SETH FEROCE 01

Read More

JANUARY 17 = The Great "Brinks" Robbery

The Great Brinks Robbery - the armed robbery of the Brinks Building in Boston, Massachusetts went down on today's date, January 17 in 1950. It was a bold, and a meticulously planned heist, and for six years the culprits managed to evade capture. They managed to bag $1,218,211.19 in cash, and over $1.5-million in checks, money orders and other securities. At the time, it was largest robbery in the history of United States. Cleanly and smoothly executed with very few clues left at the scene, the robbery was called as "the crime of the century". Yet, in spite of the fact that all nine members of the gang wound up in the can, most of the stolen booty has never been recovered.


The Carefully Planned Scheme

Anthony "Fats" Pino (right) was the originator of the heist, which he had carefully planned for over 18 months. He brought in Joseph "Specs" O'Keefe, Joseph "Big Joe" McGinnis and Stanley "Gus" Gusciora. Secretly O'Keefe and Gusciora entered the Brinks depot; they picked the outside lock with an ice pick and inner door with a piece of plastic. Later they temporarily removed the cylinders from the five locks, one at a time, so a locksmith could make duplicate keys for them. They then re-installed the originals, so nothing seemed amiss. Once this was done Pino recruited six other men, including Pino's brother-in-law Vincent Costa, Michael Vincent Geagan, Thomas Francis Richardson, Adolph "Jazz" Maffie and Henry Baker.

The gang waited for the perfect hour for their heist; having studied the schedules of the building staff, they were able to determine what the staff was doing based on the lights in the building windows. O'Keefe and Gusciora even stole the plans for the site alarms. The gang members entered the building on practice runs after the staff had left for the day. Costa monitored the depot from a room of a ruined building nearby.

The Bandits Make Off With the $$$$$$$!!

That night, they put on clothing which appeared to be similar the Brink's guards uniform with Navy pea coats, chauffeur's caps, rubber Halloween masks, gloves and rubber-soled shoes to muffle their footsteps. While Pino and driver Banfield remained in the car, seven other men entered the building 6:55 PM. With their bogus keys they came to the second floor through the locked doors and surprised, then bound and gagged five Brinks employees who were storing and counting money. They missed the General Electric Company pay box but scooped up everything else. The gang then calmly went about their "business" and strolled out of the Brinks building at 7:30 PM. Along with the cash, they had taken four revolvers from the guards. The gang speedily counted their take, gave some of the members part of their cut and agreed not to touch the rest of the money for six years - time enough for the statute of limitations to expire. They then split up and went their separate ways.

The Police and the FBI Begin to Investigate....

It was a devilishly audacious and clever plan. But six whole years is a long time for criminals to keep their yaps shut and stay out of trouble, no matter what the inducement. The Brinks Company offered $100,000 reward for tips on the theft. The only clues police could find to begin with were the rope which the robbers had used to tie the employees and a chauffeur's cap. And informers info was useless at the start of the investigation. The getaway truck - a green 1949 Ford which had been stolen weeks before the heist was found chopped to pieces in Stoughton, Massachusetts, near O'Keefe's home. But in June 1950, O’Keefe and Gusciora were arrested in Pennsylvania for a burglary. These sticky-fingered fools were convicted, O’Keefe got three years in Bradford County Jail and Gusciora 5 to 20 in the State Slammer at Pittsburgh. Through their informers police heard that O'Keefe and Gusciora had insisted on using some of their Brinks loot to fight their convictions. Maffie later claimed that most of O'Keefe's share went to his legal defense. FBI agents tried to talk to O'Keefe and Gusciora in prison but they kept quiet. Gang members had indeed come under suspicion but the FBI and the police just didn't have enough evidence to bring their case. So law enforcement kept putting the screws to the boys. Adolph Maffie was later convicted of income tax evasion and got nine months in the clink.

And the Boys Begin to Blab!!

After O'Keefe got out of jail, he was obliged to stand trial for another burglary and parole violations and was released on bail of $17,000. O'Keefe later claimed that he had never seen his part of the Brinks booty after he had given it to Maffie for "safekeeping". But he needed some of his take and didn't fancy waiting six years to get it. So he kidnapped Vincent Costa and demanded his part of the loot for ransom. Pino ponied up a small ransom but then decided to have O'Keefe rubbed out. After couple of blown tries he hired underworld hit man Elmer "Trigger" Burke to do it right. Burke went to Boston and peppered O'Keefe with a sub-machine gun but O'Keefe still managed to dodge the bullets, and was seriously wounded, but had not bought it. FBI approached O'Keefe in the hospital and on January 6, 1956 he began to sing like the proverbial bird.

In January 12, 1956 the FBI arrested Baker, Costa, Geagan, Maffie, McGinnis, and Pino. They caught Faherty and Richardson in Dorchester, Massachusetts in May. O'Keefe pleaded guilty January 18. Gusciora died July 9 due to cerebral edema before he could stand trial. Banfield was already dead. Trial began August 6, 1956. Eight of the gang received the maximum sentences of life in the can, but O'Keefe received only 4 years and was released in 1960. So all of the boys wound up dead or in the slammer, but most of the loot was never recovered. According to eh..... legend.... it is all squirreled away in the hills just north of Grand Rapids, Minnesota.


READERS!! If you would like to comment on this, or any "Today in History" posting, I would love to hear from you!!  You can either sign up to be a member of this blog and post a comment in the space provided below, or you can simply e-mail me directly at:  krustybassist@gmail.com  I seem to be getting hits on this site all over the world, so please do write and let me know how you like what I'm writing (or not!)!!


Sources:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Brink%27s_Robbery

"The Brinks Job" Dir. by William Friedkin, starring Peter Falk, 1978













+ 974.
+ 308.

Read More

A Very High 5 for Friday!

It has been a really, really good week. It was filled with nothing but work and the gym, but I feel really accomplished.

To begin, I would like to ask for you guys to pray for my dad. I have mentioned before that he has incurable cancer. He has been battling a brain tumor over the past couple of months. It has been causing him to stay really sick and have seizures. He went to Duke yesterday to have brain surgery so the tumor could be removed. However, once the doctors started, they noticed that the tumor is too far in his brain to be removed. 

To say I am shocked would be an understatement. I could barely breathe last night when my sister told me what was going on. But the doctors are going to meet with him and my step-mom to go over the next steps to help him. Chemo does not work and he has already had too much radiation. I have been told though, that the doctors may able to do radiation again. I do not know what is going to happen, but my family seems in good spirits and it looks like there may be alternatives he can do so I feel OK about everything right now.

I went to the doctor yesterday for my B12 injection. While I was there I was weighed. Last week I was up 2.3 pounds for the first time in 6 weeks since beginning my journey. I lost 4 pounds this week! I am down 23.1 pounds since November 25th!

I work out with my best friend everyday at the gym after work. She then comes over to my apartment at least once a week for dinner after. This week I made some delicious concoctions:

Roasted vegetables - zucchini and mushrooms. I sliced them, drizzled extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar and feta cheese then roasted at 350 for 45 minutes. Delicious!

Next I had a sweet potato left over from when she was over at my apartment Friday. It was a really big potato and I did not want it to go bad, but I did not know what to do with it. So I boiled it until tender, added 1/2 cup of unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk, ground cinnamon, and took my mixer to cream it. The result was an odd type of mashed potatoes. However, it tasted so good - it tastes like pie to me!

At my work, we dress business casual everyday. On Wednesday's we have a Manager's meeting. I usually dress up for that, just because. I am the youngest person there so I like to make myself look better when I can. Ha. I wore my black business suit with a lace and leopard print cami under it. I am glad my President is so cool and lets me be me. Ha! The top is from Victoria's Secret but I have had it a while, I don't know if it's still available.

Oh and my curls cooperated, too. Score!

My company is an Administration company and we provide the support for many publishing distributors. Thus we get free magazines every week on Wednesday. I am really excited about my picks this week!

Yesterday was my off day from the gym. Man I needed it too. I was so sore. I grocery shopped after work. Since I have been trying so hard to work off the baggage I obtained in 2013 via weight gain, I am really educating myself on eating more organic. Thanks to my Amazon Prime account I was able to "borrow" a book on the Kindle library about organic eating on a budget. I want to continue to eat this way as long as I live so I am really excited to play in my kitchen this week to create new, delicious, and most of all clean recipes.

Lastly, since it is the middle of the month, you know what that means - Ipsy bags! What do you guys think about the bag this month? I finally received mine last night. The bag is different than the usual style, but I like it. Also the items in the bag are not usually what I get, but I am intrigued. I am most excited to try the deep conditioning treatment for hair. Since I color my hair a lot, I spend a lot of money to keep it healthy. Also included was a light face lotion. My face is naturally really oily so a light lotion is a must on my face.

If you do not know what Ipsy is, it is a makeup bag that comes once a month. It's $10 flat. You are charged on the 1st of every month and your items come in the middle. When you go to the website to sign up, you will answer questions about your beauty and skin routine to closely match which products will suit you best. You then receive 4-5 full size beauty products. If you do not receive Ipsy and want too, please use my link! Click here to sign up!

Don't forget to be a part of all of the awesome Friday link up's going on today; click here!

That is all I have for now, I hope to have some delicious recipes coming your way next week! Have a great weekend.

Read More

JANUARY 16 = Operation "Desert Storm" Begins

"Just two hours ago, allied air forces began an attack on military targets in Iraq and Kuwait. These attacks continue as I speak. Ground forces are not engaged.

This conflict started Aug. 2, when the dictator of Iraq invaded a small and helpless neighbor. Kuwait, a member of the Arab League and a member of the United Nations, was crushed, its people brutalized. Five months ago, Saddam Hussein started this cruel war against Kuwait; tonight, the battle has been joined."

- President George H.W. Bush, Jan. 16, 1991.

On today's date, January 16 in 1991, U.S. and Allied air forces commenced an attack on Iraqi military forces both in Iraq and Kuwait.  The attack was the first phase of Operation Desert Storm, which was designed to forcibly eject the Iraqi army from the nation of Kuwait, which Iraq had invaded the previous August.  

Saddam Invades Kuwait

On August 2 in 1990 Saddam Hussein, the Dictator of Iraq, ordered his army to invade and occupy his small neighbor to the Southeast, Kuwait.  His reasons for this remain unclear, but he had using Soviet made tanks such as the T72, built his army into the fourth largest in the world. He was quite likely trying to "take his place" as the preeminent leader in the Arab world, and by grabbing the oil rich Kingdom of Kuwait he put himself in control of some 20% of the world's oil supply  and put himself to within reach of another 20% in Saudi Arabia.  This would give him vast new sums of money with which to build his military machine, and possibly build his stock of chemical weapons.  Saddam was a ruthless Dictator, and had shown himself willing to use such weapons against his own citizens.

President Bush Takes Action

To United States President George Herbert Walker Bush, such an invasion was clearly a violation of International Law, and could not be allowed to stand. In the days that followed, he would work the phones from his office and assemble a coalition of over twenty nations to oppose what he called naked aggression by Iraq against a helpless neighbor.  Of course there was a question of Oil. But there was also a moral factor which animated Bush's actions.  As he recorded in his private diary:

"Hearing stories about Iraq's treatment of Kuwait. Brutalities committed against it's people. The atrocities really hit me, giving urgency to my desire to do something active to respond."

Towards that end he assembled a huge force not only to deter any further Iraqi aggression, but to force Saddam out of Kuwait.  He also adopted a strategy of diplomatic pressure and economic sanctions to leave no peaceful means untried. As James Baker put it:   "We developed a policy of coercive diplomacy. In effect saying 'You get out, you get out unconditionally. and if you don't we're gonna use political sanctions, economic sanctions, anything we can to get you to leave, and if you don't leave after all that, then we're gonna throw you out."

Desert Storm Commences

The deadline set in U.N. Resolution 678 was January 15, 1991. And in spite of exhaustive diplomatic efforts toward a non-lethal solution, it came and went.  At 6:38 pm on this evening in 1991, bombs and anti-aircraft fir lit up the skies over Baghdad (see the image at the top of this posting).  That evening, I was practicing for an Austin Symphony rehearsal, 

but I had a small TV set on following the news.  Dr. Judith Jellison, a fine teacher of Music Education came into my office to watch for a bit.  The announcer said "An attack is apparently now in progress.." and Judith and I exchanged worried looks. "Insanity!" she said.  The news people in Baghdad were caught between taking cover and trying to cover the lethal light show that was going on in Baghdad.  CNN's Bernard Shaw (left)reported the news while James Baker watched. Shaw (broadcasting from a Baghdad hotel): "I am just crouching down here on the floor and it is eerily quiet right now..." Baker: "The deadline's passed and not much is happening, and all of a sudden the sky lit up!" Shaw: "In the sky to my left to my right, flashes, flashes of light, and then the ground shook.." Baker: "And they dived under their desks.."  

The news- papers the next morning were full of the previous night's news.  "It's WAR!!" trumpeted the Cincinnati Post (right). "WAR IN GULF" said the Austin American Statesman. "US AT WAR" was in huge letters across the top of the Cincinnati Enquirer.  It is interesting to note the first paragraph of each publication's coverage.  The Enquirer: "President Bush summoned US and Allied forces into war with Iraq on Wednesday night, declaring, 'The Battle has been joined' to free Kuwait."  Austin American Statesman: "War with Iraq began Wednesday as hundreds of  US, British and Saudi Arabian warplanes bombed strategic targets in Iraq and occupied Kuwait after fruitlessly demanding for 5 1/2 months that Iraq withdraw from Kuwait." And finally the Post (From the A.P. Wires): "President Bush plunged America into war against a defiant Iraq, saying 'the world could wait no longer' to expel Saddam Hussein's forces from Kuwait."

The Air War is a Success

The first phase of this war was to utilize overwhelming force to crush the Iraqi defenses. Coalition forces unleashed a "shock and awe'  air campaign. F-117 Nighthawk Stealth Fighters, Tomahawk Cruise Missiles launched from Battleships, Apache Attack Helicopters, and laser guided smart bombs targeting early warning radar sights, military facilities, and key communication centers. Within 24 hours Saddam's air defenses had been utterly annihilated, leaving the Allied pilots to attack their targets virtually at will for the next several weeks, weakening Iraqi defenses for the ground campaign which was certain to come. That first night 56 missions were launched, and 56 pilots returned safely.

Sources :

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/17/us/war-gulf-president-transcript-comments-bush-air-strikes-against-iraqis.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

"The Commander in Chief: Inside the Oval Office - The Gulf War"  - Military Channel Documentary, Ex. Prod. - Stephen David, Written by Ed Fields, and David Schaye, May, 2013.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War

The Cincinnati Post, the Cincinnati Enquirer, and the Austin American Statesman, all from their editions of Thursday morning, January 17, 1991.

Read More

Mars yolculuğunda bir Türk kadını

Bilim insanları Mars’da yaşam hayalleri kurarken, biz ise yeraltına inmiş kör bir iktidar savaşının, güzel ülkemizi nasıl
ortaçağ karanlığına sürüklediğini  'film gibi' seyretmekle meşgulüz.. Bugün
okuduğum bir haberle  yüreğime bir nebze olsun su serpildi. Ohhh dedim!  nihayet “istikbal göklerdedir! “ şiarının
peşinde olan gurur duyacağımız bir insanımız üstelik bir Türk Kadınımız ile

Read More

Perfecting Your Push-up