First published 2000
Phil Cresta orchestrated the famous Brink's armored truck heist and dozens of other major robberies that stumped police for decades. Born in Boston's North End in 1928, he grew up in an abusive home and learned lockpicking at reform school. His criminal expertise expanded during prison stays at Charlestown and Walpole. After the 1968 Brinks job landed him on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List, Cresta vanished for five years, hiding in Chicago under a false identity. He died broke in 1995, but not before revealing his complete criminal history to retired Boston detective Bill Crowley. Author Brian P. Wallace draws on those detailed conversations to reconstruct Cresta's career. Working with partners Angelo and Tony, Cresta targeted jewelers, coin dealers, furriers, and armored vehicles through carefully planned operations. The book exposes a world populated by mob bosses, informants, corrupt officials, and even a Hollywood actress and Chicago's mayor. Wallace presents the true stories behind unsolved cases that baffled law enforcement and fellow criminals alike.
Genres: historical-fiction, mystery, crime, non-fiction
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: true-story, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Boston, Massachusetts, Chicago
Period: 20th-century
239 pages · Hardcover · Northeastern University Press