The Gardner Museum Heist Basement Crime Scene (Part 5) Final

A Historical Examination of the Gardner Museum Heist's Basement Crime Scene  

Link to Part One

Was Abath really imprisoned in the Museum basement like the other guard? At least 13 minutes passed between the time the two thieves split off into different sections of the museum basement, each with one of the security guards in their custody, and when they were first detected in a Museum gallery, the Dutch Room. That was plenty of time for the thief, who escorted Abath away from the other security guard to remove the tape and handcuffs from him and then make his way to the second floor gallery with Abath along perhaps as a lookout. And since the other security guard was being taped up as well, that guard was not in a position to know to what extent Abath had actually been taped up in the first place.

There is nothing about the way Abath is taped and handcuffed in the basement in the police photo that could not have been done by Abath himself, acting alone.  Unless there was in fact tape over Abath’s handcuffs in which case the thieves had time to re-handcuff and re-tape Abath after they left the galleries for the last time. 

One possibility is that Abath was taped and handcuffed for more like five minutes than five hours, and that were was a re-taping and re-handcuffing carried out by Abath himself at some point after the thieves had left.  This seems more consistent with Abath’s physical state as shown in the Boston Police Crime scene photos and the fact that he drove to Harford, CT to see a Grateful Dead concert later that night.

These possible questions might render Abath’s alibi for the time when the crime is going on right upstairs something less than air tight.

Furthermore, with the ability to speak and see and with the potential to at least partially free his legs there was nothing to keep Abath seemingly from getting up, making his way upstairs and finding a way to bring attention to himself, by breaking a window or something in the five hours after the thieves had made their escape.

From the robber’s standpoint, if Abath were involved, what would be the point of keeping him tied up in the basement, when he could serve as a lookout or a diversion if unwelcome visitors entered the museum unexpectedly?

Verisimilitude would be one motive. For the sake of appearances it would be helpful if Abath looked as distressed and bedraggled as the other guard when police arrived. 

But the thieves showed little concern for being found out by investigators in the long run, though certainly they took great care in making their actual escape with the paintings.

Also it would be difficult for any human being to allow someone to tie them up and leave them in a basement voluntarily under any circumstances, especially in a criminal conspiracy, for seven hours. That would require a level of trust few have for any other person, never mind, a person who is part of a criminal plot of the magnitude and potential danger of the Gardner Heist.

So the top two most likely possibilities then are either Abath tied himself up after the thieves left, at a time of his own choosing, and was himself in on the caper, or he was tied up by the thieves for seven hours and was not in on it, but a victim as he claims.

Abath's physical state when he was found given his age, temperament and lifestyle would suggest a more visible expressions of duress than shown in the police photos taken of him, after what would have been  seven hours. The photos of the other guard, which could serve as a basis for comparison have never been released.

There is also the issue of the location of where he was found. As security director Anthony Amore pointed out in a talk he gave at the Strand Book store in New York in June of 2013, Abath was found:

"All the way down that hall is where he [Abath] was chained up. And that's an important clue actually about the comfort level that these thieves had. This building is a hundred years old at the time, when they built buildings like this, they didn't have the fire codes you have now. There weren't all the different points of egress you have to have and all of these important little details in the building. Thieves who weren't  comfortable in a facility  would not go into a basement, down into the corner like this because  they knew if the police were coming, there's no way out. You're cornered.  So they knew the cops weren't coming. To go down into the corner like that is a dangerous endeavor for a thief who doesn't know how far behind the police are." 

The robbers would have to have a comfort level not only with the facility but with whole city of Boston to go into the basement corner, with certainty that the police were not coming, something they most definitely did not have. There is this consistent refrain: "They knew the police were not coming," but they really only knew that the police were not coming as a result of the Abath pressing the silent alarm connected to the police station. But the Museum Director Anne Hawley was known to pop into the Museum late at night and told Ulrich Boser wrotes in The Gardner Heist that: After the meal she wanted to go to the Gardner to pick up some papers but her husband dissuaded her. 'I wish we had come to the museum. I was married to a very tall and husky Australian who, I was always convinced, would have done the thieves in,' she said. 'But the FBI told me that we probably would have just been shot.'" The comfort level of the thieves suggests they had a lookout and a lookout who is also a guard would be ideal. He could claim later that they had threatened to kill the other guard if he did not cooperate. 

Robberies, not burglaries, but robberies, where people have to be subdued and controlled involving more than one floor of a building are extremely rare, almost nonexistent. The Gardner Heist had crime scenes on three floors, including the basement.   

The thieves did not start to leave the building until 13 minutes after they left the galleries for the last time, which suggest they were cautious about anything unexpected from outside.  

Lingering in the back corner of the basement to confine a guard was an unacceptable and unnecessary risk. There had to be places in a four story building to confine a guard that was not lacking a ready exit. The thieves demonstrated they were very familiar with the layout of the building. They did not need to be shown the way to the basement for example, and knew about a secret door in the Dutch Room.

But if the guard tied himself up then it was a desirable spot, since it offered the most privacy and the most time to prepare as rescuers made their down to the basement.

Once again the crime scene photos do not show Abath chained to anything and all of the handcuffs and duct tape involved in the crime were lost by the FBI at some point after it was turned over to them by the Boston Police Department.   

Seven hours without food, water, a bathroom break, nicotine, caffeine or diversions of any kind, would take its toll on anyone: “And I was just, like, cut me off this F-ing box, because my hands had fallen asleep a long time ago,“ Abath said about his reaction to the impending end of his confinement.

Another important question: What about the many items found near and around Abath, which surrounded him in the basement, like a group of idol offerings:

An open Swiss Army knife type pocket knife can clearly be seen directly behind Abath in one of the Boston Police photos, as well as an open book of matches at his side. There appears to be another closed book of matches nearby and possibly candy wrappers, and maybe a Hershey’s kiss, unwrapped, in purple aluminum foil.  An unwound coat hanger found near the candy machine by first responders suggests it had been broken into during the night. One possibility is that Abath was hurriedly rummaging through his fanny pack to find the pocket knife so he could quickly cut the duct tape into strips and tie himself up.  

The assortment of items found around Abath, some with the potential for mischief as well as escape, which are clearly visible in the police photograph, have not only never been explained, they have never been reported or even acknowledged. Surely the thieves at least by the time of their return visit to the guards would have noticed the knife or the matches close by, or the large bamboo stick. They would have seen these items, understood the potential risks and removed them from his vicinity.  

Studies show close to 90% of museum robberies worldwide are inside jobs. These items would presumably have increased the suspicion and scrutiny of Abath by investigators. Seemingly they did not.

A security consultant for the Gardner Museum at the time of the robbery, Steven R. Keller, who was had been "a former police detective in a major city" has raised the possibility that one of the guards may have been freed up in the basement to help with the robber. 

Still another item found near Abath in the basement of the Gardner Museum is Abath’s own black Stetson hat. Abath was known to sometimes wear his hat on the job, however, numerous accounts report that Abath was handcuffed and taped upstairs. Was he wearing his hat when he was handcuffed? He was handcuffed first and then duct taped. The thieves would have to remove his hat to tape his head. The hat could not have made it downstairs without the assistance of the thieves. Was this an inexplicable random act of kindness by the robbers, or does the appearance of the hat in the Gardner Heist crime scene downstairs  link Abath to the Gardner Heist crime scenes upstairs?

Only two and a half months prior to the Gardner Heist it was made public that Charles Stuart was not a gunshot victim in the armed robbery that had taken the life of his pregnant wife, Carol DiMati Stuart, in Boston, on October 23, 1989.

This tragic crime that gripped the city and the nation, which began just a short distance from the Gardner Museum took a shocking turn. It turned out that Stuart had shot his wife himself, then shot a bullet into his own stomach, as part of an elaborate ruse to draw suspicion away from himself in the killing.

Could Abath’s victimization at the hands of the Gardner Museum robbers also be a hoax? There appears to be little tying (pun intended) Abath to the basement of the Gardner for the duration of the time between the robbery and the arrival of museum staff the next morning, based on the photographic evidence. There is only Abath’s own say-so, and the inconsistent second hand accounts of investigators, whose words remain tempered by the ups and downs of the public aspects of the investigation and art recovery effort. 



Gardner Museum Heist Timeline

1:24 AM - two men dressed as police officers arrive and are let in by a security guard
1:24-1:48 – one or both of the two guards are overpowered and confined to the basement
1:48 - thieves enter Dutch Room
1:51 - one thief goes to the Short Gallery
1:54 - alarm sounds in Dutch Room;
1:56-2:26 - one thief in Dutch Room, one in Short Gallery
2:28-2:40 - unknown; detectors do not register movement
2:41 - doors open and close
2:45 - doors open and close

“Anatomy of a Heist” Boston Globe 2005 (Timeline-Graphic) March 13,2005

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