"Crime of the Century."

Probably no single crime attracted more publicity during the 1950s than the robbery on 17 January 1950 of the Brink's armored-car company in Boston. On that night seven masked gunmen broke into the company's offices, tied up the guards, and walked out with almost $2.8 million in cash, checks, and money orders — the largest amount stolen in a single robbery to that date. The robbers planned the heist carefully and nearly got away with it. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, who referred to the robbery as "the crime of the century," solved the case eleven days before the statute of limitations (the date after which the robbers could no longer be prosecuted) ran out.

A Dishonest Living.

The robbery was the brainchild of Tony (the Pig) Pino, a professional safecracker who by his thirtieth birthday had been arrested some twenty-five times...