Everyone knows (or should) about the Redfield hoard of silver dollars. This week I will report onanother sensational chapter in his story that got a lot of publicity at the time.

In 1952, LaVere Redfield lived in a fifteen room stone mansion on Mount Rose Street in Reno,Nevada, with his wife Nell and a Kerry Blue terrier named Mac. They had moved to Nevada in1935 to take advantage of a state without income tax, corporate tax or inheritance tax.

Redfield hated the IRS and distrusted banks. He also hated to have his picture taken. He dressedlike a common farmer in overalls and a plaid shirt to avoid being recognized as he walkeddowntown to gamble in the Reno casinos.

Nell and LaVere were away from home when burglars broke into their house around noon onFebruary 29, 1952. They carted off an 18 x 24 x 36 inch green safe that weighed 400-poundswith currency, securities and jewelry initially valued at $2.5 million. Newspapers claimed it wasone of the biggest thefts in U. S. history.

Redfield had an eight-page inventory of 830 banknotes that had been in the safe. These includedtwo $10,000 bills, 123 $1000 bills, 14 $500 bills, 308 $100 bills, 156 twenties, 84 tens, 57 fives,and 35 ones. The serial numbers would help solve the case. The securities were negotiable butincluded Redfield's name. The jewelry could also be identified. It would be hard to cash inwithout drawing attention.

Police jumped into action. On March 2, they issued a bulletin to be on the lookout for fivesuspects including an attractive 27-year-old blonde and four men with extensive criminalrecords. They were driving an expensive Cadillac which was a sure sign of guilt.

On March 3, the car was stopped at a roadblock near Butte, Montana, and the suspects weretaken into custody. Newspaper coverage was interesting. The woman was described as a willowyblonde 5' 7 tall and weighing 120 pounds. Heights and weights of the men were not given.Some papers carried a photo with her name but did not include names or photos of the men.Their names were published in more than a hundred newspapers around the country.

They were released the following day when it was determined they were being held in jail inElko, Nevada, at the time of the burglary. After leaving Butte, they were picked up and held inMissoula briefly. The woman complained that the newspaper descriptions were They got her age wrong, her height wrong, and listed aliases she had never used.

Within two weeks there were eight more suspects in custody. This is a brief review of theirstories which could be expanded to four more full articles in The E-Sylum.

Mrs. Marie Jeanne D'Arc Michaud (36) was a French-Canadian songwriter who married aConnecticut doctor. After a few years they went to Reno for a divorce and she chose to stay. Shemet Redfield in June 1951 and became a frequent visitor to his house and companion on hisvisits to a casino. She hatched the plot to rob Redfield. Afterward she took off to California. Shewas arrested by FBI agents on the California Limited train to Chicago and taken off at Flagstaff,Arizona. With her she had cash, jewelry and securities linked to the burglary. She attemptedsuicide with sleeping pills while in jail in Flagstaff.

Anthony Gazzigli (41) was a former Reno casino maintenance engineer. Mrs. Michaud offeredhim 50% of the take to arrange for the burglary. He explained the plan to Andreas Young andJohn Triliegi who came from Milwaukee to pull the heist. On the day of the heist, Mrs. Michaudcame to the Club Cal-Neva casino and signaled the burglars to begin.

Young and Triliegi drove to the house in a 1951 Cadillac sedan while Gazzigli parked his pickuptruck a few blocks away. The guard dog was distracted with a ham bone while the thievesentered the house. Young was supposed to crack the safe in a few minutes but could not. Thethieves took the 400-pound safe away in the back seat of the Cadillac. They took the safe to theJohnson ranch where Anthony's brother, Louis Gazzigli worked. The four men shoved the safeunder the ranch house. That evening the men took the safe into the barn and broke into it with asledge hammer. They counted the money and split it up, giving much of it to Mrs. Michaud. Thesafe was dumped down an abandoned mine shaft on Redfield property.

It was not long before a $1000 bill turned up at the Riverside Hotel. It came from what thepapers called a Mrs. Leona Mae Giordano (36) initially saidthe bill came from a nice man from Milwaukee. Later she admitted that on the morning after thecrime, Andreas Young got drunk and gave some money to her at the Harold's Club in Reno.When Young was in a fitting room at the Herd and Short clothing store, she helped herself to afew $1000 bills from an envelope in his jacket. She ran off to Los Angeles and was arrestedthere in possession of nine thousand dollar bills and one hundred. She was sentenced to a yearand a day in prison.

John Baptiste Triliegi (37) was a soap salesman with a wife and seven children. He suffered aback injury working in a Milwaukee cement plant and was receiving disability payments. Thisdid not stop him from helping to remove the 400-pound safe from the Redfield residence. Hewas sentenced to one to five years in prison.

Andreas Robert Young, (46) the incompetent safe-cracker, came from Milwaukee to commit thecrime. The FBI identified him as an ex-con who had been sentenced to life in prison in 1939 fora 1927 Wisconsin murder. He was pardoned and released in January 1946. For the Redfield case,he received a sentence of one to five years in prison.

Louis Gazzigli (44) was a bouncer and former professional boxer known as Young Firpo. Hereceived a sentence of one to five years in prison and was granted parole on March 15, 1955.

Benton Henry Robinson (65) was a handyman at the Stardust dude ranch where Mrs. Michoudfrequently stayed. FBI agents found $31,731 hidden in a pillow case. He was charged withreceiving stolen property and sentenced to four years in prison.

Frank Sorrenti, (36) a door-to-door soap salesman. was held on a federal charge of interstatetransportation of stolen property. It was his Cadillac that was used in the heist. He claimed hehad no knowledge of the crime. Eventually the charges were dropped for lack of evidence.

With trials pending in June of 1952, and a subpoena to testify as a witness, Redfield wentmissing. FBI agents issued a warrant for his arrest on June 19. He was taken into custody atSebastopol, California, and transported to Reno. When given the opportunity to get out on bail.he claimed he would rather stay in jail until trial to avoid lurking photographers.

Mrs. Michaud had an interesting defense at trial. She said there had been no burglary. Redfieldhad told her she could take the money and make it look like a burglary. They came to anagreement in his bedroom on December 28, 1951. When Redfield was asked at trial if this wastrue, he was evasive with his response. Despite her claim of innocence, she was convicted andsentenced to five years in prison.

Anthony Gazzigli recruited the burglars and organized the crime. His cooperation with theprosecution was credited for obtaining confessions and convictions. He was given probation.

Most of the loot was recovered. Some of the bills were obsolete large-size bills from the 1920'sthat would have had a collector value. Today the large denomination bills would also have acollector value. While the story of his silver dollars is well known, the dispersal of his currencyis not mentioned.

Photo credits: LaVere Redfield, Reno-Gazette-Journal; Jeanne d'Arc Michaud, The SacramentoUnion, June 26, 1952; Gazzigli, Gazzigli, Robinson, Sorrenti, Triliegi, and Young, Sidney DailyNews April 8, 1952.

To read earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
NEW BOOK: LAVERE REDFIELD: SILVER DOLLAR KING(https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n47a06.html)
REDFIELD HOARD HOUSE FOR SALE(https://www.coinbooks.org/v20/esylum_v20n09a13.html)