 2: Stiffing me on the split. And then he tipped off
Speaker 2: the police, as you know. And then he went off
Speaker 2: to Europe or something. And so as he's led away,
Speaker 2: Anna Blake like gets to say goodbye to one. They kiss,
Speaker 2: they're smiling. She pressed a small roll of bills into
Speaker 2: his hand, like, you know, put it on the commissary,
Speaker 2: I don't know, some ramen and a honey bun like.
Speaker 2: Then once he's out of sight, she just breaks down
Speaker 2: in tears. Arthur had served only around two years when
Speaker 2: a riot erupted at Auburn prison on July twenty eighth,
Speaker 2: nineteen twenty nine. And it should be noted that it
Speaker 2: was Arthur who masterminded the riot, so he arranged for
Speaker 2: two pistols and Ammo to be smuggled inside. And he
Speaker 2: said that his motivation for this, you know, riot and
Speaker 2: then subsequent escape was the news that Anna had cancer. So,
Speaker 2: as the story goes, he and two other men broke
Speaker 2: into the guard room. They overpowered the guards, They seized
Speaker 2: a cash of weapons, touched off the riot, and then
Speaker 2: all three instigators got out. Arthur took two bullets doing it,
Speaker 2: and he made his way to Albany and friends there
Speaker 2: arranged for medical care, probably went to a veterinarian, and
Speaker 2: then they continued on to New York City and he
Speaker 2: was reunited with Anna, and then he went into disguise mode.
Speaker 3: This is like like nineteen thirty.
Speaker 2: We haven't July twenty nine. Yeah, so no wig game, right,
Speaker 2: But he dyed his hair a little shade lighter, so
Speaker 2: bleached it up. He wore round glasses, grew a mustache.
Speaker 2: No one knew. Nineteen thirty. He rented an apartment in Newark,
Speaker 2: and he and Anna set up housekeeping as James and
Speaker 2: Anne Toner. Okay, Jim Toner, Jim Toner, So Jim Toner
Speaker 2: got summoned for jury duty twice.
Speaker 3: Really, he talked a convincing id.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he talked his way out of it by claiming
Speaker 2: that he was off visiting relatives in Oklahoma. Money was
Speaker 2: thin for everybody.
Speaker 3: Was he just afraid to step foot in a courthouse.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's like, I'm not going into a courthouse like this.
Speaker 2: This this whole act is working really well, but I
Speaker 2: don't want it.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: He couldn't go out job hunting because you know, obviously.
Speaker 2: But he did manage to collect a government bonus for
Speaker 2: his World War One service, and he applied under his
Speaker 2: own name, which is like Bold Flavors. It got him
Speaker 2: a check for seven hundred and eighty five bucks. That's
Speaker 2: like fifteen grand today. Ok So, around June of nineteen
Speaker 2: thirty one, he relocated fifty miles to northern New Jersey.
Speaker 3: By this point had and Blake passed from cancer, not
Speaker 3: yet she.
Speaker 2: Still he rented a room with a German immigrant farmer
Speaker 2: named Auto Ruder, and she showed she would join him
Speaker 2: for like weeks at a time, and Arthur pitched in
Speaker 2: around the farm and handled like the washing, the cleaning,
Speaker 2: the cooking. And then also he did get a Arthur
Speaker 2: did get a day job selling squeegees on consignment. What yeah,
Speaker 2: squeegees squeegee salesman.
Speaker 3: So he's like standing on a corner, is he going
Speaker 3: to door?
Speaker 2: Squeegee salesman?
Speaker 3: He's like, for the vacuums, I got squeegee.
Speaker 2: He got so comfortable in the role that he started
Speaker 2: going to like local government meetings like town council. He
Speaker 2: spoke at them, He's like, I have a comment all
Speaker 2: the like local power brokers were like, you need to
Speaker 2: join the Democratic Party and run for township clerk. And
Speaker 2: he did think about it for a little bit, but
Speaker 2: he was also one of America's most wanted fugitives, so
Speaker 2: he passed that.
Speaker 3: After you're elected, right, he'd be.
Speaker 2: Friend of this guy, George Losey. Losey was like the
Speaker 2: local news agent and also happened to be mayor of
Speaker 2: Andover Township, which at the time had a population of
Speaker 2: four hundred and seventy nine people. And so Arthur placed
Speaker 2: a standing order for a full stack of New York
Speaker 2: City papers to be delivered to the Farmhouse daily. And
Speaker 2: that would be a big mistake. When the Lindberg baby
Speaker 2: was kidnapped in March of nineteen thirty two, Arthur's name
Speaker 2: came up as a suspect and then they really ratcheted
Speaker 2: up to hunt for him. It doesn't fit his profile,
Speaker 2: it makes no sense, but you know it was pre
Speaker 2: mind Hunter profilings erin Yeah, and.
Speaker 3: I mean they very much. Did you go, like, what
Speaker 3: are all the names?
Speaker 2: We know it was a bad guy.
Speaker 3: Yeah. There.
Speaker 2: So around September, Newark Police got word from this like
Speaker 2: underworld source that Arthur was hiding somewhere in Sussex County
Speaker 2: and they're like, he's posing as a windshield wipeer salesman.
Speaker 2: He always carries a briefcase that he says as samples,
Speaker 2: but he's actually heat and these. So they searched for weeks,
Speaker 2: nothing happens, and then one of the detectives is talking
Speaker 2: to his pal, George Losey, and he's like, we're trying
Speaker 2: to find this guy, describes him. Losey's like eyes pop,
Speaker 2: He's so excited. He's like, that's the guy who owes
Speaker 2: me for two weeks and newspapers and Losey's like, I
Speaker 2: did think it was kind of odd that a windshield
Speaker 2: wiper salesman on an isolated farm needed every new York
Speaker 2: Daily newspaper delivered to his door, and he's like, but
Speaker 2: let me show you exactly where he lives. Let's go
Speaker 2: get him. So late October nineteen thirty two, this huge
Speaker 2: posse quietly surrounds Auto Runers farm on a back road.
Speaker 2: Lucy walks up to the door, asks for James Toner.
Speaker 2: Arthur comes out, and then two of them get in
Speaker 2: this argument over the unpaid newspaper bill, and the meanwhile
Speaker 2: the detectives are all deep, deep, deep on tiptoes creeping up.
Speaker 2: Before Arthur can figure out what's happening, they close in
Speaker 2: and one of the great fugitive runs of the era
Speaker 2: ends in a squabble over a paper route. So Arthur
Speaker 2: of course is cleared of the Limburg kidnapping, and then
Speaker 2: he was also cleared of inciting a prison riot.
Speaker 3: O right.
Speaker 2: But he did get tried and convicted for the escape itself,
Speaker 2: which added seven years to his sentence, so in all
Speaker 2: he served nineteen years. He was paroled in nineteen forty nine,
Speaker 2: went back to Massachusetts. Anna had died of her cancer
Speaker 2: before he got out. He found work in a restaurant
Speaker 2: where his boss trusted him to carry the day's earnings
Speaker 2: to the bank each night, and he did not let
Speaker 2: his boss down. So in interview after interview, he expressed
Speaker 2: genuine regret for his crimes that had consumed so much
Speaker 2: of his life, and after about nineteen sixty one he
Speaker 2: just stopped speaking publicly about it. He didn't want to
Speaker 2: give any more interviews. He died in nineteen eighty one
Speaker 2: when he was eighty four years old, Don Yeah, and
Speaker 2: buried near his family in Worcester, okayter Mass. So, Zaron,
Speaker 2: what's your ridiculous takeaway.
Speaker 4: I've been to Worcester, Mass have you, so when you
Speaker 4: say that, I'm totally able to picture the brick buildings,
Speaker 4: the whole thing. No, my actual ridiculous takeaway is I
Speaker 4: know this sounds really dumb, but he basically like regretted
Speaker 4: his life of crime, and I'm like, bro, you didn't
Speaker 4: hurt anybody. No, I mean, like that was that was
Speaker 4: some fun times. You have like an epic life. I mean,
Speaker 4: like you hobnob with the future king you you were
Speaker 4: able to like save the woman you love, you know,
Speaker 4: at least to better her life during her suffering by
Speaker 4: starting a prison riot. I would be so proud if
Speaker 4: I could say these things. So, but you know, let's
Speaker 4: look at this with two different sets of eyes.
Speaker 2: He is a great I'm going to tell you my takeaway.
Speaker 2: He's a great character, and we love we love great.
Speaker 3: Oh he's a great character.
Speaker 4: He totally deserves I was thinking sitting here, like when
Speaker 4: you're telling the story, I was like, this is like
Speaker 4: some of the movies before or.
Speaker 3: The noir era, when you get those thirties guys.
Speaker 4: You're like, they're on the run and they come back
Speaker 4: to the old neighborhood, and you know, like.
Speaker 2: I want a movie about him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I totally want to move.
Speaker 2: Back about him. Let's make it happen. And with that said,
Speaker 2: I would also like a talk back Dave.
Speaker 3: I went to eat.
Speaker 5: Hello everyone in Ridiculous Crime Headquarters. This is ann in Wisconsin.
Speaker 5: I just heard Zaron quote fifty seven hot dogs per
Speaker 5: person in the United States. Did you include brought first
Speaker 5: in that statistic, because in Wisconsin we eat they don't
Speaker 5: even know for sure how many millions of brought first
Speaker 5: or as we call them, brots brots.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh my god, that's true.
Speaker 4: From what I understand, that statistic did include certain sausage products,
Speaker 4: and brought worst would be one of them, so fsked
Speaker 4: brought worse. Some of them are common worst, but I
Speaker 4: don't think it had all of the worst. So some
Speaker 4: of those like white fat German sausages, I don't think
Speaker 4: they're in their blood sausage.
Speaker 3: I don't think the.
Speaker 2: Common one apple chicken apples.
Speaker 3: Definitely not that counts.
Speaker 4: It was like all the ones like you'd find like
Speaker 4: in either Wisconsin or like a Chicago street, like, oh
Speaker 4: you got.
Speaker 3: You got fresh brats and good stuff. Yeah, so like those,
Speaker 3: I think we're good.
Speaker 4: I think you and I fit in under the same
Speaker 4: umbrella brats brats.
Speaker 2: That's amazing.
Speaker 3: Thank you for that.
Speaker 2: That's a good question though. Does that take it into account?
Speaker 4: Yeah, technically you're considered hot dog people or we're all
Speaker 4: considered sausage people.
Speaker 2: Yeah, God bless. That's it for today. You can find
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