The Biggest Money Heists In American History

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) 2023 crime statistics, there was a .3% decline in robberies over the course of the year. Where financial institutions are concerned, that represents a grand total of 1,362 criminal violations in 2023 across the categories of robbery, larceny, and burglaries. Robbery is defined as an attempt to take a valuable item from someone else through violence or by coercion through threat of violence, larceny is the same thing without the use or threat of force, and burglary is entering a place unlawfully to commit theft. Commercial banks make up the vast majority of criminal interactions at 1,112 reported incidents in 2023, followed by credit unions with 126 incidents.

These numbers are significantly lower than in 2016, when the FBI reported a grand total of 4,251 violations against financial institutions. The prevalence of cameras in banks, smartphones, and adjacent businesses make heists less appealing. The integration of technology, chemicals, and serial numbers in cash for the purposes of tracking and identification also make theft more challenging. Though, progress could still be made in cities like Denver, Colorado, which has the highest rate of bank robberies in the U.S. While fewer heists happen today, America is home to some of the biggest heists in history. Here are a few.

On Tuesday, August 14, 1962, Boston suffered one of the biggest money heists in American history. In this case, several banks in Cape Cod transporting money to the Federal Reserve of Boston in a mail truck were targeted by robbers in police uniforms. The thieves stopped the vehicle and diverted oncoming traffic, police uniforms making all this, while carrying guns, easier. These perfect disguises were believed to be provided by mob boss Jerry Anguilo, a story given to the U.S. Marshal John Partington by an informant — John "Red" Kelley — who was indicted for his alleged involvement in the robbery but was later acquitted. Nina Jobe, co-creator of the podcast "Double Deal," was also told by her father — 40-year criminal informant Richard Chicofsky — that the Boston Mob was involved in the robbery through Anguilo, who spent $7,000 on masks, guns, and police uniforms. Anguilo was also believed to have coordinated the laundering of stolen deposits. This was before the days banks got better at busting criminals for shady financial practices.

Chicofsky, although an FBI informant, was also believed to have taken part in the robbery, which makes anything he has to offer about it questionable. Several alleged crew members were arrested, with one — George "Billy Aggie" Agisotelis — cooperating with authorities before going missing. In the end, nobody was ever imprisoned for the robbery, with a $1.5 million take equal to just over $15.6 million today.

Shortly after the New Year of January 1950, a crew of 11 Halloween-masked suspects took on the high security of the Brinks building in Boston. Bank uniforms and guns were instruments of this risky heist where the criminals stole everything — including the guns belonging to the real Brinks guards on duty. Over a two-year period, the crew led by Joseph "Big Joe" McGinnis, charted operational hours, the execution of the heist in scenarios acted out at least half a dozen times, and even duplicated the keys in the building before the big day. After unlocking the second floor and tying up employees at gunpoint, the crew scored just over $2.7 million, the equivalent of just over $37.2 million today. The money was to be off limits for a two-year period in which the statute of limitations would prevent their arrest. Brinks would offer a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the criminals.

The discipline required to stay out of prison was questionable. Members of the crew began turning on each other after crew member, Joseph O'Keefe, was arrested twice on unrelated charges. In a wild turn of events, O'Keefe held crew member Vincent Costa hostage, demanding another crew member, Anthony Pino — Costa's brother-in-law — pay the ransom. This set off a chain reaction of betrayals and attempted hits that landed the whole crew in prison just five days before the statute of limitations ran out.

At the time, the theft of just over $5.8 million on December 11, 1978 was the largest recorded cash heist in U.S. history. German airline Deutsche Lufthansa was flying U.S. currency to JFK International Airport at the time, a practice that career gangster and criminal mastermind Jimmy Burke would make them regret. It's rumored that the guards were paid off, and if you've watched the Martin Scorsese classic "Goodfellas", you have an idea of what happened next. Employees Peter Gruenwald and Louis Werner leaked the potential haul — a combination of $5 million cash and $875,000 worth of jewelry — to the Lucchese mob through Werner's bookmaker Martin Krugman. Werner may have been someone with a serious gambling problem considering he was on the hook for $6,600, which in 1978, would've been the equivalent of over $30,000 today.

This got to Henry Hill, who was affiliated with the Lucchese family, who then relayed the potential score to Jimmy "The Gent" Burke. Burke assembled a crew of half a dozen crooks who then walked into the Lufthansa warehouse at around 3 AM after using boltcutters on the padlocked gates. The crew walked out just over an hour later with cash and jewels. Crew member Parnell "Stacks" Edwards parked the heist vehicle in front of a fire hydrant instead of disposing of the vehicle as directed by Burke, which drew the attention of the police. After that, Burke had Edwards, and most of the crew, whacked.

Sentry Armoured Car Company took a serious hit in The Bronx, New York in yet another inside job that would yield one of the biggest cash grabs ever. At the time, it broke previous records and was noted as the largest cash theft in the nation's history. It begins with Christos Potamitis, a Sentry Armoured Car Company guard from Queens, and his associate George Legakis, a cook from Brooklyn. Potamitis planned the robbery where Legakis, alongside a small crew, would break into the warehouse by making a hole in the roof — made of wood — to gain access to the office and garage. Once there, Potamitis would allow himself to be "surprised" at gunpoint, and handcuffed. On the night of the robbery, there was $20 million in cash, checks, and coins, of which Legakis and crew stole $11 million. Potamitis would later tell investigators that the robbers threatened to kill him.

Law enforcement however, didn't believe this story since there was no evidence of force during the robbery. Using all the usual methods employed by the FBI at the time, the investigators concluded that the heist was an inside job, and arrested Potamitis in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Legakis willingly showed up for questioning by the FBI and was himself arrested. Although law enforcement eventually arrested five people for their involvement in the heist, they only ever retrieved $1.5 million, making the location of the other $9.5 million a mystery until this day.

In one of the unluckiest instances for a financial institution, Loomis Fargo has the distinction of being hit twice. Not only were there two robberies in the same year, but they both happened within a few months of each other. March 29, 1997 was the day that Loomis armored truck driver, Philip Noel Johnson, paid himself a huge extra bonus. After turning his company issued gun on his co-workers, he handcuffed and abandoned them in various locations along his escape route from Jacksonville. Fla. to his stash house in North Carolina. The brazen notice of resignation garnered him $18.8 million in illegally proferred severance pay after a ten year career with the company, and ironically, several failed applications to police departments. After hiding out in Mexico for a few months, Johnson was caught while trying to cross the U.S. border with numerous passports, $11,000 cash, and suspicious answers to border guards that raised alarm bells. After recovering all but $186,000 of the heist, Johnson served 22 years in prison, only being released in 2022.

In October of the same year, Loomis  regional vault supervisor, David Scott Ghantt, took a crack at stealing another $17.3 million right out of the company's vaults. Ghantt got help from another co-worker, a lover, and a criminal accomplice who drove off with the cash in a van. In a few months, everyone was caught, and all but $2 million was recovered.

Meanwhile in Los Angeles, Dunbar safety inspector Allen Pace had assembled a crew to assist him with his inside job, taking $18.9 million from Dunbar's vaults. His knowledge of the best time to hit the vault — late Friday, when the vaults would be unlocked for transferring money — and the location of security cameras, helped for a relatively smooth caper. After roughing up two guards and removing security camera recordings, Pace and his team successfully made off with the cash in the rear of a U-haul truck. They focused mainly on large bills to get more bang for Dunbar's bucks. The crew hid their money by laundering it through fake businesses and real estate purchases, the latter of which is a shady practice that can land realtors in jail.

They might have made a clean escape if not for crew member Eugene Hill, who made the mistake of gifting money to someone with Dunbar money straps around it. This was obviously someone who was an honest person, since they tipped off law enforcement about the money straps as opposed to pocketing the cash. This tip led them right to Hill, who turned on the rest of the crew, including the mastermind and inside man Pace. Pace was handed a 24-year prison term for his trouble, but $14 million remains missing till this day. 

The Pierre Hotel in New York City was the scene of big hit, where during the pre-sunset hours on January 2, 1972, a crew of undesirables made their way into the establishment. The ragtag team of professionals included members of the Lucchese crime family, contract killers, and a relative of one of the crew. The day after New Year's celebrations made for a great score since the high society staying there were storing their most eye-catching jewelry worn at parties in safe deposit boxes. For instance, the night in question a few famous names at the hotel included Elizabeth Taylor, Coco Chanel, and President Richard Nixon, the latter of which didn't make the list of the richest U.S. Presidents of all time, but saw his wealth grow by $150,000 per year after his first year in office.

Wearing tuxedos, wigs, and fake mustaches, the crew scammed their way into the hotel and overpowered the only two security guards working that night. They also took several hostages made up of hotel staff and guests unlucky enough to be milling about the lobby at that hour. They then broke into the security deposit boxes and hit a jackpot of jewelry worth $27 million, effectively demonstrating why uninsured valuables is just one of a few things you should never leave in a safe deposit box. 

On Easter Sunday 2024, a mysterious burglary took place in which the thieves were able to get into a GardaWorld warehouse overnight to escape with $30 million in cash. Taking place in California's San Fernando Valley, in quiet suburban Sylmar, law enforcement theorize that the burglars would have got into the facility through a hole in the roof, or a manmade hole cut into the side of the building discovered by a news helicopter covering the story. Either way, there were no tripped alarms, or motion detectors set off, and the heist was so successful that no one was aware of the lost money until GardWorld employees opened the vault on Monday morning. Mysteriously, there was no sign of tampering with the vault either, denoting an impressively skilled team of burglars or an inside job. The sheer weight of that amount of money would have been equal to 7,500 pounds, making it more miraculous that the burglars were able to escape with that much cash completely while remaining completely undetected. 

This next heist involves the criminal underworld stealing from each other. On August 14, 1975, Mob boss Raymond Patriarca — the owner of the Hudson Fur building that housed the Bonded Vault in Providence, Rhode Island — assembled a crew to break into 146 safety deposit boxes storing money belonging to his own crime family and other associates. While it's uncertain whether Patriarca was himself directly involved in the theft — FBI documents suggest they believed he was involved but they would never gather enough evidence to arrest him — a crew of several men easily accessed the building and held several employees in an office as the burglary took place.

After breaking into the safety deposit boxes, the crew made off with a combination of cash and valuables, and although initially believed to be a theft worth between $1 million and $5 million, the FBI would later adjust that total to $30 million. There is no honor among thieves however, and after members of the crew started getting pinched — including Robert "The Deuce" Dussault and Joe Danese, they started fingering each other until half a dozen of the crew ended up standing trial. Although Dussault pointed toward Patriarca as the head of the heist, Patriarca never served time for that incident, and three out of six members put on trial were acquitted of all charges. 

On March 24, 1972, the number $30 million popped up again in Laguna Nigel, California after thieves descended on the United California Bank. This is the second time ex-President Richard Nixon shows up on our list, this time as a target of crooks Amil and James Dinsio and a crew consisting of family members and underworld associates. It was rumored that Nixon was stashing millions of dollars at the bank, which is far and away from how much the President of the United States actually makes. The money, a donation to his re-election campaign by none other than famously disappeared Mob-affiliated labor boss Jimmy Hoffa, was stolen out of the vault after the crew used explosives to go through the roof. They also managed to disable the alarm system with a special spray used to harden surfboards.

They almost got away with it, too. Unfortunately for the crew, a taxi driver employed by the crew informed law enforcement about the suspicious characters. They were also sloppy when it came to leaving their fingerprints behind in their safe house for investigators to discover, as well as attempting a second heist back home in Ohio, which law enforcement were able to connect with the Dinsio brother's whereabouts. It appears the Dinsio's used their real names when booking flights to and from the state.  

The overall biggest heist isn't a bank or financial institution at all. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum houses numerous priceless art pieces, and on March 18, 1990, two criminals dressed as police officers waltzed into the museum at around 1:24 pm and helped themselves to 13 of them. After tying up a pair of museum guards, the pair went to work, taking a grocery list of famous works by artists including Johannes Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Edgar Degas, to name a few, estimated to hold a value of over $500 million. While the FBI has tied the Boston Mob to the crime, the closest the FBI has come to figuring out who exactly was involved was the discovery of a list of paintings in the home of gangster Robert Gentile in 2012. Still, Gentile denied any knowledge of who was involved in the theft right up until his death in 2021. Even Whitey Bulger, one of the most infamous Boston gangsters and FBI informants, claimed he didn't know who was involved in the theft, but wanted to know because the thieves should have given him a cut as tribute since it happened on his turf.

In 2018, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum released a statement extending a $10 million reward for any information leading to the recovery of the artworks, which remain in the wind.