THE BOSTON STAMP HEISTS

There was a series of thefts of stamp collections in the Boston area during 1971 to 1973. The total estimate of losses exceeded a third of a million dollars. The individuals involved included a number of prominent stamp and coin dealers, thieving police officers, corrupt FBI agents, criminal gangs and organized crime figures.

Two masked gunmen robbed the store of Confederate Philately in Back Bay Boston on March 17, 1971.They took stamps from a safe that was open for inventory and filled two green bags. The owner, Jack E. Molesworth, was vacationing in Florida at the time. Taken were 400,000 stamps. Joseph McDonald and James Sims were suspected of involvement in the crime. They were both convicted and sentenced for other crimes.

On Saturday, January 29, 1972, there was a burglary at the home of Don Romano in Hingham, Massachusetts. Taken was a coin collection and rare stamps from the collection of D. Corrado Romano valued at $68,000. He was the owner of the Worthy Coin Co, in Boston.

Three suspects in the Romano case were quickly arrested for possession of stolen property including coin dealer Michael R. Kirzner and his wife Julia of Cohasset. Also arrested was James B. Tilley of North Abington. Most of the stamps were recovered.

There was a burglary of the Cardinal Spellman Philatelic Museum on the campus of Regis College in Weston, Massachusetts, on March 31, 1973. The thieves cut the alarm system, entered through a back door and broke into a walk-in safe. Initial estimates of the loss were $50,000 to $100,000.

In October of 1974, the FBI announced indictments and arrests against eleven men involved with the series of thefts.

Arthur M. Bucky Barrett (36 in 1974) of Dorchester had a criminal record. He was charged with assault and battery in 1957. In 1969 he was arrested on the roof of a hardware store with burglary tools in his possession.

His big score came in 1980 with $1.5 million taken from the Depositors Trust in Medford. He joined three police officers and two other burglars to break into 755 safe deposit boxes over the Memorial Day weekend. They paid a $100,000 tribute to James Whitey Bulger who then informed on them to the FBI. The others were brought to trial in 1986 but by then Barrett was not available.

In 1983 he faced charges for transporting large quantities of marijuana through Boston. In July of 1983, Whitey Bulger lured Barrett to a house in Boston. There he was held at gunpoint, chained to a chair and interrogated for hours until he gave up locations of his money. He was shot in the back of the head and buried in the cellar. Later his body was moved to another location and not discovered until 2000.

Barrett's widow Elaine filed a wrongful death suit against the United States and the FBI. She claimed that the FBI protected Bulger from prosecution as a confidential informant and allowed him to commit additional crimes without fear of prosecution. While all that was true, her claim was denied as untimely.

Michael Richard Kirzner (29 in 1974) was the owner of Michael R. Kirzner Rare Coins and Cosmic Coin Co. in Boston. He was the primary fence who arranged the sale of stolen stamps to other willing dealers. He pleaded guilty to one count and testified for the prosecution at trial. As LM-816, he was suspended from the ANA in 1972 and expelled in 1976. On December 10, 1976, he was riding in a car and shot in the back from another car. He was treated at a hospital and released.

At trial, Michael Kirzner testified that Ben Tilley asked him to appraise stamps stolen from the Spellman Museum. Also present during the appraisal was Bucky Barrett. Kirzner called Donald Townsend who declined to buy the stamps but passed the offer on to Michael Bass. Bass came to Boston, viewed the stamps, met with Kirzner, Tilley and Barrett and agreed to buy a portion of United States stamps for $10,000. Payment was made to Tilley who gave Kirzner $1000 as a commission.

Michael Bass testified at trial that Barrett claimed that he climbed a telephone pole to disarm the alarm system. Bass gave Townsend and Griffiths $500 as a finders' fee. Bass agreed to testify in return for lenient treatment. Authorities showed Bass photographs of 20 to 25 men with criminal records and asked him to identify any who were in the meetings. Those men were arrested but charges were dropped in some cases when there was no corroborating evidence.

There was much publicity when others were arrested but few stories of convictions or sentences.

Buzzy Adams was a convicted burglar and thief. He testified for the prosecution and was not charged. There may have been some confusion between the names of Bucky and Buzzy.

Laurence M. Brasler (24 in 1974) of the Laurence Martin Brasler Co, of North Hollywood, CA, was charged in 1974 with transportation of stolen property.

Frederick M. Chiampa (54 in 1974) of Boston had a criminal record and was arrested based on identification of a photograph by Bass. Charges were dropped.

William Joseph Creehan, Jr. (46 in 1974) of Hyde Park was identified by Bass through a photo but charges were dropped.

Sam Frudakis (1918-2009) of Trader Sam's Coins and Stamps was one of the promoters of the Long Beach Stamp and Coin Exposition. It was charged that he conspired with Michael Kirzner to distribute stolen stamps. He pleaded guilty in October 1975 to transporting stolen stamps across state lines and was sentenced to ten days in jail.

David Rynd Griffiths (1942-2010) of the California Coin and Stamp Galleries Inc. in Los Angeles was charged as a codefendant. Those charges were dismissed.

Peter George Kenedi (1927-1987) was affiliated with Peter Kenedi of California Co. Inc. and Eastland Stamp Galleries in Michigan. He had a prominent stamp auction company. He was charged in 1974 with transportation of stolen property.

Alex Korn (1940-1994) of Advanced Philatelics of Los Angeles, was charged in 1974 with interstate transportation of stolen property.

Ray Lundgren (56 in 1975) was owner of Century Stamp and Coin Co, of Los Angeles. He was charged with conspiracy with Michael Kirzner to distribute stolen stamps. He agreed to testify in court but was shot and killed in 1976.

Edward J. McAleney (1912-1988) of Halifax had a criminal record going back to 1930 and was involved in a 1968 Boston Brinks robbery. He pleaded guilty to one count.

Joseph Maurice McDonald (1917-1997) was suspected in the Molesworth robbery. He disappeared in October 1975 and was placed on the FBI Ten Most Wanted list. He was also wanted for questioning in the murder of Ray Lundgren. He was taken into custody on September 15, 1982. He received a six year sentence on an unrelated race-fixing scheme.

Edward S. Powell (50 in 1975) of Altadena, California, was arrested on March 18, 1975, and 340,000 stamps stolen from Jack Molesworth were recovered. He was holding them until they cooled off.

James Sims (40 in 1975) was charged with transporting stolen property across state lines and selling stolen stamps to Sam Frudakis. Like McDonald, he was a fugitive and convicted in an unrelated race-fixing scheme.

Benjamin Franklin Tilley Sr. (1909-1974) had been frequently arrested and occasionally convicted of past burglaries. He avoided prosecution in the Spellman case by dying in an auto accident on April 16, 1974.

James Bradford Tilley (1911-1989) was the brother of Ben with a long criminal record. At the time of the 1940 Census, he was in jail and in 1950 he was in prison. He was arrested based on identification by Bass from a photograph. He was probably not involved.

Donald Townsend (32 in 1974) of the California Coin and Stamp Galleries Inc, of Los Angeles was charged as a codefendant. Those charges were dismissed. He testified for the prosecution.

From all this, it appears that Arthur Barrett, Edward McAleny and Ben Tilley were organized gang members who conducted the Cardinal Spellman Philatelic Museum heist. Coin Dealer Michael Kirzner arranged the sale to Michael Bass who avoided prosecution. Prosecution of the various other coin and stamp dealers was minimal.

Several of the people involved had criminal careers much more extensive than the brief descriptions included here.

To read an earlier E-Sylum article, see:
DON CORRADO ROMANO (1903-1984) (https://www.coinbooks.org/v21/esylum_v21n40a12.html)

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