Episode 171: The Bonded Vault Heist
Located at 101 Cranston Street in the West End neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island, in a red brick building that once served as a church but was later the home of Hudson Fur Storage, and also the location of the infamous Bonded Vault Heist of 1975.
Hudson Furs was a popular and well-loved furrier, but behind the racks of expensive pelts were 146 safe deposit boxes that were two feet high, two feet wide, and four to five feet deep. The presence of these safes were only known to those who were closely associated with the powerful crime boss Raymond Patriarca. He was notorious for his violent disposition, and was truly feared by anyone who had the pleasure to make his acquaintance. Within the safes were hundreds of pounds of gold bars, countless precious gems, stacks of cash, and valuables like jeweled and golden chalices owned by the Patriarca family and their associates. The Bonded Vault was their unofficial bank.
On August 14th, 1975, eight men arrived at Hudson Furs in a van, with no intention of purchasing anything inside. These men were all associated with the mob in some way, and thus had some sort of knowledge about these elusive safe deposit boxes that had an unimaginable amount of money in it. These men included Robert Dussault, Chucky Flynn, Joe Danese, Gerry Tillinghast, Ralph Byrnes, Jacob Tarzian, John Ouimette and Walter Ouimette. Just after 8:00 a.m. that morning, Robert entered the furrier’s establishment dressed as a businessman and strolled right into the office of the co-owner, Samuel Levine, and immediately took him hostage. Before long, he had all five employees in the office with pillowcases over their heads. Six other men joined Robert inside while the last one remained outside as a lookout.
For the next hour and a half, the seven men raided these safe deposit boxes, prying them open with crowbars and all of their strength. They filled seven duffel bags with hundreds of pounds of gold coins and gold bars and jewelry they’d pawn off. Before they drove off, Robert locked all of the employees in the bathroom and warned them not to call the police for at least five minutes. As soon as they were able to, the hostages called police and they were left unharmed.
The eight men made off with roughly $30 million, and they split up the pounds of valuables they had stolen as well. Each man ended up with $64,000 in cash and their own pile of gems and jewelry to pawn. Robert Dussault immediately left town and flew to Las Vegas after getting his share, and blew all of his money on his two favorite things: gambling and sex. He fell in love with a sex worker and spent all of his money as well as her own money, and within weeks was calling his seven friends asking for more money from their grand total. This made the other members of the heist nervous, as they were worried Robert would break down and confess and get them all in trouble with the law or even worse - killed. They all agreed to send Chucky Flynn, Robert’s lifelong best friend, to Las Vegas to kill him. Robert was able to talk his way out of the situation, but was later caught in January of 1976 after his girlfriend called the police after an altercation. His tattoos and fingerprints were linked to the heist, and police tricked Robert into confessing.
One of the hostages, Barbara Oliva, was able to see everything through her pillowcase, as it was threadbare and thin. She was able to accurately describe Robert and Chucky as they had not been wearing masks during the heist. Six of the eight men faced extensive jail time, as Robert and Joe Danese both confessed and therefore earned protection as long as they cooperated and testified on behalf of the prosecution. Of the other six men involved, three of them were acquitted of the crimes, while the other three were charged with a whole pile of crimes. The trials for these burglars ended up being the most expensive and longest trial for a bank robbery in Rhode Island history.
The heist was later connected back to Raymond Patriarca himself, who felt his associates were not paying him what they owed him while he was serving a prison sentence, and he received the valuables and most of the cash stolen from the vault.
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historyandotherthingsweb.wordpress.com - “Bonded Vault Heist”