He'd been shot, if I remember, twice in the mouth, if memory serves. . This hits you anywhere, you're dead." The paintings frame was found on one of the chairs in the empty office of the museum security supervisor the next morning. Turner has denied repeatedly to reporters and in court that he had any knowledge of the heist, but he associated with known felons whose names had been tied to the crime including Robert Guarente, Carmello Merlino and Stephen Rossetti. And suddenly, they just took off a bunch of years. Anthony Amore says Reissfelder had few prospects. Seinfeld. Donna said she didn't know that the painting was a highly sought-after piece of art until years later when people from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum contacted her about the stolen collection. (Courtesy Joe Runci/Boston Globe) George Reissfelder was already seen as a celebrity when. I just want this crime against civilization to be solved, Reissfelder said. And when he got out, he was denied compensation for his wrongful conviction. Bill Reissfelder, Boston Celtics, Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President - RealGM I was finally able to move up to New Hampshire and get away from the rat race. And he grabbed me by the hair, and then-- and then-- and of course, I was stupid. And so I guess Merlino basically and maybe Reissfelder and Turner to a far lesser extent started canvassing museums in the Boston area. HORAN: As ever, suspicion clung to David Turner, but charges didnt. You know, it wasn't, "Oh, George is out. Find the origins, meaning of the Reissfelder name, photos, and more. AMORE: She'd never seen George Reissfelder in her life. You can try. And then also represents this other side of the city that is rough, and dirty, and criminal, and we have this tension that rests at the center of it all. She finally managed it in 1989. So, everything that we've seen about David Turner, he's usually the guy inside, like strong arming, like he's very aggressive. The museum and the FBI have responded skeptically to Beauchamps claims about the art. BEAUCHAMP: When he came to see me after the Gardner robbery I just looked at him and shook my head and said, "Way too much, George." It is-- it is crazy how valuable they are. He has even accompanied federal agents on the numerous searches of homes and other properties. As a young prosecutor in the early 90s, Sikellis spearheaded the State Police investigation into a cocaine trafficking ring that operated out of a Dorchester auto body shop called TRC Auto Electric. HORAN: And this is George Reissfelder, remembering his worst hard time. HORAN: Yeah, so you hear the news and you think Carmello Merlino. Although Kerry would use the case to promote his then-budding political career, Reissfelder did not use it to his advantage, returning to his bad habits of using cocaine and hanging out with criminal contacts, both of which were in full supply at Merlinos garage. Beauchamp and Reissfelder met in 1973 while they were imprisoned at MCI-Norfolk. And when these two men met, the lucky one was young and handsome and had also, it is alleged, gotten away with murder. Long narrow face. Let's just be clear, right. He had kind of a Beatle haircut very straight hair. So he offered Reissfelder, who still visited him in prison sometimes with David Turner in tow some advice. He was on the lam for three years until he was caught passing a bad check in Florida. Ive seen the painting. . Subscribe to our newsletterfor the latest updates,join our Facebook groupto discuss the investigation and if you have a tip, theory or thought,we want to hear it. Reissfelder and DiMuzio were suspected of being part of the "Merlino gang," a crew of lower-level associates with alleged ties to the Boston Mafia. He calls it the perfect vehicle to tell the story of Boston., It, in my mind, represents so much of the citys respect for art and culture, its value of learning, and the sort of really richer ideas, and then also represents, you know, this other side of the city that is rough, and dirty, and criminal, and we have this tension that, you know, rests at the center of it all.. RODOLICO: Way too much, George. RODOLICO: From WBUR Boston and The Boston Globe, this is Last Seen. And after you pass by those two it seems like an exercise in futility, but I went through the other 11 pieces. At the time of his death, Bill Russell was married to Jeannine. What did he look like back then and, you know, what drew you to him? Reissfelder was a 26-year-old father with a criminal record for armed robbery, domestic abuse against his wife and passing bad checks when he was fingered for the Oct. 14, 1966, shooting death of railway clerk Michael Shaw. His first wife left him. Reissfelder, a retired National Guard military policeman, became aware of the famed burglary after being contacted last year by Amore, who has run the investigation since 2005. Two of his closest associates have long been on the radar of those looking into the heist. Resides in Mashpee, MA. George A Reissfelder, 83. His wife allegedly told the FBI in 2010 that her husband confessed he gave two of the paintings to alleged Connecticut mobster Robert Gentile, now in his eighties. And that's it. One of them was born lucky. And this is-- was always my problem, you know. Remember the two suspects who fled TRC and crashed their car after FBI agents pursued them? George Reissfelder and Lenny DiMuzio are believed to have posed as police officers to gain access to the museum, tying up security guards and stealing 13 historic artworks by the likes of Johannes . Because I realized at that point-- I thought maybe they'd steal maybe up to five million dollars at the most, but when it turned out to be hundreds of millions, I said, "You know what type of investigation this is going to be compared to what it would have been?". We were unable to subscribe you to WBUR Today. Drug deals, illegal weapons, armored car heists, murder. We have-- we had very clear suspicions as to who that was, given he was a cooperating witness, but unfortunately we never had enough evidence to prosecute. One of the Boston detectives was John Ridlon, the uncle Charles O. Pappas, another member of Merlinos crew. The FBI claims Gentile tried to sell the paintings to an undercover FBI agent but the mobster denies any involvement. Even as that documentary aired, Santos was trying to find the courage to leave Reissfelder. HORAN: Reissfelder had not only lost 16 years of his life in prison. In details of David Turners alleged robberies, it was hard to miss the hallmarks of the Gardner heist. Jan 04, 2022, 08:02 ET. Includes Address (2) See Results. Im really disappointed to have to admit I saw that painting, but it was gone when I went to the apartment after George died in 1991. The Senior VP of the Celtics is reserved regarding his personal life. Turner alleged entrapment by the FBI and twice appealed his conviction and lost. I fought back. Ive seen it. The man who would become his cellmate, George Reissfelder, had been in since 1967, serving a life sentence for a murder he said he did not commit. Well, I was married at one time to George Reissfelder. Why? Both thieves were dead within a year of their breathtaking crime. They had all sorts of -- at the day non-digital devices, electronic devices, that could look over the fence. And you kind of have to think on your feet doing something like that. In hopes of gaining consideration for his own release, Beauchamp has cooperated with the FBI and the museum in their search for a recovery. And about 5'10", maybe 170, -75 pounds. At a press conference five years ago, the Boston FBI said that they knew where the Gardner art was taken after it was stolen. He was wanted for questioning by the police in regards to the Gardner Museum heist, the largest museum robbery in U.S. history, a case still open and featured on the TV show Unsolved Mysteries, Marks wrote. Thats my brother, said Reissfelder. Former Wife Of George Reissfelder. You could trade the paintings to, you know basically make a Hollywood film, right? He turned down our request for an interview, but Ulrich Boser spoke with him in 2007. At Boston Celtics, Bill Reissfelder has 25 colleagues including Wycliffe Grousbeck (CEO), Irving Grousbeck (Managing Partner) Industry Colleagues In the Sports industry, Bill Reissfelder has 10,918 colleagues in 650 companies located in 26 countries. Reissfelder described his brother as a follower who was hardened by his prison experience and fell in with a bad crowd upon his release. BOSER:The Gardner is the perfect vehicle to tell the story of Boston. HORAN: I guess I wonder-- Did you guys fall in love when, when he was in prison? ". If it was because of some new federal sentencing guideline, you know, decision it would be detailed in the record. The other one was middle aged and beaten down and had done hard time for a murder he didnt commit. His brother believes that Merlino and his Dorchester-based crew had a role in the death. During the same interview, Reissfelder said he believes his older brother is one of the two men depicted in new Boston Herald composite sketches of the two thieves who dressed as cops and robbed the Gardner before dawn on March 18, 1990. Reissfelder was a 26-year-old father with a criminal record for armed robbery, domestic. Crime boss Carmello Merlino, who we met in the last episode, was hardly the last best suspect to come out of a crew of criminals based in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood. George Albert Reissfelder Sr. (1901-1976) - Find a Grave Memorial Born in Boston,worked hard all his life.Married ,father of 5 children.Preceded in death by his wife Emma G(schnabel).We miss him. Robert Sikellis is the former assistant attorney general for Massachusetts who spent years in the 1990s trying to put David Turner behind bars for those crimes. BOSER:My name is Ulrich Boser, and I'm the author of "The Gardner Heist." Id love some day to own my own house. But, Steve says, there is one for two days after March 20. You have been subscribed to WBUR Today. It is still the most famous art crime in American history. At the time, organized crime members seemed excited about the idea that they could trade a stolen painting in exchange for no jail time, if they were ever caught doing more unsavory business. Celtics assistant GM Mike Zarren travels to Italy to share player tracking techniques with soccer club Atalanta. Why would a judge shave that time off the sentence of a man suspected in an at least one unsolved murder? Some believe that Merlino associates, including David Turner and Robert Guarente, were plotting the Gardner heist while the cocaine trafficking probe was underway. Witnesses told investigators they saw Reissfelder at the crime scene. He went through her stuff, looking for evidence that he couldnt trust her. Undisclosed sources in the investigation believed that the thieves the FBI identified were George Reissfelder and Leonard DiMuzio, both involved in the Merlino gang and both deceased shortly after the robbery in 1991. Robert Beauchamp, one of those contacts, has stated that Reissfelder and David Turner, another devotee of Merlinos garage, visited him often in Massachusetts state prison during this term and in the vaguest of terms told him they were planning a major robbery and asked how they might hide the valuables in the immediate aftermath. But the celebratory scene from his release date on Aug. 30, 1982, did not last for Reissfelder, then 42. 1. Several years later, Mr. Kelly and Mr. Amore said, informants drew their attention to two associates of Mr. Merlino, George A. Reissfelder and Leonard V. DiMuzio. She left the museum with a $3.6 million endowment, and her will stipulated that the . Missing among its 29 charges is that social workers beating death in 1985 the summer after Turner graduated from high school. Read more on the Gardner heist fromThe ARTery. You decide to look into George Reissfelder deeper. Their license was verified as active when we last . RODOLICO: Did you get all that? Barnicle also explores another South Shore connection: Reissfelder's sister-in-law, Donna Reissfelder. You know, you gravitate to the people that you know. In her book, Seinfeldia, Jennifer Keishin Armstrong gives the full story . I sort of grew to believe that there was always some sort of angle that he was working. RODOLICO: In the late 1980s, David Turner and George Reissfelders lives in crime converged. You have been subscribed to WBUR Today. BLANDING: When I was a staff writer at Boston Magazine, I received a letter from a prisoner. (Courtesy Boston Globe). 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