The Ben Mulroney Show - Introducing: A Most Audacious Heist - Shoot For The Moon | 01

Episode Date: February 12, 2025

It’s a summer night in 1998. Vienna, Austria. And petty thief Daniel Blanchard is about to carry out the heist of a lifetime. Stealing a crown jewel. The last remaining diamond Sisi Star. His plan? A daring night-time parachute jump. Daniel is no ordinary thief. His heists are ingenious, meticulously planned; his escapes from the law defy belief. And Daniel knows that if he can get his hands on the star, it will launch him into the criminal big-leagues. Daniel’s exploits unleash a relentless game of cat-and-mouse, as police track him across continents yet vanishes from their grasp.  What he doesn’t know is that the Sisi Star has a history. A dark history. Its original owner, the legendary Empress Elisabeth of Austria, used it to carve her own legacy of absolute beauty and power. That pursuit drove her to her very limits.  And now Daniel’s fate is fixed to that same star. But how long can Sisi’s star stay lucky for Daniel?  This is A Most Audacious Heist – it’s the story of a master thief, an intercontinental manhunt, and the jewel that changes everything. Contact: Facebook: @BlanchardHouseStories Instagram: @BlanchardHouseStories X (formerly Twitter): @BlanchardTweets Blanchard House website: blanchard-house.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, it's Ben and I wanted to share a new true crime show I think you'll love. It's called A Most Audacious Heist. A Most Audacious Heist is a gripping true crime story filled with ambition, risk, and obsession as it follows the exploits of a 19th century empress and a 20th century thief. Their fates are intertwined by the same dazzling treasure, a perfect cluster of diamonds known as the Sisi Star. Empress Elizabeth of Austria loves her jewels and uses them to defy the rules and carve out her own legacy of beauty and power. The episode we have for you today

is the first in a series and it's hosted by Saren Jones from the award-winning podcast Black and Blue. In this episode, petty crook Daniel Blanchard spots the crown jewel as a tourist and becomes enamored by it. This is the challenge he's been waiting for. He plans to steal it at a high stakes, daring nighttime parachute jump. He knows if he gets his hands on the star, he will be launched into the criminal big leagues. His exploits unleash an international manhunt as determined police attempt to track Daniel down. Somehow each time, he manages to elude them. But how long can CC Star stay lucky for Daniel? Listen to find out and then search for

a most audacious heist wherever you're listening right now. It's June 1998, long past midnight, and we're in the air, about a mile above Vienna, midnight and we're in the air about a mile above Vienna, the Austrian capital. In a small plane a slight man squats on the floor. There are no lights, just the red glow from the instruments in the cockpit. This is a clandestine mission to a world famous target. in mission to a world-famous target. The man cannot risk being seen. His eyes dart back and forth towards the pilot. He's watching, waiting for the signal. Every one of his muscles is tense. He checks the straps on his parachute, all secure. The man leans forward and tugs the handle of the plane door. A roar of wind blasts through the plane and needles his eyes. He blinks, pulls down his goggles, lets his eyes adjust.

Far below him, the sparse lights of the sleeping city glint softly, like diamonds. The man hugs his knees. Is he on target for the drop zone? He can't be sure. He just knows that somewhere down there is something he wants very badly. very badly. He gets into position. This is the most daring and dangerous job he's ever done. If he pulls it off, his name will be etched into the history books. And if he gets this wrong, good thing this guy's no quitter. He's ready. He hurls himself into the inky black void. Pummelled by crosswinds, he feels his past and future spiralling in free fall. And with the adrenaline pumping, he sees his name lit up in stars.

From Curious Cast and Blanchard House, I'm Saren Jones. And this is a Most Audacious heist. Episode 1 Shoot for the moon. 36 hours earlier. And we're in the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna. Once upon a time, this was the summer residence of the imperial Habsburg family, the most powerful family in Europe, who ruled not only Austria, but huge swathes of the continents for six centuries, with their incredible wealth and those unfortunate Habsburg jaws. But they're long gone and these days the palace is just a museum, a

magnet for tourists. We're following a couple of young newlyweds, honeymooners from Canada, on the European trip of a lifetime, ticking off every must-see sight in the guidebook. So this was the common bedroom of Franz Josef and Elizabeth right after the wedding. This was refurbished very beautifully with silk wall hangings from Leon in France. It all starts with love, of course. Doesn't it always? And this is where the couple spent the first few years, when they were still quite happy together. Our honeymooners have taken double-decker bus tours around London, gorged themselves

on tapas in Barcelona, and they're bronzed from the beaches of the French Riviera. And now they're here in Austria, hand in hand as they tour the gilded halls of the Schoenbrunn Palace, once the grand home of Emperor Franz Josef and his wife, Empress Elizabeth, better known as Sisi. Now if you look at the screen that covers the stove, you can see an awful lot of images when Sisi was young, when she was a bride, not all of them.

The young woman's loving this. She hangs on every word the guide says. But her husband... Daniel, quit yawning! Well, it's pretty clear that history's not really his thing. Daniel Blanchard is fresh-faced, slender-billed, he's 26, but he could still pass for a teenager. He was very soft-spoken. That's Jennifer Bowers Barney. She's a writer and journalist, and one of the few people

who's ever interviewed Daniel Blanchard. And once you get to know him, there's something about this guy. I describe him as a combination of, you know, James Bond kind of with the swagger, but also a little bit of Rain Man, if you remember that movie from back in the day. When Jennifer asked Daniel what he remembered about his tour around the Viennese royal palace,

Daniel admitted he'd kind of zoned out. So I asked him if, when he went to Austria, if he knew anything about Sissi, who Sissi was, and he said, nope, I knew absolutely nothing about who this person was. He's just tagging along on autopilot. But then... This is the famous Sissy star. It's a 10-point star, started with diamonds,

and at the very center it has a little pearl. And if you turn round to the right, star, started with diamonds, and at the very center it has a little pearl. And if you turn round to the right... The guide and Daniel's wife have already moved on to the next exhibit. But Daniel's frozen. He's just staring into the glass case, drinking in the beauty of the gems that nestle on top of the purple velvet cushion. The Cece star, a glittering mega cluster of diamonds,

the pearl of the Austrian crown jewels, and Daniel's head over heels in love with it. He didn't care who it belonged to, what the Providence was, who had owned it. He just saw it and he said, I just knew I had to have it. Later, Daniel and his wife visit the gift shop to buy some must-have CC souvenirs. Those notebooks are really cute. I love those. Daniel's distracted. His head's already in the clouds.

Daniel, should we get the mug, or do you want the fridge magnets? He only has eyes for the star. He just has to make a quick phone call. Daniel? Because he's made a decision. Are you even listening to me? Because he's made a decision. Are you even listening to me? And he's wasting no time.

Oh, that star. But Daniel's not the first to fall for those diamonds. Let's wind back 134 years to 1864, because here, in the same room that Daniel visited, someone else is transfixed by that star. A tall, slender woman with long, glossy, chestnut hair, Empress Cece herself. She's almost exactly the same age as Daniel, just turning 27.

And for her 27th birthday, her husband, Emperor Franz Joseph, the most powerful man in Europe, has given his enchanting wife the most bedazzling gift. the most bedazzling gift. Not just one star, but 27 of them. When Cece claps eyes on those glittering diamonds, it's love at first sight. Each star is about 5 cm across and has ten points. They're studded with diamonds on gleaming white gold, right down to their tips. They're so brilliant, they make Sisi blink.

It's like beauty meeting beauty for the very first time. It's life-changing. There's a magical alchemy to the combination of Sisi and the star. One needs the other. They are the perfect, almost fatal, partnership. That's historian Dr. Tessa Dunlop. She's basically an expert on all European royal dynasties.

But Sisi, she says, was the crown jewel of the Austrian royal family. There was something rather otherworldly about her and these stars embodied that. There were lots of them and they moved and shone in the light. Of course they did because they were often attached to her moving beautiful hair. Scattered through it were stars. The stars could be worn as brooches, as pendants, or arranged onto a tiara. But Sisi wanted them only in her hair, as if the night sky had rained its celestial light down on her.

It was almost like she was the metaphor for heaven. It's one of those same diamond-studded stars that Cece wore in her hair that's got Daniel all giddy. That's quite literally swept the ground from under his feet. Because that guy jumping out of a plane over Vienna in the pitch black, that's Daniel Blanchard, who just the day before was being dragged around the Schoenbrunn Palace.

Now, while his wife sleeps oblivious in their honeymoon suite, he's skydiving over that same palace. And a jump like that, believe me, is not for the faint-hearted. You hit terminal velocity after the first thousand feet at 120 miles per hour, so you're falling pretty quick. That's Nick. And yes, he tends to speak at terminal velocity too. The sensation is, I would call it high pressure.

I can't give you Nick's full name because he's a US Special Operations veteran, and he still works overseas in war zones. But let's just say that nighttime parachute jumps are his bread and butter. So it's very disorienting. More likely than not, you're going to start what is called a tumble. And that is sort of a ragdoll effect of your body being thrown around

by these incredibly powerful winds, and you would be tumbling over yourself several times before you could stabilize. The feeling is like being punched. It's violent. It is a very violent thing. It's something that you need to remain calm and get your body position right. It is a very exhilar. It's something that you need to remain calm and get your body position right.

It is a very exhilarating experience and incredibly dangerous. Dangerous enough if you're a seasoned military professional like Nick, but if you're Daniel... Time to tell you a little bit more about what Daniel does for a living. Actually, very few people understand how Daniel pays his way. In fact, even his wife isn't in the know. Because Daniel also does something a little bit secret, sort of undercover. Like Nick, Daniel's very skilled are getting in and out of places undetected. But he's not in the military. Daniel works for himself. He's a thief. And Daniel's only skydived a couple of times before. For fun, on vacation. Never under these conditions. After freefall, when you deploy your canopy,

what you're supposed to do is look up and check for any tears. At night time, it's so dark, you might not be able to see very clearly or you won't be able to see the details. And a very small tear can become a big tear in those last 3,000 feet. But Daniel's willing to risk everything for this chance. So he's just going for it. You see, he's sick of being a small-time criminal. He wants his ticket to the Big Boys Club.

And if he can get his hands on the CC Star, well, that'll take him to a whole new level, to the upper echelons of international jewel thieves. He's proving his worth to the world and to himself. Skydiving is very much the ultimate in what a human can do, pushing the boundaries. But first, Daniel's got to stick the landing, and that's going to be challenging. I've certainly missed several drop zones, especially at night time. But I have never tried to jump onto a building.

That seems like a very foolhardy thing to do. It would take a skilled person to try it, or someone that doesn't fully understand their own limitations. But that's just it. To Daniel, the only limitation is in the mind. Sweep away self-doubt, and the possibilities are infinite. It's two months since Empress Cece received her special stars and today she's giving them their first public outing at her brother's wedding. The bride and groom make a lovely couple, picture perfect.

But the problem is, no one's looking at the bride and groom. All eyes are elsewhere. All eyes are on the sister of the groom, on Empress Sisi, who stands ethereal, with a galaxy of stars suspended in her hair. People went insane. It's the first time Sisi has worn her stars in public. Royal historian Tessa Dunlap says she's a knockout. The people have never seen anyone

having such an effect before. The stars in her hair, they're as big as a child's fist. And Cece does what one must never do at a wedding. She outshines the bride, eclipses her totally and utterly. She is the star. But while she might feel a tiny bit sorry at having stolen the lime light from her new sister-in-law, Cece largely feels delight because she has a sort of divine revelation at this wedding. She realizes the stars give her something, a magic, influence, power. When she wears those diamonds,

people fawn over her, are in awe of her, and more to the point, they believe in her. Well done. And quite suddenly, in the twinkling of 27 stars, Sisi believes in herself too. From now on, she's no longer just an empress. She's a goddess. Hurtling through the darkness, Daniel can just about make out the Schoenbrunn Palace below him. Daniel can just about make out the Schoenbrunn Palace below him. But he's falling fast. Way too fast.

Special Ops veteran Nick wouldn't want to be in Daniel's position right now. A city like Vienna, there's power lines there. And if your parachute hits a power line, you're done. That's it. It's over. Somehow, Daniel avoids electrocution, but he has no idea when he should flare. Or basically slow down the parachute, to break his fall. The ground's getting closer. Maybe about... now?

He pulls the toggle. If you're nervous and it's at night time and you're doing a robbery, you might flare too early. And if you flare too early, you will find yourself suspended in air just above where you want it to be. And then you're kind of at the mercy of the winds. And you could very easily be blown off that building and now you have a whole other set of problems.

Daniel flares too early. He lands on the palace roof alright, but he was aiming for a flat ledge. Instead, he's blown sideways, onto the pitched roof. It's deeply sloped. It's also tiled, which makes it extremely slippery. And… did we mention at the end of the slope, there's a four-story drop? When he did land, he slid toward the edge of the roof, but was able to stop himself. And he must have been very quiet to see, you know, did anybody see me? Am I good? He holds his breath. Then steadying himself against one of the huge stone urns that flank the roof, he gingerly

peeps over the edge. The sweeping gravel driveway lies empty. The manicured grounds are 500 acres of inky stillness. There were no sirens and nobody came yelling and screaming so he realized that he had made it. Stuffing his parachute into his bag, Daniel slowly begins to edge his way along the roof's railings. There are over 1,400 rooms in this palace, but Daniel's interested in only one. When he's sure he's above it, he swings his leg over the edgework, legs gripping the column, while his feet search for the ledge under the window. Not just a window, actually.

The window. The window of Empress Elizabeth's sitting room, where Daniel knows the sisi star is sitting in a glass case, waiting for him. Ever so gently, the sisi star is sitting in a glass case, waiting for him. Ever so gently, inch by inch, he prizes open the window. This guy, he was a waltzy guy. He would be able to go and do things that other people would be nervous to do.

I'll introduce you properly to Gordon Schumacher later on. Right now, you just need to know that Gordon has never met anyone quite like Daniel before. This guy was just like a James Bond. Daniel sweeps one final glance over the vast grounds of the palace. Then in true 007 style, he swings his legs over the window sill and jumps. The adrenaline had to be off the charts and I'm sure at that point his heart must have been beating

out of his chest. 1864, and at the Schönbrunn Palace, you'd be well advised not to enter Empress Elizabeth's dressing room. Inside, everyone's tents, because Cece's having her hair styled. And when it comes to her hair, word in the palace is that Cece's a bit of a princess. Elizabeth was very difficult because she was so fussy about her hair. She was furious when hair was combed out. According to Austrian historian Regina Neuhauser, Sisi's hair means everything to her. It's the first thing anyone notices about her. Untied, it reaches down to her ankles.

It's literally her crowning glory. So woe betide her maids if they don't quite get the look she's going for. And it happened that she threw brushes or combs at the hairdresser. Because once Cece has seen her chestnut tresses gleaming with those stars scattered through them, she's spoiled. She just can't accept anything less.

She spent at least two hours at the dressing table every day to get her hair done. At least two hours. She said, I'm a slave to my hair. She's more than vain. She's obsessed. She had some signature coiffures or hairdos that were very difficult to copy. She wanted to accentuate,

underline her natural, pristine beauty, her magnificent hair. So imagine the preparations when it's time to have her official imperial portrait painted. The emperor invites the famous artist Franz Zewe Winterhalter to the palace, and Sisi agrees to sit for him. Of course, she insists on wearing her signature jewels.

So Empress Cece is immortalized in a life-size portrait. She's dressed in a white satin gown, itself peppered with silver stars that shimmer under a layer of stiffened silk. Even her moon-white shoulders gleam, and her glorious dark hair hangs heavy down her back, intricately braided and lit by 27 diamond stars. The Empress looks out from the canvas with a satisfied Mona Lisa smile. The stars, the diamonds, the way they shine, they just make her shine even more. It's part of the heavenly sphere in a way.

The picture is reproduced and that star-studded image is sent all over the world. And pretty soon, she's gone viral. Cece becomes a star herself. This is what appealed to her. It's this fantastic fantasy that she weaved around it. An influencer, an icon, a fairy queen, the diamond standard against which all beautiful women now measure themselves. She was the star of her time. But being the benchmark of beauty comes at a price.

Sisi has to live up to her legend. She has to stay as perfect as her picture. And as any influencer will tell you, over time, that gets harder and harder. Historian Tessa Dunlop thinks Cece's fame imprisoned her. She's trapped. She's trapped in her position. She's then trapped in her own relationship with her own body, and her body is trapped. She's trapped in her position. She's then trapped in her own relationship with her own body, and her body is trapped. It's sewn into clothes.

The bodices are laced ever tighter. Her hair grows ever longer, ever heavier, and needs more and more maintenance. It's almost a sort of cult. The cult of the stars. And Cece will have to keep that sparkle alive to preserve her star quality at any price. She was spinning on the line between beauty and danger.

She had achieved and reached great heights. But you can't always hold on to the stars. She's a reminder that we'll probably all fall back down to earth in the end anyway. Inside the Schoenbrunn Palace, Daniel's feet hit the parquet floor, and he feels like he's just landed in heaven. He snuck through, again, he's a wiry little guy, so he was able to get himself through the window. Jennifer Bowers Barney doesn't know how Daniel kept a cool head. When he dropped to the floor, it was another moment of anxiety where, you know, did any alarm go off? Did anyone hear me?

Am I okay? Is there a guard behind that door? But there's no alarm. And no guard comes running. Just silence. So Daniel pads carefully across Cece's drawing room, watching his every step. He was able to circumvent the laser.

Yeah, there are lasers guarding this room. The laser beam security and maneuver his way up to the case. The glass case. The one that had mesmerized him the day before, when the star imprinted itself on his retinas. And even now in the dark, his eyes can pick out the hypnotic flash of the diamonds inside. He sets to work. He's borrowed a little something from his

hotel breakfast buffet. He said he brought along a butter knife with him and when he got to the case it was that butter knife he used to finish unscrewing these pressure-sensitive screws. He takes it ever so gently, feeling his way. How he knew to not trip that alarm, again it was like he was experimenting in real time. The case opens, and Cece's star pretty much falls into Daniel's hand, like a magnet, like it wants him to take it. In his hot palm,

Daniel feels the coolness of the diamonds, the sharp points of the star, and it feels right. It feels like Daniel and the Sisi star were always meant to be together. He had the star in his possession. He had the star in his possession. He closes the case and stuffs the jewel into his jacket. The jewel. The last remaining Sisi star. Because here's the thing. The other 26? They're lost.

They've just disappeared, which is why the Schoenbrunn Palace is so proud to display this gem, because it's the very last one. The palace considered the star to be priceless, of course, because of its origin, the story behind it, the fact that Sissi became story behind it, the fact that Sissy became known for it. And it was priceless to Austria because of what it stood for. But does Daniel quite realize the enormity of what he's done? The repercussions.

Because this star also shot Empress Sissy into the halls of fame. And well, let's just say her fortunes didn't always glitter. So if Daniel had bothered to read the information card on the glass case, if he'd stopped to read Sisi's story properly, he might have hesitated before lifting that jewel from its cushion. He might have felt a shiver of fear course down his spine, an uncanny sense of deja vu, maybe a ghostly slender hand slipping into his.

Because Cece and Daniel, they may be worlds apart, but their stars are very much aligned. Elizabeth's determination was to go down in history as the eternally beautiful woman. And the result was everybody knows Sisi. She wanted to be legendary. Daniel too. He has etched his way into history. There's no doubt about it. Ben Hagerman wouldn't exactly describe himself as a friend of Daniel's. But for now, let's just say he knows Daniel quite well.

If you can't be famous, some people say it's good to be infamous. Well, he's going to be remembered forever because of it. But history, well, history has a funny habit of repeating itself. And like it or not, Daniel and Cece are now inextricably linked. However many centuries might separate them, their fates are fixed to that same star. But Daniel doesn't think about Cece as he creeps back towards the window. He doesn't think about what the star meant to her. It's what it means for him that counts right now.

Well, it certainly does serve as a badge of honor. I mean, it was something that no one else had accomplished before. And look, no one has accomplished since. And what a line for his CV. It certainly would have been influential in his life in terms of his crime resume. And I'm sure there's other players out there who've done similar, but boy, this guy was good at it. And suddenly, Daniel realizes just how good he is.

And he wants other people to see that too. So, on his way out of the palace, he decides to leave a little clue. It catch me if you can. And who can blame him? I mean, deep down, we all want our talents recognized, don't we? So when the police realized that their star was gone, they searched the grounds, of course,

and they found a parachute stuffed in a trash can. And it was kind of Blanchard's way of saying, I was here. It was also a trophy, right? And it really sets him up as, you know, international jewel thief. What's he going to do with the gem? Daniel doesn't know that yet. He's just got this funny feeling that some way down the line, the CC star is going to come in really handy.

And in Daniel's line of work, it's always good to have a little something up your sleeve, something to fall back on, in case times get tough. But right now, Daniel Blanchard has got exactly what he wanted. And no one has seen him do it. He's escaped, scot-free. That had to be such an adrenaline rush for him to say, ha ha, I got away with this, you know? Will Cece's star prove lucky for Daniel?

Or has that parachute just cost him his cover? You've been listening to A Most Audacious Heist, a Blanchett House production for Curious Cast, hosted by me, Saren Jones. It's written and produced by Emma Jane Kirby. Research by Hannah Tavakolozade. Original music is by Daniel Lloyd Evans, Louis-Nanck Manel and Toby Matamong. Sound design and mix engineering by Toby Matamong and Louis-Nanck Manel and Toby Matamong. Sound design and mix engineering by Toby Matamong and Louis-Nanck Manel. With special thanks to Cathy Kenzora and Rob Johnston.

The creative director of Blanchard House is Rosie Pye. The head of content at Blanchard House is Lawrence Griselle. For Blanchard House, the executive producers are Amika Shortino-ino Nolan and Lawrence Griselle. For Curious Cast, the executive producers are Dilev Alaskes and Chris Duncombe. A most audacious heist is inspired by the book Stealing Sissy Star by Jennifer Bowers Barney.