The Last Good Heist

The Inside Story of The Biggest Single Payday in the Criminal History of the Northeast

by Wayne Worcester; Randall Richard and Tim White

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Pub Date Aug 01 2016 | Archive Date Aug 12 2016

Rowman & Littlefield | Globe Pequot

History | Nonfiction (Adult)

Description

On Aug. 14, 1975, eight daring thieves ransacked 148 massive safe-deposit boxes at a secret bank used by organized crime, La Cosa Nostra, and its associates in Providence, R.I. The crooks fled with duffle bags crammed full of cash, gold, silver, stamps, coins, jewels and high-end jewelry. The true value of the loot has always been kept secret, partly because it was ill-gotten to begin with, and partly because there was plenty of incentive to keep its true worth out of the limelight. It's one thing for authorities to admit they didn't find a trace of goods worth from $3 million to $4 million, and entirely another when what was at stake was more accurately valued at about $30 million, the equivalent of $120 million today. It was the biggest single payday in the criminal history of the Northeast. Nobody came close, not the infamous James "Whitey" Bulger, not John "The Dapper Don" Gotti, not even the Brinks or Wells Fargo robbers. The heist was bold enough and big enough to rock the underworld to its core, and it left La Cosa Nostra in the region awash in turmoil that still reverberates nearly 38 years later. "The Last Good Heist" is the inside story of the robbery and its aftermath.

Tim White is a prize-winning investigative reporter for WPRI-TV, the CBS affiliate in Providence; Randall Richard is a former investigative reporter and international correspondent for the Providence Journal and national reporter at the Associated Press, and Wayne Worcester is a former reporter and editor at the Providence Journal, novelist, essayist and now a journalism professor at the University of Connecticut.

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This is a set of uncorrected page proofs. It is not a finished book and is not expected to look like one. Errors in spelling, page length, format and so forth will all be corrected by the time the book is published several months from now. Photos and diagrams, which may be included in the finished book, may not be included in this format. Uncorrected proofs are primarily useful so that you, the reader, might know months before actual publication what the author and publisher are offering. If you plan to quote the text in your review, you must check it with the publicist or against the final version. Please contact publicity@rowman.com with any questions. Thank you!

This is a set of uncorrected page proofs. It is not a finished book and is not expected to look like one. Errors in spelling, page length, format and so forth will all be corrected by the time the...

Available Editions

EDITION	Other Format
ISBN	9781493009596
PRICE	$18.95 (USD)

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Featured Reviews

Ron T, Librarian

The Last Good Heist opens with the reporters covering the August 14, 1975, robbery of the Bonded Vault which is housed within the Hudson Fur Storage business in Providence, RI. Eight or nine men had robbed the place early in the morning. The Bonded Vault is a safety-deposit box business and 146 out of 148 boxes had been opened. An unknown amount of loot - cash, coins, and jewelry - had been carried off. Early figures given are around a million dollars. Later federal law officials figure that about 32 million (in 1975 dollars) was taken. And none was ever recovered!

But really The Last Good Heist is the tale of the lead robber - Robert J. Dussault, a career criminal from Lowell (MA) who had quite a record before he escaped prison and teamed up with his friend Charles "Chucky" Flynn, another Lowell boy. Flynn had been granted the Bonded Vault job with the blessing of Raymond L. S. Patriarca, the head Mafia boss in Providence, RI. But before the gang gets to the big job, there are smaller jobs to be done (and often goofed-up). Then August 14, 1975, dawns and the big robbery happens. The gang each receive their agreed initial share from the cash on hand with more to come from the fencing of silver ingots, jewelry, coins, and bonds. The gang then splits up. Much of the rest of the book deals with Dussault's life on the run as he travels around the United States, spending his loot, and doing more robberies. After being caught in Las Vegas (NV), Dussault spills his guts regarding the Bonded Vault robbery. There is a very long trial followed by an even longer legal wrangling. Dussault supposedly died in 1992, but family members state that he was at his mother's funeral in 1994.

If you have watched The Thomas Crown Affair (the 1968 version), you know how it is the little things that unravel the perfectly planned crime. The same goes for the criminals in The Last Good Heist, stupidity lead to Dussault being caught, a lie lead to him testifying, and the conviction of half the crew. Now the reader gets to sit back and follow the true crime tale in The Last Good Heist!