The Forty-seventh Street Job – The account of a major diamond heist given in Hot Rocks, a book written by Samantha Gannon in Remember When/Big Jack.[1] According to Roarke:
There were four known members of the Forty-seventh Street heist team. One was an inside man who handled the switch. The others posed as clients or part of the investigative team after the diamonds were discovered missing. Each scheduled a meeting with one of the designers or wholesalers upstairs. Each picked up a novelty item planted by the inside man. A ceramic dog, a rag doll, and so on.[2]
In each blind (hiding place or a bit of misdirection) was a quarter share of the take. They walked in, walked out in broad daylight. There was a retail section, street level - almost a bazaar; with enough balls, data, and some inside assistance, it was easier than you might think to walk off with sparkles in the daylight - easier by far than an after-hours job.[2] At the time Remember When opened, the diamonds were still unaccounted for.[3]
Jack O’Hara, Jerome Myers, William Young, and Alex Crew were members of the team, but Crew betrayed the others to get more of a share of the diamonds.[4]
When Roarke examined one of the recovered diamonds he described it as spectacular; first water, full-cut, about seven carats.[5]
References:
- ↑ Remember When (ISBN 0-425-19547-3), p. 273
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Remember When (ISBN 0-425-19547-3), p. 274
- ↑ Remember When (ISBN 0-425-19547-3), p. 276
- ↑ Remember When (ISBN 0-425-19547-3), pp. 275, 479
- ↑ Remember When (ISBN 0-425-19547-3), p. 481