[ For localised American quotes for Heists please see Heists US II ]
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It was the bank that couldn’t be robbed, the vault that couldn’t be opened, the security system that couldn’t be hacked. Until they came on to the scene: a crack team assembled by a mastermind, each one a specialist in the field, a master of their chosen art. Mark Kermode’s Secrets of Cinema II: The Heist, BBC 2018
Getting away with it was only half the job; keeping it together was something else. ibid.
The Asphalt Jungle … Dead Presidents … The League of Gentlemen … Ocean’s Eleven … Rififi … Reservoir Dogs … Sexy Beast … Quick Change … Double Indemnity … Bound … Angel Face … Set It Off … Ocean’s Eight … The Italian Job … Inception … That Sinking Feeling … The Big Short … The Wolf of Wall Street … Point Break … Heat … Infernal Affairs … Mission Impossible … The Wrong Trousers … Entrapment … The Great Train Robbery … The Killing … Baby Driver … Good Time … Dog Day Afternoon … The Driver … The French Connection … Night Moves … ibid.
The ARA [Aryan Republican Army] is also known as The Company. The gang has built a reputation for robbing banks: 22 since 1994 and pushing its racist agenda. Gangland s7e8: Army of Hate, History 2010
A mastermind assembles America’s greatest gang of professional bank robbers. They target one of the richest banks in America. Masterminds s1e13: The Stopwatch Heist, truTV 2004
Mitchell and his crew now target the Bank of America in California [San Diego]. ibid.
Mitchell returns to the US back to the only job he knows. ibid.
Barring another miraculous escape he won’t be eligible for release until his 115th birthday. ibid.
A master jewel thief steals gems worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Armed with a team of highly trained experts and an arsenal of sophisticated electronics. And breaks into an ultra-secure safe. Masterminds s15: Safe Landings
In the late 1990s the FBI was caught off guard by a rash of nearly fifty jewellery store heists in the south-eastern United States. ibid.
The mastermind the FBI was searching for was Tony Granims. Armed with an extraordinary range of skills he pulled off the most sophisticated jewellery heist in US history. ibid.
They were like characters out of a movie. A brilliant creative leader, a crew working in perfect precision, they pulled off hundreds of robberies, stole millions and baffled law enforcement for years. And they made daring escapes in a custom BMW loaded with gadgets and gizmos. Like 007 himself the gang seemed to have it all. Brains, bravery, bravado, it seemed no-one could stop the James Bond Gang. Masterminds e18: James Bond Gang
Their high-tech getaway car always kept them one step ahead of the law. These criminals were home-grown. ibid.
The James Bond car was the critical piece of evidence for the FBI. ibid.
He was the most prolific bank robber in US history. A master planner with super human strength and military precision. For three decades he rode roughshod over banks up and down the east coast. There was nothing police could do to catch the Friday Night Bank Robber. Masterminds s2e4: The Friday Night Robber
He had hit at least fifty banks. ibid.
After almost thirty years as a criminal mastermind Karl Gugasian is finally putting his skills to good use. ibid.
They [Craig Pritchert & Nova Guthrie] hit banks across the American mid-west scoring a half million dollars and evading police at every turn. Masterminds e42: The Halloween Heist
He [David Brankle] robs banks to finance a double life. Striking with lightening speed. In 2002 authorities started noticing a pattern to bank robberies across the mid-west. At every bank it was the same story. By the time bank managers were alerted to the thefts he was gone. At the crime scenes police found no useful evidence. Masterminds e48: The Highway Robber
A family man with no criminal record living in small-town Indiana. In an incredible 20-month spree David Brankle hit nearly 50 banks in 6 states and made himself a fortune. ibid.
A surveillance camera in a supermarket car park captures their suspect getting into his car. ibid.
A daring thief baffles police while feeding his ego. Even after he is caught the authorities still can’t stop him ... For three years the Roof-Top Robber evades authorities, hitting restaurants from coast to coast ... Jeffrey Manchester, the Roof-Top Robber, is finally captured ... Jeffrey Manchester has pulled off the most ingenious prison break in US history. Mastermind e49: The Great Escape
Manchester takes refuge in the store [Toys R Us] ... Manchester creates a hiding space ... Months of being cooped-up begin to wear on Manchester ... On November 28th 2004 Manchester strikes the Toys R Us. Scoring $15,000 Manchester relaxes only a few feet from the scene of the crime. ibid.
Manchester commits another robbery ... Combing the warehouse police make another discovery. But the suspect is not there. ibid.
A mastermind makes pizza by day and a fortune by night … ‘A master burglar, a master safe-cracker.’ Masterminds s54: The Museum Heist
In the early 1990s Akron, Ohio, was hit with an unprecedented series of jewellery-store heists. ibid.
In July 1994 the gang struck the Headley Whitney museum 300 miles south in Lexington. ibid.
James Quinn engineered the biggest jewellery spree in US history. ibid.
Leader of a neighbourhood gang he called the Dirty Dozen. Great Crimes & Trials: John Dillinger Public Enemy No.1
Bitter and resentful, Dillinger decided to treat this as an education in crime, and in Indiana State Penitentiary he found willing teachers. From them he compiled a list of banks to rob in the mid-west. And by the time his sentence was up he had recruited a gang of experts to attack them. Within three months of his release in 1933 they had robbed their first bank at Daleville, Indiana. ibid.
In four months they robbed five more banks but Dillinger had been captured. ibid.
John Dillinger asked casually, ‘What kept you?’ They raced out of a side door and into a waiting car. Dillinger had his ideal gun. ibid.
They got away in a fast car. Dillinger had killed his first man. As the gang criss-crossed the mid-western states in Dillinger’s first spree of robberies the American public turned a villain into a hero. ibid.
He became one of the first prisoners to be transported by air. ibid.
Crown Point Jail, Indiana ... Dillinger stuck his gun, real or replica, into the ribs of a guard ... They walked out of the side entrance. ibid.
John Dillinger formed a new gang. ibid.
Public Enemy Number One. Among the members of the new gang was the notorious Baby Face Nelson. ibid.
But was it really John Dillinger? Dillinger’s eyes were blue-grey; the dead man had brown eyes. Dillinger had several scars; the dead man had none. Dillinger had never had rheumatic fever; the dead man’s heart showed that he had. Dillinger had perfect eyesight; the dead man wore prescription glasses. ibid.
On 16th January 1935 FBI agents surrounded a house in a remote rural area of Florida. A gun battle broke out after warnings had been shouted. Tear-gas shells were fired. And after forty-five minutes agents broke in to find the inhabitants dead. They had killed two of America’s most wanted criminals: Kate Ma Barker, and Fred, one of her four sons. Great Crimes & Trials: Ma Barker and other Public Enemies