FBI Identifies Thieves Behind Gardner Museum Heist - Art Still Missing
- March 31, 2015 11:22
Two men who raided Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, making off with 13 masterpieces worth half a billion-dollars, have been identified by the FBI twenty-five years after the crime took place. One was a local thug, and the other was an ex-con whose lawyer, John Kerry, now Secretary of State, had gotten him free of a first-degree murder conviction in 1982.
Kerry’s client, George Reissfelder, was dead within a year of executing the world's biggest art heist. He was felled by a suspicious drug overdose. His accomplice, a Vietnam vet and local thief named Lenny DiMuzio, was killed in a gangland hit shortly after.
The FBI declared last year that they knew who committed the crime, but the names were not confirmed until now.
Another criminal thought to be behind the heist was local gangster Carmelo Merlino. He is dead, too, and so is another suspect, Robert Guarente. Homes of both men have been searched, as well as the Connecticut home of wiseguy Robert Gentile, who is alive, but not offering up any information.
Still missing are treasures such as Rembrandt's only seascape, and one of 36 known Vermeers, valued at $250 million. A $5 million reward is offered for tips leading to the art's recovery.