Tim White
Appearances
Criminal
Into the Vault
And the men were all stuffed into a van. There was no air conditioning in the van. They were in full jumpsuits. And it was very hot. And a lot of the guys started worrying. You know, cops were already on them. Somebody's going to rat them out. This doesn't feel right. Let's not do this.
Criminal
Into the Vault
And Dusselt just told the guys, I'm walking in that building, and you're going to come in five minutes later, and we're starting this job.
Criminal
Into the Vault
And he said, I'm looking for the safe deposit boxes of these four names. And the next thing Dussault did is he pulled out a handgun and he pushed it into the face of the owner. And the guy responded, you don't know what trouble you bring me. You have no idea what trouble you bring me.
Criminal
Into the Vault
He puts it between the hinge of one of the doors and the door next to it and just gives it a pop. And it turns out the hinges on the doors were pretty brittle. And with some brute strength, you could just pop the doors off. And that's exactly what they did. They popped off 146 out of 148 doors in that room that day.
Criminal
Into the Vault
And one of the hostages, Barbara Oliva, who I interviewed, told me it sounded like manhole covers were hitting the floor. And they'd hear hoots and hollers from the room back there. Every time another door revealed the treasures behind it, they would go crazy, right? Because they realized they've hit the jackpot.
Criminal
Into the Vault
So they, of course, went for the cash first, and they couldn't be bothered with the small bills. They left behind the ones and the fives and the tens. They took the $500 bills. They took the $100 bills, so on and so forth. That was first and foremost. They identified silver bars that someone had a stack of in their safe deposit box. They took raw gems, diamonds and and uncut stones.
Criminal
Into the Vault
They took a lot of gold coins as well. Once they were able to open the doors and see just how much they were able to get, I think it was stunning to them. They had... There's no way they could have conceived the amount of wealth that was hidden in that room. All the loot was just spilling on the floor and the men were stuffing it into, you know, giant duffel bags like hockey players use.
Criminal
Into the Vault
The trunk of the sedan almost touched the asphalt because it was so heavy in the back of the vehicle that it pushed the nose up into the air and the trunk was weighed down in the back.
Criminal
Into the Vault
Barbara Oliver told me that it was ankle to knee deep with the stuff that they left behind. So imagine what they took. So early on, the estimate was $1 million in cash and jewels and other stuff was stolen. That was the early estimate. Then it was up shortly thereafter to $4 million. But everybody knew that was just the tip of the iceberg. That's just what the government could prove, right?
Criminal
Into the Vault
Time has a funny way of letting the truth come out. And we put the conservative estimate at around $30 to $32 million in loot that was taken that day.
Criminal
Into the Vault
One thing you have to know about Chucky Flynn is he had a searing gambling addiction. So Vegas was probably not the best choice for a guy with $64,000 in a paper bag.
Criminal
Into the Vault
You know, for DeSalt, it wasn't about the money. Reporter Tim White. I mean, the money was nice, I'm sure. But it was just about the score. It was about planning the robbery. It was about executing the crime. So he's always scheming. Always scheming. Oh, he can't help himself.
Criminal
Into the Vault
And they were a couple. And Chucky Flynn's gambling got so bad that his fiancee begged him to go back to Rhode Island. And she came to Dussault saying, Chucky won't stop. He's gambling around the clock. He's losing money. He already went through all the $500 bills. And that really hit Dussault because...
Criminal
Into the Vault
He didn't get any $500 bills, neither did, to his knowledge, any of the other men that took part in that robbery. So it signaled to Dussault that Chucky had pocketed some of the money on his own and had walked away with more than $64,000 that day. But you know what? No honor among thieves. He didn't hold it against Chucky.
Criminal
Into the Vault
You got to get out of here. Take what you have left. Head back. I'm going to stick around with Karen Sponheim. We're going to tour the West Coast for a little while. And I'll, you know, I'll check back in with you. And ultimately, that's what Chucky did.
Criminal
Into the Vault
He starts calling Chucky and wondering, hey, you know, what about all the other stuff? What about the silver bars and the gold coins, all the gems? Has that been liquidated yet? Like, what's going on? I'm running out of money. I've run out of money.
Criminal
Into the Vault
Chucky keeps coming to DeSalt's aid because he loves him. I mean, they're all each other has at the end of the day.
Criminal
Into the Vault
And they're able to put the pieces together as to who some of the players were. And ultimately, they are able to get the name Robert DeSalt.
Criminal
Into the Vault
Robert Dussault was the lead gunman that went into the bonded vault that day and kicked the entire thing off. And just don't think for a second that wasn't purposeful. Guys like Robert Dussault were disposable. They were tissue paper to the New England crime family. They're going to shut him up, make sure he never talks, and they're going to kill Robert Dussault.
Criminal
Into the Vault
And Dussault did what he always does. He talked himself out of it. He was able to convince Chucky, I told you not to trust those guys, the wise guys down in Rhode Island. They sent you out here to kill me. I'm your brother. I love you. This is them. You can trust me. I'm not going to, I am not going to talk. I'm not a rat. I'm a lot of things, but I'm not a rat.
Criminal
Into the Vault
And there was a lot of tears in the car. Ultimately, Chucky believed him and said, you know what? I trust you.
Criminal
Into the Vault
His biggest mistake was he had two different IDs on him. They were both fake, but that is an immediate red flag to law enforcement.
Criminal
Into the Vault
They brought him back to the station, and ultimately they were able to narrow in that he was possibly Robert Dussault. But he was not giving that up. Providence Police, State Police hop a flight to Las Vegas. They question him. For hours they questioned him. And he's still denying that he's Robert Dussault.
Criminal
Into the Vault
Detective leans in and he says, Chucky's dead. He came here to kill you. We know it. We have sources telling us he refused to do it, so they killed him. And that was the breaking point for Robert Dussault. And it was in that moment that he...
Criminal
Into the Vault
identified himself as Robert Dussault and admitted to the crime and committed to work with law enforcement and with the government in prosecuting the people that took part in it. And his goal, too, was to also make sure that the mob boss got jammed up for the crime.
Criminal
Into the Vault
They were on a flight back from Las Vegas. They already had, they had Dussault's confession. They had him on videotape. They had agreed to protect him in the witness protection program. That was all laid out now. The ink was dry. And the detective says to Dussault, what I told you about Chucky, it's not true. He's alive.
Criminal
Into the Vault
Ultimately, Deuce's testimony got Chucky convicted, and Chucky was sentenced to life in prison for this.
Criminal
Into the Vault
Authorized by the boss himself. Everybody knew it. On the street level, they knew it. Raymond L.S. Patriarca is never charged. The government is unable to connect the dots all the way to the boss. And that speaks in large part to who he is. This planted the seeds of distrust within the crime family itself because the mob boss approved of the robbery of his own men.
Criminal
Into the Vault
of his own soldiers, his own associates from a secret bank that they were told to use because they could keep it out of the reach of the federal government, of the IRS. That started to eat away at the crime family from the inside.
Criminal
Into the Vault
He grew up in a large French-Canadian family, and who he thought was his oldest sister, he learned was actually his mother. And he was the last one to learn that. And after that, his entire world was rocked.
Criminal
Into the Vault
So my father was an investigative reporter, and he actually reported on this.
Criminal
Into the Vault
We could tell you, all the players, some who are alive, some who aren't, we couldn't tell you what happened to the lead gunman. Warts and all, he was the lead figure of our story, and we had no idea what happened to him.
Criminal
Into the Vault
I don't care how nice you are to the Department of Justice and the federal government. They will not tell you what happened to someone inside the Witness Protection Program. And so we were stuck for a long time.
Criminal
Into the Vault
And in it was an envelope. The envelope was empty, but it was addressed to my dad. The return address was a name I didn't recognize, Robert Dempsey, and it had a number on it. And it was in Colorado. And I'm looking at this envelope and I'm going, wait a minute. Dad told me the federal government got him a job at Coors Brewing. Coors Brewing is in Colorado.
Criminal
Into the Vault
There is no way my dad was pen pals with this guy in the witness protection program. That can't be real. Now, it would ring true of my father not to tell his own son because he protected his sources all the way to the end.
Criminal
Into the Vault
It took over a year, but in the mail I got this box of more than 400 pages. In the top sheet, I am not, I kid you not, the top sheet said Robert Dussault, a.k.a. Robert Dempsey. And if my mother had not shown up that day with that box and that envelope, I do not think I'd be talking to you right now. You know, we were able to find out what happened to Robert Dussault, and he didn't change a bit.
Criminal
Into the Vault
Under the thumb of the federal government, Robert Dussault did what he knew best about
Criminal
Into the Vault
And they couldn't believe that he was dead. And then the sister, one of his sisters said, well, wait a minute. When did you say he died? Tim told her it was in October of 1992. And she said, well, that's impossible. He came to our sister's, who was ultimately his mother's, funeral in 1994. It's totally possible that they were messing with us.
Criminal
Into the Vault
But there's a saying in journalism that is, if your mother says she loves you, check it out.
Criminal
Into the Vault
He loved Chucky. Chucky loved Deuce. They were best friends. They were brothers. And they were brothers in crime. They ran a mini criminal organization together, wreaking havoc together, committing crimes. And that was really how Deuce grew up. He grew up with Chucky Flynn doing these bad things.
Criminal
Into the Vault
We were able to track down the funeral director that handled Robert Dussault's funeral. And this is weird, but he recorded the funeral with a home video camera, like a VHS camera at the time, early 1990s. Which is weird, right? I mean, most people don't do that with a funeral.
Criminal
Into the Vault
And just as they're about to do that, the tape stops and then restarts again. We're not conspiracy theorists. I promise you we're not conspiracy theorists. But if there was anyone that would pull off something like this, it was Robert DeSalt.
Criminal
Into the Vault
He hadn't learned to drive yet, and that's because he spent so much time in prison.
Criminal
Into the Vault
He was always looking for things to pass the time and had decided that he wanted to get involved in a scheme to steal valuable stamps. And there was a stamp collectors club in the in the prison. And Dussault strong armed his way into the club. and made somebody he knew in the prison president of the club, basically pushed the other guys out.
Criminal
Into the Vault
And the scheme was they wanted to hold an exhibition, and they would solicit stamp collectors from all over the Northeast to send in their material, and then they would display them in locked cases, and members of the public could come and see. And Walpole had some bad press at the time, and so the warden
Criminal
Into the Vault
I thought this might be a good way to bring some good press by having – this is a community event at Walpole State Prison that Robert Dussault, a career criminal, was organizing. But some robust collectors send in their stamps to Walpole Prison, set them up on stands. And they lock the doors, you know, make sure everything is secure. And when the doors open up, their stamps are there.
Criminal
Into the Vault
People are walking around. They're seeing them. And they're taking it all in. But then some people start realizing some of the cases are empty and some stamps are missing. And some of the collectors that are there realize that their valuable stamps have vanished into thin air.
Criminal
Into the Vault
Even inside the four corners of a really tough state prison, he was able to pull off a pretty remarkable heist.
Criminal
Into the Vault
He set up the prison guard at a strip joint in Boston, plied him with booze, and then he just took off and hid out in a hotel in the Alston Brighton area of Boston while he waited for help from Chucky.
Criminal
Into the Vault
He was cryptic with Dussault about this amazing job. You know, this last good heist that they're going to pull off together. And it's going to be so lucrative. They can ride off into the sunset. But at first, Dussault didn't have a lot of... of details about what was going on, all he knew was Chucky wanted him to lead the robbery.
Criminal
Into the Vault
Because Chucky trusted Deuce more than anyone on the planet and knew that Deuce could walk into any place, with or without a gun, by the way, and just handle the situation. Very confident guy.
Criminal
Into the Vault
Dessault was like, this is bullshit. I have no interest in stealing furs. I don't care how high-end these furs are.
Criminal
Into the Vault
It really did not have a sophisticated alarm or security system because it didn't need one. It was secure in its own right.
Criminal
Into the Vault
These were boxes stuffed with the ill-gotten gains of the New England crime family, of maid members, of associates, people who ran bookmaking operations, bingo, illegal bingo operations, believe it or not. Just an absolute treasure that was hidden in there. Who would be dumb enough to rob from the mob? It would be a death sentence.
Criminal
Into the Vault
The wildest part of it all was Chucky and Dussault were assured that they had the approval of the mob boss himself to pull off this heist. Because if you didn't, you might as well sign your own death warrant.
Criminal
Into the Vault
He felt like his soldiers... The maid guys, the associates, had not been generous enough with their operations, had not been paying up that pyramid scheme, and he wanted to send them a message.
Criminal
Into the Vault
And look, he was greedy. He knew there was a lot of money in there. And so he wanted to send a message and collect the loot for himself. Once you had the okay from Raymond L.S. Patriarca, Dessault started feeling a little bit better about this job and what it could mean.
Criminal
Into the Vault
He felt a lot worse when he started meeting the people that he, the team he was going to lead, meeting the other thieves in this job. This was not Ocean's Eleven here. These were not sophisticated thieves that could crack a safe, you know, and use expert tools to pull off a big heist.