george reissfelder wife
BLANDING: He was always just a consummate gentleman in all of his correspondence with me. The tension between those who possess the Old Masters, and those who would risk everything to steal them. BEAUCHAMP: It was a homosexual relationship. Here he is in the 1986 documentary about wrongfully imprisoned men, "Exonerated: The Wrong Man.". He was a cool customer, as they say. She worked solely off the description given to her by one of the guards who had seen both thieves. One of them had options and from them, chose a life of crime. GEORGE REISSFELDER: One night I woke up about 12, 1 oclock in the morning, sweating, shaking. Investigating further into Reissfelder, you discover that he died within a year after the heist of suspicious acute cocaine poisoning. And when these two men met, the lucky one was young and handsome and had also, it is alleged, gotten away with murder. Maria was adopted by another family many years ago, and has changed her name from Reissfelder. Well, I was married at one time to George Reissfelder. RODOLICO:That first letter started a correspondence between Blanding and Turner that lasted for several years. I hope to hear from you soon. 1. Ive seen the painting. . George A Reissfelder. I don't want to take any blame for the Gardner. As I had said to him at the time, "Worst you're gonna do is wound me. At 2:15 P.M., the prisoner, George A. Reissfelder, 42 years old, was unmanacled in the Suffolk County Superior Court when the District Attorney's office declined to oppose his lawyer's motion that . Learn more about Sports. You can try. HORAN: George Reissfelder does resemble the police artists sketch of one of the suspects. In a neat schoolboys script, Turner writes: I would briefly go into my childhood and the events that I believe contributed in my going down the wrong path, namely the death of my father. He continues, I think a book of this type would appeal to a wide audience. This is the story of David Turner and George Reissfelder, two men who prove that the criminal life is an equalizing one that erases distinctions like where you came from and where you could have gone. They had listening devices that could pick up two-way radios. Reissfelder, who bore a remarkable resemblance to the sketch drawn of one of the thieves, died of a cocaine overdose in July 1991. Im truly struck by how earnest he and his entire family have been, Amore said. Anthony Amore was hired as director of security for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 2005 and still holds the position today. He told Reissfelder and Turner that they should steal a piece of art as a sort of crime insurance. HORAN: Reissfelder was vicious to Santos. His brother believes that Merlino. Anthony Amore says Reissfelder had few prospects. Reissfelder did not stick with the Inmate #6875309 look after a couple of weeks from his release from prison as the photo (far right) taken six years before the Gardner Heist shows. They had all sorts of -- at the day non-digital devices, electronic devices, that could look over the fence. Juliana Reifelder (geboren Wipfler) Son: Johann Georg Reifelder View the Record view all Immediate Family Juliana Reifelder wife Johannes George Reifelder son Johann Caspar Reifelder (Reisf. At the time, organized crime members seemed excited about the idea that they could trade a stolen painting in exchange for no jail time, if they were ever caught doing more unsavory business. No one would be happy about it, but you woulda thought, you know, once they had arrested us and, you know, the paintings didn't show up, you know, they would have gotten reasonable with us. HORAN: Someone else was waiting for George Reissfelder when he got out, too. After more than 28 years, authorities have yet to make an arrest, or recover any of the artwork stolen, in the Gardner Museum heist. So, everything that we've seen about David Turner, he's usually the guy inside, like strong arming, like he's very aggressive. HORAN: And Im Kelly Horan. Robert Sikellis is the former assistant attorney general for Massachusetts who spent years in the 1990s trying to put David Turner behind bars for those crimes. So my name is Janice Santos. Well, I thought so, you know, but, you know, in hindsight what did I know about love, you know? And I kept telling Reissfelder the same thing: "Sooner or later you guys are gonna get popped because you're dealing with the scum of the earth with junkies, and as soon as one of them gets busted, you know, they have diarrhea of the mouth. This one in particular really caught my attention because it mentioned the Gardner Museum robbery. 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When he was hauled in on drug-dealing charges, Pappass best option to avoid prison time was to flip on Turner. They, they, uh, sent my prints to Washington, trying to match up with prints at the Gardner. George Albert Reissfelder Sr. (1901-1976) - Find a Grave Memorial Born in Boston,worked hard all his life.Married ,father of 5 children.Preceded in death by his wife Emma G(schnabel).We miss him. What did you see in him? Although Kerry would use the case to promote his then-budding political career, Reissfelder went in the opposite direction, returning to his bad habits of using cocaine and hanging out with criminal contacts, both of which were in full supply at Merlinos garage. Amore reached out to that person, and after a long delay came the response: Yes, theyd seen it in the apartment. The eyes are his.. One of them was born lucky. AMORE: And I replied and said, On a scale of one to 10, how certain are you? And the person replied, 10.. His brother believes that Merlino and his Dorchester-based crew had a role in the death. Robert L Reissfelder, West Roxbury, MA holds a Building Licenses, Construction Supervisor license and 1 other license according to the Massachusetts license board. Turner has denied repeatedly to reporters and in court that he had any knowledge of the heist, but he associated with known felons whose names had been tied to the crime including Robert Guarente, Carmello Merlino and Stephen Rossetti. For seven years, I was . He had that painting.". BLANDING: When I was a staff writer at Boston Magazine, I received a letter from a prisoner. Last month, state prisoner Robert C. Beauchamp, 59, publicly made claims through his attorney that George Reissfelder might have stashed the stolen Gardner art in a safe house in Maine. Thats when it really dawned on me. But Anthony Amore, head of security for the museum, has said that based on Beauchamps statements the FBI and the U.S. Attorneys Office searched homes in Dedham; Lewiston, Maine; and Orrington, Maine, but each time, investigators came up empty. Reissfelder described his brother as a follower who was hardened by his prison experience and fell in with a bad crowd upon his release. Subscribe to our newsletterfor the latest updates,join our Facebook groupto discuss the investigation and if you have a tip, theory or thought,we want to hear it. Digital content was produced in partnership with The ARTery, WBUR's arts and culture team. And heres someone who spent years trying to follow the trail of both of them. This has badly upset my family. I'm not saying George Reissfelder committed the heist. The other had none, and defaulted to one. Anthony Amore showed the drawing to Janice Santos. Previously, he had worked as a specialist for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Very stoic, very focused, very sure of himself. He was worried that the TRC gang was getting sloppy. He spent time with underworld figures from the mid-1980s until his death, and was a free man at the time of the theft, state and federal documents and witnesses say. He was teary-eyed. And I told him probably the best museums to rob would be university or college ones because they probably have the least amount of security. George Reissfelder In 2006, an inmate in prison for murder wrote Anthony Amore, the Gardner Director of Security, a letter. In 2014, the FBI identified the thieves present at the museum as George Reissfelder and Lenny Dimuzio, who both died within a year of the robbery. SANTOS: A helicopter. Why? SIKELLIS:It was explained to me as a young prosecutor at the time by some very, very seasoned State Police agent that's the telltale sign of, "Don't be a rat. She finally managed it in 1989. It's Boston local news in one concise, fun and informative email. SHELLEY MURPHY: I was hearing some things about whether or not he might cooperate. Steve doesnt know for sure, but he knows what it looks like. You make a note in your casebook, and go back to reading the witness statements and looking at the suspect sketches. In September 2004, the Republican partisan group MoveOnForAmerica.org ran a Willie Horton-like ad criticizing Kerry, then the Democratic presidential nominee, for advocating for Reissfelders release. He couldn't watch me. I was 23 years old. A year later, Reissfelder and William Silky Sullivan of Charlestown were convicted of first-degree murder and armed robbery during a $20,000 payroll holdup at the Railway Express Agency at South Station. It was also being surveilled by a law enforcement operation that would take it down in 1991. At the time of his death, Bill Russell was married to Jeannine. You have been subscribed to WBUR Today. Reissfelder was a 26-year-old father with a criminal record for armed robbery, domestic. Reissfelder and DiMuzio were suspected of being part of the "Merlino gang," a crew of lower-level associates with alleged ties to the Boston Mafia. The other wasnt. Reissfelder and DiMuzio were known associates of the now deceased mobster Carmello Merlino. Robert Beauchamp says the TRC gang was flying too close to the sun. Investigates Possible Suspects In America's Biggest Art Heist. Pangiam. And if he did commit the robbery, and we don't know that for sure, right? Were there many female helicopter pilots at the time in Massachusetts? The one question Amore is burning to ask the thieves, if he could, is why they chose to steal the artworks that they did. RODOLICO: So, who is David Turner? . HORAN: In 2009, Anthony Amore, working with the Boston Herald newspaper, hired a forensic medical artist to redo the police sketches of the Gardner heist suspects. The other wasnt. Don't cooperate.". Richard Reissfelder appears with Gardner museum director of security Anthony Amore, who holds up a picture of one of the stolen paintings. Theres only one reason for it, according to the Bureau of Prisons: because he cooperated. And, uh, so then he grabbed me by the throat and started choking me. Carmello Merlinos coke-dealing operation out of TRC Auto Electric was thriving. Bill Reissfelder is a husband, father, and family man. At the time, Reissfelder was 49 and DiMuzio was 42. I'm a prisoner at MCI Norfolk. Hed heard his late brothers name mentioned in connection with the Gardner heist, and he wanted to clear his brothers name. HORAN: David Turners high school career had been dotted with superlatives. He worked out all the time. Im really disappointed to have to admit I saw that painting, but it was gone when I went to the apartment after George died in 1991. KURKJIAN: It showed he was turning in a vehicle, a rental car, at the Fort Lauderdale airport, and using his credit card to pay for that vehicle. At the . That would be nice. Pappas himself is also a person of interest in the Gardner case see Meet the Suspects for April 6. He'd been shot, if I remember, twice in the mouth, if memory serves. In the culmination of two years of work by Reissfelder's court-appointed Boston attorneys, Reissfelder's murder conviction, for which he had served 15 years in prison, was dismissed. Ulrich Boser is the author of The Gardner Heist, in which he posits that David Turner and George Reissfelder were the thieves who robbed the museum. George Reissfelder was already seen as a celebrity when he started hanging out at Carmello Merlinos auto repair shop in Dorchester in the late 1980s. Bill Reissfelder, Boston Celtics, Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President - RealGM SANTOS: The George that I knew wasn't-- He never-- he couldn't think on his feet. His body was found after reputed New England Mob figure and Dorchester drug lord Carmello Merlino told firefighters that he had not heard from his friend in several days. You know somewhere on the outside, standing guard? William also answers to William J Reissselder, William J Reissfelder, William E Reissfelder and Bill Reissfelder, and perhaps a couple of other names. Why would a judge shave that time off the sentence of a man suspected in an at least one unsolved murder? Several sources say that the franchise's CFO was spotted at several Celtics events with his family. . So that's how I saw it, that I knew that he initially was supposed to get out on one date. You know, it wasn't, "Oh, George is out. Led by the convicted criminal, Carmello Merlino, these men are among the top suspects of the Gardner art heist examined in This Is A Robbery. The paintings frame was found on one of the chairs in the empty office of the museum security supervisor the next morning. I would have been the first. He has written two books: Stealing Rembrandts: The Untold Story of Notorious Art Heists (with reporter Tom Mashberg) in 2011 and The Art of the Con: The Most Notorious Fakes, Frauds and Forgeries in the Art World in 2015. Get popped. George Reissfelder and Lenny DiMuzio are believed to have posed as police officers to gain access to the museum, tying up security guards and stealing 13 historic artworks by the likes of Johannes . Robert Beauchamp, one of those contacts, has stated that Reissfelder and David Turner, another devotee of Merlinos garage, visited him often in Massachusetts state prison during this term and in the vaguest of terms told him they were planning a major robbery and asked how they might hide the valuables in the immediate aftermath. HORAN:And running through this story, Boser says, is a tale of two cities. We were never able to prosecute anyone for that. Undisclosed sources in the investigation believed that the thieves the FBI identified were George Reissfelder and Leonard DiMuzio, both involved in the Merlino gang and both deceased shortly after the robbery in 1991. RODOLICO: Over the years, Beauchamp has told many versions of his theory about the Gardner heist and the whereabouts of the paintings. During the same interview, Reissfelder said he believes his older brother is one of the two men depicted in new Boston Herald composite sketches of the two thieves who dressed as cops and robbed the Gardner before dawn on March 18, 1990. While maintaining confidentiality on the status of the criminal investigation, Amore has said publicly that he believes the heist was the work of a local criminal gang working with some measure of inside information. They . Sikellis next prepared to prosecute Turner for a 1990 home invasion. Long narrow face. Yeah. Thats the auto body shop about four miles from the Gardner Museum that doubled as an underworld nerve center. Carmello Merlino, a leader of the criminal underworld with mafia ties, ran the auto body shop as a front for his cocaine trafficking business. BLANDING: You know, I talked to several of his childhood friends who said he was just, you know, really intelligent, and charismatic, and loyal. HORAN: Just not places like TRC Auto Electric. 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