The amazing Kate Casey.

Welcome back for another episode of Reality Life with Kate Casey and welcome back for the Saturday series episode.

Today I'm joined by writer Jennifer Cannon, and her story takes us back to Los Angeles in the early 1960s.

A time when the city was growing fast, money was flowing freely and some of the wealthiest families

in the country were building homes high above the city. These were not just houses, these were estates,

tucked into Bel Air and Truesdale estates with long driveways, staff on hand, and a sense of

privacy that made people feel untouchable. Many homeowners traveled often. Palm Springs for the

weekend, Europe for the summer. The assumption was that these were homes that were secure simply because of

where they were. Well, that assumption turned out to be wrong. In a short period of time, a series of

burglaries targeted some of Los Angeles's most prominent residents.

Jewry was taken from the home of real estate developer Paul Truesdale, and even more from

the estate of Arnold Kirkaby, a hotel and real estate magnate whose Bel Air property would later become

famous as the exterior of the Beverly Hillbillies home. The thefts happened in broad daylight.

In one case, household staff were inside the home,

in another a butler slept in the gatehouse.

There were no dramatic break-ins,

just carefully planned entries,

and jewelry that vanished without a trace.

Altogether, more than $300,000 worth of jewelry was gone, which was an enormous

sum at the time. Police believed the robberies were connected and eventually focused on three

suspects. One of them was identified as the ringleader, a man named George Dordigan, and he was arrested

at a San Francisco motel where he was running a catering

...