October 29th, Tuesday | The Biggest (and Easiest) Jewel Heist

The biggest (most priceless) jewel heist happens at the American Museum of Natural History. It’s arguably also the easiest. Poem by Robert Frost.

 

The date is October 29th, Tuesday, and today I’m coming to you from Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon in Vietnam. 

 

On this day in 1964, the biggest jewelry heist in history took place at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Notable gems stolen included the 563-carat sapphire Star of India, the 100-carat DeLong Ruby, and the 16-carat Eagle Diamond.

 

Jack “Murf the Surf” Murphy and Alan Kuhn were the brains of the operation. In Miami they had reputations as party boys, not afraid to spend their profits from steady burglary jobs. They never used force, preferring to burgle and steal while wealthy hotel guests were out of their rooms. A few times hotel staff and insurers were even in on the jobs. 

 

Partially on a whim, Murf and Kuhn flew up to New York in October of 1964 with only a general plan to do some burgling. They explored New York, as tourists do, and Murphy noticed that some of the museums had surprisingly minimal security. He turned the group’s attention to the Natural History Museum which housed jewels of the J.P. Morgan collection. 

 

Murphy and Kuhn spent about a week casing the museum by day, and partying rather conspicuously by night. When it came time to do the job, things went incredibly smooth. 

 

Connecticuter Roger Clark played lookout and getaway driver, while Murphy and Kuhn were hands on. The two scaled the spiked fence around the Natural History Museum, climbed up the stone face of the museum building, and finally opened a fourth floor window, entering right into the gallery that housed the jewels. The pair waited in the quiet darkness to see if guards would come walking by - but not a single guard appeared. Murf and Kuhn were utterly alone in the gallery. They set to work silently cutting open the glass displays. As they lifted the gems out of their cases, they braced for a cacophony of alarms…but no alarms ever went off. 

 

Clark picked up Murf and Kuhn, and the three drove off into the night. Murf and Kuhn were on a flight back to Miami before the first guard noticed the jewels were missing. 

 

The burglars victory dances didn’t last long though - they were apprehended within 48 hours - much of their partying and flamboyant spending habits in New York making them stand out as suspicious to hotel staff and restaurateurs. 

 

The lead detective on the case managed to pick up Roger Clark by staking out the boys’ hotel room. Clark eventually flipped on the two masterminds, and Kuhn and Murf were picked up by police at their apartment in Miami and taken back to New York for processing. 

 

Despite their crimes, Murf and Kuhn became celebrities of sorts during the prosecution of their heist in New York City. As young tanned Florida men with mischievous smiles, it was easy to be charmed by the thieves. During the investigation it was obvious that the American Museum of Natural History had serious gaps in their security system and also had neglected to insure numerous precious stones. 

 

Click here to read a full article on the 50th anniversary of the heist.

 

A Dream Pang

Robert Frost

 

I had withdrawn in forest, and my song

Was swallowed up in leaves that blew away;

And to the forest edge you came one day

(This was my dream) and looked and pondered long,

But did not enter, though the wish was strong:

You shook your pensive head as who should say,

‘I dare not—too far in his footsteps stray—

He must seek me would he undo the wrong.’

 

Not