Infamous America - PIERRE HOTEL HEIST Ep. 5 | “The Getaway”

Episode Date: February 15, 2023

 As the clock ticks toward the deadline to finish the robbery, tension builds within the gang of thieves. The leader, Bobby Comfort, wants to stop early, but his partner, Sammy Nalo, wants to keep working. Sammy is keeping a secret that could cause trouble for the crew, and the others will need to use force to pry him away from the safe deposit boxes. Despite the chaos, the crew exits the Pierre Hotel with millions of dollars worth of cash and jewelry. 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

My relentless sleep problems have always come from an overactive mind. I lay in bed at night with my mind racing from one thing to another, and then, of course, I have a brainstorm about something new. That lights the fire, and then I'm in real trouble. To calm my mind, the only things that have ever worked with any consistency are sleep gummies. Sleepy Time Advanced Gummies from Mood.com come in various combinations of THC, CBD, and CBN, so you can get something that's very low in THC but higher in CBD, which helps turn off the stress, and CBN, which is the thing that makes you sleepy.

The brain shuts up, the racing thoughts stop, and it's off to sleep. Mood is federally compliant. The gummies are legal and delivered right to your door. 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 with our promo code Infamous. to get 20% off your first order, and they have a 100-day satisfaction guarantee. Mood.com promo code infamous. At 6 a.m. on Sunday, January 2nd, 1972, the sun was slowly rising over New York City. It was bitterly cold outside, but most people were asleep.

Hopefully, those who had partied hard for New Year's Eve on Friday night and spent most of the day hung over on Saturday, would awaken feeling better on Sunday. In the iconic Pierre Hotel, which was directly across from the southern end of Central Park and a couple blocks from the Central Park Zoo, 16 people were not enjoying the early morning hours of January 2nd. Twelve of those unhappy souls were employees of the hotel. Three were guests, and one was a full-time resident. Fifteen of the 16 were currently handcuffed and stuffed into an office behind the front desk.

Their eyes and mouths were covered with duct tape. The 16th was an elderly man who had nearly had a heart attack. He had returned to his home at the hotel and was greeted with shock when a man who was wearing a tuxedo, a bad wig, and a fake mustache pointed a gun at him. The elderly man collapsed and struggled to breathe, but he eventually settled down and the potential crisis started to pass. He was now sitting in a chair behind the front desk as he tried to grapple with the reality of what was happening. What was happening was that eight men were robbing the hotel.

Seven had been inside for the past two hours, while the eighth waited outside in a limousine that would be used as a getaway car. Four of the seven were stationed around the main floor of the hotel to deal with any surprises. The other three were in the vault breaking into the hotel's safe deposit boxes. In the vault, the three men had worked feverishly for the past 90 minutes. They had filled three Louis Vuitton suitcases with cash, jewels, and other stolen goods, and they were working on the fourth. But the clock was ticking, and the leader, Bobby Comfort, was growing nervous. The gang had given themselves a deadline of 6.45 a.m. to be out the door. The day shift employees would start work at 7 a.m., so 6.45 was already cutting it close. In the past two hours of the

robbery had already been packed with nerve-racking encounters, so Bobbiard. Bobby Comfort wanted to start wrapping it up. But it was proving difficult to convince his longtime partner, Sammy Nalo, to leave. Sammy was in charge of breaking into the safe deposit boxes, and he was overcome with a dangerous zeal. He simply couldn't pull himself away from the treasure. Sammy's fellow thieves were going to have to force him to stop, and they would, but not before one more scare. But that scare would be tiny when compared with the things they would learn about Sammy after the robbery. His actions and his hidden problems would put everyone in jeopardy.

Between the NYPD, the FBI, a powerful mafia family, and a professional killer who was part of the robbery crew, the thieves would be in as much danger as a person could imagine. From Black Barrel Media, this is Infamous America. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and 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 5, The Getaway. At the front desk at a little after 6 a.m., Bobby Comfort was nearing his breaking point. He was the de facto leader of the crew, and he was about to go back to the vault and try one more time to convince Sammy to wrap it up.

There were three men in the vault who were opening the safe deposit boxes. Nick Sacco and Bobby Germain hit each one with a hammer, and then Sammy used a crow bar to pry each one open. Nick and Bobby G knew it was time to leave, but Sammy wouldn't stop. Right before Bobby Comfort was going to go back and force the issue, he received a call at the front desk. One of the crew, Don the Greek Frankos, was posing as a security guard at the hotel's side entrance. Frankos called Bobby and said they had another problem. A newspaper delivery man was at the hotel entrance with an armload of papers, and he wanted in. They couldn't risk sending him away.

That would definitely arouse suspicion. So, with barely a half hour left before they were going to leave, Francoz opened the door and the delivery man entered the hotel. When the delivery man rounded the corner into the Pierre's elegant lobby, he obviously wasn't expecting to see a man in a tuxedo and a bad wig pointing a gun at him. But to Bobby's surprise, the delivery man seemed to take it in stride. The man had the demeanor of one of those New Yorkers who was seen in. at all. This may not even have been his first robbery. The guy walked up to the front desk,

set the papers down as he usually did, and turned to Bobby as if to say, what now? Bobby escorted him to the office to join the other hostages and instructed Alvescanti to put the newspaper man in handcuffs. The quick ordeal had been a jolt to the nerves that Bobby didn't need, but it certainly could have been worse. And now they had to go. The newspapers were out. The city was waking up. It was time to move. Bobby headed for the vault. When he arrived, Nick and Bobby G. had already stopped hammering, but Sammy was still working.

Nick looked at Bobby Comfort, then looked at his watch, then nodded toward Sammy. Bobby understood they were out of time, but something needed to be done about Sammy. Nick and Bobby Comfort grabbed Sammy's arms and pulled him away from the wall of safe deposit boxes, while Bobby G. pried the crowbar out of Sammy's hand. All three of them used the strongest, most colorful language to make it clear that the robbery was done. Sammy took a deep breath and recovered his senses. The spell that had gripped him for the past half hour or 45 minutes was broken.

The four men quickly gathered their tools and then each picked up a suitcase. Based on the weight of the suitcases alone, they knew they had done very well. After a final sweep of the room, they headed for the front desk. When they arrived, Bobby Comfort instructed the two men who were guarding the hostages, Al Visconti and Ali Ben, to take the prisoners to the vault. Visconti and Ali Ben guided the 17 hostages to the vault. Most had been handcuffed with duct tape over their eyes and mouths for more than two hours. The robbers positioned the hostages so they were facing the wall.

It wouldn't be as surprised if they now thought. thought it was all over for them. But instead of their worst fears coming true, the robbers removed the duct tape. Visconti instructed them to look forward and stay quiet. And then things took a bizarre twist. Bobby Comfort came in and thanked the hostages for their cooperation and apologized for the inconvenience. To show his appreciation, Bobby tucked $20 bills into the pockets of the hotel employees, as well as their most recent hostage, the newspaper delivery man. Bobby reminded the group that the telephone line had been cut, so there was no reason for any of them to try to be a hero and run for the phone. He also assured them that the day shift would arrive

very soon and would find them in short order. With that, Bobby closed the vault door and the robbers headed for the exit. Bobby had one last thing to do. He picked up the phone at the front desk and called 911. Bobby had promised Mr. Graff, the elderly man who had nearly had a heart attack, that he would request an ambulance before he left. Bobby kept his word, made the call, and then the seven robbers raced outside. It was 6.35 a.m., and they were 10 minutes ahead of their deadline. The black Cadillac limo waited for them up the block. They piled into the back and told the driver Al Green to hit the gas. They wouldn't need the limo for very long, but it was. It was a lot. It was was the perfect getaway car from the hotel. The Pierre was one of the most expensive hotels in the

city, and it was surrounded by other expensive hotels. If the cops saw the limo pull away from the Pierre Hotel, they wouldn't think twice about it. Al Green, who had spent the past two and a half hours nervously waiting in the limo, was more than ready to get to the next phase of the plan. He pulled away from the curb and headed for Madison Avenue. The gang had parked two more getaway cars on Madison Avenue, and it took less than two minutes to reach them. Bobby, Sammy, Nick Sacco, and Don Franco's were in charge of the loot, and they climbed into a green Ford Torino. Bobby Germain, Ali Ben, and Al Visconti climbed into a black Chevy Impala. The two groups cranked the engines and peeled out. They drove in opposite directions and eventually looped around

to rendezvous at Sammy Nalo's apartment in Hell's Kitchen. It was only a seven-minute drive to Sammy's building from the Pierre Hotel, but the crew needed to make sure the coast was clear before they dragged four suitcases full of stolen stuff up to the apartment. While the two groups made sure they weren't being followed, Al Green drove the limo to a wrecking yard. The Lucchese crime family had sanctioned the robbery and supported it in a variety of ways.

One of those ways was to steal the three guys. getaway cars. Another was to arrange for them to be crushed into scrap metal after the job. Al Green dropped off the car where it would be smashed into a cube the sides of a refrigerator. When the other two cars weren't needed anymore, they would suffer the same fate. When Al's work was done, he caught a ride back to Sammy's apartment to meet up with the others. They all eagerly awaited the great unveiling of the loot. The gang was still running high on adrenaline, even though they'd been up all. night's sleep was out of the question. Priority number one was to get into those suitcases.

Bobby, Sammy, Nick, and Don Francoz began methodically unpacking each case and separating the jewelry from the cash. As they worked, the magnitude of the heist started to sink in. Everybody had agreed on the percentage of their cut ahead of time, but no one knew what the total haul would be. It was clear now, even just by looking, that it was a small fortune. They wouldn't know what the jewelry was worth until they could have it all appraised and then sold on the black market. To this day, no one knows for sure how much cash was taken or the real value of all the jewelry. But later estimates put the total value of all the stolen goods at $28 million. And that was the value in 1972.

Today, it would be worth $190 million. One of the thieves later estimated that they saw. stole around $3 million in cash. An unknown amount of that money came from one of the biggest surprises of the heist, a box that was packed with extremely rare bills. Each was in the amount of $500. Most people alive have never seen a $500 bill, and the thieves had stacks of them. And the story of the box with the stacks of $500 bills remains a mystery.

The bills were taken out of circulation in 1969, three years. before the heist. They weren't listed on the hotel's index cards that kept track of all the goods in the boxes. They could still be spent. They were still legal currency, but no one ever came forward to report the money stolen. So, with around $3 million in cash, the robbery was already a huge success. But the real prize was the jewelry. A single necklace could be worth almost a million dollars, and the robbers had suitcases full of them. As the robbers anticipated, later that morning, local news outlets started reporting on the Pierre Hotel heist.

The police had interviewed the hostages, and three of them in particular were keen to get the hell out of Dodge. The Brazilian lawyer, his new wife, and her mother-in-law headed straight to JFK Airport after their interviews and boarded the first flight home. That afternoon, police lieutenant Don O'Neill held a press, conference in front of a frenzied crowd of reporters. Unfortunately for the clamoring press, and even more unfortunately for the lieutenant, NYPD investigators didn't have much information.

None of the hostages were able to pinpoint the true identities of the robbers. As dumb as the bad wigs, fake mustaches, and fake beards looked, they had done their jobs. There were no usable fingerprints from any of the robbers. They had worn gloves throughout the heist. And beyond those routine first steps of the investigation, physical descriptions, and fingerprints, there was nothing else to go on. Police could only stress that it was obviously a professional, well-planned robbery. One reporter asked if the Pierre robbery was linked to the wave of other hotel robberies. Lieutenant O'Neill said he couldn't be sure, but it was possible. Another reporter asked if the robbery could be tied to the men who had robbed Sophia Loren and Ja-Jajajaj Gabor in 1970. Again,

O'Neill couldn't be sure. And reporters weren't the only ones who wanted answers to those questions. The Manhattan District Attorney's Office was furious. By most counts, there had been more than 25 hotel robberies in a two-year period. The DA and the police couldn't prove it at the time, but they suspected Bobby Comfort and Sammy Nala were behind most of them, maybe all of them. If so, then the 25 or more robberies were still open cases, because Bobby and Sammy had just pulled off one that topped them all. But this time, the investigation would not solely involve the NYPD. Because of the amount of stolen jewelry, it was practically a foregone conclusion that at least some of it would travel across state lines as the thieves tried to sell it. Trafficking stolen goods

across state lines was a federal crime, so the FBI was poised to jump in and assume control of the investigation. For now, they had to wait and watch. But they wouldn't be on the sidelines for long. In the past, the FBI's relationship with the NYPD had been combative at times. And six years after the heist, when the Roberts Lounge gang robbed the Laftanza Airlines warehouse at JFK airports, the case would be a jurisdictional nightmare. But everyone hoped for better results this time. And if the FBI did get involved, then the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York eagerly awaited a case. Local politicians were also up in arms about the Pierre heist.

The mayor, John Lindsay, was putting the heat on law enforcement to solve the crime. Crime rates were bad for politicians just on general principle, but when the city's richest people, both residents and tourists, were being robbed in their hotels, that was bad on a whole new level. If the tourism industry plummeted because no one felt safe to travel to New York, the mayor wouldn't stay mayor for very long. And while the lawmen and the politicians race to find answers, the robbers tried to lay low. They either knew or could assume many of the things that were happening with the judicial system.

The robbers had all been in the life for a long time. They knew how it worked. But what they didn't know was that there was a situation brewing that could make all their lives infinitely worse if they got caught. The Lucchese family had given the robber's strict orders to avoid, hurting anyone. If a civilian died during a robbery, even if it was from something biological like a heart attack, the death was considered murder under New York law. Mr. Graff, the elderly man who had collapsed during the robbery because of a heart-related problem, was taken to Lennox Hill Hospital after the heist. He was about to undergo bypass surgery, which was not as routine in

1972 as it is today. If he didn't survive, all eight robbers would face murder charges if they were caught. For the robbers, the most important thing now was to stay out of sight. If they could get out of the city, that was great. If they couldn't or wouldn't, they needed to lay low and be cautious. They had divided up the cash because that was easy. They would deal with the stolen jewels later. To sell them, they would need to bring more people into the mix, and that wasn't a good idea. so soon after the heist. The crew owed the Lucchese family a full 35% of everything that was stolen. Nick Sacco, as a made man in the Lucchese family, was in charge of delivering the Lucchese's

cut of the cash. To do so, he booked a room at the Algonquin Hotel on West 44th Street. The Algonquin, host to the famous roundtable, had stayed ahead of the criminal curve by installing personal safes in its rooms, and that security measure, could be used in more ways than one. Nick went up to the room, placed the Lucchese's money in the safe, and then went to a coffee shop in Brooklyn. He met Christy Fernari, the consuliary of the Lucchese crime family, and the man who was the conduit between the robbers and the family. Sacco made a full report about the robbery, and then slid the hotel key along with a piece of paper across the table.

Fernari palmed them and put them in his pocket. On the paper was the name of the Algon. Gankwin Hotel, the room number, and the combination to the safe. All of that was good news, but Fernari's report to Sacco was bad news. Furnari had a mole in the NYPD's 19th precinct. His inside guy told him that Bobby Comfort and Sammy Nalo were the primary suspects, not just in the Pierre Heist, but in all 25 of the other hotel robberies. The cops still didn't have any solid evidence, but while they tried to find some, They were keeping a close eye on Bobby and Sammy. Fernari was pretty sure, based on what he was told,

that the cops would at least grab the two men for questioning sooner than later. Fernari asked Sacco, would Bobby and Sammy stay quiet if they got arrested? Or would they cooperate with the police and name their accomplices? Sacco assured Fernari that they would stay quiet. They would never cooperate. That assurance would end up being the irony of all irony. coming from Nick Sacco. But Fernari was satisfied.

They ended the meeting, and Nick Sacco took off to Florida. If he was going to lay low and stay out of sight, he wanted to do it somewhere warm. The other guys dispersed to places unknown, and that left Bobby and Sammy to deal with some unfinished business. During the robbery, Bobby thought he saw Sammy slip a piece of jewelry into his pocket. Bobby couldn't be sure. It was just a flash of movement in a split-sacet. during a chaotic time. But Bobby was concerned. If Sammy had kept something for himself

and cheated the crew and the Lucchese family, he could get them all in trouble. There hadn't been time for Bobby to confront Sammy in the moment during the heist, but he needed to do it soon. 48 hours had passed since the heist. It was still big news in the newspapers and on local TV. Reuters and the Associated Press were reporting on it too. The attention showed no signs of stopping. The gang had split up, but there were still a couple things that the leaders needed to handle. Bobby Comfort and Sammy Nalo had had a successful partnership for two years, but Bobby needed to know if he had been cheated. Bobby confronted Sammy and asked Sammy point blank if he had stolen anything while he was in the vault. Not surprisingly, Sammy denied it.

He assured his partner that he would never betray him like that. Bobby continued to press. He said if Sammy confessed right now, there would be no consequences. No one else needed to know. Sammy remained adamant that he didn't steal anything. Bobby wanted to believe him, but he also didn't have much choice. Sammy had never cheated him in the past, and he was denying it now. What was Bobby going to do? Torture Sammy to see if he was telling the truth? Bobby would never go that far. So he took Sammy at his word. The partner shook hands, and that was it. But of that wasn't it, because of course Sammy stole the necklace, and of course it would help ruin them all. Sammy's life was in danger, even before the heist. Thanks to his gambling addiction and a long,

expensive losing streak, he was deep in debt to a mob loan shark. In the months leading up to the Pierre heist, Sammy had been desperately trying to keep his head above water, but he knew he was drowning. The lone shark made it clear that unless Sammy paid up fast, he was a dead man. man. Sammy had his share of the cash from the heist, but it doesn't sound like it was enough to cover the debt. Or if it was, there would be nothing left over, and Sammy would still be in trouble. He would be broke even after pulling off one of the biggest robberies in history. And that was where the necklace and the other jewels came in. Before the guys in the gang went their separate ways, they divided the jewelry into two halves. Bobby took one half and Sammy took the other. Sammy's

his half in a second apartment, one he rented in the Bronx. Sammy was pretty sure no one knew about the apartment. Not the Lucchase's, not the Lone Shark, and not the cops. It was safe. Bobby took his half and put it in at least ten satchels. He pried the two door panels off of his 1969 Plymouth GTX and stuffed the satchels behind the panels. Then he hit the road for Rochester in upstate New York

where his wife and daughter waited for him. He chained smoked all the way to Rochester and made sure to keep his muscle car under the speed limit. The last thing he needed was a roadside chat with a New York State Trooper. So, Sammy was now alone. He seems to have spent a day or so agonizing over his situation. Then he made two phone calls. One was to Bobby to beg him for help. The other was to an old buddy in his hometown of Detroit. His friend was a well-known fence for the Detroit mob. Sammy said he was coming to Detroit to do some business, and he wanted a meeting. His friend agreed to see him, and Sammy's goal was to offload the piece of jewelry that he had

stolen from his gang of thieves. It was a stunning diamond necklace that had been taken from the safe deposit box of Baroness Gabrielle von Langendorf. At the time, he didn't know it was worth $750,000, but he knew it was worth a lot. It should help solve his problems. And of course, It didn't. The two phone calls ended up causing all the problems. They triggered the fallout for every member of the crew. Next time on Infamous America, Sammy tries to sell the necklace to his friend in Detroit, and Sammy and Bobby try to sell some of the other stolen jewels.

To no one surprise, it all backfires, and members of the crew start to fall one by one. That's next week on the season finale of the Pierre Hotel Heist here 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-Barrell Media on Twitter. And you can stream all our episodes on YouTube. Just search for Infamous America Podcast. Thanks for listening.