A year later, Reissfelder and William Silky Sullivan of Charlestown were convicted of first-degree murder and armed robbery during a $20,000 payroll holdup at the Railway Express Agency at South Station. After being released on the wrongful conviction, he had few options. And when Janice Santos first learned about the heist, she had an immediate intuition about who that was. BLANDING: Eventually, and I should say allegedly, David was involved with a number of more serious crimes. Boston on May 11, 1984. The following year, her divorce would come through, and her ex-husband would join a cast of men named in connection to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum robbery. Charlie Pappas agreed to testify that he had been the getaway driver for Turner and his accomplice in that robbery. . The museum opened to the public in 1903, and Gardner continued to expand the collection and arrange it until she died in 1924. RODOLICO:In a letter dated Oct. 26, 2003, Turner proposes that Blanding write a book about his life. HORAN: Yeah, so you hear the news and you think Carmello Merlino. Pangiam. People like Carmello Merlino. Thank you! She claims to have seen Manet's "Chez Tortoni" hanging in a "froufrou frame" in her. The day that George A. Reissfelder was released from prison for a 1966 murder he did not commit, he hoisted a Heineken in Quincy Market with his court-appointed attorneys future senator John F. Kerry and a future judge, Roanne Sragow Licht. Ive seen the painting. . In the meantime, convicted criminal Robert Beauchamp had some advice for his former boyfriend, George Reissfelder. HORAN: But Janice Santos didnt become the states first female helicopter pilot. BLANDING: He was always just a consummate gentleman in all of his correspondence with me. Im Jack Rodolico. Last Seenis a production from WBUR and The Boston Globe. He's just got to adjust a little bit,' and it didn't happen. Anthony Amore told us, his leads havent panned out. HORAN: Why do you think he couldn't have done it? Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates, join our Facebook group to discuss the investigation and if you have a tip, theory or thought, we want to hear it. This is the story of David Turner and George Reissfelder, two men who prove that the criminal life is an equalizing one that erases distinctions like where you came from and where you could have gone. She recalled seeing it in a golden frame on the brothers bedroom wall at his apartment at 35 Brooks Ave. in Quincy, Richard Reissfelder said. He doesn't have access to the paintings or he'd be out of prison. Missing among its 29 charges is that social workers beating death in 1985 the summer after Turner graduated from high school. The shop was managed by crime figure Carmello Merlino. It was Oct. 16, 1982, and Santos was in the Army National Guard. SIKELLIS:It was explained to me as a young prosecutor at the time by some very, very seasoned State Police agent that's the telltale sign of, "Don't be a rat. Reissfelder was caught after three years and sent back to Massachusetts. . And that's what happened. David Turner was in the passenger seat. A prosecutor dubbed him the Teflon gangster of the South Shore.. And someone lifted $50,000 from, uh, the Bull & Finch, and David was thought to be involved with that. A confidential informant later told investigators that Reissfelder was among the members of Merlinos crew that pulled off the $300 million blockbuster art heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum on March 18, 1990, according to FBI records. RODOLICO:That first letter started a correspondence between Blanding and Turner that lasted for several years. Anthony Amore was hired as director of security for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 2005 and still holds the position today. The other one was middle aged and beaten down and had done hard time for a murder he didnt commit. The two men belonged to the crew of local criminal Carmello Merlino, who was first . And so, the plan was for him to come out, move in with me. Santos likened the seven years she spent with George Reissfelder to being his prisoner. He had jealous rages and beat Santos, and he barred her from reporting for military duty. BOSER:My name is Ulrich Boser, and I'm the author of "The Gardner Heist." HORAN: Reissfelder was vicious to Santos. HORAN: As ever, suspicion clung to David Turner, but charges didnt. Best regards.. He has kept his wife and children's identities a secret until now. There are clues that seem to let him off the hook. I said that wasn't the release date that was there before. You decide to look into George Reissfelder deeper. He'd been shot, if I remember, twice in the mouth, if memory serves. In September 2004, the Republican partisan group MoveOnForAmerica.org ran a Willie Horton-like ad criticizing Kerry, then the Democratic presidential nominee, for advocating for Reissfelders release. Why wouldn't he be inside? In the same year, she won Gold Canada's Player of the Year. At 2:15 P.M., the prisoner, George A. Reissfelder, 42 years old, was unmanacled in the Suffolk County Superior Court when the District Attorney's office declined to oppose his lawyer's motion that . Reissfelder family history, genealogy, and family tree. RODOLICO: The people he knew were from prison. At a press conference five years ago, the Boston FBI said that they knew where the Gardner art was taken after it was stolen. Would they let him go? So he told Merlino and Turner about it, and they all thought that that was a fairly good idea. HORAN: David Turners rap sheet is both long and incomplete. HORAN: Was David Turner in on the robbery of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum? Over the years, the Herald has reported on several people who claimed to have access to a Rembrandt stolen the same night, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee. Those leads have never panned out. And, uh, so then he grabbed me by the throat and started choking me. So he offered Reissfelder, who still visited him in prison sometimes with David Turner in tow some advice. They were never able to pin Turner to the crime, however. So I mean, so very quickly, within the first two weeks, it was violent. Rare Pope Creek Poppy Jasper Rough Slab!Gorgeous RARE Top Pope CreekPoppy Jasper Rough Slab ! I remember his reaction the first time I asked him to look at the missing art and witnessed firsthand how genuine his reaction was to Chez Tortoni. . PRESS CONFERENCE: For the first time, we can say with a high degree of confidence, we've determined that in the years since the theft HORAN: Next time, we follow the stolen arts trail and tell you with a high degree of confidence what we think. And I don't think he could have done it, but--. SIKELLIS: And unfortunately, by the time we sensed any connection to the Gardner Museum, Pappas was dead. Carmello Merlino, a leader of the criminal underworld with mafia ties, ran the auto body shop as a front for his cocaine trafficking business. I don't think he masterminded it, though. Reissfelder did not stick with the Inmate #6875309 look after a couple of weeks from his release from prison as the photo (far right) taken six years before the Gardner Heist shows. RODOLICO: So, four years before the Boston FBI sting on TRC Auto Electric that would finally put David Turner in prison, Robert Sikellis, who had tried and failed twice to do so, had an epiphany about Turners alleged robberies: They looked an awful lot like the Gardner heist, but on a much smaller scale. RODOLICO: Could you just describe him physically? And have money left over to buy, like, a seven-bedroom house. HORAN: And before then he was saying that his brother hadn't done it, but it was seeing that painting that convinced him that his brother must have done it. However, the Celtics' Senior VP is conservative regarding his private life. MURPHY: I mean, I think our story certainly suggested it was a possibility, because theres no public explanation as to why it was reduced. Here he is in the 1986 documentary about wrongfully imprisoned men, "Exonerated: The Wrong Man.". RODOLICO: Did you get all that? But not before he shared a few poems about him written by a fellow inmate. His wife divorced him and he has two children, besides Maria, whom he has never seen. I saw that painting, Reissfelder said in an interview at the museum in the presence of the Gardners security chief, Anthony M. Amore, who is running the investigation. Beauchamp is just trying to extort money over a robbery and a dead body, Richard Reissfelder said. The other wasnt. William also answers to William J Reissselder, William J Reissfelder, William E Reissfelder and Bill Reissfelder, and perhaps a couple of other names. Jeannine and Bill often played golf together according . This one in particular really caught my attention because it mentioned the Gardner Museum robbery. George Reissfelder, on the other hand, left prison in 1982 after serving 16 years for a murder he didnt commit. This hits you anywhere, you're dead." At school in a suburb of Boston, Turner had been a standout three-season athlete. No one would be happy about it, but you woulda thought, you know, once they had arrested us and, you know, the paintings didn't show up, you know, they would have gotten reasonable with us. While nothing directly tying him in the Gardner theft was found in his apartment, Reissfelders brother later told investigators later that he had seen what he thought to be Manets Chez Tortoni, one of the 13 artworks stolen from the Gardner, as having hung for a time over his brothers bed. And so, what role would he have played? This Is a Robbery. His peers had voted him most unique and had given him the nickname Crackerjack. He had a broad, round face with wide, high cheekbones, a mop of light brown hair, and a grin that conveyed confidence and mischief. Only after he was contacted by Amore in recent months and shown all 13 items taken from the museum did he recognize the Manet painting he now says his brother at one time displayed. They . Jan 04, 2022, 08:02 ET. And George Reissfelder is, I guess, a prime suspect in the robbery, the theft. Robert L Reissfelder, West Roxbury, MA holds a Building Licenses, Construction Supervisor license and 1 other license according to the Massachusetts license board. HORAN: On March 11, 1991, almost the anniversary of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum robbery, George Reissfelder died. Theyve asked nothing from me in return for all of the assistance they have provided, even in the face of very real personal pain.. Charlie Pappas was a second-generation coke dealer for Carmello Merlino. So, if it had ever been there, where did it go? HORAN: Carmello Merlino. And it's remarkable. Updates: 13 years after the theft . One of them had options and from them, chose a life of crime. Investigating further into Reissfelder, you discover that he died within a year after the heist of suspicious acute cocaine poisoning. It was 17 years ago. So, that tells you they don't believe David Turner went inside. 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