There was a series of thefts of stamp collections in the Boston area during 1971 to 1973. Thetotal estimate of losses exceeded a third of a million dollars. The individuals involved included anumber 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 March17, 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 400,000stamps. Joseph McDonald and James Sims were suspected of involvement in the crime. Theywere 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. CorradoRomano 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 propertyincluding coin dealer Michael R. Kirzner and his wife Julia of Cohasset. Also arrested was JamesB. Tilley of North Abington. Most of the stamps were recovered.

There was a burglary of the Cardinal Spellman Philatelic Museum on the campus of RegisCollege in Weston, Massachusetts, on March 31, 1973. The thieves cut the alarm system, enteredthrough 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 withthe series of thefts.

(36 in 1974) of Dorchester had a criminal record. He was chargedwith assault and battery in 1957. In 1969 he was arrested on the roof of a hardware store withburglary tools in his possession.

His big score came in 1980 with $1.5 million taken from the Depositors Trust in Medford. Hejoined three police officers and two other burglars to break into 755 safe deposit boxes over theMemorial Day weekend. They paid a $100,000 tribute to James Bulger who theninformed on them to the FBI. The others were brought to trial in 1986 but by then Barrett wasnot available.

In 1983 he faced charges for transporting large quantities of marijuana through Boston. In July of1983, Whitey Bulger lured Barrett to a house in Boston. There he was held at gunpoint, chainedto a chair and interrogated for hours until he gave up locations of his money. He was shot in theback of the head and buried in the cellar. Later his body was moved to another location and notdiscovered until 2000.

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

(29 in 1974) was the owner of Michael R. Kirzner Rare Coins andCosmic Coin Co. in Boston. He was the primary fence who arranged the sale of stolen stamps toother willing dealers. He pleaded guilty to one count and testified for the prosecution at trial. AsLM-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 hospitaland released.

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

Michael Bass testified at trial that Barrett claimed that he climbed a telephone pole to disarm thealarm system. Bass gave Townsend and Griffiths $500 as a finders' fee. Bass agreed to testify inreturn for lenient treatment. Authorities showed Bass photographs of 20 to 25 men with criminalrecords and asked him to identify any who were in the meetings. Those men were arrested butcharges 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.

was a convicted burglar and thief. He testified for the prosecution and was notcharged. There may have been some confusion between the names of Bucky and Buzzy.

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

(54 in 1974) of Boston had a criminal record and was arrested based onidentification of a photograph by Bass. Charges were dropped.

(46 in 1974) of Hyde Park was identified by Bass through a photobut charges were dropped.

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

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

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

(1940-1994) of Advanced Philatelics of Los Angeles, was charged in 1974 withinterstate transportation of stolen property.

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

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

(1917-1997) was suspected in the Molesworth robbery. Hedisappeared in October 1975 and was placed on the FBI list. He was alsowanted for questioning in the murder of Ray Lundgren. He was taken into custody on September15, 1982. He received a six year sentence on an unrelated race-fixing scheme.

(50 in 1975) of Altadena, California, was arrested on March 18, 1975, and340,000 stamps stolen from Jack Molesworth were recovered. He was holding them until theycooled off.

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

. (1909-1974) had been frequently arrested and occasionallyconvicted of past burglaries. He avoided prosecution in the Spellman case by dying in an autoaccident on April 16, 1974.

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

(32 in 1974) of the California Coin and Stamp Galleries Inc, of Los Angeleswas 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 organizedgang members who conducted the Cardinal Spellman Philatelic Museum heist. Coin DealerMichael Kirzner arranged the sale to Michael Bass who avoided prosecution. Prosecution of thevarious other coin and stamp dealers was minimal.

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

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