Investigating further into Reissfelder, you discover that he died within a year after the heist of suspicious acute cocaine poisoning. The eyes are his.. #ada-button-frame { A confidential informant later told investigators that Reissfelder was among the members of Merlinos crew that pulled off the $300 million blockbuster art heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum on March 18, 1990, according to FBI records. He hasn't shared any details about his wife and children until now. Guarente's wife claimed he gave two of the paintings to Connecticut mobster Robert Gentile, but in February 2021 Gentile seemed to deny any involvement with the heist. Reissfelder described his brother as a follower who was hardened by his prison experience and fell in with a bad crowd upon his release. He has written two books: Stealing Rembrandts: The Untold Story of Notorious Art Heists (with reporter Tom Mashberg) in 2011 and The Art of the Con: The Most Notorious Fakes, Frauds and Forgeries in the Art World in 2015. Skip to main content Home Memorials Cemeteries Famous Contribute Register Sign In Register Sign In Memorial updated successfully. I'm a prisoner at MCI Norfolk. His mother died. He was 51 and has never been formally connected to the theft. He was buying spy equipment from a Miami shop called the Spy Shops of Miami. SANTOS:I was 22 years old. (Courtesy Joe Runci/Boston Globe) George Reissfelder was already seen as a celebrity when. He has kept his wife and children's identities a secret until now. He was worried that the TRC gang was getting sloppy. And so, the plan was for him to come out, move in with me. Reissfelder did not stick with the Inmate #6875309 look after a couple of weeks from his release from prison as the photo (far right) taken six years before the Gardner Heist shows. Reissfelder died in 1991, according to the documentary. What healways said was, you know, "Give us the paintings and you can go home," you know. He was very upset. Last Seenis a production from WBUR and The Boston Globe. HORAN: I guess I wonder-- Did you guys fall in love when, when he was in prison? HORAN: Yeah, so you hear the news and you think Carmello Merlino. Jeannine Russell was born on January 31, 1967. But, Steve says, there is one for two days after March 20. BEAUCHAMP: When he came to see me after the Gardner robbery I just looked at him and shook my head and said, "Way too much, George." And in 1974, the pair escaped from prison. Long narrow face. It's a helicopter. He had a-- he was very well built. According to both men, Reissfelder immediately recognized the Manet painting, which depicts a formally dressed man sitting at a table outside the Tortoni cafe in Paris. One of them had options and from them, chose a life of crime. He was born Sept 3, 1923 in Boston, Mass. 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. Updates: 13 years after the theft . HORAN: Shelley Murphy, who wrote a Globe piece about this with Steve, says this makes sense. Like I said, he could have changed, but the guy that I was married to could not have done that. HORAN: Sikelliss first run at David Turner in the so-called Cheers robbery ended in an acquittal. like follow. So, if it had ever been there, where did it go? They were never able to pin Turner to the crime, however. In hopes of gaining consideration for his own release, Beauchamp has cooperated with the FBI and the museum in their search for a recovery. Beauchamp and Reissfelder met in 1973 while they were imprisoned at MCI-Norfolk. HORAN: George Reissfelder does resemble the police artists sketch of one of the suspects. What did you see in him? I've seen that painting in my brother's apartment." Alexander . The two men belonged to the crew of local criminal Carmello Merlino, who was first . Crime boss Carmello Merlino, who we met in the last episode, was hardly the last best suspect to come out of a crew of criminals based in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood. And you know, it's frustrating. And it's remarkable. She is also a former professional golfer. George Albert Reissfelder Jr 1940-1991 Mary "Maria" Petrillo 1938-2007 Spouse and Children George Albert Reissfelder Jr 1940-1991 Male Mary "Maria" Petrillo 1938-2007 Female Parents and Siblings George Albert Reissfelder Sr 1901-1976 Male Emma G Schnabel 1904-1967 Female Siblings (4) Phyllis Reissfelder 1925-1936 Female We were never able to prosecute anyone for that. Boser typed notes as he listened to Turner on speaker phone. And when I looked at it, I knew. I remember his reaction the first time I asked him to look at the missing art and witnessed firsthand how genuine his reaction was to Chez Tortoni. . 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. For everything that points toward these particular suspects there's something that points away. New lead: The apartment building in Quincy where one of the stolen paintings, a Manet, might have been seen. Some of Turners letters, Blanding says, offered tantalizing hints about the Gardner heist and other unsolved crimes. Robert Beauchamp says the TRC gang was flying too close to the sun. And I looked at the Bureau of Prisons' website, which shows a release date. And he had never seen it, and had never seen "The Concert." RODOLICO: Did you get all that? At trial, Merlino argued that he was set up by the FBI because investigators believed the crime boss had access to the stolen Gardner art. Lived In Milford NH. Undisclosed sources in the investigation believed that the thieves the FBI identified were George Reissfelder and Leonard DiMuzio, both involved in the Merlino gang and both deceased shortly after the robbery in 1991. Yeah. When he was arrested, he tried to pull a gun on the police and landed back in a Bay State prison. And so I guess Merlino basically and maybe Reissfelder and Turner to a far lesser extent started canvassing museums in the Boston area. We dont know what he bought there, but we can guess. Of all the men floated as possible suspects in the Gardner heist, no one is more of a dead ringer. TURNER: I've seen memos that they sent directly to, uh, the director of the FBI saying that they believe I was a participant. BOSER: I do believe that David Turner is going to go down in history alongside the Boston Strangler, alongside Whitey Bulger, as one of the most notorious criminals to come out of Boston. his is the story of two men. I stood up at the cell door, looked out at the cell block it was quiet. How do you defend yourself against that? A UH1. Carmello Merlino, a leader of the criminal underworld with mafia ties, ran the auto body shop as a front for his cocaine trafficking business. His wife divorced him and he has two children, besides Maria, whom he has never seen. I said to myself, "This is real, and I just might be spending the rest of my life in here.". Yes, he had that painting and I want to give it to Anthony Amore as a present., Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Bruins knock off Panthers for 1-0 series lead, Fans pour on the enthusiasm for the 127th Boston Marathon, Pentagon revokes access, culling through lists to highly classified information after Massachusetts Guardsman Jack Teixeira accused of leak, Man charged with shooting Black teen at front door, Ex-Cardinal McCarrick charged with sex abuse, DeSantis ups ante in Disney fight, floats nearby prison, After Massachusetts Guardsman Jack Teixeira allegedly leaked Pentagon documents, military expert calls it 'a failure by leadership', Bruins notebook: Patrice Bergeron sits out Game 1 vs. Panthers, Live Updates: Hellen Obiri wins women's race at 127th Boston Marathon, Martin Richard's friends get ready to run the Boston Marathon in his honor 10 years later: 'Carrying Martin's message of peace', Two missing Medford men found dead in Brighton storage unit, Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev sues Colorado supermax for $250,000, Golden galore at Boston Common: Hundreds of golden retrievers gather in honor of Spencer, the Boston Marathon dog, Lucas: Democrats' choice of Chicago recalls a divided America, Gunmen storm Mexican resort, kill 7 people, including a child, California is changing how it goes after illegal cannabis farms, Caught off guard: How South Floridas rare storm compares to others, and where it sits in history, The final encore for Phantom: What the show means to one New Yorker who saw it dozens of times, For Varland brothers, now both in the MLB at same time, a dream come true. Their paths converged in the late '80s at TRC Auto Electric in Merlino's cocaine business. (AP Photo/Bill Sikes) Justin Quinn. SIKELLIS: And unfortunately, by the time we sensed any connection to the Gardner Museum, Pappas was dead. These are five hundred million dollars worth of art that's stolen. HORAN: Robert Sikellis says he believes that David Turner was behind the killing. HORAN:And someone who moved between those worlds and settled in the latter is David Turner. . In September 2004, the Republican partisan group MoveOnForAmerica.org ran a Willie Horton-like ad criticizing Kerry, then the Democratic presidential nominee, for advocating for Reissfelders release. You decide to look into George Reissfelder deeper. And he grabbed me by the hair, and then-- and then-- and of course, I was stupid. After his release, George Reissfelder associated with Carmello Merlino, an organized crime boss and drug lord whom he met in prison. Boston on May 11, 1984. Kerry and Sragow managed to win a new trial for Reissfelder in June 1981 based on the deathbed confession of his co-defendant, Sullivan. So he offered Reissfelder, who still visited him in prison sometimes with David Turner in tow some advice. And I figured, "Well, he just got out of prison. BEAUCHAMP: And when I started seeing the FBI sketches of them I thought, those disguises weren't really all that good. His peers had voted him most unique and had given him the nickname Crackerjack. He had a broad, round face with wide, high cheekbones, a mop of light brown hair, and a grin that conveyed confidence and mischief. He'd been shot, if I remember, twice in the mouth, if memory serves. 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. Bill Reissfelder Sales Operations at Klaviyo . He calls it the perfect vehicle to tell the story of Boston., It, in my mind, represents so much of the citys respect for art and culture, its value of learning, and the sort of really richer ideas, and then also represents, you know, this other side of the city that is rough, and dirty, and criminal, and we have this tension that, you know, rests at the center of it all.. She finally managed it in 1989. A prosecutor dubbed him the Teflon gangster of the South Shore.. Both Reissfelder and DiMuzio died in 1991, and both resembled police sketches of the thieves. Mr. DiMuzio, who was shot to . Sikellis realized that the entire time hed been working with Charlie Pappas to nail Turner for those robberies, he could have been asking him if Turner had also been one of the men who robbed the Gardner. I said that wasn't the release date that was there before. Jan 04, 2022, 08:02 ET. KURKJIAN: Well, the Spy Store had all sorts of James Bond-type equipment. Rare Pope Creek Poppy Jasper Rough Slab!Gorgeous RARE Top Pope CreekPoppy Jasper Rough Slab ! Sragows efforts to convince the Massachusetts Legislature to compensate Reissfelder for the 16 years he had served in jail for the wrongful conviction failed, however. David Turner was in the passenger seat. Bill Reissfelder is a married man with a wife and family. And he said, "You can't leave me. Two of his closest associates have long been on the radar of those looking into the heist. William Reissfelder currently lives in Westwood, MA; in the past William has also lived in Norwell MA and Coppell TX. And, you know, just painted this picture of this, you know, real all-American kid, you know, somebody who was like really going places. Previously, he had worked as a specialist for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Bruins knock off Panthers for 1-0 series lead, Fans pour on the enthusiasm for the 127th Boston Marathon, Pentagon revokes access, culling through lists to highly classified information after Massachusetts Guardsman Jack Teixeira accused of leak, Man charged with shooting Black teen at front door, Ex-Cardinal McCarrick charged with sex abuse, DeSantis ups ante in Disney fight, floats nearby prison, After Massachusetts Guardsman Jack Teixeira allegedly leaked Pentagon documents, military expert calls it 'a failure by leadership', Bruins notebook: Patrice Bergeron sits out Game 1 vs. Panthers, Live Updates: Hellen Obiri wins women's race at 127th Boston Marathon, Martin Richard's friends get ready to run the Boston Marathon in his honor 10 years later: 'Carrying Martin's message of peace', Two missing Medford men found dead in Brighton storage unit, Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev sues Colorado supermax for $250,000, Golden galore at Boston Common: Hundreds of golden retrievers gather in honor of Spencer, the Boston Marathon dog, Lucas: Democrats' choice of Chicago recalls a divided America, Gunmen storm Mexican resort, kill 7 people, including a child, California is changing how it goes after illegal cannabis farms, Caught off guard: How South Floridas rare storm compares to others, and where it sits in history, The final encore for Phantom: What the show means to one New Yorker who saw it dozens of times, For Varland brothers, now both in the MLB at same time, a dream come true. 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. And you kind of have to think on your feet doing something like that. She was on track to become the first female helicopter pilot in Massachusetts. Amore reached out to that person, and after a long delay came the response: Yes, theyd seen it in the apartment. It was 17 years ago. You make a note in your casebook, and go back to reading the witness statements and looking at the suspect sketches. He had kind of a Beatle haircut very straight hair. The two robbers were George Reissfelder and Lenny DiMuzio, both of whom died within a year of the heist. BLANDING: Eventually, and I should say allegedly, David was involved with a number of more serious crimes. 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