Infamous America - PIERRE HOTEL HEIST Ep. 2 | “The Crew”

Episode Date: January 25, 2023

Bobby Comfort and Sammy Nalo, two of the most successful jewel thieves in New York, decide to rob the vault of the iconic Pierre Hotel. They do extensive research and reconnaissance, and then they assemble their crew. The job requires eight men, plus the approval and support of the notorious Lucchese crime family. When everything is in place, they set the date of the robbery: January 2, 1972. Check out Infamous America Executive Producer, Mandi Wimmer as the guest historian/expert commentator on the History Channel's "Greatest Heists" Ep. 2, The Pierre Hotel Robbery, hosted by Pierce Brosnan. See Chris Wimmer, Host of Infamous America, on "Greatest Heists Ep 7, The Dunbar Armored Depot Heist. Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join Apple users join Noiser+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons. Click the Noiser+ banner on Apple or go to noiser.com/subscriptions to get started with a 7-day free trial. On YouTube, subscribe to INFAMOUS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons. Hit “JOIN” on the Infamous America YouTube homepage.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm4V_wVD7N1gEB045t7-V0w/featured For more details, please visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com. Our social media pages are: @blackbarrelmedia on Facebook and Instagram, and @bbarrelmedia on Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

1972 didn't come in with a bang for New York City law enforcement or for some of the city's richest residents and visitors. It came in more like a smash and grab. Two professional thieves, Bobby Comfort and Sammy Nalo, had spent nearly two years planning the mother of all hotel heists. But then they had had plenty of practice runs, too. The pair was suspected of committing as many as 25 hotel robberies in the two years leading up to the Pierre heist. and they weren't knocking over holiday ends or ramadas. They were hitting high-end Manhattan hotels, like the Regency, the Sherry Netherlands, the Plaza, and many others. Some were only a couple blocks away from the Pierre Hotel on the corner of Fifth Avenue and East 61st Street overlooking Central Park.

Their modus apparandi was fairly predictable. They either worked together as a two-man team or for larger jobs, they hired a couple extra guys to serve as lookouts or drive their getaway car. But Bobby and Sammy were always the frontman. They dressed in suits and carried suitcases into the lobby, looking like respectable businessmen who were about to check in. They entered late at night or early in the morning, when hotel staff was at a minimum and most guests were still asleep.

After drawing their guns and announcing the reason for their visit, they restrained hotel employees with rope or duct tape. Then Bobby manned the front desk, and Sammy broke into the hotel's safe deposit boxes where lots of guests kept their valuables. In-room safes were not a thing in those days, so if you wanted to safeguard expensive jewelry or lots of cash, the hotel's safe deposit boxes were your best bet, at least in theory. But not all hotel guests would choose to use the hotel safe deposit boxes. Bobby and Sammy learned that the hard way when they robbed the swanky Regency Hotel in a lot of August of 1970. It was a disappointing robbery all around because their hall was nothing like what they

had expected from such a fashionable Park Avenue hotel. Little did they know, they were within striking distance of a fortune in jewels. When the robbery was reported in the news the next day, Bobby and Sammy learned that Hollywood stars Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were staying in one of the Regency's suites and that Liz had about two million dollars worth of jewelry, tucked away in her nightstand. Bobby and Sammy vowed they weren't going to make that mistake again, which was why the next two hotel robberies were much more up close and personal. Later that same month at the famed Waldorf Astoria,

two thieves robbed Jaja Gabor at gunpoint when she was in the elevator on her way up to her suite. According to Jaja, the gunmen got away with about $600,000 in diamonds. A couple months later, in October, two gunmen brought. broke into Sophia Lorenz suite at the exclusive Hampshire House on Central Park South, held her at gunpoint, and made off with about $700,000 in jewelry. Bobby and Sammy were the primary suspects in both robberies, and they were questioned by the NYPD's newly organized anti-hotel robbery task force. The partners denied any involvement.

And because the robberies were done so professionally, police never had the evidence to charge the two with any of the crimes. That same formula played out on January 2nd, 1972 at the Pierre Hotel. But the aftermath would be much different than anything Bobby and Sammy had ever experienced. From Black Barrel Media, this is Infamous America. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer. In this season, we're telling the story of one of the boldest robberies in American history and the crazy cast of characters who brought it to life.

This is episode 2, The Crew. 19702 was an eventful year in America and around the world. American President Richard Nixon made his unprecedented trip to China, and his henchmen broke into the Watergate Hotel, which resulted in his unprecedented resignation from office in 1974. Terrorism dominated the 1972 Summer Olympic Games in Munich, when 11 Israeli athletes were taken hostage and subsequently murdered by a Palestinian terrorist group called Black.

Black September. On a lighter note, Hewlett Packard introduced the first pocket calculator, which was a godsend for the mathematically challenged, and Atari introduced Pong, the first video game to hit the commercial market. And just like that, the multi-billion dollar video game industry was born. In 1972, the Godfather was the top grossing movie in the world, earning the equivalent of about $700 million in today's money. It's widely considered the greatest mafia movie of all time, and one of the best movies of all time, period. In the West African country of Sierra Leone,

there was a story that was closer to the hearts of jewel thieves everywhere. A 968-carat diamond was discovered, making it the third largest gem-quality diamond ever found. Famed jeweler Harry Winston bought the diamond for a whopping, $2.5 million. Today, that same rock would cost Harry roughly $17 million. In New York, Bobby Comfort and Sammy Nalo were riding a wave of success. They had robbed more than two dozen hotels in 1970 and 1971, and all the while, they methodically planned the Pierre Hotel heist. The Pierre Heist was going to be bigger than anything they had attempted, and they knew they were

going to need help to pull it off. And to avoid getting it. being whacked by the mob for treading on their turf uninvited, they also knew they needed to get the blessing of at least one of New York's big mafia families. As Bobby and Sammy recruited their accomplices, they met a guy who was a made man in the Lucchese family. The made man helped them pitch their plan up the ladder, and the boss of the family gave his blessing. The heist was now officially sanctioned and supported by the Lucchese crime family. And once Bobby and Sammy formed their alliance with the Lucchese's, there was no turning back. The heist needed to go as planned, or Bobby and Sammy could end up in the East River wearing cement shoes. The plan for how to conduct

the robbery was pretty solidly in place. Sammy had gone to the New York Public Library Archives and studied the hotel's floor plans. He knew the layout of the lobby, the front desk, the front desk offices, and the location of every hotel entrance and exit. Most importantly, He knew the location of the vault with the safe deposit boxes and how it was built. He also learned that the hotel actually had two vaults, one inside the other. Sammy could break into most vaults in addition to safe deposit boxes, but it just meant extra time. In the end, the vaults wouldn't be a problem. Bobby's reconnaissance would supply the easy solution to that problem, along with the solutions to several others.

Bobby spent months prowling the hotel to learn its layout and the routines of its employees. Sometimes he posed as a thirsty customer in the swanky cocktail lounge. Other times he booked himself a room and roamed the hotel as a real guest. He observed hotel operations at every hour of the day. In criminal lingo, he cased the joint. After a while, Bobby knew how many hotel employees would be on duty at any given time, who they were, what they did, how they did it, and when they changed shifts. He probably knew as much about the operations of the Pierre Hotel as the manager did.

And during his extensive recon, he found the metaphorical key to the vault. In 1972, credit cards were rare. Most transactions were done with cash or checks. The hotel had a night auditor who came in every night to tally the cash and the checks to make sure they were in sync with the day's transactions. He also went into the vault every night to make sure his records of deposits and withdrawals from the safe deposit boxes were in sync.

He entered the vault every night at approximately 3 a.m. and left the first vault door open until he left around 4.30 a.m. If he stuck to his routine and the robbers struck during that time frame, they wouldn't have to worry about the vault at all. My relentless sleep problems have always come from an over-out. active mind. I lay in bed at night with my mind racing from one thing to another, and then, of course,

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At Mood.com, get 20% off your first order with our promo code, Infamous. Go to Mood.com and use the code infamous to get 20% off your first order. And they have a 100-day satisfaction guarantee. Mood.com promo code infamous. Bobby Comfort and Sammy Nalo were interesting partners. Bobby, who was 39 at the time of the heist, was a handsome guy and the more dapper of the two. He was known as a charmer when he needed to be.

When he was on his best behavior, he could pass himself off as a guest at the Pierre. Sammy, on the other hand, was not Pierre material. He would have stood out like a sore thumb. He could easily pass as the guy who was coming in to fix the furnace, but not as a guest. Sammy was short, scrappy, and cranky, but he was good at cracking safes and vaults. Their skill sets complemented each other, and once they had the basic plan in mind, they needed to decide on the date of the robbery. They used Bobby's old habit that he

had developed in Attica prison when he had served 18 months for burglary. They poured over newspapers and magazines and studied the habits of the high society people who lived in. or visited New York. They kept track of New York's swanky parties, charity gala's, gallery openings, and other fashionable events. After each one, there was guaranteed to be a series of photos

of women who paraded in front of the cameras wearing their most extravagant jewelry. Bobby and Sammy tracked the jewelry collections. They took note of where, when, and how the jewels were worn. They used the photographs in the newspapers and magazines to try to assess the value of the jewelry. And all of that low-level stalking helped them confirm that the most jewels would be on display on the biggest party night of the year, New Year's Eve. That night, at parties across the city, women from the world's elite class would be showcasing millions of dollars worth of jewels.

And many of the richest would stay at, or already lived at, the Pierre Hotel. When the night was done and the jewels were taken off, Bobby and Sammy were banking on the fact that the jewels would be sent to the safe deposit boxes in the hotel's vault. That vault could be a treasure trove, even if the thieves had to just pick boxes at random and hope for the best. To some extent, that wouldn't be necessary because Bobby's recon produced a lucky result. One night, while Bobby was sipping a martini in the Pierre's cocktail lounge, he met an attractive, young woman named Glenda. Bobby had checked into the hotel using the somewhat puzzling alias of Professor T. Philip Pickens. On this particular night, he caught the eye of Glenda, who was sitting alone at the bar and throwing flirtatious glances at him. Bobby had a wife and daughter in his

hometown of Rochester in upstate New York, but he wasn't able to resist. He sent Glenda a drink, gave her a wink, and then strolled over to her. Their friendly chat heated. up quickly when Bobby learned that Glenda had just finished her shift as the Pierre's assistant bookkeeper. He knew he had just hit paydirt. After another drink or two, he invited Glenda up to his room. They spent the night together, during which Bobby was able to subtly learn some more information about the inner workings of the hotel. More importantly, for himself and the team, he laid the groundwork for an ongoing affair. During their brief romance of sorts, Bobby learned the people piece of information that would be the most useful during the robbery.

Glenda told him that the front desk manager kept a box of index cards with an updated list of all the valuables in all the safe deposit boxes. She didn't know where the front desk manager kept the cards, but she did know that the Knight Auditor had access to them. That was all Bobby needed to hear. He was confident that if he put a loaded gun to the Knight Auditor's head, the man would retrieve the cards in a hurry. And now, instead of trying to break into all 208 safe deposit boxes on a random treasure hunt,

they could go straight for the boxes that belong to the richest guests and residents. In theory, those should contain the very best of the best. And with that, the last thing to decide on was the exact time of the robbery. Then the thieves would finalize their crew, and they were ready to go. The date of the robbery, January 2nd, which fell on a Sunday, had been chosen for a few reasons. Bobby and Sammy had done their research there, too. New Year's Eve fell on a Friday,

so banks would close in the afternoon. That meant guests and residents of the Pierre, who would otherwise have stored their valuables and safe deposit boxes at their banks, wouldn't be able to, because the banks would be closed all weekend. And that affected the hotel itself. The Pierre wouldn't be able to deposit cash

that it collected over the holiday weekend. It was shaping up to be a robbery perfect storm. The hotel was packed for the biggest party night of the year. The people in the hotel were the richest of the rich. They would be showing off their most valuable jewels. And if they didn't want to leave the jewels in their rooms, they only had one other choice. They'd have to put them in the hotel's safe deposit boxes.

And on top of that, the Pierre Hotel gave the robbers an extra gift. Minimal Security. The time of day for the robbery was created. critical. The thieves plan to start it at 4 a.m. Sunday morning January 2nd. The thought process was this. New Year's Eve was Friday night. The hotel guests would party late into the night and then be lazy all day on Saturday. Most of them would want to catch up on sleep Saturday night, and that's when the robbers would strike, just before dawn on Sunday morning. If the robbers started at 4 a.m., they would have two hours and 45 minutes to do their work. and get out before the morning shifts started arriving at around 6.45 a.m. And here was the extra gift from the hotel. Because it was a holiday weekend, Bobby learned from Glenda that the hotel would be operating with a skeletal staff, and that included fewer security guards.

It was a holiday weekend for the employees, too, so only the bare minimum would be working. Bobby and Sammy were confident they had a good plan. They had the blessing of the mob, and they had had half. their crew. Now all they needed was the other half, and they would be ready to roll. In addition to themselves, they had Don Franco's on board. He was a professional killer who also dabbled in robbery. But more importantly, he was good friends with Nick Sacco. Sacco was the made man in the Lucchese family, and with Sacco on board, the crew was able to pitch the robbery to Luccazi Consolieri Christi Fernari. Furnari liked the idea and helped the idea and helped

helped get the blessing of the Lucchese boss. So, Fernari would supervise from a distance on behalf of the Lucasies. Bobby, Sammy, Don Francoe, and Nick Sacco would be four of the robbers. They decided they needed three more robbers and a wheelman. The next edition was a hot-tempered low life named Ali Ben. He was Turkish like Sammy Nalo and was an old friend of Sammy's from Detroit. Ali Ben brought in his brother-in-law, Al Green. Yeah, he shared the name with the legendary singer who would explode onto the scene later in 1972 with his two biggest albums.

Let's stay together and I'm still in love with you. This Al Green had fewer gold records to his name. He was a Harlem bookie, drug dealer, club owner, and pimp. The last two guys to join the crew were brought in by Christy Fernari. Fernari was highly respected in mob circles and even described as statesman-like. He was known for being even-handed and fair-minded. But of course, he always had his family's best interests at heart.

He liked the plan, and he had to trust Bobby and Sammy, but only up to a point. Fernari wanted two of his own guys on the crew, just to make sure Bobby and Sammy didn't try anything sneaky or stupid. So, Lucchese foot soldiers Bobby Germain and Al Visconti, were the last men in. Bobby Germain was a charismatic criminal. He was good-looking and friendly, a real mobster's mobster. He was known as a gentleman when he committed his armed robberies. Those who had the pleasure of being held up by Bobby G.

described him as being well-mannered and courteous. Al Visconti was for Nari's most trusted confidant. Visconti had been a loyal member of the Lucchese Crime Syndicate for many years. He had once been a professional boxer. but his career was lackluster, so he traded in his gloves for the mafia life. Visconti proved to be far more successful as a mobster than a boxer. He was what they referred to in the mob as a big earner, thanks to his knack for pulling off big-ticket robberies.

But the Pierre Hotel heist was beyond anything he'd ever attempted. It was beyond anything any of them had ever attempted, including Bobby and Sammy. The final directive before it was go-time came from Christy Fernari. He told the crew, no one gets hurt. Most of the crew had no problem with violence if it came to it. One, Ali Ben seemed to have liked it. And Don Francoz was a professional hitman, so he obviously had no problems with violence. But killing someone in a dark alley and then disposing of the body

was much different from killing someone in one of the most expensive hotels in New York. Bobby and Sammy always brought guns on their robberies. The threat of the gun was the fastest. way to get someone to cooperate. But they'd never had to use them. It wasn't their style. Nick Sacco was also a non-violent criminal. If any of the thieves absolutely needed to use their weapons, they would. But on a job like the Pierre Hotel heist, bloodshed would be very bad for business. Nothing brought down the heat from the cops faster than shooting civilians. If mobsters killed other mobsters, the cops investigated, of course, but few people lost sleep

over bad guys killing other bad guys. If a mobster killed a civilian, the cops would swarm, and they would never stop. In the Pierre heist, if the robbers got caught, they were already looking at charges of armed robbery. That was bad, but potentially livable. If convicted, the guys would do some time, but it was potentially survivable. If the cops added murder on top of armed robbery, the guys were done. They were going away forever. And the pressure of that, that kind of weight was the thing that worried Christy Fernari the most. If a thief was charged with armed robbery and murder, and he was facing a life sentence in prison,

he might be easy prey for the FBI. If the guy didn't think he could do that kind of time, he might be more inclined to rat on the rest of the crew. And a rat could lead all the way up to the bosses. It was a very slippery slope. And most of the guys on the crew were repeat offenders. Their past sins would be taken. taken into account if the heist went bad.

So Fernari's rule of nobody gets hurt wasn't really a kind-hearted gesture toward the innocent people in the hotel. It was more about minimizing the damage if things went wrong. After Fernari's directive, the plan was fully in place. The day of the heist had arrived,

and it was time to get started. On the afternoon of New Year's Day, 1972, with the start time of the heist roughly 12 hours away, the gang held a final meeting at Sammy Nalo's strip club on West 27th Street. Bobby and Sammy carefully went over the details of the plan with their accomplices one last time, just to be sure everyone was clear on their respective roles. They all agreed to meet up at Sammy's seedy apartment in Hell's Kitchen at midnight to start getting ready.

With the exception of Al Green, the rest of the crew would be dressed in tuxedos. Men in tuxedos, especially during New Year's weekend, would be pretty standard at the Pierre Hotel. It was a smart move. Midnight arrived, and the crew gathered at the apartment. Putting on their tuxedos, it looked like prison prom night. Next came the disguises the men had purchased. Naturally, they wanted to make sure none of the hotel employees or guests would be able to identify them, but this was over the top. The crew had gathered an assortment of wigs, fake mustache, fake beards and sunglasses. From the neck down, they looked like guests of the Pierre who were wrapping up their New Year's festivities. From the neck up, they looked like they

were on their way to a Halloween party dressed as the Blues Brothers or the Beastie Boys, for those who remember the classic sabotage video. They were all playing it cool, but according to one of the thieves who later recounted the chain of events that night, they were already feeling the pressure four hours before go time. There was a lot riding on what happened between now and sunrise. If they scored big, it would mean life on easy street. If they botched the job, they could look forward to a life behind bars, or worse. At about that time, some of Christy Fernari's men supplied the final tools for the job.

A brand-new jet-black Cadillac limousine had been acquired for the heist, acquired as in stolen. It was the drop-off vehicle. it would be used as the initial getaway car. There was nothing conspicuous about a limo pulling up in front of the Pierre Hotel, so it was the perfect way to get in and out without raising suspicion. Al Green was the getaway driver, and he was the only one who was not wearing a tuxedo. He was wearing a chauffeur's uniform, which was a page straight out of the playbook of Bobby and Sammy's previous robberies. Green would deliver some of the robbers to the hotel and then wait outside in the car and serve as a lookout while the robbery took place.

In addition to the limo, Furnari's men supplied a Ford Torino and a Chevy Impala. At 3.45 a.m. right on schedule, the eight thieves were dressed in their tuxes and disguises and had their guns loaded. They walked out of Sammy Nalo's dingy apartment in Hell's kitchen, loaded into the three cars, and started the drive to the Pierre Hotel. It was only a seven-minute drive from the apartment to the hotel, but the two places were worlds away from each other. Just before 4 a.m., the cars arrived at their predetermined destinations, and that's when the first unexpected surprise happened. As any military commander knows, no matter how well you devise a plan, you can't anticipate everything. From the minute the cars arrived at the Pierre Hotel until

the moment they left, the night would be full of unexpected surprises. Next time on Infamous America, the heist begins. The crew has two hours and 45 minutes to steal as much as possible. Some things will go smoothly, like a well-oiled machine, and some won't. The thieves will have to adjust on the fly if they want to make it out without getting caught. That's next week on Infamous America. Members of our Black Barrel Plus program don't have to wait week to week for new episodes. They receive the entire season to binge all at once with no commercials,

and they also receive exclusive bonus episodes. Sign up now through the link in the show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com. Memberships begin at just $5 per month. This series was researched and written by Michael Byrne, original music by Rob Valier. I'm your host and producer, Chris Wimmer. Find us at our website, blackbarrelmedia.com

or on our social media channels. We're Black Barrel Media on Facebook and Instagram and B-Barrel Media on Twitter. And you can stream all our episodes on YouTube. Just search for Infamous America podcast. Thanks for listening.