April 3, 2025 • 54 mins
A diamond heist for the ages! An Italian heist crew pulled off an impeccably prepared raid on a vault full of diamonds. Well, almost pulled off. A lesson in the importance of patience, this crime shows us that everything can hinge on a salami sandwich. With special guest appearances by noisy interns!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Saren Elizabeth Brunette.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
Nice to see you, girl.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
So good to see you. It's been such a long time. Yeah,
I know, like thirty minutes. We got to do this
more often and it really do listen. Yes, you know
it's ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Oh my god, yes, actually and.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
It's me yeah, ridiculously awesome.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
No in this case, like as a listener pointed out,
they sent in a message and they said Melanie was
her name, and she said she was disappointed because when
there is a story about Alec Baldwin and no one
says who knows what evil lies in the hearts of men?
Alec Baldwin knows. And of course, as they point out
in their message, this is from the Shadow that from
(00:47):
the nineties, right, And as Melanie writes, quote, the Shadow
film was such a flop that no one seems to remember.
His turn as a superhero. Was especially disappointed when he
wrote an op ed defending Anthony Wayner the first sex scandal,
not the one resulting in divorce, and NPR neglected to
use this line in their coverage. I really thought Elizabeth
then ZB three would get there.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
And dropped the ball right, I remember the Shadow, right.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
I dude, I remember I watched all of those nineties like, oh,
we found this character from the thirties. Yeah, bet it
from the Radio over comics strip and we like Dick
Tracy that like, and then the made up one dark Man.
I even made up to watch The dark Man.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Like crap all over good radio show totally.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
I love the radio show obviously, and uh, you know
the the old Shadow. That was the line from the
radio who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?
The Shadow knows? All right, and like, oh, you're right.
I dropped the ball, so thank you. It was ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
We totally dropped it. I love the I hear you
listening to the One show suspense.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Yes, yes, the time, yeah, around around headquarters because I'll
be like writing or returning emails and I just pop
one on my phone. The best love.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
That is one hundred percent ridiculous, And I'm glad that
was pointed out. We did we did it.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Yeah, ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
But you want to know what else is ridiculous? Yes,
getting busted over a salami sandwich. This is ridiculous crime.
(02:35):
A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers heists and cons
it is always ninety nine percent murder free and one
hundred percent ridiculous. You damn right heists heists talking about language,
It's right in our tagline. Yeah, capers heist.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
One of my three favorite things I love.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
I love a good heist, like, give it to me,
give it to me. What you say? I what I
have for you today is a primo heist. You have
no idea. I can't believe we haven't talked about this before.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Really, this is like a classic. Oh it's it's top ten.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
It is top ten, easy, top five, top three? What
this has it all? Zaren?
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Why do we miss a top three?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
I don't know, you know, I'm I'm very lazy, very sloppy.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Wow, you need to update the big board.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Oh my god, totally this has it all. Diamonds, italians
whoa code names?
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Hell?
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Yeah, tools goodness, including a swiffer.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Did you come up with this list?
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah? And a telltale salami sandwich.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Come on, every time you get to.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
The sandwich sounds. What do you know about turin.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
The city or the cloth aside from the shroud, I
know the shroud, and aside from the.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Two thousand and six I did some investigating. Oh good,
and it should come as no surprise that I really
want to vi a this city, you know you. I
think I've moved it up to like top of my list.
I've been a lot of places in Italy, but I've
never been to Turino. It's the home of Fiat Oh
(04:14):
Fabrica Italian automobile. Too cool, Turin Automobile, Turin Italian Automobiles. Back.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
I did not know that, learned something new.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Every dentis football, okay, that's there, familiar with that. That's also
the birthplace of Italian cinema.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Really terrain pre dating, Uh.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Yeah, all of that in Turin. Michael Caine drove a
Mini Cooper in the Italian Job. Oh yes, I mean
this is like, it's amazing.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
In the classic Italy that we imagine, right.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
And in all my research on this heist, I spent
an inordinate amount of time, an inappropriate amount of time
learning about Turin and being like, you know, I want
to go here anyway?
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Is there ever an inappropriate Do you know.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
There's like a chocolate festival there?
Speaker 3 (04:59):
I didn't. I didn't not spend any inappropriate amount of
time learning about Terin.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Have you ever been to Turin.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
No, I've never been there. Yeah, I haven't. I haven't
been to Venice or Turin.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Venice is phenomenon. Yeah, okay, so we need to record
an episode in Venice.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Come up with a reason press an.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Episode in Turin, and I'm going to write to Admiral
iHeart be like, sir, sir, yes, sir, please please for
the people. Are you familiar with the School of Turin.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
I don't think it sounds like.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
An art movement, but it's not. It's a group of
professional criminals, criminal really yeah, and each of them have
fabulous specialties like areas of expertise. So well they're not okay,
So it's not technically like a gang or organized crime.
There's no hierarchy. It's just like a pool of skilled
jewel thieves.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Oh so it's like the old craftsman level of master apprentices,
master apprentice completely.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
So they're smarter than other heist crews, Like they see
their crimes as puzzles to be solved, challenges to be dismantled.
That non violent. It so like they don't just bust
in and take things at gunpoint. There's this art to it.
They would outsmart security, they would use common items to
take down complex and high tech systems.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Okay, I love that.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
There's this book Flawless by Scott Selby and Greg Campbell
as journalists, and this is what they say of the
school of turin quote. In one famous example, they ditched
the high tech approach to learning the combination of a
certain storage safe and instead sent one of their own
to seduce an employee who proved less than reliable when
it came to keeping secrets from her lover.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Yeah, so they're just that's some James Bonds. I liked this.
He went and seduce the guard essentially, or maybe the executive, the.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Shop girl girl. He was just like, hey, you know,
so they would they would case the place with women
as accomplices. They'd charm the staff and like browse for
future acquisitions. They would assess the situation and then go
back to one of their hangouts, like the back rooms
at bars and cafes, and they would use coded, vague
(07:04):
language and like to coordinate their best plan of action.
And then they would farm out the work to the
particular specialties, like you know, do we need someone who's
especially talented with disabling high tech security systems? Do we
need like someone who does lock picking, right, and so
they would go over who has these skills that they need?
(07:25):
Which of these dudes would be the best fit for
that job.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
They had like an Emiliano's list.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Yes, so then we have like the mastermind of the
biggest heist any of these guys could ever pull in
a million years, Leonardo, not of Bertolo.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Oh you telling me this school of Turin had Leonardo
as their master h Hell yeah, it's so good.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
So he was born in Palermo, raised in Turin, Yes,
of course, a son of Torino. Little is known about
his family life, but he grew up in like this
modest working class neighborhood. From an early age, he was
fascinated with mechanics and like intricate systems. He was interested
(08:09):
in locksmithing and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
As a teenager, he could, like he could open locks
and crack safes and you know, just.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Mass safe as a teen Yes, damn.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
So his criminal career began in nineteen seventy one with
the theft of an Alpha Romeo spider in Paris. Great,
I mean, are you kidding me? Style points nineteen years old, Yes,
and he's caught just chilling in the car listening to
the stereo, so they sent them back to Italy.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Way to get call oh my.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
God, seriously, like stealing one of the most beautiful cars.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Taking it for a driving and parking for a moment
to listen to.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Listen to the you know, like some like cool you know.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Music was going on.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
So he gets sent back to Italy. He goes on
to lead this life of like petty theft minor burglaries
around Turin. Then he gives this reputation though for being
really calculated and precise and he's super efficient. So over
the years his skills are evolving. He starts doing like
jewelry store heights and high profile burglaries all across Italy
and like sometimes into Switzerland.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
And he's a safe cracker. So it's mostly like cat
burglar type stuff. Okay.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Yeah, And it's interesting though because at the same time
he's like a really talented jewelry designer.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
He's got to get that.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Yeah, they called him though, People were calling him the
lupenn of Italy. Oh because he you know, your dude,
the famous generalman of course French literature. But so in
his twenties, so we go back, he's all about cars,
he gets Italian from Genoa all the way to the
Adriatic coast. The cars and he's getting pinned for like
(09:43):
speeding auto theft. If it involves a car, he's doing it.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
That.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
His boyhood nickname was Testa Dino or wooden head, because
he would head butt people during arguments as a kid,
which sounds very Glasswegian.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Totally.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
That makes sense because one of Turin's sister cities is Glasgow.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
There you go. They recognized game, game recognized game exactly.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
But it went beyond the head butt, the glassy kiss.
He was just straight stubborn when it came to obeying
the law. I'm just not going to yeah. And so
he graduates from cars to general thievery. He does little
stints in jail here and there, but that's just like
his school, his University of crim Total. So he learns
(10:26):
these criminal skills and he's networking great.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
You go on a network that you're a young man
on the go, you have.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
To busy on the go lifestyle. By the late seventies,
he's on the cusp of his thirties. He EPs his game,
goes into the diamond business. You know, I've got a
friend in the Tom Shane of Shane and Company and
Cooper Tino, San Matteo and Walnut Creek open weekdays till eight,
Saturdays and Sundays still five.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Now you have a friend in the diamond business. I've
heard those as.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Yeah, oh my god forever. Anyway, Leonardo Diamonds. Like I
said earlier, he was quite the jewelry designer. He'd sketch
out pieces like necklaces, rings, bracelets and stuff like that.
This is a lark. But then he got serious about
it and he opened a jewelry store.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
And then he got himself a partner in crime a
ride or die.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
He married a woman named Audriana Crudo Hell yeah, yeah.
She was his life and business partner in a total
badass for both of them.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
So Leonardo, because he'd like tangled so much with the law,
it might have looked a little shady for him to
open up the jewelry store. So Adriana did it, and
it's in her name, and they they open up this
this store that's like on this fabulous avenue in Turin,
and it's right by this big weekend outdoor market. There's
a lot of foot traffic. Yeah, and it's close to
(11:46):
like the Juventus football stadium, prime retail location.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Yeah, a lot of foot traffic, as you said, but
also I imagine wealthy foot traffic.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Yeah exactly, and people just looking to, you know, do
something shopping. So they set up shop. They become well
known and like beloved business people. They're both super charming
and kind involved in the community is there, and they're
good citizens.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
It's almost like they could go straight at this point
and make a life for themsel and.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
He And yet the thing about Leonardo, he is so charming,
like he can just talk his way in or out
of anything. Everybody loves him at the moment they start
talking to him. He's got these like sparkly blue eyes.
He can get away with anything. N Yes, So there
are a lot of jewelry store robberies at the time, Yes,
non violent and after hours, but like a lot of
(12:32):
businesses were hit.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Crime was big in the seventies.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Not Leonardo's.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Oh that's all suspicious.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
They're getting suspicious, right, So how did this petty thief
who used to like just be like I can't pay
any of these fines and broke. He's running this store
brimming with fine jewelry. So they get a search warrant
for his home. There weren't any gems or jewels in there,
but there was a handgun with a serial number filed off.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Eh, you know, as a gift.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
That's what he's like, it's for protection from all the
fee was hitting the jewelry stores all out legitimate. I mean,
if you guys have been doing your job, I wouldn't
have to. And so then I should also mention that
one of his cousins back in Sicily, Benedetto Capizzi, he
would later be in line to become Copo di Gappi.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
Oh for real Boston.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Oh yeah, yeah, that's his cousins, his cousin.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
So keep that he didn't have a hard time getting
the guns with his snif filed off serial number.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
No, not in the least. Oh and the cops when
the apartment, they also found c four blasting caps. So
remember the School of Turin As I mentioned earlier, Leonardo
part of that group, and he came up with a
corker of a plan that was sort of like presented
to him.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Do they have like do you imagine them having like
guild meetings, you know, and then like somebody presents it.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
They're in these smoky back rooms, and apparently like Leonardo
hated cigarette smoke, and he didn't gamble or do any
of that kind of stuff, so he would kind of
sit there begrudgingly while all these thieves are doing sitting around,
you know.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
The grubby business of like coming up with like the
payouts and.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Like hand gestures galore.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Yeah, so hands are flying every well, it.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
All starts so with this guy, uh, Ferdinando Finoto, and
so he's in this crew that's about to get assembled.
His code name was the Monster.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Yeah, he had physical strength just like a monster mountain
of a man. Yeah, but he also like he could
do brute force when required.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Yeah, but to get the nickname the Monster, that's extra Well.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
It's because like he could do all this stuff, handle
heavy equipment, he could like do the security. But he
was also just really good at everything. Oh he's so
that was one of the re Like he's not only
this big man, but he's just he's a monster. He
can do.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Anything monstrously good and also us a monster on it. Okay,
I gotcha.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
So he goes to Antwerp in nineteen ninety five because
like at that time, the Italian government was cracking down
on Indragaeda, yes, and then other mafia or.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
They're the big mafia at this point.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Yeah, all throughout the country. Right, three hundred warrants issue,
one hundred and fifty arrests.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
The big wharf time when they went and they had
they were having like the actual fight essentially, but.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Like in Naples, it really didn't make a dent really. Yeah.
And so but in what we're referred to as the
satellite cities like Turin, it really shook things up for
criminals and including the School of Turin. And it's because
not because they were involved with in drageda or you know, yeah, No,
(15:26):
it's because now all like the regular cops have these resources,
they don't have to go chasing as nationwide thing. They
can go after non mafia operations. Yes, so a lot
of the thieves and the criminals in Turin they headed
north and for the School of Turin. Guys though it
didn't mean they were like going underground or making a
run for it. It was like diversification. So the monster
(15:50):
he figured he was going to go to Antwerp and
check out the diamond district there and he even set
up a front company called Max Diamonds so it allowed
him to open a bank account there at KBC Bank.
So he and his crew they spent weeks casing the bank.
They're looking for a way to run a heist on
the bank, and they're all set up to do the job.
(16:12):
They're like ready to go, but they tripped the alarm
as they were trying to disable it.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Oh, just like first time. They're like, okay, clip and
roll it.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Oh no, So the Monster and his crew they book
it out of there. They ditched their tools at the
scene and they got away with it though, like no
link to the attempt. But with that job blown, the
Monster's like, well, let's go back to Turin for a while.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
I lost all their tools and left fingerprints everywhere.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Yeah, but he was like, I see the possibilities in Antwerp,
did so much opportunity. Yeah. Remember he'd rented an office
in the Diamond Center there in order to like blend
in at the bank, and he found that they didn't
really vet him when he got the office. And because
he's the Monster and he's amazing and everything he does,
he clocked the security in that building and the layout
(16:58):
and the faults, like how much went in and out
of this vault. So by his estimate, there had to
be hundreds of millions of dollars worth of diamonds in
the underground vault.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
What at the diamonds side, hundreds of millions in diamonds.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Diamonds they're harder to move and longer than cash from
a bank job, sure, which is why he chose to
do the bank. But they're more valuable by weight, and
they're harder to trace.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Yes, and so small, they're just small.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
So the monster he sees an opportunity. He need knows
just the jeweler to get in on this jeweler Leonardo
Tom Shaane.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
Oh of course.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
So with the vague notion of a job, Leonardo sets
out to plan the perfect heist. So first he has
to gather his crew. Naturally, they all had code names
and they only used those, they didn't use their real names.
So obviously there's the monster Ferdinandoo. Then we have the
genius Eleo Dinario. He is the electronics expert, so he's
(17:53):
tasked with like disabling the alarm systems, manipulating all the
technology with the security he could bypass motion detectors and
like disabled magnetic sensors and all that kind of stuff
they said he was like James Bond's Q. He's the quartermaster.
His cover was perfect because he had his own security business.
So they are like legitimate reasons for him to be
(18:14):
up to date and have all this equipment and know
how to override it. And then next up we have
Speedy and he's the getaway driver, Pietro Tavano River named Speedy. Yeah,
Pietro Tovano. He's responsible for their safe and rapid exit, right,
and he's he's an expert in evasion and high speed driving.
(18:35):
So you he's also a lifelong friend of Leonardo.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
That you want to trust your getaway driver.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Lastly, we have the King of Keys. What yeah, the
King of His identity is unknown really, but he was
a locksmith extraordinary. He's an old man and his job
was to craft perfect copies of the vaults keys. And
he was like this master locksmith. He could duplicate any
lock or key, and for this job he'd have to
(19:03):
make a foot long key for the vault.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
What yeah, the key.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Yeah. So with the crew in place, Leonardo starts for.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Pa Renaissance era bank two foot like.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Two foot deep door vault and so uh it's a
two He gets the plan going. It's a two year
long process to get ready for this incredibly involved designed
to beat the impossible. Let's take a break after these ads.
I'm going to tell you about the insane security measures
(19:38):
that these guys were up against. All right, Sarah, you ready, dude?
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Are you kidding me? I've been champing at the bed.
They got the Genius, the King of Keys, Monster, the Monster.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
It's so good. Yeah, it's so good and speedy. Let
us not forget speed. Let us not so I was
telling you about the crew. Let me tell you about
the target.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
The vault at the Antwerp Diamond Center is one of
the most secure facilities in the world. So it's sitting
in the middle of Belgium's diamond district. The complex is
made up of three blocks, A, B, and C, and
it housed billions of dollars worth of diamond gold jewels.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
What's the big beat with?
Speaker 2 (20:36):
We know how much a billion gym dealers from all
over the world have offices there. The vault has ten
layers of advanced security measures, which makes it pretty much impenetrable.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Supposedly, so when they take diamonds out of the congo.
This is where they deposit them.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
They do the blood diamonds. This is where they go,
This is where they go. Okay, So, like I said,
they're ten layers, let's talk about them. Number one the
thick steel vault door. Right, So it weighs three tons
and it's two feet thick. That's why you need a
one foot key.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Yeah, there's no like thermal lance is going to.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Cut No, no, no, no no, there's also so you
have the key and a combination lock, and the combination
code is only known to authorize personnel.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Does it like change or something or just like they
have to actually have it set and everybody knows.
Speaker 5 (21:23):
No.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Here's the thing with that. This is layer two, the
lock with one hundred million possible combinations.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Did you say one hundred millions?
Speaker 2 (21:30):
I just said that. So it's a dial logue. It
has all those it's designed to prevent an authorized ax.
So you have to line up four double digits in
order to get in. Oh crazy, And if the lock
gets tampered with, the vault goes into lockdown mode. Oh yeah.
Layer three.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
Can you imagine inventing this thing? I know, it's like
I've got another one.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Internal and external surveillance cameras.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Okay, that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
So you know obviously the external is that the perimeter
internal track the movements inside the vault's corridor and around
the entrance. Footage is recorded twenty four to seven and
stored securely. Layer four magnetic sensor on the vault door.
So this would detect any unauthorized opening of the vault.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Door if the magnets break exactly.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
So if the vault doors open without disarming, the sensor
and alarm immediately goes to security. Layer five Heat and
motion detectors like infrared, So these would detect body heat
and movement in the vault in the corridor, like.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
The missipible senses yes, ye.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Yeah, even the slight exactly. Layer six light sensor inside
the vault, so this detects any sudden changes in light
within the vault flashlight yeah yeah, so if it's tripped
in alert Security Layer seven timed relocking mechanism, So if
the vault is not accessed at the correct time or
(22:58):
if tampering is detected, the system engages in a fail
safe lock that prevents the door from opening.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Layer eight okay, seismic and vibration sensors. So this this
one any vibrations caused by drilling, cutting or any mechanical interference.
Super responsive to any disturbances around the vault structures.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Any vibration, no drilling.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Layered, nine security guard patrols and on site staff. Then
hell so regular security patrols are monitoring the premises and
the vault corridor and security is trained to respond within
minutes if anything goes on.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Do they have like killer dogs too?
Speaker 2 (23:40):
On a short layer ten our last layer emergency alarm
link to police, So any unauthorized attempt, any of these
alerts they go off, it goes right to the cops
and Antwerp police. They have a rapid response protocol in
place to address alarms from the diming disc of You know,
it's so huge.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
But if there like one guy like Barry who has
to come back in and like reset all the locks,
he's like it happened again, very sorry, I'll be.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
There, then someone's stuck in the vault. But it's a lot,
that's a lot of security, a lot.
Speaker 5 (24:16):
Well.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
They kept mentioning in some of the articles I read
that there was like a Doppler system and I'm guessing
that has to do with like the seismic stuff. I
don't know, but whatever, they got a lot of stuff going.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
On, like the whine of a drill.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Who knows, I probably so they they have like this
crazy security and they broadcast that to those who want
to use their services very upfront. So when Leonardo he
poses as an Italian diamond merchant and he rents a
little office there seven hundred bucks a month, he also
got access to a safe deposit box in the vault
(24:50):
beneath the building. Like with your office, comes a box
in the vault.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
Wait a minute, So they go through all the security
and then all you have to do is just do
a first in the last and then you get into.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
This bucks a month.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
What Yeah, this is the one system.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
And like bragging about security, and then they give him
a tenant ID card that provides twenty four hour access
to the building.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Wow, okay, but I'm imagining all the other sensors, everything's
gonna make it hard to get It just means you
can get to the gate.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Right, So Leonardo he got to work, right. He secretly
installed miniature cameras around the vault like he would just
like yeah he would, and he studied the patterns of
the guards and the vaults operation. Okayulous, Yeah, he documented
all the weaknesses in the ten layer system and he
got into the complex to access his box while carrying
(25:42):
a man purse that he had like cut a little
hole and had a camera in it, and he felt
kind of foolish, like strolling around with a man purse. Yeah,
he came away with these like crazy detailed observation. So
he'd stroll all slow to keep the recording smooth. And
he starts outside the building, swipes his badge to get in,
(26:03):
and then goes to his office on the fifth floor.
And after that, then he turns around takes the elevator
down to the vault. All of this on video, sure,
and so he gets the specifics of the elevator, the
vault doors. Yeah, he captured the opening to the safe
room covered by the daygate. Of course, like security cameras
are filming him, so he had to look cool and
(26:24):
like inconspicuous. So he's just an Italian guy's like smooth
strolling around with clutching his leather man purse.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
It's actually not that on camera works, it works, it's
very business man.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Yeah, from that book, flawless quote with his little purse
cocked under his arm. He was often seen on the
security cameras tilting his upper body at odd angles, slowly
turning in circles in the middle of hallways, and walking
stiffly like he'd pull the muscle. Much later, the police
would watch the security tapes and laugh humorlessly and how
(26:55):
in hindsight it was obvious that something was amiss with
his behavior, but at the time tim is clunky gait
and what looked like spells of absent mindedness didn't attract attention. Yeah,
that's also because he's just charming everybody everywhere he goes.
I love this guy and he's weird, and I love him.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
And I've been thinking a lot of characters too, who
are like you know, older gem Deelers and so forth,
who maybe a little absent minded.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Exactly, it's totally like the right industry to be a
little quirky. So he made it through the daygate gets
into the vault. There were very purposeful CCTV blind spots
in the vault, really because they wanted to give box
holders some privacy when they're putting stuff in or taking
it out, like you know, and there are no guards
in the vault, so that was a relief for him.
(27:40):
So he stood in the center of the vault and
he slowly turns to film the interior. He captured the
motion detector and the light detector and the ceiling. Sure,
since there's no one in there with him and they're
all the blind spots, he pulls out a tape measure
and gets to work. He like gets all the specifics
for the boxes and the vault door.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
What he doesn't mind that he's on camera filming spots.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
He's in the CCTV blind spots.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
The whole vault extending this.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Yeah, so when it comes to the giant vault door,
the video captured something important. There was a logo stamped
on the doorframe L I P S. I don't know.
It's all caps. So the School of Turin's locksmiths, they
went into research mode and they determined what they'd need
based on the schematics that they could get their hands
on from like when the building was built, when this
(28:29):
company was making these kind of vault doors, like they
hacked it. So at this time, for almost two years,
Leonardo came and went from the building like he's posted
up there for two years. Two He timed responses for everything.
He memorized routines. He used his charm and his wit
to blend in and become inconspicuous, just like this normal
gem dealer. Are you used to him?
Speaker 3 (28:51):
I can see where they're called the School of Turin.
These are some Renaissance masters.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Meticulousness.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
This is art.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
It completely. So at one point he goes to management,
He's like, I want to expand out my office. Can
I see some blueprints to like get an idea of
what my options are. Knock down this wall, maybe they'll
give him the fifth floor. They gave him all the
blueprints to the entire tire building. Yeah, here you go,
take a look. Let me knock yourself out. So the
(29:18):
crew they had installed a small camera over the vault door,
Like he had to stretch and be like, oh oh yeah.
It would show guards opening the door and record that
crazy four line double digit combination?
Speaker 3 (29:32):
Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Yeah, looking right down on it. So the content from
that camera was sent to a small secret storage system,
and that was housed in a fire extinguisher in a
nearby storage room. What's crazy is it wasn't a dummy
fire extinguisher. They actually put a watertight chamber that held
all the tech stuff inside the extinguisher, so it still worked.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
So they replaced the there was a fire, there's take
out like maybe a little bit.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Of yep, exactly.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
So that's remarkable.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
And they built the crew built a full scale replica
of the vault in order to practice in it.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
You got to this is you have to. I mean,
this is like Tom Cruise would approve of this. This
is an impossible level preparation with extra time because there's
no like, oh, a ninety minute movie exactly.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
So we're almost there. Remember this started in early two
thousand and one. It's now February fourteenth, two thousand and three.
Day yep, time for the final setup. So the crew
they assemble their tools, aluminum plates, custom keys, a can
of hairspray. Leonardo conducted one final check of the security
system and he verified the Cruise rolls, and then he
(30:42):
went for one last visit to the vault. Okay, and
while he was in there, he did this weird stretch
again and he sprayed women's hair spray on the thermal
motion sensors. Really yeah, the sensor would only go off
if it detected both heat and motion and the oil
from the spray, you know, it's all clear, but it
would insulate the sensor from heat fluctuations in the room.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
Wow, I didn't even think about.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
That, right, all, So this is s temporary fix.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
The moisture he made any Oh.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
Yeah perhaps, huh. This is like a temporary fix. It's
gonna last like a day or so, but it would
allow them to get in there and then actually disable
the system. So it's kind of like by their way
in totally. Of course, all this is on CCTV, but
Leonardo was such a regular and he did such weird
stuff that security staff didn't even notice when oh he's
the old guys in their stretching again. Yeah, so they
(31:34):
had to strike on a weekend when security wasn't in place,
And I just don't understand that if you're gonna have
ten layers of security, you go ahead and pay the
staff and work on the weekends even if it's closed, Like,
come on, We're charge a little more every month, I mean,
like come on. So Saturday, February fifteenth, two thousand and three,
the crew made their initial entry seven pm. Leonardo is
(31:57):
in a getaway vehicle listening to a police He's ready
to leave when they're done.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
He doesn't go inside.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
No, he didn't go inside. The crews all gloved up
so as not to leave fingerprints. Remember the exterior cameras.
The King of Keys picked the lock of an abandoned
office building next to the Diamond Center, and there was
like a shared private garden with the Diamond Center that
didn't have CCTV. So this gave them access via ladder
(32:23):
to a balcony in the Diamond Center. And like there
was an infrared sensor that monitored the area, but the
genius used a huge homemade polyester shield to hide his
thermal signature. And so he creeps up to the sensor
and then puts the shield in front of it. So
now the crew can walk by, no problem. Yeah, and
(32:45):
the genius then bypassed the alarm on the balcony windows.
They covered the security cameras outside of the vault with
black plastic bags so they could turn on the lights.
And then once they're inside, they deactivated all the security systems.
So this was done by spraying hair spray on heat
and motion sensors to obscure the signature. Yeah, they can
(33:05):
move freely now, and now we get to jamming the
magnetical lock.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
That's got to be one of the hardest. I don't
know how you're going to take that.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Well, okay, So it's the magnetic lock two plates. When
the door's closed, there's a magnetic field. Opening the door
breaks the field triggers the alarm. So the genius lived
up to his name. He made a special aluminum plate
with heavy duty double sided tape to one side. He
stuck it on the two bolts and unscrewed them, keeping
(33:33):
the two magnetic plates together and maintaining the field. He
then was able to swing the unit away from the
door and tape it to the wall.
Speaker 3 (33:41):
WHOA, She's like, we don't need to break the magnets.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
We just need to move the take the magnets off
the door. So now they're at the moment of truth,
the vault door. Let's stop here to listen to the
wonderful goods and services on offer out there in the world.
When we come back, we're going to tackle this giant door.
Speaker 5 (33:58):
Yeah all right, Zarin.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Yes, we've made it through a bunch of the.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
Security layers, so many layers.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
And now we're at the vault door. We're at the
vault door. So the King of Keys spent months in
his turin studio studying the footage provided by the Mastermind
in order to make a duplicate key of the key
in the vault. And the key is supposed to be
impossible to duplicate. It's a foot long.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
Yeah, and I don't imagine the dude ever saw it,
but I know the camera is gonna You're gonna see the.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
Video in the video. Yeah, he was successful. He made
an identical key that would fit the vault door and
open it for access to untold Richards.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
I wonder what he was using it for. Scale against idea.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
This guy is like a wizard, the King of Keys, Elizabeth.
He's the King of Keys. He's in the anti chamber
right at the vault door, and he has this idea.
Like in all of their recontapes, you could see the
guard visit a utility room just before opening the vault.
So the King of Keys signaled the crew to go
search that room. Right there, hanging on a hook was
(35:20):
the actual vault key. So the King of Keys took it.
He didn't want the safe manufacturers to know that they
could be duplicated, let them think it's impenetrable. So the
King of Keys he put the original in a key hole,
and he waited, and the genius dialed in that crazy
(35:41):
combination that being captured on hidden camera, and then he
nodded the monster turned off the lights and then that
way they're not going to trigger the light detector in
the vault. When the door opens, King of Keys turns
the key, twists the four prong handle, click, the bolts retract,
giant door swings open. They're in God. So once inside,
(36:02):
the monster slowly crept to the middle of the room,
reaching up to push back a ceiling panel. Remember this
is in the dark, so above that panel were the
security system's inbound and outbound wires. If any sensor is
going to be tripped or broken, it's going to trigger
the alarm. So slowly, very slowly, the monster delicately stripped
(36:24):
the wires and put a new piece of wire up
to the stripped wire, detouring the circuit.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
So this allowed them to trip the circuits without alerting
the security So now for the heat sensors, they used
styrofoam boxes that had tape on them to cover the
heat and the light sensors. How did they get the
boxes up there? They attached them to the end of
a swift or dry mop and lifted them up and
(36:51):
taped them to the wall just above the censer the sensor,
just dangling it there. This is so something I would do,
needing to hang something where I can't reach it, so
I put it on the swiffer and hope I can
just get to dangle.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
Right a box of you taped.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
I think it looks like I'm a good candidate for
the School of Turin.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
I'm thinking you should get them an application.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
So there they are, total darkness, moving super slow, silent.
They had that replica vault right, so they memorized the
whole layout. They could navigate it with their eyes closed,
like they knew the number of steps, they knew where
things were. Every now and then they would like split second,
hit a flashlight. To get a little burst of light.
(37:28):
You had to position the drill over the boxes and
like thanks to the swiffer, the light sensors covered. But
you don't want to like press your luck and keep
the lights. So the King of Keys he came up
with a hand cranked jack that would bust open these
like really substantial locks on the boxes hand crank. He
built it himself. See the boxes had a double lock,
(37:49):
a key in a combination. There's no use trying to
pick them, so you had to just go with a
break course. Yeah, and they had a field day. So
they're just popping, dumping, popping and dumping, and they have
these all these Duffel bags out on the floor and
they're just throwing in gold bars like millions in Israeli, Swiss,
American euro you know, British currency, rough and polished diamonds,
(38:12):
like everything's just going into the Duffel bags. They broke
into one hundred and twenty six of one hundred and
sixty bucks.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
Oh damn. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Then it gets to five thirty in the morning, like okay.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
So on their way out, they stopped at the security
office and they stole all the security tapes for the
previous week. Really yeah, so there's nothing of that. They
retraced their steps at exactly the same speed, so they
didn't race out and retrip something. And then they loaded
everything into Leonardo's car. He drove to his apartment in
Antwerp while the rest of them just walked.
Speaker 3 (38:45):
I am absolutely wondering what the hell they're doing on
this show, I you know what I mean, Like, how
did they ever end up on ridiculous crime.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
You're about to find out. So they go back to
the apartment. They're sifting through what they had taken, pulling
out the good stuff. Like as with every safe deposit
vault heist, the total values just.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
An estimate, yea.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
So like there are those who don't come forward or
they say they didn't have anything.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
Don't tell the truth about how much was in there.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
Yeah, exactly. And so in all though they stole loose diamonds, gold, silver,
and random jewelry, valued it more than one hundred million dollars,
which is one hundred and seventy three million dollars today.
That's a that's a pretty good haul.
Speaker 3 (39:25):
That's an amazing hall and they got.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
So they decided to celebrate, so one of them they did.
They had they go. Leonardo is the one. He goes
to the corner store to get some treats. And for
these good Italians, it was kind of like a shark
Houter report. So they get like bread and cheese and
fruit and salami sandwiches. It's a real party. I need
to hone a specialty so I could join the School
(39:49):
of Turin and have a salami sandwich party. So the
crew they made their way back to Turin, though, which
means that they had to go through France. So the Genius,
the Monster, and the King of Keys they get into
a car with all the gems in the loot. Leonardo
tells the crew that he and Speedy are going to
take another car and burn all the evidence, all the
non loot stuff that they had taken with them from
(40:12):
the Antwerp apartment. Yeah, when we get to France, we're
gonna we're gonna burn it all. Wow. And so that'll
be far enough away and then we'll all rendezvous and
Milan and divide it up.
Speaker 3 (40:22):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
So Speedy though, he's getting anxious, like, I'm with Speedy,
rid of this stuff as soon as possible. Yeah, he
wanted all trace of things, the plans, their ephemera out
of his car.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
I'm with Speedy. Well.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
According to Wired magazine quote, Speedy scanned the traffic behind
them in the side view mirror and maintained a tense silence.
Nota Bartolo had worked with him for thirty years. They
were childhood buddies, but he knew that his friend had
a habit of coming apart at the end of a job.
The others on the team hadn't wanted Speedy in on
this one. They said he was a liability. Not of
(40:57):
Bartolo could see their point, but out of loyalty, he
defended his friend. Speedy could handle it, he said, Oh no,
So they get to the Derna forest. I'm still in
Belgium and actually just outside of Antwerp, so they didn't
get far. Yeah, and Speedy couldn't handle it. He convinced
(41:18):
them all to stop, like he.
Speaker 3 (41:19):
Like, pull over to get out of the car.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
I gotta throw everything away. Oh no, speed, Yeah, so
he and you know, their car pulls over Leonardo, he
gets out, fine, Okay, we'll dump it here. He takes
a bag of like paperwork and other stuff into the
woods and he sets it on fire. He like makes
this nice little pyre. Speedy grabs another bag, this one
containing like security videotapes trash from the apartment. He goes
(41:42):
to get rid of it, but he couldn't hold it together.
He's super freaked out, starts having a panic attack and
just starts tossing the stuff like into this ravine.
Speaker 5 (41:52):
Nos.
Speaker 3 (41:53):
Yeah, speed.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
Leonardo comes running over, freaking out, like he's just scattering it. Yeah,
and Leonardo's freaking out He's like, you're making this huge mess,
but it's going to take way too long to go
all through it and gather everything up and actually destroy
it rather than just dump it, because he's just spread
it everywhere. It's like, you know, raccoon's getting into garbage. Yeah,
(42:14):
so he's looking around and like feeling like, Okay, we're
in the middle of nowhere. The heck with it. No
one's going to find this stuff. It's so isolated here.
We got to just keep moving, Zaren, close your eyes.
Picture it. You are a retired Belgian grocer and you
own land in the Derna Forest. For weeks, local teens
(42:37):
have been glittering on your land. They come and hang
out and do god knows what and leave all sorts
of trash behind. You've called the local authorities many times
asking for them to pick it all up in the
patrol the area on weekend nights. So try and put
a stop to this. Today, it's lovely out and you're
strolling through your property with your bloodhound Rufus. You trapes
through a meadow towards the ravine. You love the place
(43:00):
where you're able to do great birding and take in
the woodpeckers. And the tits. As you go down into
the ravine, you see a bunch of garbage. Noup te
kiddn you yell. Rufus begins to bark in all the
two of you make your way to the trash. You
poke at the junk with your walking stairs. There are
unschooled VHS tapes all over the place, a half eaten
(43:21):
salami sandwich, a piece of an envelope. You lean down
to get a better look. You're a large man. There's
a logo Antwerp Diamond Center. Your wife was just telling
you about the heist there. Apparently yesterday Monday, the place
opened up and security found the vault totally trashed. They
said it looked like a bomb went off. Hundreds of
millions where the gem's gone. And now here's all this mess.
(43:44):
What if it's from the heist? Zaren, you're a good citizen.
You shoe Rufus away from the salami sandwich. He's sniffing,
and you reach for your mobile phone. Time to call
the cops. You just hope they don't brush you off
because of all you're complaining about the teens. You dial.
Here goes nothing, all right, So as soon as the
dude who found the garbage, called the cops about the
(44:06):
Antwerp Diamond Center logo on some paper. They sprang into
action and when they got there, the sandwich allowed them
to tie it all together. So along with the salami
sandwich was a receipt for the sandwich. So the police
they get so it has like the name of the
store at time, the date. The police pulled the security
(44:27):
video from the receipt store for that day and time.
They get Leonardo on camera buying it, and then they
later tested the sandwich for DNA and it was a
match to Leonardo. Of course, boom, always finish your sandwich.
So the cops they honed in on Leonardo and everything
just starts stacking up, like they find out about his
(44:48):
office in the center. They also learned that in his
two years with an office in the Diamond Center, he
had never once made a sale, not one. And his
box was one of the ones that didn't get hit
in the hype. Of course, and they found out, oh,
he has this extensive criminal history. Okay, now we just
got to find it. Well, no worries. He came to them, see,
(45:09):
he thought it would be better to go back to
work at the Diamond Center. Like nothing happened, just play
it cool. But instead the police they had everything they
needed to arrest him right there. The one thing they
didn't have was the address for his apartment. So he
like they they get him at the at the office
and he was like stalling as long as he can.
(45:30):
But then he finally told him the address of the apartment.
And he was stalling because while he's being grilled. Audriana,
his wife, was at the apartment, cleaning it out and
getting rid of all the traces of everything. Right or
died to is the cops pulled up to the apartment,
She and some friends were just walking out of the building.
They all had like a bunch of bags and ones
(45:51):
holding a rolled up carpet and like another couple of
minutes they would have gotten away. Instead they get arrested.
Saren what was in the bags? According to Wired magazine
critical evidence quote, the police dug out a series of
prepaid SIM cards that were linked to cell phones used
almost exclusively to call three Italians, Elio Durronio aka the Genius,
(46:15):
Ferdnando Finoto alias the Monster, and the person most likely
to be Speedy, an anxious, paranoid man named Pietro Tvano,
a longtime associate of Noto Botolo's. On the night of
the heist, a cell tower in the Diamond district logged
the presence of all three plus Nota Battolo. During that time,
Tavano stayed in constant contact with Nota Battolo. The day
(46:38):
Noto Battolo was arrested, Italian police broke open the safe
at his home in Turin. They found seventeen polished diamonds
attached to certificates that the Belgian diamond detectives traced back
to the vault. More gems were vacuumed out of the
rolled up carpet from Nordo Petola's Antwerp apartment, so they
had spilled so many. There were all these like tiny
emeralds that are used as like just little accent pieces
(47:01):
on jewelry that they found in the vault, and then
they found them also in the carpet. So he's tied
it all in.
Speaker 3 (47:08):
My goodness, speedy kill You know who didn't have a
phone on him? Who?
Speaker 2 (47:13):
King of Keys?
Speaker 3 (47:14):
Oh y, we don't know who the wizard.
Speaker 2 (47:17):
Yeah, everyone except for the King of Keys gets arrested
and the evidence against everyone is like rock solid. So Leonardo.
He's found guilty of orchestrating the whole thing.
Speaker 3 (47:27):
I get nobody rolls over anybody, because they don't. They
all use their code names. They can't roll over.
Speaker 2 (47:32):
I don't know. It's just the King of Keys. He gets.
So Leonardo gets ten years in prison in two thousand
and five, but he gets released on parole in two
thousand and nine. In twenty eleven, an arrest warrant was
issued against him for a parole violation because he was
supposed to compensate his victim's restitution, but he didn't make
any effort whatsoever. So he gets re arrested in twenty
(47:53):
thirteen at Charles Degall Airport in Paris. He's like it
was in a layover from coming back from the United
States to go to two. They pick him up in Paris.
He has to serve the remainder of his prison sentence
until twenty seventeen. Twenty seventeen, so Tivano Dinio Finoto, they
each get five years in prison and the lout never recovered.
(48:17):
It's out there somewhere, almost all of it, because they
had like a couple of pieces in his apartment. Leonardo
gave that interviewed Wired magazine, and he said that the
amount that they took was way below one hundred million,
It was more like twenty million, and that it wasn't
his idea. He said that a diamond merchant hired his
crew for the heist, and it was actually all part
(48:39):
of an insurance scam so that the right people knew
it was coming. They filed insurance claims on stuff that
wasn't there to be geting for real. But the vault
itself was uninsured and there were never any big insurance
payouts on it. So he may be full of it
like it just doesn't act.
Speaker 3 (48:58):
None of this adds out no either way.
Speaker 2 (48:59):
He's the mastermind of an amazing heist, serious, and they
almost got away with it. I know you're thinking that
this would make a great movie. Of course, Well, Paramount
Pictures option the rights, but those rights have since expired. J. J.
Abrams was attached to produce, but the rights have expired,
so I called DIBs on.
Speaker 3 (49:18):
It for Thank you, Elizabeth, please please.
Speaker 2 (49:20):
Write the screenplay.
Speaker 3 (49:21):
Could you imagine?
Speaker 2 (49:22):
Oh my god, seriously, this is basically.
Speaker 3 (49:24):
Like a Steven Soderberg's Oceans eleven twelve thirteen, but in
Europe like it makes it's like from his like imagine
if he made it in Europe as opposed to like, oh,
a bunch of American thieves, those.
Speaker 2 (49:34):
Guys when you think about the casting, Yes.
Speaker 3 (49:37):
And also reminds me of Snatch with the whole, like
at the beginning of Snatch the whole, like goods get
the diamonds from the diamond center in Antwerps. You coup
those together and then add in like I don't know,
like a little love the Sergio Leone, just like passion
and the silliness of life.
Speaker 2 (49:53):
You have to write the screen.
Speaker 3 (49:55):
And then Speedy breaks your heart.
Speaker 2 (49:58):
King of Keys, Oh no.
Speaker 3 (49:59):
I love King Case Speedy like it unravelers that your takeaway?
Speaker 2 (50:03):
What's your ridiculous takeaway?
Speaker 3 (50:05):
Oh well, my ridiculous takeaway is actually like Leo, when
you have that feeling and your guys are telling you
we don't want to bring them, you gotta listen, like you,
there's nothing he's not gonna be like at the end
of it, they're all gonna be like, man, you were right,
and that's gonna be better, Like it'll feel so good
that you were right.
Speaker 2 (50:20):
Speedy came through.
Speaker 3 (50:22):
Versus like the Speedy got us all busted. Those are
not comparable.
Speaker 2 (50:26):
Time loyalties are hard to You.
Speaker 3 (50:28):
Gotta be real though with your longtime loyal like in
that case, minimize his involvement.
Speaker 2 (50:33):
Yeah, that's the key.
Speaker 3 (50:34):
Haven't be involved, but minimize it.
Speaker 2 (50:36):
Poor guys.
Speaker 3 (50:37):
Yeah, what's yours, Elizabeth? What's your ridiculous takeaway?
Speaker 2 (50:40):
This needs to be a movie that you write. You
have to, like dips, no one else can do it.
Speaker 3 (50:44):
I don't know about that. Will see. It's a great telling.
They're great. Good on you.
Speaker 2 (50:48):
I just I really they were so close. But since
nothing's been recovered, I don't know what everyone's current status is.
I think that they all just got away with it
quite frank.
Speaker 3 (50:59):
Kind of feels like and they paid in prison for six.
Speaker 2 (51:02):
Years I think total, and then you know, you get
hundreds of millions.
Speaker 3 (51:06):
It's kind of one of those like would you be
in prison for this long? For these many millions of
dollars questions you might No one asked this online. No
one ever says, hey, would you be in prison for
five years if I gave you twenty million dollars? Yeah,
but it kind of is that question, you know, as
opposed to like, I'll give you a million dollars if
you live on this island for ninety days, and mister
Beast like put you there or whatever.
Speaker 2 (51:23):
Well, and apparently like when Wired went to interview him
in the Belgian jail, he's like kind of the boss there.
Everyone looks at him with respect. He was weird of Rolex.
Speaker 3 (51:32):
Yeah, and those Northern European jails do not look that rough. No,
I'm not talking Russian jails. I just be in like
Belgian Swedish.
Speaker 2 (51:40):
For profit facility in Atlanta, exactly, super Max. Yeah, I
think I need to talk back, right, Hell yeah, let
me hit you.
Speaker 3 (51:50):
Oh my god, I went to get.
Speaker 4 (52:02):
Hello to all of you ridiculous people at Ridiculous Crime.
I absolutely love your podcast. I discovered you after my
son was born. I was staying home with him and
just had a little bit of partum and your show
helped me through that. And I just not to say
(52:23):
how much I love it and how amazing you guys are.
Keep up the good work. You'll always have an Archipall
listener you so much.
Speaker 2 (52:31):
I love that for you. I find that like we
hear from a lot of people that like we help
get through stuff, and it's so mutual, like, yes, we.
Speaker 3 (52:41):
All all you guys help us get through stuff.
Speaker 2 (52:43):
As rude dudes. We're all helping.
Speaker 3 (52:44):
Each other, right the community.
Speaker 2 (52:47):
Yeah, and everyone goes through all sorts of stuff. We
all have to look out for each other. So I'm
so glad that we could help you out with that.
And congrats on the BIBBIS. Totally nice, excellent, Thank you,
rude dude. That's all for today. You can find us
online at ridiculous Crime dot com. Did you know that
there's a button that you push on a secret page
on the web page that gets you into the matrix?
Speaker 3 (53:09):
I did, noting it does.
Speaker 2 (53:12):
I found it by accident and I had like a
really hard time getting out. We're also a Ridiculous Crime
on Instagram and blue Sky. You can email us at
ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com. Dear producer Dave, And then,
as I always say, the most important thing, download the
iHeart app. It's free. Leave us a talkback, please reach out.
(53:38):
Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnett,
produced and edited by veteran Salamimonger Dave Cousten, starring Annals
Rutger as Judith. Research is by cool Headed Getaway Driver
Marissa Brown. The theme song is by Unruly Belgianine Litterbugs,
Thomas Lee and Travis Dutton. Post wardrobe is provided by
Botany five hundred guest here makeup by Sparkleshot and mister Andre.
(54:02):
Executive producers are Vice Principal of the School of Turin
Ben Bollen and Apprentice to the King of Keys Noel Brown.
Speaker 5 (54:14):
Ridicous Crime, Say It One More Timequeous Crime.
Speaker 1 (54:21):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio four more podcasts
from my heart Radio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Saren Elizabeth Brunette.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
Nice to see you, girl.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
So good to see you. It's been such a long time. Yeah,
I know, like thirty minutes. We got to do this
more often and it really do listen. Yes, you know
it's ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Oh my god, yes, actually and.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
It's me yeah, ridiculously awesome.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
No in this case, like as a listener pointed out,
they sent in a message and they said Melanie was
her name, and she said she was disappointed because when
there is a story about Alec Baldwin and no one
says who knows what evil lies in the hearts of men?
Alec Baldwin knows. And of course, as they point out
in their message, this is from the Shadow that from
(00:47):
the nineties, right, And as Melanie writes, quote, the Shadow
film was such a flop that no one seems to remember.
His turn as a superhero. Was especially disappointed when he
wrote an op ed defending Anthony Wayner the first sex scandal,
not the one resulting in divorce, and NPR neglected to
use this line in their coverage. I really thought Elizabeth
then ZB three would get there.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
And dropped the ball right, I remember the Shadow, right.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
I dude, I remember I watched all of those nineties like, oh,
we found this character from the thirties. Yeah, bet it
from the Radio over comics strip and we like Dick
Tracy that like, and then the made up one dark Man.
I even made up to watch The dark Man.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Like crap all over good radio show totally.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
I love the radio show obviously, and uh, you know
the the old Shadow. That was the line from the
radio who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?
The Shadow knows? All right, and like, oh, you're right.
I dropped the ball, so thank you. It was ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
We totally dropped it. I love the I hear you
listening to the One show suspense.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Yes, yes, the time, yeah, around around headquarters because I'll
be like writing or returning emails and I just pop
one on my phone. The best love.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
That is one hundred percent ridiculous, And I'm glad that
was pointed out. We did we did it.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Yeah, ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
But you want to know what else is ridiculous? Yes,
getting busted over a salami sandwich. This is ridiculous crime.
(02:35):
A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers heists and cons
it is always ninety nine percent murder free and one
hundred percent ridiculous. You damn right heists heists talking about language,
It's right in our tagline. Yeah, capers heist.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
One of my three favorite things I love.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
I love a good heist, like, give it to me,
give it to me. What you say? I what I
have for you today is a primo heist. You have
no idea. I can't believe we haven't talked about this before.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Really, this is like a classic. Oh it's it's top ten.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
It is top ten, easy, top five, top three? What
this has it all? Zaren?
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Why do we miss a top three?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
I don't know, you know, I'm I'm very lazy, very sloppy.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Wow, you need to update the big board.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Oh my god, totally this has it all. Diamonds, italians
whoa code names?
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Hell?
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Yeah, tools goodness, including a swiffer.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Did you come up with this list?
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah? And a telltale salami sandwich.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Come on, every time you get to.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
The sandwich sounds. What do you know about turin.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
The city or the cloth aside from the shroud, I
know the shroud, and aside from the.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Two thousand and six I did some investigating. Oh good,
and it should come as no surprise that I really
want to vi a this city, you know you. I
think I've moved it up to like top of my list.
I've been a lot of places in Italy, but I've
never been to Turino. It's the home of Fiat Oh
(04:14):
Fabrica Italian automobile. Too cool, Turin Automobile, Turin Italian Automobiles. Back.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
I did not know that, learned something new.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Every dentis football, okay, that's there, familiar with that. That's also
the birthplace of Italian cinema.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Really terrain pre dating, Uh.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Yeah, all of that in Turin. Michael Caine drove a
Mini Cooper in the Italian Job. Oh yes, I mean
this is like, it's amazing.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
In the classic Italy that we imagine, right.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
And in all my research on this heist, I spent
an inordinate amount of time, an inappropriate amount of time
learning about Turin and being like, you know, I want
to go here anyway?
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Is there ever an inappropriate Do you know.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
There's like a chocolate festival there?
Speaker 3 (04:59):
I didn't. I didn't not spend any inappropriate amount of
time learning about Terin.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Have you ever been to Turin.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
No, I've never been there. Yeah, I haven't. I haven't
been to Venice or Turin.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Venice is phenomenon. Yeah, okay, so we need to record
an episode in Venice.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Come up with a reason press an.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Episode in Turin, and I'm going to write to Admiral
iHeart be like, sir, sir, yes, sir, please please for
the people. Are you familiar with the School of Turin.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
I don't think it sounds like.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
An art movement, but it's not. It's a group of
professional criminals, criminal really yeah, and each of them have
fabulous specialties like areas of expertise. So well they're not okay,
So it's not technically like a gang or organized crime.
There's no hierarchy. It's just like a pool of skilled
jewel thieves.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Oh so it's like the old craftsman level of master apprentices,
master apprentice completely.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
So they're smarter than other heist crews, Like they see
their crimes as puzzles to be solved, challenges to be dismantled.
That non violent. It so like they don't just bust
in and take things at gunpoint. There's this art to it.
They would outsmart security, they would use common items to
take down complex and high tech systems.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Okay, I love that.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
There's this book Flawless by Scott Selby and Greg Campbell
as journalists, and this is what they say of the
school of turin quote. In one famous example, they ditched
the high tech approach to learning the combination of a
certain storage safe and instead sent one of their own
to seduce an employee who proved less than reliable when
it came to keeping secrets from her lover.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Yeah, so they're just that's some James Bonds. I liked this.
He went and seduce the guard essentially, or maybe the executive, the.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Shop girl girl. He was just like, hey, you know,
so they would they would case the place with women
as accomplices. They'd charm the staff and like browse for
future acquisitions. They would assess the situation and then go
back to one of their hangouts, like the back rooms
at bars and cafes, and they would use coded, vague
(07:04):
language and like to coordinate their best plan of action.
And then they would farm out the work to the
particular specialties, like you know, do we need someone who's
especially talented with disabling high tech security systems? Do we
need like someone who does lock picking, right, and so
they would go over who has these skills that they need?
(07:25):
Which of these dudes would be the best fit for
that job.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
They had like an Emiliano's list.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Yes, so then we have like the mastermind of the
biggest heist any of these guys could ever pull in
a million years, Leonardo, not of Bertolo.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Oh you telling me this school of Turin had Leonardo
as their master h Hell yeah, it's so good.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
So he was born in Palermo, raised in Turin, Yes,
of course, a son of Torino. Little is known about
his family life, but he grew up in like this
modest working class neighborhood. From an early age, he was
fascinated with mechanics and like intricate systems. He was interested
(08:09):
in locksmithing and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
As a teenager, he could, like he could open locks
and crack safes and you know, just.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Mass safe as a teen Yes, damn.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
So his criminal career began in nineteen seventy one with
the theft of an Alpha Romeo spider in Paris. Great,
I mean, are you kidding me? Style points nineteen years old, Yes,
and he's caught just chilling in the car listening to
the stereo, so they sent them back to Italy.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Way to get call oh my.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
God, seriously, like stealing one of the most beautiful cars.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Taking it for a driving and parking for a moment
to listen to.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Listen to the you know, like some like cool you know.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Music was going on.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
So he gets sent back to Italy. He goes on
to lead this life of like petty theft minor burglaries
around Turin. Then he gives this reputation though for being
really calculated and precise and he's super efficient. So over
the years his skills are evolving. He starts doing like
jewelry store heights and high profile burglaries all across Italy
and like sometimes into Switzerland.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
And he's a safe cracker. So it's mostly like cat
burglar type stuff. Okay.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Yeah, And it's interesting though because at the same time
he's like a really talented jewelry designer.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
He's got to get that.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Yeah, they called him though, People were calling him the
lupenn of Italy. Oh because he you know, your dude,
the famous generalman of course French literature. But so in
his twenties, so we go back, he's all about cars,
he gets Italian from Genoa all the way to the
Adriatic coast. The cars and he's getting pinned for like
(09:43):
speeding auto theft. If it involves a car, he's doing it.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
That.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
His boyhood nickname was Testa Dino or wooden head, because
he would head butt people during arguments as a kid,
which sounds very Glasswegian.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Totally.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
That makes sense because one of Turin's sister cities is Glasgow.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
There you go. They recognized game, game recognized game exactly.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
But it went beyond the head butt, the glassy kiss.
He was just straight stubborn when it came to obeying
the law. I'm just not going to yeah. And so
he graduates from cars to general thievery. He does little
stints in jail here and there, but that's just like
his school, his University of crim Total. So he learns
(10:26):
these criminal skills and he's networking great.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
You go on a network that you're a young man
on the go, you have.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
To busy on the go lifestyle. By the late seventies,
he's on the cusp of his thirties. He EPs his game,
goes into the diamond business. You know, I've got a
friend in the Tom Shane of Shane and Company and
Cooper Tino, San Matteo and Walnut Creek open weekdays till eight,
Saturdays and Sundays still five.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Now you have a friend in the diamond business. I've
heard those as.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Yeah, oh my god forever. Anyway, Leonardo Diamonds. Like I
said earlier, he was quite the jewelry designer. He'd sketch
out pieces like necklaces, rings, bracelets and stuff like that.
This is a lark. But then he got serious about
it and he opened a jewelry store.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
And then he got himself a partner in crime a
ride or die.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
He married a woman named Audriana Crudo Hell yeah, yeah.
She was his life and business partner in a total
badass for both of them.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
So Leonardo, because he'd like tangled so much with the law,
it might have looked a little shady for him to
open up the jewelry store. So Adriana did it, and
it's in her name, and they they open up this
this store that's like on this fabulous avenue in Turin,
and it's right by this big weekend outdoor market. There's
a lot of foot traffic. Yeah, and it's close to
(11:46):
like the Juventus football stadium, prime retail location.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Yeah, a lot of foot traffic, as you said, but
also I imagine wealthy foot traffic.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Yeah exactly, and people just looking to, you know, do
something shopping. So they set up shop. They become well
known and like beloved business people. They're both super charming
and kind involved in the community is there, and they're
good citizens.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
It's almost like they could go straight at this point
and make a life for themsel and.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
He And yet the thing about Leonardo, he is so charming,
like he can just talk his way in or out
of anything. Everybody loves him at the moment they start
talking to him. He's got these like sparkly blue eyes.
He can get away with anything. N Yes, So there
are a lot of jewelry store robberies at the time, Yes,
non violent and after hours, but like a lot of
(12:32):
businesses were hit.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Crime was big in the seventies.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Not Leonardo's.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Oh that's all suspicious.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
They're getting suspicious, right, So how did this petty thief
who used to like just be like I can't pay
any of these fines and broke. He's running this store
brimming with fine jewelry. So they get a search warrant
for his home. There weren't any gems or jewels in there,
but there was a handgun with a serial number filed off.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Eh, you know, as a gift.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
That's what he's like, it's for protection from all the
fee was hitting the jewelry stores all out legitimate. I mean,
if you guys have been doing your job, I wouldn't
have to. And so then I should also mention that
one of his cousins back in Sicily, Benedetto Capizzi, he
would later be in line to become Copo di Gappi.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
Oh for real Boston.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Oh yeah, yeah, that's his cousins, his cousin.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
So keep that he didn't have a hard time getting
the guns with his snif filed off serial number.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
No, not in the least. Oh and the cops when
the apartment, they also found c four blasting caps. So
remember the School of Turin As I mentioned earlier, Leonardo
part of that group, and he came up with a
corker of a plan that was sort of like presented
to him.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Do they have like do you imagine them having like
guild meetings, you know, and then like somebody presents it.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
They're in these smoky back rooms, and apparently like Leonardo
hated cigarette smoke, and he didn't gamble or do any
of that kind of stuff, so he would kind of
sit there begrudgingly while all these thieves are doing sitting around,
you know.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
The grubby business of like coming up with like the
payouts and.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Like hand gestures galore.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Yeah, so hands are flying every well, it.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
All starts so with this guy, uh, Ferdinando Finoto, and
so he's in this crew that's about to get assembled.
His code name was the Monster.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Yeah, he had physical strength just like a monster mountain
of a man. Yeah, but he also like he could
do brute force when required.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Yeah, but to get the nickname the Monster, that's extra Well.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
It's because like he could do all this stuff, handle
heavy equipment, he could like do the security. But he
was also just really good at everything. Oh he's so
that was one of the re Like he's not only
this big man, but he's just he's a monster. He
can do.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Anything monstrously good and also us a monster on it. Okay,
I gotcha.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
So he goes to Antwerp in nineteen ninety five because
like at that time, the Italian government was cracking down
on Indragaeda, yes, and then other mafia or.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
They're the big mafia at this point.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Yeah, all throughout the country. Right, three hundred warrants issue,
one hundred and fifty arrests.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
The big wharf time when they went and they had
they were having like the actual fight essentially, but.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Like in Naples, it really didn't make a dent really. Yeah.
And so but in what we're referred to as the
satellite cities like Turin, it really shook things up for
criminals and including the School of Turin. And it's because
not because they were involved with in drageda or you know, yeah, No,
(15:26):
it's because now all like the regular cops have these resources,
they don't have to go chasing as nationwide thing. They
can go after non mafia operations. Yes, so a lot
of the thieves and the criminals in Turin they headed
north and for the School of Turin. Guys though it
didn't mean they were like going underground or making a
run for it. It was like diversification. So the monster
(15:50):
he figured he was going to go to Antwerp and
check out the diamond district there and he even set
up a front company called Max Diamonds so it allowed
him to open a bank account there at KBC Bank.
So he and his crew they spent weeks casing the bank.
They're looking for a way to run a heist on
the bank, and they're all set up to do the job.
(16:12):
They're like ready to go, but they tripped the alarm
as they were trying to disable it.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Oh, just like first time. They're like, okay, clip and
roll it.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Oh no, So the Monster and his crew they book
it out of there. They ditched their tools at the
scene and they got away with it though, like no
link to the attempt. But with that job blown, the
Monster's like, well, let's go back to Turin for a while.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
I lost all their tools and left fingerprints everywhere.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Yeah, but he was like, I see the possibilities in Antwerp,
did so much opportunity. Yeah. Remember he'd rented an office
in the Diamond Center there in order to like blend
in at the bank, and he found that they didn't
really vet him when he got the office. And because
he's the Monster and he's amazing and everything he does,
he clocked the security in that building and the layout
(16:58):
and the faults, like how much went in and out
of this vault. So by his estimate, there had to
be hundreds of millions of dollars worth of diamonds in
the underground vault.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
What at the diamonds side, hundreds of millions in diamonds.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Diamonds they're harder to move and longer than cash from
a bank job, sure, which is why he chose to
do the bank. But they're more valuable by weight, and
they're harder to trace.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Yes, and so small, they're just small.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
So the monster he sees an opportunity. He need knows
just the jeweler to get in on this jeweler Leonardo
Tom Shaane.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
Oh of course.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
So with the vague notion of a job, Leonardo sets
out to plan the perfect heist. So first he has
to gather his crew. Naturally, they all had code names
and they only used those, they didn't use their real names.
So obviously there's the monster Ferdinandoo. Then we have the
genius Eleo Dinario. He is the electronics expert, so he's
(17:53):
tasked with like disabling the alarm systems, manipulating all the
technology with the security he could bypass motion detectors and
like disabled magnetic sensors and all that kind of stuff
they said he was like James Bond's Q. He's the quartermaster.
His cover was perfect because he had his own security business.
So they are like legitimate reasons for him to be
(18:14):
up to date and have all this equipment and know
how to override it. And then next up we have
Speedy and he's the getaway driver, Pietro Tavano River named Speedy. Yeah,
Pietro Tovano. He's responsible for their safe and rapid exit, right,
and he's he's an expert in evasion and high speed driving.
(18:35):
So you he's also a lifelong friend of Leonardo.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
That you want to trust your getaway driver.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Lastly, we have the King of Keys. What yeah, the
King of His identity is unknown really, but he was
a locksmith extraordinary. He's an old man and his job
was to craft perfect copies of the vaults keys. And
he was like this master locksmith. He could duplicate any
lock or key, and for this job he'd have to
(19:03):
make a foot long key for the vault.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
What yeah, the key.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Yeah. So with the crew in place, Leonardo starts for.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Pa Renaissance era bank two foot like.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Two foot deep door vault and so uh it's a
two He gets the plan going. It's a two year
long process to get ready for this incredibly involved designed
to beat the impossible. Let's take a break after these ads.
I'm going to tell you about the insane security measures
(19:38):
that these guys were up against. All right, Sarah, you ready, dude?
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Are you kidding me? I've been champing at the bed.
They got the Genius, the King of Keys, Monster, the Monster.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
It's so good. Yeah, it's so good and speedy. Let
us not forget speed. Let us not so I was
telling you about the crew. Let me tell you about
the target.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
The vault at the Antwerp Diamond Center is one of
the most secure facilities in the world. So it's sitting
in the middle of Belgium's diamond district. The complex is
made up of three blocks, A, B, and C, and
it housed billions of dollars worth of diamond gold jewels.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
What's the big beat with?
Speaker 2 (20:36):
We know how much a billion gym dealers from all
over the world have offices there. The vault has ten
layers of advanced security measures, which makes it pretty much impenetrable.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Supposedly, so when they take diamonds out of the congo.
This is where they deposit them.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
They do the blood diamonds. This is where they go,
This is where they go. Okay, So, like I said,
they're ten layers, let's talk about them. Number one the
thick steel vault door. Right, So it weighs three tons
and it's two feet thick. That's why you need a
one foot key.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Yeah, there's no like thermal lance is going to.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Cut No, no, no, no no, there's also so you
have the key and a combination lock, and the combination
code is only known to authorize personnel.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Does it like change or something or just like they
have to actually have it set and everybody knows.
Speaker 5 (21:23):
No.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Here's the thing with that. This is layer two, the
lock with one hundred million possible combinations.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Did you say one hundred millions?
Speaker 2 (21:30):
I just said that. So it's a dial logue. It
has all those it's designed to prevent an authorized ax.
So you have to line up four double digits in
order to get in. Oh crazy, And if the lock
gets tampered with, the vault goes into lockdown mode. Oh yeah.
Layer three.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
Can you imagine inventing this thing? I know, it's like
I've got another one.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Internal and external surveillance cameras.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Okay, that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
So you know obviously the external is that the perimeter
internal track the movements inside the vault's corridor and around
the entrance. Footage is recorded twenty four to seven and
stored securely. Layer four magnetic sensor on the vault door.
So this would detect any unauthorized opening of the vault.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Door if the magnets break exactly.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
So if the vault doors open without disarming, the sensor
and alarm immediately goes to security. Layer five Heat and
motion detectors like infrared, So these would detect body heat
and movement in the vault in the corridor, like.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
The missipible senses yes, ye.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Yeah, even the slight exactly. Layer six light sensor inside
the vault, so this detects any sudden changes in light
within the vault flashlight yeah yeah, so if it's tripped
in alert Security Layer seven timed relocking mechanism, So if
the vault is not accessed at the correct time or
(22:58):
if tampering is detected, the system engages in a fail
safe lock that prevents the door from opening.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Layer eight okay, seismic and vibration sensors. So this this
one any vibrations caused by drilling, cutting or any mechanical interference.
Super responsive to any disturbances around the vault structures.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Any vibration, no drilling.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Layered, nine security guard patrols and on site staff. Then
hell so regular security patrols are monitoring the premises and
the vault corridor and security is trained to respond within
minutes if anything goes on.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Do they have like killer dogs too?
Speaker 2 (23:40):
On a short layer ten our last layer emergency alarm
link to police, So any unauthorized attempt, any of these
alerts they go off, it goes right to the cops
and Antwerp police. They have a rapid response protocol in
place to address alarms from the diming disc of You know,
it's so huge.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
But if there like one guy like Barry who has
to come back in and like reset all the locks,
he's like it happened again, very sorry, I'll be.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
There, then someone's stuck in the vault. But it's a lot,
that's a lot of security, a lot.
Speaker 5 (24:16):
Well.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
They kept mentioning in some of the articles I read
that there was like a Doppler system and I'm guessing
that has to do with like the seismic stuff. I
don't know, but whatever, they got a lot of stuff going.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
On, like the whine of a drill.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Who knows, I probably so they they have like this
crazy security and they broadcast that to those who want
to use their services very upfront. So when Leonardo he
poses as an Italian diamond merchant and he rents a
little office there seven hundred bucks a month, he also
got access to a safe deposit box in the vault
(24:50):
beneath the building. Like with your office, comes a box
in the vault.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
Wait a minute, So they go through all the security
and then all you have to do is just do
a first in the last and then you get into.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
This bucks a month.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
What Yeah, this is the one system.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
And like bragging about security, and then they give him
a tenant ID card that provides twenty four hour access
to the building.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Wow, okay, but I'm imagining all the other sensors, everything's
gonna make it hard to get It just means you
can get to the gate.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Right, So Leonardo he got to work, right. He secretly
installed miniature cameras around the vault like he would just
like yeah he would, and he studied the patterns of
the guards and the vaults operation. Okayulous, Yeah, he documented
all the weaknesses in the ten layer system and he
got into the complex to access his box while carrying
(25:42):
a man purse that he had like cut a little
hole and had a camera in it, and he felt
kind of foolish, like strolling around with a man purse. Yeah,
he came away with these like crazy detailed observation. So
he'd stroll all slow to keep the recording smooth. And
he starts outside the building, swipes his badge to get in,
(26:03):
and then goes to his office on the fifth floor.
And after that, then he turns around takes the elevator
down to the vault. All of this on video, sure,
and so he gets the specifics of the elevator, the
vault doors. Yeah, he captured the opening to the safe
room covered by the daygate. Of course, like security cameras
are filming him, so he had to look cool and
(26:24):
like inconspicuous. So he's just an Italian guy's like smooth
strolling around with clutching his leather man purse.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
It's actually not that on camera works, it works, it's
very business man.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Yeah, from that book, flawless quote with his little purse
cocked under his arm. He was often seen on the
security cameras tilting his upper body at odd angles, slowly
turning in circles in the middle of hallways, and walking
stiffly like he'd pull the muscle. Much later, the police
would watch the security tapes and laugh humorlessly and how
(26:55):
in hindsight it was obvious that something was amiss with
his behavior, but at the time tim is clunky gait
and what looked like spells of absent mindedness didn't attract attention. Yeah,
that's also because he's just charming everybody everywhere he goes.
I love this guy and he's weird, and I love him.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
And I've been thinking a lot of characters too, who
are like you know, older gem Deelers and so forth,
who maybe a little absent minded.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Exactly, it's totally like the right industry to be a
little quirky. So he made it through the daygate gets
into the vault. There were very purposeful CCTV blind spots
in the vault, really because they wanted to give box
holders some privacy when they're putting stuff in or taking
it out, like you know, and there are no guards
in the vault, so that was a relief for him.
(27:40):
So he stood in the center of the vault and
he slowly turns to film the interior. He captured the
motion detector and the light detector and the ceiling. Sure,
since there's no one in there with him and they're
all the blind spots, he pulls out a tape measure
and gets to work. He like gets all the specifics
for the boxes and the vault door.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
What he doesn't mind that he's on camera filming spots.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
He's in the CCTV blind spots.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
The whole vault extending this.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Yeah, so when it comes to the giant vault door,
the video captured something important. There was a logo stamped
on the doorframe L I P S. I don't know.
It's all caps. So the School of Turin's locksmiths, they
went into research mode and they determined what they'd need
based on the schematics that they could get their hands
on from like when the building was built, when this
(28:29):
company was making these kind of vault doors, like they
hacked it. So at this time, for almost two years,
Leonardo came and went from the building like he's posted
up there for two years. Two He timed responses for everything.
He memorized routines. He used his charm and his wit
to blend in and become inconspicuous, just like this normal
gem dealer. Are you used to him?
Speaker 3 (28:51):
I can see where they're called the School of Turin.
These are some Renaissance masters.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Meticulousness.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
This is art.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
It completely. So at one point he goes to management,
He's like, I want to expand out my office. Can
I see some blueprints to like get an idea of
what my options are. Knock down this wall, maybe they'll
give him the fifth floor. They gave him all the
blueprints to the entire tire building. Yeah, here you go,
take a look. Let me knock yourself out. So the
(29:18):
crew they had installed a small camera over the vault door,
Like he had to stretch and be like, oh oh yeah.
It would show guards opening the door and record that
crazy four line double digit combination?
Speaker 3 (29:32):
Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Yeah, looking right down on it. So the content from
that camera was sent to a small secret storage system,
and that was housed in a fire extinguisher in a
nearby storage room. What's crazy is it wasn't a dummy
fire extinguisher. They actually put a watertight chamber that held
all the tech stuff inside the extinguisher, so it still worked.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
So they replaced the there was a fire, there's take
out like maybe a little bit.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Of yep, exactly.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
So that's remarkable.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
And they built the crew built a full scale replica
of the vault in order to practice in it.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
You got to this is you have to. I mean,
this is like Tom Cruise would approve of this. This
is an impossible level preparation with extra time because there's
no like, oh, a ninety minute movie exactly.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
So we're almost there. Remember this started in early two
thousand and one. It's now February fourteenth, two thousand and three.
Day yep, time for the final setup. So the crew
they assemble their tools, aluminum plates, custom keys, a can
of hairspray. Leonardo conducted one final check of the security
system and he verified the Cruise rolls, and then he
(30:42):
went for one last visit to the vault. Okay, and
while he was in there, he did this weird stretch
again and he sprayed women's hair spray on the thermal
motion sensors. Really yeah, the sensor would only go off
if it detected both heat and motion and the oil
from the spray, you know, it's all clear, but it
would insulate the sensor from heat fluctuations in the room.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
Wow, I didn't even think about.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
That, right, all, So this is s temporary fix.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
The moisture he made any Oh.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
Yeah perhaps, huh. This is like a temporary fix. It's
gonna last like a day or so, but it would
allow them to get in there and then actually disable
the system. So it's kind of like by their way
in totally. Of course, all this is on CCTV, but
Leonardo was such a regular and he did such weird
stuff that security staff didn't even notice when oh he's
the old guys in their stretching again. Yeah, so they
(31:34):
had to strike on a weekend when security wasn't in place,
And I just don't understand that if you're gonna have
ten layers of security, you go ahead and pay the
staff and work on the weekends even if it's closed, Like,
come on, We're charge a little more every month, I mean,
like come on. So Saturday, February fifteenth, two thousand and three,
the crew made their initial entry seven pm. Leonardo is
(31:57):
in a getaway vehicle listening to a police He's ready
to leave when they're done.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
He doesn't go inside.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
No, he didn't go inside. The crews all gloved up
so as not to leave fingerprints. Remember the exterior cameras.
The King of Keys picked the lock of an abandoned
office building next to the Diamond Center, and there was
like a shared private garden with the Diamond Center that
didn't have CCTV. So this gave them access via ladder
(32:23):
to a balcony in the Diamond Center. And like there
was an infrared sensor that monitored the area, but the
genius used a huge homemade polyester shield to hide his
thermal signature. And so he creeps up to the sensor
and then puts the shield in front of it. So
now the crew can walk by, no problem. Yeah, and
(32:45):
the genius then bypassed the alarm on the balcony windows.
They covered the security cameras outside of the vault with
black plastic bags so they could turn on the lights.
And then once they're inside, they deactivated all the security systems.
So this was done by spraying hair spray on heat
and motion sensors to obscure the signature. Yeah, they can
(33:05):
move freely now, and now we get to jamming the
magnetical lock.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
That's got to be one of the hardest. I don't
know how you're going to take that.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Well, okay, So it's the magnetic lock two plates. When
the door's closed, there's a magnetic field. Opening the door
breaks the field triggers the alarm. So the genius lived
up to his name. He made a special aluminum plate
with heavy duty double sided tape to one side. He
stuck it on the two bolts and unscrewed them, keeping
(33:33):
the two magnetic plates together and maintaining the field. He
then was able to swing the unit away from the
door and tape it to the wall.
Speaker 3 (33:41):
WHOA, She's like, we don't need to break the magnets.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
We just need to move the take the magnets off
the door. So now they're at the moment of truth,
the vault door. Let's stop here to listen to the
wonderful goods and services on offer out there in the world.
When we come back, we're going to tackle this giant door.
Speaker 5 (33:58):
Yeah all right, Zarin.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Yes, we've made it through a bunch of the.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
Security layers, so many layers.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
And now we're at the vault door. We're at the
vault door. So the King of Keys spent months in
his turin studio studying the footage provided by the Mastermind
in order to make a duplicate key of the key
in the vault. And the key is supposed to be
impossible to duplicate. It's a foot long.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
Yeah, and I don't imagine the dude ever saw it,
but I know the camera is gonna You're gonna see the.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
Video in the video. Yeah, he was successful. He made
an identical key that would fit the vault door and
open it for access to untold Richards.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
I wonder what he was using it for. Scale against idea.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
This guy is like a wizard, the King of Keys, Elizabeth.
He's the King of Keys. He's in the anti chamber
right at the vault door, and he has this idea.
Like in all of their recontapes, you could see the
guard visit a utility room just before opening the vault.
So the King of Keys signaled the crew to go
search that room. Right there, hanging on a hook was
(35:20):
the actual vault key. So the King of Keys took it.
He didn't want the safe manufacturers to know that they
could be duplicated, let them think it's impenetrable. So the
King of Keys he put the original in a key hole,
and he waited, and the genius dialed in that crazy
(35:41):
combination that being captured on hidden camera, and then he
nodded the monster turned off the lights and then that
way they're not going to trigger the light detector in
the vault. When the door opens, King of Keys turns
the key, twists the four prong handle, click, the bolts retract,
giant door swings open. They're in God. So once inside,
(36:02):
the monster slowly crept to the middle of the room,
reaching up to push back a ceiling panel. Remember this
is in the dark, so above that panel were the
security system's inbound and outbound wires. If any sensor is
going to be tripped or broken, it's going to trigger
the alarm. So slowly, very slowly, the monster delicately stripped
(36:24):
the wires and put a new piece of wire up
to the stripped wire, detouring the circuit.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
So this allowed them to trip the circuits without alerting
the security So now for the heat sensors, they used
styrofoam boxes that had tape on them to cover the
heat and the light sensors. How did they get the
boxes up there? They attached them to the end of
a swift or dry mop and lifted them up and
(36:51):
taped them to the wall just above the censer the sensor,
just dangling it there. This is so something I would do,
needing to hang something where I can't reach it, so
I put it on the swiffer and hope I can
just get to dangle.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
Right a box of you taped.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
I think it looks like I'm a good candidate for
the School of Turin.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
I'm thinking you should get them an application.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
So there they are, total darkness, moving super slow, silent.
They had that replica vault right, so they memorized the
whole layout. They could navigate it with their eyes closed,
like they knew the number of steps, they knew where
things were. Every now and then they would like split second,
hit a flashlight. To get a little burst of light.
(37:28):
You had to position the drill over the boxes and
like thanks to the swiffer, the light sensors covered. But
you don't want to like press your luck and keep
the lights. So the King of Keys he came up
with a hand cranked jack that would bust open these
like really substantial locks on the boxes hand crank. He
built it himself. See the boxes had a double lock,
(37:49):
a key in a combination. There's no use trying to
pick them, so you had to just go with a
break course. Yeah, and they had a field day. So
they're just popping, dumping, popping and dumping, and they have
these all these Duffel bags out on the floor and
they're just throwing in gold bars like millions in Israeli, Swiss,
American euro you know, British currency, rough and polished diamonds,
(38:12):
like everything's just going into the Duffel bags. They broke
into one hundred and twenty six of one hundred and
sixty bucks.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
Oh damn. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Then it gets to five thirty in the morning, like okay.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
So on their way out, they stopped at the security
office and they stole all the security tapes for the
previous week. Really yeah, so there's nothing of that. They
retraced their steps at exactly the same speed, so they
didn't race out and retrip something. And then they loaded
everything into Leonardo's car. He drove to his apartment in
Antwerp while the rest of them just walked.
Speaker 3 (38:45):
I am absolutely wondering what the hell they're doing on
this show, I you know what I mean, Like, how
did they ever end up on ridiculous crime.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
You're about to find out. So they go back to
the apartment. They're sifting through what they had taken, pulling
out the good stuff. Like as with every safe deposit
vault heist, the total values just.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
An estimate, yea.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
So like there are those who don't come forward or
they say they didn't have anything.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
Don't tell the truth about how much was in there.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
Yeah, exactly. And so in all though they stole loose diamonds, gold, silver,
and random jewelry, valued it more than one hundred million dollars,
which is one hundred and seventy three million dollars today.
That's a that's a pretty good haul.
Speaker 3 (39:25):
That's an amazing hall and they got.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
So they decided to celebrate, so one of them they did.
They had they go. Leonardo is the one. He goes
to the corner store to get some treats. And for
these good Italians, it was kind of like a shark
Houter report. So they get like bread and cheese and
fruit and salami sandwiches. It's a real party. I need
to hone a specialty so I could join the School
(39:49):
of Turin and have a salami sandwich party. So the
crew they made their way back to Turin, though, which
means that they had to go through France. So the Genius,
the Monster, and the King of Keys they get into
a car with all the gems in the loot. Leonardo
tells the crew that he and Speedy are going to
take another car and burn all the evidence, all the
non loot stuff that they had taken with them from
(40:12):
the Antwerp apartment. Yeah, when we get to France, we're
gonna we're gonna burn it all. Wow. And so that'll
be far enough away and then we'll all rendezvous and
Milan and divide it up.
Speaker 3 (40:22):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
So Speedy though, he's getting anxious, like, I'm with Speedy,
rid of this stuff as soon as possible. Yeah, he
wanted all trace of things, the plans, their ephemera out
of his car.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
I'm with Speedy. Well.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
According to Wired magazine quote, Speedy scanned the traffic behind
them in the side view mirror and maintained a tense silence.
Nota Bartolo had worked with him for thirty years. They
were childhood buddies, but he knew that his friend had
a habit of coming apart at the end of a job.
The others on the team hadn't wanted Speedy in on
this one. They said he was a liability. Not of
(40:57):
Bartolo could see their point, but out of loyalty, he
defended his friend. Speedy could handle it, he said, Oh no,
So they get to the Derna forest. I'm still in
Belgium and actually just outside of Antwerp, so they didn't
get far. Yeah, and Speedy couldn't handle it. He convinced
(41:18):
them all to stop, like he.
Speaker 3 (41:19):
Like, pull over to get out of the car.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
I gotta throw everything away. Oh no, speed, Yeah, so
he and you know, their car pulls over Leonardo, he
gets out, fine, Okay, we'll dump it here. He takes
a bag of like paperwork and other stuff into the
woods and he sets it on fire. He like makes
this nice little pyre. Speedy grabs another bag, this one
containing like security videotapes trash from the apartment. He goes
(41:42):
to get rid of it, but he couldn't hold it together.
He's super freaked out, starts having a panic attack and
just starts tossing the stuff like into this ravine.
Speaker 5 (41:52):
Nos.
Speaker 3 (41:53):
Yeah, speed.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
Leonardo comes running over, freaking out, like he's just scattering it. Yeah,
and Leonardo's freaking out He's like, you're making this huge mess,
but it's going to take way too long to go
all through it and gather everything up and actually destroy
it rather than just dump it, because he's just spread
it everywhere. It's like, you know, raccoon's getting into garbage. Yeah,
(42:14):
so he's looking around and like feeling like, Okay, we're
in the middle of nowhere. The heck with it. No
one's going to find this stuff. It's so isolated here.
We got to just keep moving, Zaren, close your eyes.
Picture it. You are a retired Belgian grocer and you
own land in the Derna Forest. For weeks, local teens
(42:37):
have been glittering on your land. They come and hang
out and do god knows what and leave all sorts
of trash behind. You've called the local authorities many times
asking for them to pick it all up in the
patrol the area on weekend nights. So try and put
a stop to this. Today, it's lovely out and you're
strolling through your property with your bloodhound Rufus. You trapes
through a meadow towards the ravine. You love the place
(43:00):
where you're able to do great birding and take in
the woodpeckers. And the tits. As you go down into
the ravine, you see a bunch of garbage. Noup te
kiddn you yell. Rufus begins to bark in all the
two of you make your way to the trash. You
poke at the junk with your walking stairs. There are
unschooled VHS tapes all over the place, a half eaten
(43:21):
salami sandwich, a piece of an envelope. You lean down
to get a better look. You're a large man. There's
a logo Antwerp Diamond Center. Your wife was just telling
you about the heist there. Apparently yesterday Monday, the place
opened up and security found the vault totally trashed. They
said it looked like a bomb went off. Hundreds of
millions where the gem's gone. And now here's all this mess.
(43:44):
What if it's from the heist? Zaren, you're a good citizen.
You shoe Rufus away from the salami sandwich. He's sniffing,
and you reach for your mobile phone. Time to call
the cops. You just hope they don't brush you off
because of all you're complaining about the teens. You dial.
Here goes nothing, all right, So as soon as the
dude who found the garbage, called the cops about the
(44:06):
Antwerp Diamond Center logo on some paper. They sprang into
action and when they got there, the sandwich allowed them
to tie it all together. So along with the salami
sandwich was a receipt for the sandwich. So the police
they get so it has like the name of the
store at time, the date. The police pulled the security
(44:27):
video from the receipt store for that day and time.
They get Leonardo on camera buying it, and then they
later tested the sandwich for DNA and it was a
match to Leonardo. Of course, boom, always finish your sandwich.
So the cops they honed in on Leonardo and everything
just starts stacking up, like they find out about his
(44:48):
office in the center. They also learned that in his
two years with an office in the Diamond Center, he
had never once made a sale, not one. And his
box was one of the ones that didn't get hit
in the hype. Of course, and they found out, oh,
he has this extensive criminal history. Okay, now we just
got to find it. Well, no worries. He came to them, see,
(45:09):
he thought it would be better to go back to
work at the Diamond Center. Like nothing happened, just play
it cool. But instead the police they had everything they
needed to arrest him right there. The one thing they
didn't have was the address for his apartment. So he
like they they get him at the at the office
and he was like stalling as long as he can.
(45:30):
But then he finally told him the address of the apartment.
And he was stalling because while he's being grilled. Audriana,
his wife, was at the apartment, cleaning it out and
getting rid of all the traces of everything. Right or
died to is the cops pulled up to the apartment,
She and some friends were just walking out of the building.
They all had like a bunch of bags and ones
(45:51):
holding a rolled up carpet and like another couple of
minutes they would have gotten away. Instead they get arrested.
Saren what was in the bags? According to Wired magazine
critical evidence quote, the police dug out a series of
prepaid SIM cards that were linked to cell phones used
almost exclusively to call three Italians, Elio Durronio aka the Genius,
(46:15):
Ferdnando Finoto alias the Monster, and the person most likely
to be Speedy, an anxious, paranoid man named Pietro Tvano,
a longtime associate of Noto Botolo's. On the night of
the heist, a cell tower in the Diamond district logged
the presence of all three plus Nota Battolo. During that time,
Tavano stayed in constant contact with Nota Battolo. The day
(46:38):
Noto Battolo was arrested, Italian police broke open the safe
at his home in Turin. They found seventeen polished diamonds
attached to certificates that the Belgian diamond detectives traced back
to the vault. More gems were vacuumed out of the
rolled up carpet from Nordo Petola's Antwerp apartment, so they
had spilled so many. There were all these like tiny
emeralds that are used as like just little accent pieces
(47:01):
on jewelry that they found in the vault, and then
they found them also in the carpet. So he's tied
it all in.
Speaker 3 (47:08):
My goodness, speedy kill You know who didn't have a
phone on him? Who?
Speaker 2 (47:13):
King of Keys?
Speaker 3 (47:14):
Oh y, we don't know who the wizard.
Speaker 2 (47:17):
Yeah, everyone except for the King of Keys gets arrested
and the evidence against everyone is like rock solid. So Leonardo.
He's found guilty of orchestrating the whole thing.
Speaker 3 (47:27):
I get nobody rolls over anybody, because they don't. They
all use their code names. They can't roll over.
Speaker 2 (47:32):
I don't know. It's just the King of Keys. He gets.
So Leonardo gets ten years in prison in two thousand
and five, but he gets released on parole in two
thousand and nine. In twenty eleven, an arrest warrant was
issued against him for a parole violation because he was
supposed to compensate his victim's restitution, but he didn't make
any effort whatsoever. So he gets re arrested in twenty
(47:53):
thirteen at Charles Degall Airport in Paris. He's like it
was in a layover from coming back from the United
States to go to two. They pick him up in Paris.
He has to serve the remainder of his prison sentence
until twenty seventeen. Twenty seventeen, so Tivano Dinio Finoto, they
each get five years in prison and the lout never recovered.
(48:17):
It's out there somewhere, almost all of it, because they
had like a couple of pieces in his apartment. Leonardo
gave that interviewed Wired magazine, and he said that the
amount that they took was way below one hundred million,
It was more like twenty million, and that it wasn't
his idea. He said that a diamond merchant hired his
crew for the heist, and it was actually all part
(48:39):
of an insurance scam so that the right people knew
it was coming. They filed insurance claims on stuff that
wasn't there to be geting for real. But the vault
itself was uninsured and there were never any big insurance
payouts on it. So he may be full of it
like it just doesn't act.
Speaker 3 (48:58):
None of this adds out no either way.
Speaker 2 (48:59):
He's the mastermind of an amazing heist, serious, and they
almost got away with it. I know you're thinking that
this would make a great movie. Of course, Well, Paramount
Pictures option the rights, but those rights have since expired. J. J.
Abrams was attached to produce, but the rights have expired,
so I called DIBs on.
Speaker 3 (49:18):
It for Thank you, Elizabeth, please please.
Speaker 2 (49:20):
Write the screenplay.
Speaker 3 (49:21):
Could you imagine?
Speaker 2 (49:22):
Oh my god, seriously, this is basically.
Speaker 3 (49:24):
Like a Steven Soderberg's Oceans eleven twelve thirteen, but in
Europe like it makes it's like from his like imagine
if he made it in Europe as opposed to like, oh,
a bunch of American thieves, those.
Speaker 2 (49:34):
Guys when you think about the casting, Yes.
Speaker 3 (49:37):
And also reminds me of Snatch with the whole, like
at the beginning of Snatch the whole, like goods get
the diamonds from the diamond center in Antwerps. You coup
those together and then add in like I don't know,
like a little love the Sergio Leone, just like passion
and the silliness of life.
Speaker 2 (49:53):
You have to write the screen.
Speaker 3 (49:55):
And then Speedy breaks your heart.
Speaker 2 (49:58):
King of Keys, Oh no.
Speaker 3 (49:59):
I love King Case Speedy like it unravelers that your takeaway?
Speaker 2 (50:03):
What's your ridiculous takeaway?
Speaker 3 (50:05):
Oh well, my ridiculous takeaway is actually like Leo, when
you have that feeling and your guys are telling you
we don't want to bring them, you gotta listen, like you,
there's nothing he's not gonna be like at the end
of it, they're all gonna be like, man, you were right,
and that's gonna be better, Like it'll feel so good
that you were right.
Speaker 2 (50:20):
Speedy came through.
Speaker 3 (50:22):
Versus like the Speedy got us all busted. Those are
not comparable.
Speaker 2 (50:26):
Time loyalties are hard to You.
Speaker 3 (50:28):
Gotta be real though with your longtime loyal like in
that case, minimize his involvement.
Speaker 2 (50:33):
Yeah, that's the key.
Speaker 3 (50:34):
Haven't be involved, but minimize it.
Speaker 2 (50:36):
Poor guys.
Speaker 3 (50:37):
Yeah, what's yours, Elizabeth? What's your ridiculous takeaway?
Speaker 2 (50:40):
This needs to be a movie that you write. You
have to, like dips, no one else can do it.
Speaker 3 (50:44):
I don't know about that. Will see. It's a great telling.
They're great. Good on you.
Speaker 2 (50:48):
I just I really they were so close. But since
nothing's been recovered, I don't know what everyone's current status is.
I think that they all just got away with it
quite frank.
Speaker 3 (50:59):
Kind of feels like and they paid in prison for six.
Speaker 2 (51:02):
Years I think total, and then you know, you get
hundreds of millions.
Speaker 3 (51:06):
It's kind of one of those like would you be
in prison for this long? For these many millions of
dollars questions you might No one asked this online. No
one ever says, hey, would you be in prison for
five years if I gave you twenty million dollars? Yeah,
but it kind of is that question, you know, as
opposed to like, I'll give you a million dollars if
you live on this island for ninety days, and mister
Beast like put you there or whatever.
Speaker 2 (51:23):
Well, and apparently like when Wired went to interview him
in the Belgian jail, he's like kind of the boss there.
Everyone looks at him with respect. He was weird of Rolex.
Speaker 3 (51:32):
Yeah, and those Northern European jails do not look that rough. No,
I'm not talking Russian jails. I just be in like
Belgian Swedish.
Speaker 2 (51:40):
For profit facility in Atlanta, exactly, super Max. Yeah, I
think I need to talk back, right, Hell yeah, let
me hit you.
Speaker 3 (51:50):
Oh my god, I went to get.
Speaker 4 (52:02):
Hello to all of you ridiculous people at Ridiculous Crime.
I absolutely love your podcast. I discovered you after my
son was born. I was staying home with him and
just had a little bit of partum and your show
helped me through that. And I just not to say
(52:23):
how much I love it and how amazing you guys are.
Keep up the good work. You'll always have an Archipall
listener you so much.
Speaker 2 (52:31):
I love that for you. I find that like we
hear from a lot of people that like we help
get through stuff, and it's so mutual, like, yes, we.
Speaker 3 (52:41):
All all you guys help us get through stuff.
Speaker 2 (52:43):
As rude dudes. We're all helping.
Speaker 3 (52:44):
Each other, right the community.
Speaker 2 (52:47):
Yeah, and everyone goes through all sorts of stuff. We
all have to look out for each other. So I'm
so glad that we could help you out with that.
And congrats on the BIBBIS. Totally nice, excellent, Thank you,
rude dude. That's all for today. You can find us
online at ridiculous Crime dot com. Did you know that
there's a button that you push on a secret page
on the web page that gets you into the matrix?
Speaker 3 (53:09):
I did, noting it does.
Speaker 2 (53:12):
I found it by accident and I had like a
really hard time getting out. We're also a Ridiculous Crime
on Instagram and blue Sky. You can email us at
ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com. Dear producer Dave, And then,
as I always say, the most important thing, download the
iHeart app. It's free. Leave us a talkback, please reach out.
(53:38):
Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnett,
produced and edited by veteran Salamimonger Dave Cousten, starring Annals
Rutger as Judith. Research is by cool Headed Getaway Driver
Marissa Brown. The theme song is by Unruly Belgianine Litterbugs,
Thomas Lee and Travis Dutton. Post wardrobe is provided by
Botany five hundred guest here makeup by Sparkleshot and mister Andre.
(54:02):
Executive producers are Vice Principal of the School of Turin
Ben Bollen and Apprentice to the King of Keys Noel Brown.
Speaker 5 (54:14):
Ridicous Crime, Say It One More Timequeous Crime.
Speaker 1 (54:21):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio four more podcasts
from my heart Radio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hosts And Creators
Zaron Burnett
Elizabeth Dutton
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