What's really amazing about this story is how few definitive facts there are about the actual crime. For a theft that is valued in the 100's of millions we know almost nothing.
In 1990, on the night of St. Patrick's two men dressed as police men gained access to the museum, tied up the guards, and took 13 paintings plus assorted artifacts from their displays. And that's about it.
Almost everything beyond that is speculation. Even what seem like basic questions like how did they gain access? Did the paintings ever leave the museum? Turn out to be hard to establish with 100% certainty. Did they trick their way in, or did they have an inside man? Did they bundle the stolen art out, or hide it in the museum grounds (granted, the later is very unlikely, but since nobody saw the paintings leave the grounds, it's a legitimate question).
This, of course, makes it a story ripe for an investigative book, and Boser has a ball with it. There are so many avenues to explore, and so many colorful characters who could have been involved that at times it seems like a Who's who of the Boston underworld: David Turner, Whitey Bulger, and the IRA all get given serious consideration as possibly being complicit in the crime or the stashing of the paintings.
I felt that despite the lack of any concrete evidence, Boser does a pretty good job and evaluating all the major suspects, and zeroing in on the most likely. His case against David Turner seemed pretty compelling to me: the robbery matches the MO he used for several other high profile robberies, and an eye witness who saw the robbers outside the museum fairly confidently ID's Turner as one of the men to Boser.
Apart from the whodunit aspect of the book, I really enjoyed the historical background on Boston, the museum, and especially on Isabella Gardner herself.Get more detail about The Gardner Heist.
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