Download or read book Master Thieves written by Stephen Kurkjian and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2015-03-10 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive story of the greatest art theft in history. In a secret meeting in 1981, a low-level Boston thief gave career gangster Ralph Rossetti the tip of a lifetime: the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was a big score waiting to happen. Though its collections included priceless artworks by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Degas, and others, its security was cheap, mismanaged, and out of date. And now, it seemed, the whole Boston criminal underworld knew it. Nearly a decade passed before the Museum was finally hit. But when it finally happened, the theft quickly became one of the most infamous art heists in history: thirteen works of art valued at up to 500 million, by some of the most famous artists in the world, were taken. The Boston FBI took control of the investigation, but twenty-five years later the case is still unsolved and the artwork is still missing. Stephen Kurkjian, one of the top investigative reporters in the country, has been working this case for over nearly twenty years. In Master Thieves, he sheds new light on some of the Gardner's most abiding mysteries. Why would someone steal these paintings, only to leave them hidden for twenty-five years? And why, if one of the top crime bosses in the city knew about this score in 1981, did the theft happen in 1990? What happened in those intervening years? And what might all this have to do with Boston's notorious gang wars of the 1980s? Kurkjian's reporting is already responsible for some of the biggest breaks in this story, including a meticulous reconstruction of what happened at the Museum that fateful night. Now Master Thieves will reveal the identities of those he believes plotted the heist, the motive for the crime, and the details that the FBI has refused to discuss. Taking you on a journey deep into the gangs of Boston, Kurkjian emerges with the most complete and compelling version of this story ever told.
Download or read book Master Thieves written by Stephen Kurkjian and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2015-03-10 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive story of the greatest art theft in history. In a secret meeting in 1981, a low-level Boston thief gave career gangster Ralph Rossetti the tip of a lifetime: the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was a big score waiting to happen. Though its collections included priceless artworks by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Degas, and others, its security was cheap, mismanaged, and out of date. And now, it seemed, the whole Boston criminal underworld knew it. Nearly a decade passed before the Museum was finally hit. But when it finally happened, the theft quickly became one of the most infamous art heists in history: thirteen works of art valued at up to 500 million, by some of the most famous artists in the world, were taken. The Boston FBI took control of the investigation, but twenty-five years later the case is still unsolved and the artwork is still missing. Stephen Kurkjian, one of the top investigative reporters in the country, has been working this case for over nearly twenty years. In Master Thieves, he sheds new light on some of the Gardner's most abiding mysteries. Why would someone steal these paintings, only to leave them hidden for twenty-five years? And why, if one of the top crime bosses in the city knew about this score in 1981, did the theft happen in 1990? What happened in those intervening years? And what might all this have to do with Boston's notorious gang wars of the 1980s? Kurkjian's reporting is already responsible for some of the biggest breaks in this story, including a meticulous reconstruction of what happened at the Museum that fateful night. Now Master Thieves will reveal the identities of those he believes plotted the heist, the motive for the crime, and the details that the FBI has refused to discuss. Taking you on a journey deep into the gangs of Boston, Kurkjian emerges with the most complete and compelling version of this story ever told.
Download or read book Jack of Thieves written by Ben Hale and published by . This book was released on 2016-09-15 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Thieves Guild is renowned for their ability to steal anything. Its elite members have robbed nobles of wealth, reputation, and even their honor. The Guildmaster rules them with brutality and fear, yet his name and past are a mystery. From the depths of the Evermist swamp he seeks a master thief, one who can help him reclaim his lost power.Young and brash, Jack Myst has drawn the Guildmaster's attention. His feats mark his potential, but his audacity and cunning make him dangerous. After years of preparation an invitation from the guild is exactly what he desires. When he gets it his hunt begins, and there is nothing he cannot steal.Even the Guildmaster's secret.
Download or read book Superthief written by Rick Porrello and published by Next Hat Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Superthief is a captivating first-hand look at the life of Phil Christopher, a career criminal, Mafia associate, and one of the most successful bank burglars in the United States. In a raw and candid accounting, Rick Porrello takes his readers inside Phil's brutal street world and prison life and exposes the details behind the planning and execution of the daring and record-setting 1972 United California Bank burglary in Orange County, California.
Download or read book The God Thief written by Ben Hale and published by . This book was released on 2016-12-13 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Napoleon of Crime written by Ben Macintyre and published by Crown. This book was released on 2011-04-05 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the New York Times bestselling author of Prisoners in the Castle, a dramatic portrait of the master thief of the nineteenth century: Adam Worth “Fascinating . . . a brisk, lively, colorful biography of an amazing criminal.”—The New York Times (Best Books of the Year) The Victorian era’s most infamous and iconic thief, the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes’s Professor Moriarty, Adam Worth was known as the Napoleon of crime. Suave, cunning, and fearless, Worth learned early that the best way to succeed was to steal. And steal he did. Following a strict code of honor, Worth won the respect of Victorian society. He also aroused its fear by becoming a chilling phantom, mingling undetected with the upper classes, whose valuables he brazenly stole. His most celebrated heist: Gainsborough’s grand portrait of the Duchess of Devonshire—ancestor of Diana, Princess of Wales—a painting Worth adored and often slept with for twenty years. With a brilliant gang that included “Piano” Charley, a jewel thief, train robber, and playboy, and “the Scratch” Becker, master forger, Worth secretly ran operations from New York to London, Paris, and South Africa—until betrayal and a Pinkerton man finally brought him down. The Napoleon of Crime is a grand, dazzling tour into the gaslit underworld of the nineteenth century, and into the doomed genius of a criminal mastermind.
Download or read book The Art of the Con written by Anthony M. Amore and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2015-07-14 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Must reading for any true-crime fan . . . [a] diverse, colorful crew of art-gallery grifters and scammers . . . Highly recommended!” —Howie Carr, New York Times–bestselling author Art scams are today so numerous that the specter of a lawsuit arising from a mistaken attribution has scared a number of experts away from the business of authentication and forgery, and with good reason. Art scams are increasingly convincing and involve incredible sums of money. The cons perpetrated by unscrupulous art dealers and their accomplices are proportionately elaborate. Anthony M. Amore’s The Art of the Con tells the stories of some of history’s most notorious yet untold cons. They involve stolen art hidden for decades; elaborate ruses that involve the Nazis and allegedly plundered art; the theft of a conceptual prototype from a well-known artist by his assistant to be used later to create copies; the use of online and television auction sites to scam buyers out of millions; and other confidence scams incredible not only for their boldness but more so because they actually worked. Using interviews and newly released court documents, The Art of the Con will also take the reader into the investigations that led to the capture of the con men, who oftentimes return back to the world of crime. For some, it’s an irresistible urge because their innocent dupes all share something in common: they want to believe. “An engrossing read about brazen, artful scams.” —Kirkus Reviews “A riveting, fast-moving account of shameless fraudsters who wreak havoc on the art world. A must read!” —Brian T. Kelly, former Assistant United States Attorney
Download or read book Angel Thieves written by Kathi Appelt and published by Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books. This book was released on 2019-03-12 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An ocelot. A slave. An angel thief. Multiple perspectives spanning across time are united through themes of freedom, hope, and faith in a most unusual and epic novel from Newbery Honor–winning author and National Book Award finalist Kathi Appelt. Sixteen-year-old Cade Curtis is an angel thief. After his mother’s family rejected him for being born out of wedlock, he and his dad moved to the apartment above a local antique shop. The only payment the owner Mrs. Walker requests: marble angels, stolen from graveyards, for her to sell for thousands of dollars to collectors. But there’s one angel that would be the last they’d ever need to steal; an angel, carved by a slave, with one hand open and one hand closed. If only Cade could find it… Zorra, a young ocelot, watches the bayou rush past her yearningly. The poacher who captured and caged her has long since lost her, and Zorra is getting hungrier and thirstier by the day. Trapped, she only has the sounds of the bayou for comfort—but it tells her help will come soon. Before Zorra, Achsah, a slave, watched the very same bayou with her two young daughters. After the death of her master, Achsah is free, but she’ll be damned if her daughters aren’t freed with her. All they need to do is find the church with an angel with one hand open and one hand closed… In a masterful feat, National Book Award Honoree Kathi Appelt weaves together stories across time, connected by the bayou, an angel, and the universal desire to be free.
Download or read book Stealing Rembrandts written by Anthony M. Amore and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2011-07-05 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anthony M. Amore and Tom Mashberg's Stealing Rembrandts is a spellbinding journey into the high-stakes world of art theft Today, art theft is one of the most profitable criminal enterprises in the world, exceeding $6 billion in losses to galleries and art collectors annually. And the masterpieces of Rembrandt van Rijn are some of the most frequently targeted. In Stealing Rembrandts, art security expert Anthony M. Amore and award-winning investigative reporter Tom Mashberg reveal the actors behind the major Rembrandt heists in the last century. Through thefts around the world - from Stockholm to Boston, Worcester to Ohio - the authors track daring entries and escapes from the world's most renowned museums. There are robbers who coolly walk off with multimillion dollar paintings; self-styled art experts who fall in love with the Dutch master and desire to own his art at all costs; and international criminal masterminds who don't hesitate to resort to violence. They also show how museums are thwarted in their ability to pursue the thieves - even going so far as to conduct investigations on their own, far away from the maddening crowd of police intervention, sparing no expense to save the priceless masterpieces. Stealing Rembrandts is an exhilarating, one-of-a-kind look at the black market of art theft, and how it compromises some of the greatest treasures the world has ever known.
Download or read book Stealing Sisi s Star written by Jennifer Bowers Bahney and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-06-08 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While on honeymoon in Vienna in June of 1998, at the height of the tourist season, Gerald Daniel Blanchard, an accomplished thief, happened upon the greatest challenge of his life when he spotted the last remaining "Sisi Star" on display in Schonbrunn Palace. Named after its former owner, the Empress Elisabeth, the ten-pointed diamond and pearl star was originally one of 27 that the enigmatic Sisi wore in her extravagantly long hair. Despite the multi-layered security system protecting the priceless jewel, Blanchard decided then and there to steal it. The star remained missing for nine years until a team of Canadian police investigators launched a joint task force to bring down a criminal organization that had robbed banks, stores and ordinary citizens on several continents. When their chief suspect offered to reveal the whereabouts of the Sisi Star, the investigators realized they were dealing with no ordinary thief. But no one involved in the case fully understood the history of the star, its ties to obsession, suicide and assassination.
Download or read book Master of One written by Jaida Jones and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2020-11-10 with total page 561 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sinister sorcery. Gallows humor. A queer romance so glorious it could be right out of fae legend itself. Master of One is a fantasy unlike any other. Rags the thief has never met a pocket he couldn’t pick, but when he’s captured by a sorcerer with world-ending plans, he realizes even he is in over his head. Forced to use his finely honed skills to nab pieces of an ancient fae relic, Rags is stunned to discover that those “relics” just happen to be people: A distractingly handsome Fae prince, A too-honorable Queensguard deserter, A scrappy daughter of a disgraced noble family, A deceptively sweet-natured prince, A bona fide member of the Resistance, And him. Rags. They may all be captives in the sorcerer’s terrible scheme, but that won’t stop them from fighting back. And, sure, six unexpected allies against one wicked enemy doesn’t make for generous odds, but lucky for him, Rag’s not generous—he’s smart. And he has a plan that just might get them out of this alive. With the heist and intrigue of Six of Crows and the dark fairy tale feel of The Cruel Prince, this young adult fantasy debut will have readers rooting for a pair of reluctant heroes as they take on a world-ending fae prophecy, a malicious royal plot, and, most dangerously of all, their feelings for each other.
Download or read book The Master Identity Thief Testimony and Solutions of an Expert Witness written by Dartanyon A. Williams and published by Tpeg Publishing. This book was released on 2020-02 with total page 478 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first time Dartanyon A. Williams experimented with identity theft, he was fifteen years old, and the identity in question belonged to his father. From gaming credit card companies and retail stores, to fooling car lots and financing it all with a successful drug enterprise, Dartanyon went on to build a million-dollar, forty-member, multilevel crime ring before his twenty-third birthday--then lost it all before finally finding himself in the depths of solitary confinement. Follow Dartanyon's riveting story of self-discovery on one side of this two-volume book, then turn to our national story of white-collar crime enablement, theft, and institutional opportunism on the other side, as he uncovers just how vulnerable we are. The Master Identity Thief takes us down memory lane--from the death of Dartanyon's parents' and grandparents' identities to the rebirth of his own. It brings in patriotic and spiritual undertones, tackling difficult subjects through an autobiographical redemption memoir. Readers are invited to take a walk in Dartanyon's shoes, experiencing the familial, spiritual, and societal redemption he found, then to carry that experience forward into a safer future for us all.
Download or read book The Art of the Heist written by Myles Connor and published by Harper. This book was released on 2009-04-21 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art to Boston's Museum of Fine Art, no museum had been off-limits to legendary art thief Connor. "The Art of the Heist" tells the story of a roller-coaster ride of a life, by a man who had been drawn to misadventure at every turn.
Download or read book Sexton Blake versus the Master Crooks written by Mark Hodder and published by Rebellion Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: MURDERERS, CONMEN AND THIEVES A new breed of villain has risen, possessed of extraordinary intellect and violence. Only the brilliant mind and courage of Sexton Blake, scourge of the criminal world, can stop them, in these three classic stories, collected together in one volume for the first time. From the streets of London to the catacombs of Paris, join Blake as he pits his wits against bank robbers, impostors and kidnappers, duels with swords, and pursues his foes by any means necessary.
Download or read book Thieves of Baghdad written by Matthew Bogdanos and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2008-12-09 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thieves of Baghdad is a riveting account of Colonel Matthew Bogdanos and his team's extraordinary efforts to recover over 5,000 priceless antiquities stolen from the Iraqi National Museum after the fall of Baghdad. A mixture of police procedural, treasure hunt, war-time thriller, and cold-eyed assessment of the international black market in stolen art, Thieves of Baghdad also explores the soul of a truly remarkable man: a soldier, a father, and a passionate, dedicated scholar.
Download or read book Ghost Burglar written by Jack Burch and published by . This book was released on 2012-04-19 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bernard C. Welch was called the most prolific burglar of modern times. He eluded police up and down the East Coast for years and was finally caught only because he shot prominent heart surgeon, Dr. David Halberstam, who then hit Welch with his car as Welch fled the scene. Halberstam died and Welch was sentenced to 143 years plus life. Sent to an "escape-proof" prison in Illinois, Welch managed to trick federal officials to sending him to a facility on the Chicago River on the promise of becoming a snitch. There, he broke out with the help of an enforcer from the Aryan Nation he had hired. This book is the whole story of a Rochester, N.Y. plumber who turned thievery into a business, even to the point of keeping books and filing taxes with the IRS for a "legitimate" antiques and silver trading business.
Download or read book City of Saints Thieves written by Natalie C. Anderson and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2017-01-24 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo meets Gone Girl in this enthralling murder mystery set in Kenya. In the shadows of Sangui City, there lives a girl who doesn't exist. After fleeing the Congo as refugees, Tina and her mother arrived in Kenya looking for the chance to build a new life and home. Her mother quickly found work as a maid for a prominent family, headed by Roland Greyhill, one of the city’s most respected business leaders. But Tina soon learns that the Greyhill fortune was made from a life of corruption and crime. So when her mother is found shot to death in Mr. Greyhill's personal study, she knows exactly who’s behind it. With revenge always on her mind, Tina spends the next four years surviving on the streets alone, working as a master thief for the Goondas, Sangui City’s local gang. It’s a job for the Goondas that finally brings Tina back to the Greyhill estate, giving her the chance for vengeance she’s been waiting for. But as soon as she steps inside the lavish home, she’s overtaken by the pain of old wounds and the pull of past friendships, setting into motion a dangerous cascade of events that could, at any moment, cost Tina her life. But finally uncovering the incredible truth about who killed her mother—and why—keeps her holding on in this fast-paced nail-biting thriller.
