The Memorial Day Heist of 1980
Like you wouldn’t take some of this?
Memorial day is a day to honor those brave souls who we have lost due to war. Some of you will be at cemeteries today doing that very thing while others may be having a barbeque and spending time with family celebrating the unofficial start of summer.
Some of you will be doing both and there’s nothing wrong with that but there is something wrong with robbing a bank over the memorial day weekend like a group did back in 1980.
Today we’re starting our new Monday series on heists and we’ll be looking at the Memorial Day Heist of 1980.
Part 1 - The Setup
The year is 1980 and career criminals Gerald Clemente, who I’ll be calling Jerry going forward and Thomas Doherty, who I’ll be calling Tommy for obvious reasons are discussing the next place they should rob with fellow co-worker Joseph Bangs, Joey.
See, Joey and Tommy had approached Jerry with an idea to rob a television store but Jerry knew the skills they had were top-notch. Why waste time on a tv store when you can go for the real valuable stuff? And everyone knows where the prized possessions are kept… that’s right, the bank. In this case the target was the Depositors Trust Bank in Medford, Massachusetts.
Of course, they’ll need extra help, they’ll need an inside man, a safe cracker, an alarm expert, and a pretty big distraction. Luckily for the trio, getting some professional help from those willing to break the law wouldn’t be too difficult, they’d come across people like that all day with their day jobs.
Oh, I forgot to mention what their day jobs were. Jerry, Tommy, and Joey were all cops. Not just regular cops, the masterminds of the heist were from the metropolitan police department, Captain Gerald “Jerry” Clemente, and Sergeant Joseph “Joey” Bangs, while Thomas “Tommy” Doherty was the Lieutenant of the Medford Police Department.
And if I hadn’t made this clear, they were all corrupt, according to reports and books written, they weren’t just bank robbers or television store capers, they stole whatever they could. Allegedly Jerry was able to furnish his home and give his wife some pretty nice gifts.
The men even went as far as selling the answers to promotion tests to any cop willing to shell out thousands of dollars. Which means they possibly had control over who became high-ranking officers, you know, the people who would investigate them.
In a relatively short time the group gathered what they needed; for his safe cracking and alarm expertise they brought on Arthur “Bucky” Barrett who I’ll be calling Bucky. They also brought along Kenny Charlie Holmes, because money is heavy and the more to help carry the better. And finally Joey brought along his good friend, Francis “Brother” O’Leary for his expertise in… moral support I guess?
Regardless, the crew was now assembled… This was going to be the easiest bank robbery of all time as long as they had a fool-proof plan.
Part 2 - The Plan
The six gathered at Joey Bang’s basement to hear Jerry lay out the plan. Their target: the safe within the vault of the Depositors Trust Bank.
The vault itself contained one thousand safe deposit boxes but the real money would be in the large safe behind a steel time locked door. But in order to get in, they first had to bypass a silent alarm, get through 18 inches of steel reinforced concrete, then get the safe door open.
Alarm expert Bucky Barret would take care of the alarm. He had to build an electrical device that could block the signal but it wasn’t that simple, he had to test out each wire individually and adjust his device accordingly each time. The entire process would take around two months.
Meanwhile Jerry and Tommy would provide recon prior to the heist. Jerry learned the comings and goings of those wandering the streets at night, while Tommy would visit his double key locked safe deposit box during the day to determine the dimensions of the actual vault.
But they had to figure out a way into the actual vault since the glass windows would make it pretty obvious what several men in the middle of the night were doing. Jerrys idea was to go in through the connected shop next door. A simple lock pick would give them access to enter the attic.
Once in the attic, sledge hammers would be used to break through the dividing concrete wall into the crawl space of the vault, then they only had the slight problem of 18 inches of steel reinforced concrete.
But that was nothing some carbide drill bits, blow torches, elbow grease, and a little dynamite couldn’t handle. Although this meant they now needed a distraction, one that would be provided by the carnival and parades celebrating Memorial Day weekend, all going well into the night.
Once they got into the vault, Bucky would then break the safe door while Joey and his random friend Francis would start on one side of the vault getting into safe deposit boxes. Jerry and Kenny started on the other side. All the while Tommy would be patrolling the streets as a lookout giving the team the all clear every thirty minutes.
After they break into the safe, they would gather all the money and meet up at Joey’s basement to split the take from a simple one night heist that no one would notice until Tuesday morning. Probably while some classical music plays in the background.
They’ll all nod to each other and then split up never to be seen again… except for Tommy and Jerry since they work together.
Part 3 - The Execution and The Take
The plan pretty much goes off without a hitch, Bucky’s device works to bypass the alarm, Jerry picks the lock of the shop next door, they use dynamite to break through the reinforced concrete and sandbags to muffle the sounds, the carnival nearby provides extra noise distraction. The blow torches get through the steel in the concrete and Tommy provides cover outside.
By 3am they’re in the vault and Bucky works on the safe. It takes another hour to get through and, in that time, Jerry finds it takes over 15 minutes just to break into a safe deposit box and with a thousand of them they’ll just be happy with the millions in cash expected to be in the safe.
But there’s something the men didn’t realize.
Just before the weekend, the bank took almost all of the cash out to send to the federal reserve. Once Bucky gets through the hinges, the men find only 60 grand.
Angry, the men regroup in Joey’s basement to figure out their next steps. 60 grand wasn’t worth it for the crooks to have spent all that time setting up. They decide to go back over the course of the next two days and break into the safe deposit boxes. They eventually figure a much quicker way to break into them and by the end of the weekend they cleared out every box.
The take ends up being ten million in cash and around five million in jewelry, the largest bank theft in New England History. Now happy they head back to Joey’s basement and split the take.
The problem is jewelry is easily traceable so they can’t exactly go around selling it at first. Besides a watch Kenny asks to take, the rest of the jewelry and diamonds are split among Joey and Bucky for safe keeping.
The men split the $10 million in cash, jewels, gold, and diamonds and go their separate ways. Jerry advised the men to stay out of trouble for six years as that was the statute of limitations for their crime which should be easy enough as three of them were still cops.
Oh, there also was this little rumor that some of the money in those safe deposit boxes belonged to the mob but those were just rumors… right?
Part 4 - The Investigation and The Fall
On Tuesday morning May 27th, 1980 the bank employees open the vault to find everything gone. Immediately the FBI is called in to investigate and their liaison with the local police is Sergeant Thomas “Tommy” Doherty. There truly was now nothing to worry about as long as they all stayed out of trouble.
Due to the well known corruption of the cops the FBI immediately suspected Jerry but he was steadfast in his denial and since he knew how the process worked he wasn’t too worried. Plus his mistress, yea don’t be surprised he was cheating on his wife, supported his alibi saying he was with her all weekend.
Even though the men all agreed to wait till the statute of limitations ran out they still wanted to enjoy their take, some more than others. The men got into drugs, specifically cocaine, Joey became a dealer while still being a sergeant because every drug dealer needs a side business.
Francis brought a home near his buddy Joey, Tommy bought flashy clothes and nice cars and along with Jerry both made frequent trips to Las Vegas. Pretty much the only ones who didn’t go on wild spending sprees from what I can tell are Kenny and Bucky. This was probably easier for Bucky since he went missing in 1983… weird.
In 1984 Tommy and Joey are continuing their wild spending sprees and taking more and more cocaine to the point where paranoia sets in. They start to question the other’s loyalty. Joey can’t take it anymore taking a shotgun aiming to confront Tommy, the two fight, Tommy is able to disarm Joey but Joey pulls out a pistol and before he can fire, Tommy shoots Joey with the shotgun.
Surprisingly Joey survives, mainly due to high amounts of cocaine in his system impairing his blood flow, but police have already arrived and started investigating. In the trunk of Joey’s car they find jewelry that the police are able to tie back to the Memorial Day Bank Heist. But that wasn’t enough to arrest them for the crime.
Either way the state puts Tommy on trial for the attempted murder of Joey and one of their witnesses is Joey. Unfortunately for the crew Joey has had enough and while on the stand rats out Tommy as being involved in the bank heist with him.
When Jerry read this in the paper the next morning there’s no way he didn’t throw his hands up in the air and yell out “are you serious right now?” but he was still confident. Sure, Tommy was now in jail and Joey had struck a deal for immunity if he testified but Kenny and Francis were still laying low and Bucky has now been missing for almost two years. No one is going to believe just the testimony of Joey.
But Jerry forgot about the only other person who knew something about the crime… his mistress… or ex-mistress at this time. She was brought in for questioning and that’s when she gave the state everything they needed.
She didn’t know exactly what Jerry was doing but she knew he told her he would have a lot of money very soon and that he one night appeared with concrete dust all over him.
This along with Joey’s testimony was enough to arrest the men and when Kenny was arrested, police found the watch Kenny had requested during the heist. They were able to tie it back to the Bank.
In the end Jerry, Tommy, Kenny, and Francis all ended up in jail, Joey was granted immunity and put into witness protection and Bucky… Well it turns out those rumors of some of that money belonging to the mob were true. FBI informant Whitey Bulger allegedly kidnapped and tortured Bucky, taking back the money and jewelry before killing him.
And that is the story of one of the largest bank heists in New England history that probably would have been successful if not for cocaine. Good job… drugs? No, that can’t be right.
