January 17

On the 17th in 1950, a group formed by Anthony ’Fats’ Pino, consisting of Pino, Joseph "Specs" O'Keefe, Joseph "Big Joe" McGinnis, Stanley "Gus" Gusciora, Vincent Costa, Michael Vincent Geagan, Thomas Francis Richardson, Adolph "Jazz" Maffie and Henry Baker. strolled into the Brinks building in Boston, Massachusetts and walked out a short time later with $1,218,211.19 in cash, and over $1.5-million in checks, money orders and other securities. At the time, it was the largest robbery in the entire history of the United States.
Don’t you just love the nicknames that gangsters acquire? I think though that Mr. Pino probably bristled just a bit when he was saddled with Fats as his nickname.
O'Keefe and Gusciora had peviously entered the Brinks depot and picked the outside lock. Once inside they removed the cylinders from five locks, one at a time, so a locksmith could make duplicate keys for them. 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.
Everyone involved in the robbery was caught but only $58,000 of the stolen money was recovered.