City Life

The Last Good Heist is a PVD Crime Epic

The new book chronicles the biggest heist in the history of the Northeast

East Side Monthly Magazine ·

The Hudson Fur and Leather Center sits quietly on Cranston Street, its brick facade giving little indication that back in the day it was home to the, according to WPRI’s Tim White, “biggest single payday in the criminal history of the Northeast.” The Last Good Heist – written by Tim and former Providence Journal reporters Randall Richard and Wayne Worcester – brings the sordid saga to life in all of its pulpy, page turning glory.

In 1975, a crew busted into Hudson Fur which, in addition to storing your fine mink coats in the summer, was quietly leasing safety deposit boxes to the city’s criminals. One hundred and forty six safety deposit boxes were raided, and all the cops could prove was that $4 million in loot was stolen. The reality was that the crew made off with $32 million in jewels, silver ingots and cash in denominations that would make your head spin. All in all it was about $140 million in 2016 dollars. Eat your heart out, Lufthansa Heist.

“They had trouble calculating how much was taken because no one was willing to give an honest assessment. It was all ill-gotten gains,” explains Tim, who grew up fascinated with the heist thanks to his father’s work covering the story for the Journal. Randall and Wayne were there as well, and their firsthand experience with the city and the old Journal bring Providence’s golden age of gangsters to life with an authenticity that couldn’t come from anyone else but a couple of boots on the ground beat reporters.

However a certain element may have preferred the whole thing just stayed a memory.

“The 41 year anniversary was [in August] and there are people who are still scared to talk to you about it because of the names that were associated with it,” says Tim.

The Last Good Heist is snapshot of a Providence that doesn’t exist anymore, and a must for anyone curious about the good old days of mob rule. But if a scary looking dude with no neck approaches you while you’re reading it in public, we suggest you take it on the arches, pronto.

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