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There are clues that seem to let him off the hook. Bill Reissfelder, Boston Celtics, Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President - RealGM I never ever mentioned the Gardner. TURNER: Thirty-eight-and-a-half years. HORAN: Now, David Turner has always said hed never cooperate with authorities investigating the Gardner heist. At the time, organized crime members seemed excited about the idea that they could trade a stolen painting in exchange for no jail time, if they were ever caught doing more unsavory business. During a one-day furlough in 1974, Reissfelder fled the state. Robert Beauchamp, one of those contacts, has stated that Reissfelder and David Turner, another devotee of Merlinos garage, visited him often in Massachusetts state prison during this term and in the vaguest of terms told him they were planning a major robbery and asked how they might hide the valuables in the immediate aftermath. Jan 12, 1901 - Apr 15, 1993 . That man, Robert Beauchamp, claimed that his former cell mate -- a man named George Reissfelder -- told him way back in 1990 that he had taken part in the heist. TURNER: I've seen memos that they sent directly to, uh, the director of the FBI saying that they believe I was a participant. George Reissfelder. She left the museum with a $3.6 million endowment, and her will stipulated that the . In 2013, when federal officials held a press conference to announce what they regarded as a break in the case, Amore spoke as the Gardner Museums representative. RODOLICO:In a letter dated Oct. 26, 2003, Turner proposes that Blanding write a book about his life. I was finally able to move up to New Hampshire and get away from the rat race. As he lay dying of leukemia, Sullivan told the Rev. The pair unearthed evidence that had been suppressed at trial. We were never able to prosecute anyone for that. My book argued that David Turner and George Reissfelder were the individuals who robbed the museum. GEORGE REISSFELDER: One night I woke up about 12, 1 oclock in the morning, sweating, shaking. We have-- we had very clear suspicions as to who that was, given he was a cooperating witness, but unfortunately we never had enough evidence to prosecute. Im truly struck by how earnest he and his entire family have been, Amore said. He was very upset. BEAUCHAMP: Well, he was halfway decent-looking. Some believe that Merlino associates, including David Turner and Robert Guarente, were plotting the Gardner heist while the cocaine trafficking probe was underway. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was constructed under the guidance of art collector Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924) to house her personal art collection. Alexander . I said to myself, "This is real, and I just might be spending the rest of my life in here.". His body was found after reputed New England Mob figure and Dorchester drug lord Carmello Merlino told firefighters that he had not heard from his friend in several days. I don't think he masterminded it, though. SANTOS: There were none. HORAN: In one scene, Santos walks behind Reissfelder, her head down. I've seen that painting in my brother's apartment." Just a warning: What youre about to hear is disturbing. Witnesses told investigators they saw Reissfelder at the crime scene. Santos likened the seven years she spent with George Reissfelder to being his prisoner. He had jealous rages and beat Santos, and he barred her from reporting for military duty. And when Janice Santos first learned about the heist, she had an immediate intuition about who that was. Robert Sikellis is the former assistant attorney general for Massachusetts who spent years in the 1990s trying to put David Turner behind bars for those crimes. This is Episode 4: "Two Bad Men.". KURKJIAN: I went looking for documents. BEAUCHAMP:Yeah, a couple of times we had Mexican standoffs, and the only reason that he backed down was both times I had a .357 and he only had a small .22 or .25 automatic. 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. Doubtful the thief took off his hat to show his unique hair style to the two Gardner guards. Donna said she didn't know that the painting was a highly sought-after piece of art until years later when people from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum contacted her about the stolen collection. Richard Reissfelder added that when he went to collect his brothers effects after learning of his death, the painting was nowhere to be seen in the apartment. Barnicle also explores another South Shore connection: Reissfelder's sister-in-law, Donna Reissfelder. The museum opened to the public in 1903, and Gardner continued to expand the collection and arrange it until she died in 1924. 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. JACK RODOLICO: David Turner and George Reissfelder found themselves pulled into the gravitational orbit of crime boss Carmello Merlino at TRC Auto Electric at the same time the late 1980s. 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. 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. Reissfelders connection to Merlino, 71 who died in prison in 2005 while serving a 47-year sentence for his involvement in the failed armored car depot hold-up became the stuff of presidential election campaign attack ads in 2004. The very man who died in prison rather than give up anything he might have known about how the Gardner heist went down or where the paintings might have been. It was visceral. It's a helicopter. Over the years, the Herald has reported on several people who claimed to have access to a Rembrandt stolen the same night, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee. Those leads have never panned out. And I looked at the Bureau of Prisons' website, which shows a release date. HORAN: In 2009, Anthony Amore, working with the Boston Herald newspaper, hired a forensic medical artist to redo the police sketches of the Gardner heist suspects. He was serving a 47-year sentence for his role in a planned 1999 armored car depot heist in Easton. Robert Beauchamp says the TRC gang was flying too close to the sun. According to multiple sources, the team's CFO was seen attending several Celtics games with his family. It is-- it is crazy how valuable they are. Anthony Amore was hired as director of security for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 2005 and still holds the position today. KELLY HORAN: This is the story of two men. Bill Reissfelder Sales Operations at Klaviyo . Best regards.. Mr.. According to news report published two months before Reissfelders release, four Boston police detectives and Special Agent John J. Connolly of the Boston FBI office quoted informants as telling them that Sullivan and at least two other men none of them Reissfelder were involved in the holdup. She looks submissive. AMORE: She'd never seen George Reissfelder in her life. If it was because of some new federal sentencing guideline, you know, decision it would be detailed in the record. Let's just be clear, right. 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. Their license was verified as active when we last . Beauchamp and Reissfelder met in 1973 while they were imprisoned at MCI-Norfolk. Shortly after the heist, according to the New York Times, a stolen Manet was spotted in the apartment of George Reissfelder. He was teary-eyed. The other wasnt. View George Reinsfelder Junior's 1940 US census record to find family members, occupation details & more. Credit card receipts. Bowl haircut. You can interrogate Kwabena as George Reissfelder and the rest of the Art Heist cast Tuesday through Sunday now through December 13. Turner and Reissfelder found themselves pulled into the gravitational orbit of Merlino at the same time -- the late 1980s. Both resembled police sketches of . In details of David Turners alleged robberies, it was hard to miss the hallmarks of the Gardner heist. RODOLICO: Could you just describe him physically? After Kerry and Sragow won him a new trial, then-Suffolk County District Attorney Newman Flanagan decided against re-trying the case against Reissfelder. People Photos Purpose. He doesn't have access to the paintings or he'd be out of prison. I mean, it was--, it was--, it was chilling to be in the same room at times. SANTOS: A helicopter. Last November the Patriot Ledger reported that a new book on the famed 1990 Gardner Museum heists implicated a Quincy resident, the late George Reissfelder, and media reports today have his. He was employed as a milkman for H.P. 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. In this episode, we take a closer look at David Turner and George Reissfelder two criminals with very different backgrounds who found themselves pulled into the gravitational orbit of Merlino in the late 1980s. While maintaining confidentiality on the status of the criminal investigation, Amore has said publicly that he believes the heist was the work of a local criminal gang working with some measure of inside information. HORAN: Why do you think he couldn't have done it? I'm just saying the work of art looked exactly like George to the point where we had a police uniform photoshopped onto him, and you hold the two and he looks exactly like this composite work of art. Their paths converged in the late '80s at TRC Auto Electric in Merlino's cocaine business. 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. HORAN: Robert Sikellis says he believes that David Turner was behind the killing. I will go after your-- I'll go after your family." RODOLICO: The people he knew were from prison. They . Where was he? What did he give? BLANDING: I can show you one of these letters that I found where he says, "I'm happy to share this information about the Gardner Museum, as well as these other crimes that, that I have knowledge of." KURKJIAN: Well, the Spy Store had all sorts of James Bond-type equipment. You can try, Kelly Horan, With Reporting By Jack Rodolico. No one had let Reissfelder know. Because I realized at that point-- I thought maybe they'd steal maybe up to five million dollars at the most, but when it turned out to be hundreds of millions, I said, "You know what type of investigation this is going to be compared to what it would have been?". I fought back. The other one was middle aged and beaten down and had done hard time for a murder he didnt commit. BEAUCHAMP: My only connections with the Gardner robbery is I had the generic idea they should steal art as crime insurance. The publicity was mostly because of the legal defense work of John F. Kerry, and Kerrys law partner. #ada-button-frame { . BEAUCHAMP: And when I started seeing the FBI sketches of them I thought, those disguises weren't really all that good. You have been subscribed to WBUR Today. His brother believes that Merlino. The paintings frame was found on one of the chairs in the empty office of the museum security supervisor the next morning. I don't want to take any blame for the Gardner. Investigating further into Reissfelder, you discover that he died within a year after the heist of suspicious acute cocaine poisoning. He was very capable. 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. 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