Reissfelder died in 1991, according to the documentary. The tests were inconclusive. Their BuildZoom score of 103 ranks in the top 10% of 139,240 Massachusetts licensed contractors. He turned down our request for an interview, but Ulrich Boser spoke with him in 2007. Steal a painting. They told me they had information from several sources that I was an actual participant in the robbery. One of them was born lucky. It is still the most famous art crime in American history. Why wouldn't he be inside? And in 1974, the pair escaped from prison. She was on track to become the first female helicopter pilot in Massachusetts. Reissfelder said his family is anguished by the revelations and want the art to be returned. At a press conference five years ago, the Boston FBI said that they knew where the Gardner art was taken after it was stolen. In the meantime, convicted criminal Robert Beauchamp had some advice for his former boyfriend, George Reissfelder. How do you defend yourself against that? And have money left over to buy, like, a seven-bedroom house. Although Kerry would use the case to promote his then-budding political career, Reissfelder went in the opposite direction, returning to his bad habits of using cocaine and hanging out with criminal contacts, both of which were in full supply at Merlinos garage. Turner alleged entrapment by the FBI and twice appealed his conviction and lost. The pair unearthed evidence that had been suppressed at trial. to Henry & Helen (Tully) Reissfelder. PRESS CONFERENCE: For the first time, we can say with a high degree of confidence, we've determined that in the years since the theft HORAN: Next time, we follow the stolen arts trail and tell you with a high degree of confidence what we think. 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. SIKELLIS: The feeling was to, you know, to really take a run at David Turner. He couldn't watch me. 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. Beauchamp contends that Reissfelder and David Turner visited him in Bay State Correctional Facility in Norfolk numerous times in 1988 and 1989 and without providing details, mentioned intentions for a museum robbery. Despite his attempts to use stolen art as bargaining chips during his criminal career, Merlino claimed he was set up for a 1999 botched heist at an armored car depot over bogus assertions that he had access to the stolen Gardner treasures. Back in 1992, Kerry, as a private attorney, had secured the early parole of a career criminal, George Reissfelder, who had pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of a police officer in Florida . Were there many female helicopter pilots at the time in Massachusetts? Others named Bill Reissfelder. 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. During a one-day furlough in 1974, Reissfelder fled the state. For everything that points toward these particular suspects there's something that points away. Who was he going to be friends with when he got out of jail? I don't know that he could have pulled it off. Thank you! George Reissfelder. I don't want to take any blame for the Gardner. You don't even have to be a diehard Seinfeld fan to know how George's fiancee Susan died in season seven: Licking the toxic glue on the cheap wedding envelopes George had purchased . And there are others that dont. Get popped. HORAN:And running through this story, Boser says, is a tale of two cities. But no Manet. 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." DAVID TURNER: Um, you know, actually I had nothing to do with the robbery. And know he would have. The first ad criticizes Sen. John Kerry's role as a private lawyer in representing George Reissfelder, who spent 15 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of a murder, according to The . So that's how I saw it, that I knew that he initially was supposed to get out on one date. I mean, he showed no emotion whatsoever. Hood & Sons in Charlestown, Mass. William Reissfelder currently lives in Westwood, MA; in the past William has also lived in Norwell MA and Coppell TX. And they're gonna say, 'oh, he's my supplier, Reissfelder.' What did you see in him? In my opinion, I think the overdose he died from had something to do with the stress of being caught. Includes Address (2) See Results. Anthony Amore showed the drawing to Janice Santos. He had that painting.". Read more on the Gardner heist fromThe ARTery. 5: Son: George Reinsfelder Junior. We dont know what he bought there, but we can guess. I said to myself, "This is real, and I just might be spending the rest of my life in here.". MICHAEL BLANDING: Well, let me take you back to the beginning. It in my mind represents so much of the city's respect for art and culture, its value of learning, and these sort of really richer ideas. George Reissfelder was found dead in his apartment of cocaine poisoning after Merlino told firefighters that he hadnt heard from his friend in several days. Of all the men floated as possible suspects in the Gardner heist, no one is more of a dead ringer. The other wasnt. I will go after your-- I'll go after your family." I got a call from a State Police lieutenant, and we all rushed to the scene. Id love some day to own my own house. He was 51. BEAUCHAMP: And they started a major cocaine operation for years. In taking on the role at the Gardner, he also took on the responsibility of assisting the FBI in solving one of historys most bedeviling museum heists. One of the Boston detectives was John Ridlon, the uncle Charles O. Pappas, another member of Merlinos crew. EXCLUSIVE: Pictures of Marilyn Monroe's naked corpse were taken just hours after her death after a famous photographer gained access to the morgue by bribing guards with alcohol, new documentary . She worked solely off the description given to her by one of the guards who had seen both thieves. HORAN: David Turner told Boser that the FBI said, essentially, 'we know you did it.'. His name was Charlie Pappas. Reissfelder died of a cocaine overdose in 1991. Reissfelder and DiMuzio were known associates of the now deceased mobster Carmello Merlino. . In the same year, she won Gold Canada's Player of the Year. RODOLICO: In 1973, Robert Beauchamp was sentenced to life in prison for murder. HORAN: Now, David Turner has always said hed never cooperate with authorities investigating the Gardner heist. #ada-button-frame { Reissfelder drove a red Dodge Daytona, similar to the car the students saw outside the Gardner.. What did he give? He worked out all the time. I was working a supply job, but I had just taken the flight aptitude selection test, and I had, like, the second-highest mark in the battalion. 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. Maria was adopted by another family many years ago, and has changed her name from Reissfelder. Beauchamp is just trying to extort money over a robbery and a dead body, Richard Reissfelder said. Don't cooperate.". Investigates Possible Suspects In America's Biggest Art Heist. 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. HORAN: Just not places like TRC Auto Electric. My brother did it. William Reissfelder SLED Premier Account Analyst with Granite Telecommunication North Attleboro, MA. I know I saw it in his possession, said Reissfelder. 1. . Immediate Family Johanna Ronellenfitsch wife Ignatius John Rollenfitch son Barbara A Leuthner daughter Vincent Ronellenfitsch son Cecelia Ronellenfitsch daughter Clara Ronellenfitsch daughter Agatha Ronellenfitsch daughter Johanna Ronellenfitsch daughter Marie Ronellenfitsch daughter Maria Theresia Ronellenfitsch mother Georg Joseph Ronellenfitsch No one had let Reissfelder know. She looks submissive. And when these two men met, the lucky one was young and handsome and had also, it is alleged, gotten away with murder. I mean, it was--, it was--, it was chilling to be in the same room at times. And heres someone who spent years trying to follow the trail of both of them. And, um, when she unveiled these portraits to me, and she brought up one of the images the thief with the slimmer face I looked at it and said, "Wow, that's George Reissfelder." The following year, her divorce would come through, and her ex-husband would join a cast of men named in connection to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum robbery. We were unable to subscribe you to WBUR Today. BOSER:The Gardner is the perfect vehicle to tell the story of Boston. We were unable to subscribe you to WBUR Today. He was a cool customer, as they say. And when he got out, he was denied compensation for his wrongful conviction. In her book, Seinfeldia, Jennifer Keishin Armstrong gives the full story . The Senior VP of the Celtics is reserved regarding his personal life. TURNER: I've seen memos that they sent directly to, uh, the director of the FBI saying that they believe I was a participant. He was born Sept 3, 1923 in Boston, Mass. What healways said was, you know, "Give us the paintings and you can go home," you know. This one in particular really caught my attention because it mentioned the Gardner Museum robbery. I was 23 years old. KURKJIAN: This was a ploy by him in order to later tell the investigators, Oh, I was in Florida at the time.. Easy. I'm not saying George Reissfelder committed the heist. RODOLICO: Over the years, Beauchamp has told many versions of his theory about the Gardner heist and the whereabouts of the paintings. For seven years, I was . This Is a Robbery. He had kind of a Beatle haircut very straight hair. At the . Lived In Milford NH. And so, the plan was for him to come out, move in with me. HORAN: Ulrich Boser says that while David Turner had to deny involvement in the Gardner heist, he seemed unable to keep from insinuating that he knew something about it. Turner, Merlino and Rossetti were convicted in the late 1990s -- and sentenced to long prison terms -- for conspiring to steal millions from the Loomis-Fargo vault outside of Boston, a scheme which had been arranged by federal authorities to gain information on the Gardner heist. There are clues that seem to let him off the hook. 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. In interviews with the Sunday Herald and Fox TVs Americas Most Wanted, Richard C. Reissfelder, 66, said he saw the famed painting Chez Tortoni by Edouard Manet being displayed by his late brother, George. When I see this I have the same reaction every time. Court records indicate surveillance photographs captured Reissfelder and Merlino together at the drug kingpins Dorchester auto body shop, TRC Auto Electric Co., where a $1-million-a-year cocaine ring was run. In the documentary, Reissfelder's sister-in-law said that she . Although Kerry would use the case to promote his then-budding political career, Reissfelder did not use it to his advantage, returning to his bad habits of using cocaine and hanging out with criminal contacts, both of which were in full supply at Merlinos garage. View George Reinsfelder Junior's 1940 US census record to find family members, occupation details & more. Subscribe to our newsletterfor the latest updates,join our Facebook groupto discuss the investigation and if you have a tip, theory or thought,we want to hear it. It was visceral. (AP Photo/Bill Sikes) Justin Quinn. TYSONS CORNER, Va., Jan. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Pangiam, a technology company defining the future of authentication and trusted movement, announced the . He spent time with underworld figures from the mid-1980s until his death, and was a free man at the time of the theft, state and federal documents and witnesses say. And when these two men met, the lucky one was young and handsome and had also, it is alleged, gotten away with murder. 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. You know, if you just look at the Vermeer per inch what you could buy with it. You know, you gravitate to the people that you know. 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. One of them had options and from them, chose a life of crime. The museum opened to the public in 1903, and Gardner continued to expand the collection and arrange it until she died in 1924. At the time of their marriage, Santos held the rank of Corporal and was on her way to flight school. He was on the lam for three years until he was caught passing a bad check in Florida. HORAN: David Turners high school career had been dotted with superlatives. I've seen that painting in my brother's apartment." 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. Stay up-to-date with important news developments, delivered right to your inbox. I'm a prisoner at MCI Norfolk. 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. Yeah. The museum and the FBI have responded skeptically to Beauchamps claims about the art. HORAN: Two months after George Reissfelders release, Janice Santos married him. There was a robbery of the Bull & Finch pub, the Cheers you know, the pub that serves as the model for Cheers. HORAN: Reissfelder was vicious to Santos. Turner has denied repeatedly to reporters and in court that he had any knowledge of the heist, but he associated with known felons whose names had been tied to the crime including Robert Guarente, Carmello Merlino and Stephen Rossetti. I stood up at the cell door, looked out at the cell block it was quiet. And, uh, so then he grabbed me by the throat and started choking me. HORAN: And Im Kelly Horan. Why? One of them had options and from them, chose a life of crime. The late Merlino himself was a person of interest in the Gardner case see Meet the Suspects for April 26. Barnicle also explores another South Shore connection: Reissfelder's sister-in-law, Donna Reissfelder. Amore says he will not rest until the paintings are found. You have to be really planned and articulate. George Reissfelder and Lenny DiMuzio are believed to have posed as police officers to gain access to the museum, tying up security guards and stealing 13 historic artworks by the likes of Johannes Vermeer and Rembrandt van Rijn worth an estimated $500 million. HORAN: Why do you think he couldn't have done it? One of them was born lucky. Robert Beauchamp says the idea to steal paintings as crime insurance was his. 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