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Big Stick-Up at Brinks
By Noel Behn.
First published 1976.
Published by Putnam.
Hardcover.
ISBN-10: 0399118977
ISBN-13: 978-0399118975
Description:
A riveting and
frequently hilarious insider account of one of the twentieth century’s most
outrageous capers.
On the evening of
January 17, 1950, armed robbers wearing Captain Marvel masks entered the
Brink’s Armored Car building in Boston, Massachusetts. They walked out less
than an hour later with more than $2.7 million in cash and securities. It was a
brazen and expertly executed theft that captured the imaginations of millions
of Americans and baffled the FBI and local law enforcement officials.
But what appeared on the
surface to be the perfect crime was, in fact, the end result of a mind-boggling
series of mistakes, miscalculations, and missteps. The men behind the masks
were not expert bank robbers but a motley crew of small-time crooks who bumbled
their way into a record-breaking payday and managed to elude the long arm of
the law for six years.
New York Times bestselling author Noel Behn tape-recorded nearly one
thousand hours of interviews with the surviving robbers, including motormouthed
mastermind Tony Pino, a character so colorful he might have been dreamed up by
a Hollywood screenwriter, to tell the uncensored story of the heist forever
known as “the Great Brink’s Robbery.” Fun and suspenseful from first page to
last, Behn’s true-crime classic was the basis for The Brink’s Job
(1978), the Academy Award–nominated film directed by William Friedkin and
starring Peter Falk and Peter Boyle.
“It had me riveted with
suspense, but it also made me laugh until I got hiccups.” – Cosmopolitan.
“A King Kong of crime
entertainment . . . that no movie could match . . . The Brink’s job [was] a
kind of D-Day event in the annals of crime . . . Glorious.” – Kirkus Reviews.
“One minute you’re
laughing your head off. The next minute you chill with fear. Crooks and crime
at their best. Pure magic!” – Harold Robbins.
“The best book about
criminals ever written, a rich and beautiful depiction of their lives as well
as their work, a book that elevates them from moving-picture types to complete,
vivid humans. Noel Behn has taken one of the most extraordinary crimes of the
century and turned it into a living tapestry. It’s a wonderful book.” – Paddy
Chayefsky, Academy Award–winning screenwriter of Network.
“Reads
like a Hollywood screenplay, except that it really happened.” – John Barkham
Reviews.
