The Gardner Heist Investigation In The Media (Part III)

The initial reaction to the release of the surveillance video by one long time professional Gardner Heist investigation follower, the Boston Globe’s Stephen Kurkjian, was soon broadcast on: CBS: 

"The night watchman has somewhere in his cranium the knowledge of the  identity of one of the two thieves."

Within a few months Kurkjian had stepped back from that unequivocal conclusion, though clearly the unauthorized visitor’s actions and behavior were at least suspicious. Why else release the video? But then, when in the history of law enforcement have  suspicious individuals, (The unauthorized visitor and Rick Abath) been shown on a surveillance tape shared with the public, only to be described in such bland and obfuscating terms?

Kurkjian wrote in his book  on the case, Master Thieves “the FBI took possession of all the museum’s security equipment and surveillance reports soon after the robbery and has declined to answer questions about Abath’s actions that night or on prior shifts.” 

And nothing changed with the release of this video to the public, showing Abath’s actions on a prior shift.The Boston Globe reported that the video release “refocuses the spotlight on Richard Abath." 

By journalists perhaps, but if by investigators, they were not saying so at that point.

“Investigators carefully avoided suggesting what the release of the video seems to imply,” Tom Mashberg for the New York Times reported, “that his [Rick Abath’s]  actions are again being scrutinized as part of the investigation.”   

“This is one of the first steps we’ve taken [to try and get] the public’s help,” Peter Kowenhoven, an assistant special agent in charge of the FBI in Boston said, but all discussion,  by investigators in the media, what little there would be, was tightroped on the single topic of the identity of the visitor, something that was not described as something terribly important.

Vincent Lisi told Kevin Cullen of the Globe, FBI agents who investigated the case had been aware of the video for years, though Anthony Amore said a few days later that investigators had never been told by Abath that he had let someone in the night before. 

Abath had been interviewed (for the first time in 17 years back in 2007) and testified before a grand jury in 2010.  Had the guard who let the thieves in the following night been asked about the unauthorized visitor he let in the night before on either of those two occasions? At the time the videtaped evidence was initially collected by the FBI in 1990? Ever?

Broadening the story for a short time, to include the implication of Abath’s possible involvement, was fueled a bit by a story in boston.com by Hilary Sargent:  

“A source close to the investigation told boston.com authorities are looking into whether the video may show a dry run for the crime, committed a day later,” she reported.   

From there, the parent company of boston.com, the Boston Globe, in a story by Milton Valencia, that same day reported that: Law enforcement officials are now questioning whether the suspicious actions constituted a dry run for the heist.” Soon the dry run theory was quickly picked up by news outlets beyond the Boston area and outside of the United States. 

But two months later, at a personal appearance in Providence, RI,  while promoting his newly published book the Art Of the Con, Gardner Museum security chief, Anthony Amore, turned the dry run theory into a humorous anecdote, one which earned a good laugh from those in attendance.  He had been the “source,” Amore said, who had used the term “dry run,” in an offhanded remark to a reporter. It did not really reflect his views upon greater reflection, but by then it had already been picked up by numerous media outlets.

  

On the day after the video’s release FBI’s Kowenhoven spoke again, this time to the Associated Press in a story that garnered national attention. Again agent Kowenhoven did not mention the surveillance tape directly. He instead pivoted from the who (the thieves) to the what (the stolen art). 

“With the thieves dead, ‘all our investigative efforts are being guided toward the recovery of this art,’ Kowenhoven said.  

And that was the last time any FBI special agent spoke publicly about the surveillance video at the center of this crowdsourcing campaign.

But that wasn’t quite the end. Four days later, George Burke, a former district attorney for Norfolk County, told the Patriot Ledger that he had a client, who could identify the visitor in the video.  

“He’s deathly afraid of being killed,” Burke said. The attorney faxed the U. S. Attorney, whom he had not yet heard back from when he contacted a reporter. The client threw in a couple of familiar Gardner Heist names too.  Old Gardner Heist suspects William Youngsworth, and Myles Connor were associates of the guy Burke said, effectively  taking the narrative right back back to where it was before the video was released. 

The U.S. Attorney had said the hope was that releasing the video would “lead to some information, to some people we haven’t thought of before,” but now the story was back in  the FBI’s comfort zone, local thugs.

“We will take all our leads seriously,’’ said FBI spokeswoman Kristen Setera, who declined to comment on Burke’s tip. “We will follow up on each and every one of them,’’ she said, a statement seems more in line with what a customer service rep for the electrical company would say after a wind storm, than something someone whose mission it is to encourage people to call in with information.

Talking Points For FBI's Call To Inaction  the Gardner Heist Eve surveillance tape. 

It’s low quality “The FBI tried unsuccessfully to get the low-quality footage enhanced at one of its labs, according to Kristen Setera, an FBI spokeswoman.”  CNN 8/12/15

It’s no big deal. “This is not an a-ha moment.” Releasing the video was “part of a standard review of an unresolved.” case, FBI Special Agent in Charge of Boston, Vincent Lisi Boston Globe 8/9/2015

It was a museum burglary “Historic Footage Connected to Gardner Museum Burglary Released - Public Assistance Sought” was the headline of the U.S. Attorney’s released Statement.  The Gardner Museum robbery was more than a burglary. “At the Gardner they tied up the guards; it was a violent crime." Tron Brekke FBI Boston ASAIC Source: Boston Globe 5/13/90. With all of the historic true crime stories competing for the attention of the media consumer, why understate the nature of the crime? 

It’s not one of the two thieves.  “We want to find who else might have information to lead us to recovery of artwork.” Peter Kowenhoven, the FBI assistant special agent who has overseen the Gardner investigation since 2013.  8/6/90

It’s not even a suspect. “Maybe this individual who was in the museum had some information. If we can identify him – if he’s still alive – we can see what he knows.’’ Peter Kowenhoven  FBI assistant special agent  8/6/90

"The Thieves are dead"   FBI agent Peter Kowenhoven FBI assistant special agent 8/7/15

You can’t even see his face. Vince Lisi, special agent in charge of the FBI in Boston, said one of the reasons the video was not released sooner is that the FBI did not initially believe anyone could recognize the man who entered the museum, because his face is never seen on camera. Boston Globe 8/6/2015

What does this have to do with recovering the paintings? “We hope it generates something, but the focus is on recovering the paintings.” -- Vince Lisi, special agent in charge of the FBI in Boston Boston Globe 8/6/2015

It’s dangerous  “He’s said he’s deathly afraid of being killed,” Georg Burke, former Norfolk County prosecutor and attorney representing someone who said they could identify the person in the video. 

It’s the same old same old.   Burke said he knew [Myles] Connor well, having recovered another stolen Rembrandt from him many years before the Gardner heist. “It’s kind of amazing to me,” he said. “It has a sense of coming full circle.” Attorney Georg Burke Patriot Ledger 8/10/2015 

Of course the FBI is not responsible if newspapers decide to print second hand information, even if it happens to be based on word from a former county prosecutor, who had worked with Federal Investigators in a historic recovery of a Rembrandt previously.  If this story or others that came out in the initial “frenzy” of the first few days it could serve as an opportunity sharpen their own message and purpose, but after 100 hours of crowd sourcing……:

Our spokeswoman is handling that now  “We will take all our leads seriously,’’ said FBI spokeswoman Kristen Setera, who declined to comment on Burke’s tip. “We will follow up on each and every one of them,’’ she said four days after the tapes release.  

They’re getting lots of credible leads already. Speaking of the George Burke tip: I would say it's compelling. But we've received a number of compelling leads.

Anthony Amore, Gardner Museum Security Chief, member of the Gardner Heist investigative team.  Greater Boston WGBH  8/11/2015

Thinking is hard "Whenever we uncover something, it seems like it's never an 'aha moment.' There are always more questions to answer," Anthony Amore was quoted in the Hartford Courant the very day the video was released, his pessimistic grumbling the opposite of encouraging people to look at the video.  

And then was it back to investigating like it was 1990, without community engagement, in an office some place, presumably fielding an avalanche of credible leads, with the occasional terse we’re on it statements by spokespeople to persistent inquiries from journalists.  

The video had been “discovered” by Robert Fisher at the U. S. Attorney’s office two years prior to the public release. The Boston FBI’s Peter Kowenhoven, said he had personally viewed the surveillance video, a year earlier. And though the Garder Heist 25^th anniversary of the robbery had been just six months earlier when interest was quite predictably at a twenty five year high,  the video was made public during the slowest news month of the year. It was also  the same month that the Head of the FBI’s Boston office, Vincent Lisi, retired.  

Three and a half months after the video’s release, the Globe ran an article by Stephen Kurkjian and Milton Valencia called “Gardner heist video brings in tips, but no solid leads” The FBI still did not know who the visitor was at that point, they said, but the Boston Globe story looked at the possibility that the visitor was a Gardner Museum security supervisor named Lawrence P. “Larry” O’Brien. A retired Army Lt. Colonel and Viet Nam vet who died in 2014. The O’Brien theory was based on the statements of four former Gardner Security guards from the time of the robbery.  They had viewed the video and believed the person looked like him.  

At 6:45, on the morning of the robbery this same seucrity supervisor, Larry O’Brien was called from a guard coming to the Gardner Museum to take  the morning shift, but who could not get in the building. O’Brien was on the scene from at the Museum in Boston from his home in Somerville, MA in ten minutes, according to Master Thieves. Larry O’Brien was THE first responder.  A lifelong resident of Somerville, the 5’6” O’Brien was 53 years old at the time of the robbery.

Though the article did state that the possibility that the person was Larry O’Brien had “been discounted by investigators,” even for this war veteran. who had served his country as well as the museum with distinction, the FBI would not engage on the topic of the video with any specificity:  

“Kristen Setera, a spokeswoman for the FBI, said the agency ‘has followed up on all leads, including the one involving Mr. O’Brien.’ She said she could not elaborate on the investigation.”

The article also reported “The four [security guard] said they had not been contacted by investigators, though Galas said she called an FBI hot line.” 

Evidently the exhaustive effort to identify the visitor in the video did not include seeking input from people who worked there at the time, or even making sure they saw the video.  (The museum’s head of security at the time of the robbery, Lyle Grindle, was invited to view the video about a month before its release.

But "the FBI still hasn't reached out,” Marjorie Galas, one of the guards in the Globe story, said on July 14, 2017, unaware that nearly two months earlier  the Boston Globe, and only the Boston Globe reported that:

“Last week, in response to inquiries from the Globe, [FBI Spokeswoman Kristen Setera] said investigators have identified the man, but declined to name him publicly or say whether his admission to the museum is considered suspicious.” 

On December 6, 2015, CBS Good Morning did a special double-segment on "The Heist of the Century" "Twenty-five years later, Abath now lives a quiet life in Vermont. We went there hoping he might be willing to talk about that video," Erin Moriarty explained, while illustrating that he "he wasn't" in a most dramatic fashion. 

Although the program included interviews with the Museum's Security Chief Anthony Amore and Boston FBI Special Agent Geoff Kelly, they did not discuss the video either. And since the first 100 hours after it was made public, federal investigators have shown no greater willingness to discuss the video than Rick Abath.

On scale of one to ten you would half to give the FBI's support of this second social media initiative by the U. S. Attorney for Massachusetts a minus two. As Stephen Kurkjian observed: "There's a major disconnect between what the US attorneys office wants to get done and the approach that the feds take in an investigation."