In 1992, two years after the heist, his fingerprints were sent to the FBIs lab, along with those of several others, to determine if they could be found on items taken from the crime scene. Thank you! I really did well on the test, and I went and took the flight physical, and I was going to be going to flight school. TYSONS CORNER, Va., Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Pangiam, a technology company defining the future of authentication and trusted movement, announced the . Shortly after the heist, according to the New York Times, a stolen Manet was spotted in the apartment of George Reissfelder. She looks submissive. This hits you anywhere, you're dead." He had that painting.". They showed David Turner was in Florida on March 15, three days before the robbery. 35: Daughter: Louise Reinsfelder. I fought back. I was 23 years old. George Reissfelder, on the other hand, left prison in 1982 after serving 16 years for a murder he didnt commit. Robert L Reissfelder, West Roxbury, MA holds a Building Licenses, Construction Supervisor license and 1 other license according to the Massachusetts license board. Long narrow face. Amore gave Reissfelder a museum tour and showed him images of the 13 stolen treasures. Isabella Stewart Gardner collected and carefully displayed a collection comprised of more than 7500 paintings, sculptures, furniture, textiles, silver, ceramics, 3000 rare books, and 7000 archival objects-from ancient Rome, Medieval Europe, Renaissance Italy, Asia, the Islamic world and 19th-century France and America. RODOLICO: In 1980, assistant district attorneys Roanne Sragow and John Kerry yes, that John Kerry took on Reissfelders claims of innocence. He would always be there for you. HORAN: And while he was in Florida, three days before the heist, Turner spent six-hundred-and-forty-five dollars and one cent in a spy supply store. And in 1974, the pair escaped from prison. And you kind of have to think on your feet doing something like that. But as he began his new life, Reissfelder said he always had faith that the system that wrongly convicted him would release him. This is David Turner, on a lousy phone line from prison, after his luck had run out. No one had let Reissfelder know. He was very capable. Bill Reissfelder, Boston Celtics, Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President - RealGM JANICE SANTOS: OK. Bill Reissfelder is a married man with a wife and family. Reissfelder and DiMuzio were suspected of being part of the "Merlino gang," a crew of lower-level associates with alleged ties to the Boston Mafia. For everything that points toward these particular suspects there's something that points away. He was very upset. Barnicle also explores another South Shore connection: Reissfelder's sister-in-law, Donna Reissfelder. He has kept his wife and children's identities a secret until now. The other wasnt. Robert Beauchamp says the TRC gang was flying too close to the sun. HORAN: Robert Sikellis says he believes that David Turner was behind the killing. Reissfelder family history, genealogy, and family tree. It's a helicopter. So he offered Reissfelder, who still visited him in prison sometimes with David Turner in tow some advice. There are no credit card receipts for the day of the heist, March 18. I saw that painting, Reissfelder said in an interview at the museum in the presence of the Gardners security chief, Anthony M. Amore, who is running the investigation. The shop was managed by crime figure Carmello Merlino. It in my mind represents so much of the city's respect for art and culture, its value of learning, and these sort of really richer ideas. Turner alleged entrapment by the FBI and twice appealed his conviction and lost. For seven years, I was . HORAN: On March 11, 1991, almost the anniversary of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum robbery, George Reissfelder died. Stay up-to-date with important news developments, delivered right to your inbox. George Reissfelder was already seen as a celebrity when he started hanging out at Carmello Merlinos auto repair shop in Dorchester in the late 1980s. BLANDING: You know, I talked to several of his childhood friends who said he was just, you know, really intelligent, and charismatic, and loyal. SANTOS: I said, "Yeah, it looks like George. And I told Anthony right off, but I don't-- the George that I knew it would never ever put on a cop uniform, so I don't-- I really don't know that he would have done this. The publicity was mostly because of the legal defense work of John F. Kerry, and Kerrys law partner. More than a decade before, he had drawn front-page headlines and network TV interviews when he was freed from prison after serving 16 years on the wrongful conviction of a murder charge. The following year, her divorce would come through, and her ex-husband would join a cast of men named in connection to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum robbery. This episode was adapted for the web by Amy Gorel. His brother believes that Merlino and his Dorchester-based crew had a role in the death. So that's how I saw it, that I knew that he initially was supposed to get out on one date. She recalled seeing it in a golden frame on the brothers bedroom wall at his apartment at 35 Brooks Ave. in Quincy, Richard Reissfelder said. George Reissfelder and Lenny DiMuzio are believed to have posed as police officers to gain access to the museum, tying up security guards and stealing 13 historic artworks by the likes of Johannes Vermeer and Rembrandt van Rijn worth an estimated $500 million. Subscribe to our newsletterfor the latest updates,join our Facebook groupto discuss the investigation and if you have a tip, theory or thought,we want to hear it. Jan 04, 2022, 08:02 ET. And about 5'10", maybe 170, -75 pounds. Just dont blame Beauchamp for the Gardner heist. Hed heard his late brothers name mentioned in connection with the Gardner heist, and he wanted to clear his brothers name. Amore reached out to that person, and after a long delay came the response: Yes, theyd seen it in the apartment. The late Merlino himself was a person of interest in the Gardner case see Meet the Suspects for April 26. HORAN:Boser, who is a senior fellow at a Washington, D.C., think tank now, remains passionate about the Gardner mystery. I just want this crime against civilization to be solved, Reissfelder said. I mean, it was--, it was--, it was chilling to be in the same room at times. I'm not saying George Reissfelder committed the heist. And that's it. And he never said that he actually participated in any of the crimes, but he certainly made it seem like he had some ability to talk about them. He believes the artwork has been stashed somewhere nearby. He was serving a 47-year sentence for his role in a planned 1999 armored car depot heist in Easton. Includes Address (2) See Results. George Reissfelder and David Turner were both pulled into the gravitational orbit of crime boss Carmello Merlino at TRC Auto Electric in Dorchester in the late '80s. Rare Pope Creek Poppy Jasper Rough Slab!Gorgeous RARE Top Pope CreekPoppy Jasper Rough Slab ! Updates: 13 years after the theft . Turner has denied repeatedly to reporters and in court that he had any knowledge of the heist, but he associated with known felons whose names had been tied to the crime including Robert Guarente, Carmello Merlino and Stephen Rossetti. And John Kerry and Roanne Sragow are going to, you know, be his best friends forever now." Ulrich Boser is the author of The Gardner Heist, in which he posits that David Turner and George Reissfelder were the thieves who robbed the museum. BLANDING: When I was a staff writer at Boston Magazine, I received a letter from a prisoner. As the investigation progressed, the FBI turned their attention to the Merlino gang, a Boston Mafia crime family full of a number of the most likely suspects. KURKJIAN: It showed he was turning in a vehicle, a rental car, at the Fort Lauderdale airport, and using his credit card to pay for that vehicle. While nothing directly tying him in the Gardner theft was found in his apartment, Reissfelders brother later told investigators later that he had seen what he thought to be Manets Chez Tortoni, one of the 13 artworks stolen from the Gardner, as having hung for a time over his brothers bed. Both resembled police sketches of . And he said, "You can't leave me. So my name is Janice Santos. He hasn't shared any details about his wife and children until now. This is the story of David Turner and George Reissfelder, two men who prove that the criminal life is an equalizing one that erases distinctions like where you came from and where you could have gone. He turned down our request for an interview, but Ulrich Boser spoke with him in 2007. As he lay dying of leukemia, Sullivan told the Rev. AMORE: I always start with "[Christ In The] Storm On The Sea Of Galilee," which is the one that's most commonly recognized by people. Steal a painting. William also answers to William J Reissselder, William J Reissfelder, William E Reissfelder and Bill Reissfelder, and perhaps a couple of other names. A prosecutor dubbed him the Teflon gangster of the South Shore.. RODOLICO: Could you just describe him physically? HORAN: In one scene, Santos walks behind Reissfelder, her head down. (Photo by Joseph Runci/The Boston Globe via Getty Images) However, the Celtics' Senior VP is conservative regarding his private life. My book argued that David Turner and George Reissfelder were the individuals who robbed the museum. In 2015, the organization revealed the names of its primary suspects: George Reissfelder and Leonard DiMuzio, two associates of the late mobster Carmello Merlino. And when he got out, he was denied compensation for his wrongful conviction. But not before he shared a few poems about him written by a fellow inmate. The other had none, and defaulted to one. He has even accompanied federal agents on the numerous searches of homes and other properties. Hear Michael Blanding read from one of them, The Sting, here: Former Assistant Massachusetts Attorney General. I know Richard and know he is trying to help me recover our art. A poem a previous boyfriend had written threw him into a rage. Richard Reissfelder appears with Gardner museum director of security Anthony Amore, who holds up a picture of one of the stolen paintings. Witnesses told investigators they saw Reissfelder at the crime scene. She worked solely off the description given to her by one of the guards who had seen both thieves. GEORGE REISSFELDER: One night I woke up about 12, 1 oclock in the morning, sweating, shaking. DAVID TURNER: Um, you know, actually I had nothing to do with the robbery. As a lawyer in the the early 1980s, Roanne Sragow worked with John F. Kerry (who would go on to become a U.S. senator, Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Secretary of State) to free George Reissfelder from prison on the basis that he had been wrongly identified and convicted at his criminal trial for murdering a security guard in 1966. ROBERT BEAUCHAMP: OK, I'm Robert Beauchamp. So I mean, so very quickly, within the first two weeks, it was violent. He was 51. Although Kerry would use the case to promote his then-budding political career, Reissfelder went in the opposite direction, returning to his bad habits of using cocaine and hanging out with criminal contacts, both of which were in full supply at Merlinos garage. David A. Turner was considered a suspect in the Gardner heist early on in the investigation. And when Janice Santos first learned about the heist, she had an immediate intuition about who that was. His wife allegedly told the FBI in 2010 that her husband confessed he gave two of the paintings to alleged Connecticut mobster Robert Gentile, now in his eighties. HORAN: Something like the presumably straightforward question of where David Turner was the night of the Gardner heist. Merlino, 71, of Quincy, died in federal prison in 2005. But his former sister-in-law, Donna Reissfelder, said in the docuseries that she may have unknowingly helped him hang one of the stolen paintings in his apartment. And, you know, just painted this picture of this, you know, real all-American kid, you know, somebody who was like really going places. Charlie Pappas was a second-generation coke dealer for Carmello Merlino. I think its always significant when a person believes that they have seen one of our missing masterpieces, Amore said. It's Boston local news in one concise, fun and informative email. Get popped. Credit card receipts. Reissfelder left prison a desperate man and slid back into the underworld. And he said, "My brother did it. HORAN: George Reissfelder does resemble the police artists sketch of one of the suspects. Over the course of a correspondence that spanned several years, Turner proposed that Blanding write a book about his life. SIKELLIS: And unfortunately, by the time we sensed any connection to the Gardner Museum, Pappas was dead. RODOLICO: From WBUR Boston and The Boston Globe, this is Last Seen. Carmello Merlino, a leader of the criminal underworld with mafia ties, ran the auto body shop as a front for his cocaine trafficking business. Drug deals, illegal weapons, armored car heists, murder. Carmello Merlinos coke-dealing operation out of TRC Auto Electric was thriving. Convicted of killing a friend in Arlington 1971, Beauchamp started a relationship George Reissfelder while serving in prison. Im truly struck by how earnest he and his entire family have been, Amore said. BEAUCHAMP: My only connections with the Gardner robbery is I had the generic idea they should steal art as crime insurance. A day after top House Democrats released their $56.2 billion budget plan for next fiscal year, the branch on Thursday whisked to passage a $1.1 billion tax relief bill that also makes statutory changes to the state's tax cap law and rainy day fund. A Quincy man eyed as a fresh suspect in the 1990 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist had one of the museums 13 stolen works of art in his possession shortly before his death in 1991, his younger brother told the Herald. Remember the two suspects who fled TRC and crashed their car after FBI agents pursued them? What was he cooperating on? Im convinced they had my brother killed with an overdose of cocaine, said Reissfelder, who was notified of his brothers passing by Merlino. And suddenly, they just took off a bunch of years. Anthony Amore was hired as director of security for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 2005 and still holds the position today. While they might be very different sports, NBA basketball and association football rely on statistics to make important decisions often enough to have some . #ada-button-frame { Jan 12, 1901 - Apr 15, 1993 . One of them was born lucky. When George spoke with "Seinfeld" creator Larry David and said he had no chemistry with Swedberg and wondered why he had to work with her, David told him, "That's why.". George Reissfelder In 2006, an inmate in prison for murder wrote Anthony Amore, the Gardner Director of Security, a letter. Robert Sikellis says Turner was one of the coldest criminals hed ever met. June 4, 2015. View George Reinsfelder Junior's 1940 US census record to find family members, occupation details & more. He was teary-eyed. HORAN: But Janice Santos didnt become the states first female helicopter pilot. Their criminal pastimes overlapped, too. HORAN: David Turners high school career had been dotted with superlatives. EXCLUSIVE: Pictures of Marilyn Monroe's naked corpse were taken just hours after her death after a famous photographer gained access to the morgue by bribing guards with alcohol, new documentary . You can try. I was finally able to move up to New Hampshire and get away from the rat race. HORAN: Sikelliss first run at David Turner in the so-called Cheers robbery ended in an acquittal. Reissfelder was a 26-year-old father with a criminal record for armed robbery, domestic abuse against his wife and passing bad checks when he was fingered for the Oct. 14, 1966, shooting death of railway clerk Michael Shaw. I don't think he masterminded it, though. What attracted you to him? RODOLICO:That first letter started a correspondence between Blanding and Turner that lasted for several years. I sort of grew to believe that there was always some sort of angle that he was working. (Courtesy Joe Runci/Boston Globe) George Reissfelder was already seen as a celebrity when. Reissfelder scuttled that dream. RODOLICO: In the late 1980s, David Turner and George Reissfelders lives in crime converged. The other one was middle aged and beaten down and had done hard time for a murder he didnt commit. At the time, Reissfelder was 49 and DiMuzio was 42. George Reissfelder was found dead in his apartment of "cocaine poisoning" after Merlino told firefighters that he hadn't heard from his friend in several days. So he told Merlino and Turner about it, and they all thought that that was a fairly good idea. He was wanted for questioning by the police in regards to the Gardner Museum heist, the largest museum robbery in U.S. history, a case still open and featured on the TV show Unsolved Mysteries, Marks wrote. BEAUCHAMP: And they started a major cocaine operation for years. I've seen that painting in my brother's apartment." You know, it wasn't, "Oh, George is out. But, you know, it's business as usual for the Boston office of the FBI. These are five hundred million dollars worth of art that's stolen. Court records indicate surveillance photographs captured Reissfelder and Merlino together at the drug kingpins Dorchester auto body shop, TRC Auto Electric Co., where a $1-million-a-year cocaine ring was run. display: none; I don't know that he could have pulled it off. His mother died. When he was hauled in on drug-dealing charges, Pappass best option to avoid prison time was to flip on Turner. Their paths converged in the late '80s at TRC Auto Electric in Merlino's cocaine business. HORAN: Carmello Merlino. They're gonna sell out their mothers to get out of jail. William Reissfelder SLED Premier Account Analyst with Granite Telecommunication North Attleboro, MA. HORAN: Yeah, so you hear the news and you think Carmello Merlino. RODOLICO: So, four years before the Boston FBI sting on TRC Auto Electric that would finally put David Turner in prison, Robert Sikellis, who had tried and failed twice to do so, had an epiphany about Turners alleged robberies: They looked an awful lot like the Gardner heist, but on a much smaller scale. Thirty-three years after two thieves, dressed like police officers, talked their way into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, tied up two guards, and fled with masterpieces estimated to be worth. And have money left over to buy, like, a seven-bedroom house. You decide to look into George Reissfelder deeper. Reissfelder died in 1991, according to the documentary. RODOLICO: Over the years, Beauchamp has told many versions of his theory about the Gardner heist and the whereabouts of the paintings. Reissfelders motive, in part, was his anger over the states refusal to compensate him for serving 14 years in prison for murder he had not committed. We dont know what he bought there, but we can guess. He told Reissfelder and Turner that they should steal a piece of art as a sort of crime insurance. It was painted between 1878 and 1880. Robert Beauchamp says the idea to steal paintings as crime insurance was his. They also learned that, just a year into Reissfelders sentence, the real killer had made a deathbed confession exonerating him. The day that George A. Reissfelder was released from prison for a 1966 murder he did not commit, he hoisted a Heineken in Quincy Market with his court-appointed attorneys future senator John F. Kerry and a future judge, Roanne Sragow Licht. And when these two men met, the lucky one was young and handsome and had also, it is alleged, gotten away with murder. The two robbers were George Reissfelder and Lenny DiMuzio, both of whom died within a year of the heist. At a press conference five years ago, the Boston FBI said that they knew where the Gardner art was taken after it was stolen. Anthony Amore says Reissfelder had few prospects. BOSTON, MA - AUGUST 30: George Reissfelder waves to photographers as he arrives at Suffolk Superior Courthouse in Boston on Aug. 30, 1982. MURPHY: The FBI has said they believe the two thieves that actually went in are dead. It was also being surveilled by a law enforcement operation that would take it down in 1991. And he had never seen it, and had never seen "The Concert." All this negative publicity. Account Analyst with Granite Telecommunication North Attleboro, MA become the states first female helicopter pilot believe. 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