This Day in History

 Jan 17, 1950:
Boston thieves pull off historic robbery



On this day in 1950, 11 men steal more than $2 million from the Brinks Armored Car depot in Boston, Massachusetts. It was the perfect crime--almost--as the culprits weren't caught until January 1956, just days before the statute of limitations for the theft expired.

The robbery's mastermind was Anthony "Fats" Pino, a career criminal who recruited a group of 10 other men to stake out the depot for 18 months to figure out when it held the most money. Pino's men then managed to steal plans for the depot's alarm system, returning them before anyone noticed they were gone.

Wearing navy blue coats and chauffeur's caps--similar to the Brinks employee uniforms--with rubber Halloween masks, the thieves entered the depot with copied keys, surprising and tying up several employees inside the company's counting room. Filling 14 canvas bags with cash, coins, checks and money orders--for a total weight of more than half a ton--the men were out and in their getaway car in about 30 minutes. Their haul? More than $2.7 million--the largest robbery in U.S. history up until that time.

No one was hurt in the robbery, and the thieves left virtually no clues, aside from the rope used to tie the employees and one of the chauffeur's caps. The gang promised to stay out of trouble and not touch the money for six years in order for the statute of limitations to run out. They might have made it, but for the fact that one man, Joseph "Specs" O'Keefe, left his share with another member in order to serve a prison sentence for another burglary. While in jail, O'Keefe wrote bitterly to his cohorts demanding money and hinting he might talk. The group sent a hit man to kill O'Keefe, but he was caught before completing his task. The wounded O'Keefe made a deal with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to testify against his fellow robbers.

Eight of the Brinks robbers were caught, convicted and given life sentences. Two more died before they could go to trial. Only a small part of the money was ever recovered; the rest is fabled to be hidden in the hills north of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. In 1978, the famous robbery was immortalized on film in The Brinks Job, starring Peter Falk.

This Day in History

 Jan 14, 1973:
Undefeated Dolphins beat Redskins in Super Bowl VII



On January 14, 1973, the Miami Dolphins defeat the Washington Redskins 14-7 at the Los Angeles Coliseum in Super Bowl VII, becoming the first team in National Football League (NFL) history to finish with an undefeated season.

Despite their perfect regular season record, Coach Don Shula’s Dolphins were three-point underdogs in the game, according to the bettors. The Redskins came into Super Bowl VII with an 11-3 regular-season record and playoff victories over the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys, who had defeated Miami in the previous year’s Super Bowl. Washington was led by quarterback Bill Kilmer, while Shula gave the starting nod to quarterback Bob Griese over the 38-year-old Earl Morrall, who had led the Dolphins to nine consecutive victories after Griese broke his ankle in the fifth game of the season.

On their third possession of the game, Miami scored on a pass from Griese at the Washington 28 to wide receiver Howard Twilley at the five-yard line. Cutting inside and then outside, Twilley faked his Redskins defender, Pat Fischer, and ran the ball in for a score. By halftime, Miami led 14-0 after Kilmer threw an interception to set up the Dolphins’ second touchdown on a one-yard run by Jim Kiick.

A measure of excitement entered the game late in the fourth quarter, when the Dolphins kicker Garo Yepremian botched a field goal attempt, then tried to throw a 42-yard pass after his kick was blocked. Redskins cornerback Mike Bass intercepted the pass and ran 49 yards into the end zone for his team’s only touchdown, with 2:07 left in the game. In general, however, the Miami defense, despite lacking any big-name stars, remained impenetrable throughout the game, harassing Kilmer and holding the Redskins to a total of only 228 yards. Miami safety Jake Scott, who caught two of three Dolphins interceptions, was voted the game’s Most Valuable Player, as his team wrapped up their 17th straight victory and the first-ever undefeated season in the NFL.

This Day in History

 Jan 13, 1929:
Wyatt Earp dies in Los Angeles



Nearly 50 years after the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Wyatt Earp dies quietly in Los Angeles at the age of 80.

The Earp brothers had long been competing with the Clanton-McClaury ranching families for political and economic control of Tombstone, Arizona, and the surrounding region. On October 26, 1881, the simmering tensions finally boiled over into violence, and Wyatt, his brothers Virgil and Morgan, and his close friend, Doc Holliday, killed three men from the Clanton and McLaury clans in a 30-second shoot-out on a Tombstone street near the O.K. Corral. A subsequent hearing found that the Earps and Holliday had been acting in their capacity as law officers and deputies, and they were acquitted of any wrongdoing. However, not everyone was satisfied with the verdict, and the Earps found their popularity among the townspeople was on the wane. Worse, far from bringing an end the long-standing feud between the Earps and Clanton-McLaurys, the shoot-out sparked a series of vengeful attacks and counterattacks.

In late December 1881, the Clantons and McLaurys launched their vendetta with a shotgun ambush of Virgil Earp; he survived, but lost the use of his left arm. Three months later, Wyatt and Morgan were playing billiards when two shots were fired from an unknown source. Morgan was fatally wounded.

As a U.S. deputy marshal, Wyatt had a legal right and obligation to bring Morgan's killers to justice, but he quickly proved to be more interested in avenging his brother's death than in enforcing the law. Three days after Morgan's murder, Frank Stillwell, one of the suspects in the murder, was found dead in a Tucson, Arizona, rail yard. Wyatt and his close friend Doc Holliday were accused—accurately, as later accounts revealed—of murdering Stillwell. Wyatt refused to submit to arrest, and instead fled Arizona with Holliday and several other allies, pausing long enough to stop and kill a Mexican named Florentino Cruz, who he believed also had been involved in Morgan's death.

In the years to come, Wyatt wandered throughout the West, speculating in gold mines in Idaho, running a saloon in San Francisco, and raising thoroughbred horses in San Diego. At the turn of the century, the footloose gunslinger joined the Alaskan gold rush, and he ran a saloon in Nome until 1901. After participating in the last of the great gold rushes in Nevada, Wyatt finally settled in Los Angeles, where he tried unsuccessfully to find someone to publicize his many western adventures. Wyatt's famous role in the shootout at the O.K. Corral did attract the admiring attention of the city's thriving new film industry. For several years, Wyatt became an unpaid technical consultant on Hollywood Westerns, drawing on his colorful past to tell flamboyant matinee idols like William Hart and Tom Mix how it had really been. When Wyatt died in 1929, Mix reportedly wept openly at his funeral.

Ironically, the wider fame that eluded Wyatt in life came soon after he died. A young journalist named Stuart Lake published Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshall, a wildly fanciful biography that portrayed the gunman as a brave and virtuous instrument of frontier justice. Dozens of similarly laudatory books and movies followed, ensuring Wyatt Earp an enduring place in the popular American mythology of the Wild West.

This Day in History

 Jan 12, 1969:
Broadway Joe delivers

On January 12, 1969, in the most celebrated performance of his prolific career, quarterback Joe Namath leads the New York Jets to a stunning 16-7 victory over the heavily favored Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III, held in Miami, Florida.

Born in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, in 1943, Namath starred on his high school football team and at one point was offered $50,000 to play baseball for the Chicago Cubs. He chose to play football for Coach Paul (Bear) Bryant at the University of Alabama, where he was an All-American. Drafted by both the St. Louis Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL) and the Jets of the upstart American Football League (AFL), Namath chose the Jets, who paid him a signing bonus of close to $400,000. Three games into his first season, he earned the starting quarterback job; he was later voted the AFL Rookie of the Year.

With a notoriously lavish Upper East Side penthouse apartment and an active social schedule, the handsome Namath became known as Broadway Joe. He also distinguished himself on the field, becoming the first pro quarterback to pass for 4,000 yards in a single season in 1967. Namath’s brash confidence was never more on display than in a public appearance in the days leading up to Super Bowl III, when he assured a heckler that the Jets (19-point underdogs) would beat the Colts (reputedly the best team in NFL history), even going so far as to say "I guarantee it." Namath’s trash-talking drew criticism from many in the NFL, who doubted his ability and insisted the AFL could not really compete with the older, more established NFL.

Namath proved to be as good as his word, however, as the Jets drove 80 yards in the first quarter and grabbed a 7-0 lead in the second with a four-yard touchdown run by fullback Matt Snell. The defense intercepted Colts quarterback Earl Morrall three times to prevent Baltimore from scoring. Two Jets field goals by Jim Turner in the third quarter and another at the start of the fourth put New York up 16-0. Though Baltimore was able to score a single touchdown in the fourth, it would not be enough. Namath completed 17 of 28 passes, for a total of 206 yards, while wide receiver George Sauer caught eight of those for 133 yards, and Snell ran for a Super Bowl record 121 yards. Apart from ensuring the legacy of Broadway Joe, a future Hall of Famer, the victory gave legitimacy to the AFL and assured the competitive viability of the AFL-NFL rivalry.

This Day in History

 Jan 11, 1908:
Theodore Roosevelt makes Grand Canyon a national monument







On January 11, 1908, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt declares the massive Grand Canyon in northwestern Arizona a national monument.

Though Native Americans lived in the area as early as the 13th century, the first European sighting of the canyon wasn't until 1540, by members of an expedition headed by the Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado. Because of its remote and inaccessible location, several centuries passed before North American settlers really explored the canyon. In 1869, geologist John Wesley Powell led a group of 10 men in the first difficult journey down the rapids of the Colorado River and along the length of the 277-mile gorge in four rowboats.

By the end of the 19th century, the Grand Canyon was attracting thousands of tourists each year. One famous visitor was President Theodore Roosevelt, a New Yorker with a particular affection for the American West. After becoming president in 1901 after the assassination of President William McKinley, Roosevelt made environmental conservation a major part of his presidency. After establishing the National Wildlife Refuge to protect the country's animals, fish and birds, Roosevelt turned his attention to federal regulation of public lands. Though a region could be given national park status--indicating that all private development on that land was illegal--only by an act of Congress, Roosevelt cut down on red tape by beginning a new presidential practice of granting a similar "national monument" designation to some of the West's greatest treasures.

In January 1908, Roosevelt exercised this right to make more than 800,000 acres of the Grand Canyon area into a national monument. "Let this great wonder of nature remain as it now is," he declared. "You cannot improve on it. But what you can do is keep it for your children, your children’s children, and all who come after you, as the one great sight which every American should see."

Congress did not officially outlaw private development in the Grand Canyon until 1919, when President Woodrow Wilson signed the Grand Canyon National Park Act. Today, more than 5 million people visit the canyon each year. The canyon floor is accessible by foot, mule or boat, and whitewater rafting, hiking and running in the area are especially popular. Many choose to conserve their energies and simply take in the breathtaking view from the canyon's South Rim--some 7,000 feet above sea level--and marvel at a vista virtually unchanged for over 400 years.   
   
   
       
   
       
   

   
       

This Day in History

 Jan 7, 1946:
A case of split personality in puzzling Chicago murders




Six-year-old Suzanne Degnan is kidnapped from her home in an affluent Chicago neighborhood. Her father found a note on the floor asking for a $20,000 ransom. Although James Degnan went on the radio to plead for his daughter's safety, the kidnapper never made any contact or further demands. Later, a police search of the neighborhood turned up the girl's body. She had been strangled to death the night of the kidnapping, then dismembered with a hunting knife. Her remains were left in five different sewers and catch basins.

 At the scene of the attack, the killer had written a message in lipstick on the victim's wall, "For heaven's sake, catch me before I kill more, I cannot control myself." The ransom note at the Degnan house was the best clue that investigators had to tracking down the serial killer.

The note had indentations from an adjoining page on the pad that led them to a University of Chicago restaurant. But detectives ran into a dead end and didn't receive much help from the college administration. Just as it looked like the lead was dead, a 17-year-old student named William Heirens was arrested after being caught red-handed during a burglary. When police searched his dorm room they found suitcases full of stolen goods, pictures of Hitler and other Nazis, and a letter to Heirens signed "George M."

Authorities soon learned that some of the stolen items had come from the victims' homes. However, they couldn't track down Heirens' apparent partner, George. Heirens was given sodium pentathol and interrogated. During questioning under the truth serum, Heirens claimed that George Murman had killed Suzanne Degnan. However, it quickly became evident that George wasn't a real person at all, but an alter ego of Heirens himself.

Slowly, investigators pieced together the pathology that drove Heirens. Apparently, he could only find sexual gratification through burglaries. He later found that killing during the burglaries added to the thrill. While doubtful that he was a true schizophrenic, prosecutors decided not to risk losing to an insanity defense and agreed not to seek the death penalty against Heirens. He pleaded guilty to three counts of murder and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Heirens continues to assert his innocence, and there are some who believe he is not guilty of the crimes.

This Day in History

 Jan 5, 1920:
New York Yankees announce purchase of Babe Ruth



On this day in 1920, the New York Yankees major league baseball club announces its purchase of the heavy-hitting outfielder George Herman "Babe" Ruth from the Boston Red Sox for the sum of $125,000.

In all, Ruth had played six seasons with the Red Sox, leading them to three World Series victories. On the mound, Ruth pitched a total of 29 2/3 scoreless World Series innings, setting a new league record that would stand for 43 years. He was fresh off a sensational 1919 season, having broken the major league home run record with 29 and led the American League with 114 runs-batted-in and 103 runs. In addition to playing more than 100 games in left field, he also went 9-5 as a pitcher. With his prodigious hitting, pitching and fielding skills, Ruth had surpassed the great Ty Cobb as baseball’s biggest attraction.

Despite Ruth’s performance, the Red Sox stumbled to a 66-71 record in 1919, finishing at sixth place in the American League. New ownership took control of the club, and in early January, owner Harry Frazee made the decision to sell Ruth to the Yankees for $125,000 in cash and some $300,000 in loans (which Frazee reportedly used to finance his Broadway production interests). After the sale, the Yankees took over Ruth’s contract, which called for a salary of $10,000 per year. Aware of his value, Ruth had demanded a salary raise, and New York agreed to negotiate a new contract with terms that would satisfy their new slugger.

The deal paid off--in spades--for New York, as Ruth went on to smash his own home run record in 1920, hitting 54 home runs. He connected for 59 homers in 1921, dominating the game and increasing Yankee revenues to the point that the team was able to leave the Polo Grounds (shared with the New York Giants baseball team) and build Yankee Stadium, which opened in 1923 and became known as "the house that Ruth built." Throughout the rest of the 20th century, the legacy of Frazee’s lopsided trade continued to hover over major league baseball, as the Yankees won 39 AL pennants and 26 World Series titles and the Red Sox went 86 years without a World Series win. In 2004, the Sox finally shook the "Curse of the Bambino," coming from behind to beat the Yankees in the AL Championship and beating the St. Louis Cardinals to win their first Series since 1918.