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Infamous America

BOSTON HEISTS Ep. 5 | Gardner Museum: “The Irish Connection”

Infamous America

Black Barrel Media

True Crime, Documentary, History, Society & Culture

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 20 August 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the first few years after the heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the FBI’s investigation follows two parallel tracks. The first to produce possible leads is the Irish Connection as the FBI examines notorious art thief Myles Connor, infamous gangster James “Whitey” Bulger, and local conman Brian McDevitt. A few tantalizing leads develop, but they end in frustration. Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join   Apple users join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes, bingeable seasons and bonus episodes. Click the Black Barrel+ banner on Apple to get started with a 3-day free trial.   On YouTube, subscribe to INFAMOUS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: hit “Join” on the Legends YouTube homepage.   For more details, please visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com. Our social media pages are: @blackbarrelmedia on Facebook and Instagram, and @bbarrelmedia on Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

The weather. Tomorrow, expect a biting cold front.

0:04.7

Hmm, how naughty. I wonder what I'll be wearing or taking off.

0:09.2

The night will be wild than untamed. Expect heavy, lashing rain that'll soak you to the skin.

0:15.1

By Monday, temperatures will rise slowly but surely reaching their peak in the afternoon.

0:21.3

Not in the mood for miserable weather?

0:23.5

Fly cheaply to Turkey with Sun Express.

0:26.4

Sun Express, non-stop sunshine.

0:30.6

On Sunday, March 18, 1990, two thieves spent 81 minutes in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum from 124 a.m. to 24 a.m.

0:52.7

As cops and robbers will both say, 81 minutes is an eternity in a

0:57.4

heist. The best publicly available data says that the average bank robbery lasts between

1:03.1

three and five minutes. Even in an overnight burglary, when the thieves are confident they've

1:08.9

disabled the alarms, 81 minutes would feel like an extraordinary length of time.

1:14.4

The movements of the thieves at the Gardner Museum, tracked by motion sensors,

1:19.4

correspond to the theft of 12 items, four paintings, five drawings,

1:24.6

a small Rembrandt etching, a bronze finial, and an ancient Chinese drinking vessel

1:30.1

called a coup. But that isn't the complete list of stolen items. In a gallery called the Blue

1:36.7

Room on the first floor, a small painting by Edouard Meney called Shea Tortoni was stolen. Its gold frame was left on a chair in the security

1:46.5

office. No other facet of the robbery has caused more confusion and speculation than the

1:52.6

Shea Tortoni. The unanswered questions are almost too numerous to count. Of all the other

1:58.6

paintings in the museum, why was the She Tortony taken? Why was its frame

2:03.7

left in the security room, rather than discarded on the floor like the frames in the Dutch room?

2:09.1

Did that act mean something? Was it a practical joke by the robbers, a kind of signal that the

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