Factual Errors in Last
Seen Podcast Episode 2
1. Opening, HORAN: “Imagine all the mistakes you’ve ever made. Now imagine that just one of them, one lapse in judgment in one millisecond in time, hung over you for all of your days to come.”
There was not one mistake or lapse of judgement made by Abath. On the contrary, there were numerous lapses in judgement: “1. Letting thieves or police into the museum at all.
2. not pressing the silent alarm or calling the police, 3. stepping away from the desk where the alarm and telephone were located, 4. failing to take note that there was no police car in view on the outside video monitor, 5. not authenticating the uniforms of the thieves, which were not real
Boston police uniforms, or noticing they were not armed, like actual police. 6. Calling the other guard down to the security station without giving him a head’s up as to the reason. We have only Abath's account of what happened during the time he let the thieves in until he decided to step away from behind the counter.
2. All of these lapses unfolded over three minutes, not milliseconds. And if Abath were involved, and there is a lot of evidence to suggest that he was then his mistake was a lapse in judgement spanning weeks or months.
3. HORAN: "The men who robbed the museum had help from the inside... and knew the police weren’t coming."
The thieves went into two of the corner galleries on the second floor without stealing or removing anything. One of the thieves went into the Little Salon, which has a view of both a main thoroughfare, The Fenway, and the legal entrance to Palace Road, a one-way street on two occasions.
One of the thieves also went into the Tapestry Room, which affords a view the Fenway and Evans Way. The Dutch Room where the lion's share of the robbery occurred has a view of Palace Road at the other end of the Museum.
A thief also passed through, and in the case of the Short Gallery, lingered in Palace Road facing galleries, where the thieves escape vehicle is believed to have remained parked below during the robbery. It could be that the primary role of the thief, who spent time in the Short Gallery, and went into the Little Salon, was that of lookout, and the theft of the finial, and Degas sketches, were crimes of impulse and opportunity.
http://gardnerheist.com/gardnertimelinegraphic.pdf
The thieves went into two of the corner galleries on the second floor without stealing or removing anything. One of the thieves went into the Little Salon, which has a view of both a main thoroughfare, The Fenway, and the legal entrance to Palace Road, a one-way street on two occasions.
One of the thieves also went into the Tapestry Room, which affords a view the Fenway and Evans Way. The Dutch Room where the lion's share of the robbery occurred has a view of Palace Road at the other end of the Museum.
A thief also passed through, and in the case of the Short Gallery, lingered in Palace Road facing galleries, where the thieves escape vehicle is believed to have remained parked below during the robbery. It could be that the primary role of the thief, who spent time in the Short Gallery, and went into the Little Salon, was that of lookout, and the theft of the finial, and Degas sketches, were crimes of impulse and opportunity.
http://gardnerheist.com/gardnertimelinegraphic.pdf
4. RODOLICO: “Why else would he [Abath] have to keep answering investigators’ questions and testify before a grand jury?"
Abath was allowed to leave and travel out of state the day of the robbery. He wrote that he went 17 years (1990-2007) “not hearing a word from the people charged with the task of solving the Gardner Museum Robbery.” Over ten years elapsed between the time of Last Seen podcast and his testimony before a grand jury. It was reported Abath was asked about the Gardner heist eve video at some point by investigators, that he didn't remember letting anyone in, he said. So Abath has not had to keep answering questions, and legally, he does not HAVE to answer any questions.
5. RODOLICO: “What if Rick Abath was the inside guy on the largest art heist in history?"
In the Gardner Heist eve video, the actions of the other guard together with and in the presence of Abath is suspicious. To ask if he was the other guy suggests that investigators have already concluded, or that anyone should conclude, that if it were an inside job that whoever helped acted alone as the inside person. This is not the case. The actions of the other guard in the Gardner heist eve video, and together Abath are suspicious.
https://twitter.com/gardnerheist/status/962728055801286658
In his book, “Loot,” Thomas McShane suggest there was a guard other than Abath, who failed a polygraph and quite without picking up his final paycheck. Page 308.
6. KURKJIAN: “And they had started their New Year’s Eve celebration at the house, typically, with a lot of drugs, and they were doing mushrooms, and he describes the goo that was made up for him and his pals."
Abath posted the story he wrote about this in 2015 and it was a Christmas Eve Party.
7. KURKJIAN: “Let me just read — and these are Rick's words — "My best friend Ed showed up just before dawn with someone we didn't know, a mousy kid who looked tweaked out on crystal meth.”
From Rick’s book excerpt: “My friend Ed showed up just before dawn with someone we didn't know. An odd squirrely kid who seemed out of place and nervous; we trusted Ed, but had no idea who the other dude was.
Nobody was tweaked out on crystal meth in Boston in 1989 and Rick Abath is someone personally acquainted enough with the drug culture of the time to know that. https://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/crystalmeth/history-of-methamphetamine.html
8. KURKJIAN: “This is ridiculous. And now Rick is on the job here for at least a year.”
Abath started working at the Gardner on June 2, 1989, less than 7 months before the heist, less than 6 months before the party.
9. HORAN: “In 2010, Rob Fisher, the assistant U.S. attorney in charge of the Gardner investigation, had an idea. Show me the security tape from the night before the robbery, when Rick Abath was also on duty. Show me that Abath opened and closed the door that night, and I’ll believe that he did it as a matter of course.”
Fisher was not the U.S. Attorney in charge of the Gardner investigation in 2010. Brian Kelly was.
10. They did not start looking at the video in 2010, but 2013.
"The tape was collected just after the theft, but it is unclear whether it had ever been reviewed before 2013. United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz said in a telephone interview that the prosecutor who took over the case about two years ago, Robert Fisher, pulled it from the stacks of Gardner evidence at the F.B.I. and viewed it during a 'complete re-examination of the case.' Tom Mashberg New York Times 8/7/15
11. HORAN: "Who is it [the person in the Gardner heist Eve] video?"
AMORE: “It’s a person we’ve identified and we are absolutely certain that his entry was not connected to the heist in any way, shape or form.”
HORAN: “Anthony Amore won’t ID the night-before visitor. But three former security guards we interviewed confirmed his identity, as well as a source close to the investigation. The man in question was the Gardner Museum’s deputy director of security.”
The security supervisor was Lawrence O'Brien from Somerville, MA. Now deceased, O’Brien was still alive when investigators began reviewing the video in 2013.
The Boston Globe reported in 2015 that the theory that it was O'Brien was "discounted by investigators" and that his own brother and two other co-workers said it was not him. So now Last Seen is casting aspersions on not only O’Brien, a Viet Nam vet, and retired Lieutenant Colonel, who was THE first responder to the Gardner heist robbery, but also his brother.
O'Brien was 5'6" according to his driver's license. Abath in the video is standing behind that counter across from the visitor. If the visitor, who is significantly taller than Abath is 5"6,” then Abath, would have to be 4’11.”
There was a photo of O'Brien that ran in the Boston Globe that was taken just a few days after the Heist and O'Brien did not have the close-cropped hair cut on the sides that the visitor in the video has. He does have his collar up, but the visitor's coat is waist length and O'Brien's coat is longer and is a darker color.
Picture of the video visitor from WBUR:
From this news story:
A Picture of Larry O'Brien that appeared in the Boston Globe the Wednesday following the Heist taken the previous day.
BostonGlobe.com Slide 13 of 15.
12, HORAN: “In other words, once the thieves walked in the door the night of the robbery, the museum was essentially theirs for the taking.”
This bears repeating because if you say it often enough it might become true by magic or something, that seems to be the thinking here, because it is patently not true. After they were in, the guard could have pressed the silent alarm, called 911 or warned the other guard about the visitors in the Museum, or run. A good deal of effort, by the thieves, went into persuading the guards it was not worth it to do anything.
