OT--Michelle, here's the latest I could dig up.
The Boston Herald
March 18, 1998 Wednesday ALL EDITIONS
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 006
LENGTH: 712 words
HEADLINE: Heist probe focuses on art of the deal
BYLINE: By TOM MASHBERG
BODY:
On the eighth anniversary of the $ 200 million Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist, investigators are still eyeballing two convicts - Myles J. Connor Jr.
and William P. Youngworth III - who say they can broker the return of the stolen art.
In recent weeks, the Herald has learned, Youngworth has recruited the aid of the Massachusetts Department of Correction, the FBI, a fellow inmate at Norfolk
State Prison and several attorneys, all in an unconventional effort to prove that he has control of the art's fate.
Working together, sources say, those parties were to have had delivered to the Gardner a postage-stamp-sized self-portrait by Rembrandt taken during the theft
eight years ago.
But the sources say that Youngworth, 38, a career con man who declared last August that he could broker the return of 11 of the 13 items robbed from the
museum, has made unconvincing excuses in recent days for not moving forward.
"It smells like just another scam," said a person familiar with Youngworth's new gambit. "He's promised many times to have the item delivered, only to make a
rationalization and back away. His credibility is at nil."
Connor, meanwhile, remains hospitalized in Missouri after suffering a heart attack 18 days ago at the Pennsylvania prison where he is serving 10 years. An
infamous art thief, the Milton-born Connor, 55, insisted before his ailment that he is in a position to oversee the art's destiny.
"Youngworth is out of the picture," Connor told the Herald before he fell ill. "I believe the art is in a very safe place."
Sources say the FBI is taking Connor's assertion seriously. In recent weeks, the agent overseeing the Gardner probe, Neil P. Cronin, has circulated a collage of
12 of the stolen items among Connor's associates and others in the local underworld.
Each of the 12 items is assigned a specific value; in all they total $ 5 million. Cronin is said to have put out word that anyone coming forth with some or all of the
loot will receive the reward money and immunity; so far, no leads have emerged.
Meanwhile, the sources say, Cronin has met several times with Youngworth, Norfolk prison officials and others as part of a parallel and somewhat bizarre ploy
to help Youngworth bolster his own claim; the plan was to have unfolded this way:
An inmate Youngworth has befriended in Norfolk, Frederick I. Pidge Jr., 47, of Millis, was to be given immunity and early parole. In return Pidge would, under
prison officials' supervision, fetch the minuscule Rembrandt etching - apparently from a hiding spot Youngworth would divulge only to Pidge.
Pidge is doing 20 years for manslaughter in the 1984 knifing death of a Hudson man. In 1987, he was implicated in a jailhouse drug ring. Sources say he has links
to organized crime. Pidge was deemed credible, sources say, because in 1973 he facilitated the return of eight Greek coins worth $ 200,000 missing from
Harvard's Fogg Museum. Pidge was, in fact, one of three men who filched the coins from a display case. He was arrested soon after, and in return for a more
lenient sentence he led state troopers to a site in the woods where the coins had been stashed, records show.
Youngworth and Pidge have been given privileges in prison, including private meetings with attorneys and others, to set the scheme in motion. At one point,
Youngworth said he was ready to move but could not do so until his lawyer, Martin K. Leppo of Randolph, returned from a visit with the stricken Connor.
Contacted yesterday, Leppo declined to comment, other than to say "some discussions" have recently gone forward. But he also said he has not visited with
Connor since the heart attack.
Al Hutton Sr., attorney for Pidge, also refused to comment, as did the FBI and the Gardner.
One month ago, Youngworth told several news organizations, including ABC and The Boston Globe, that the Rembrandt self-portrait would surface shortly. He
did so after Connor assailed him publicly for embezzling his cherished art collection, worth tens of thousands of dollars, and bounced him from a role in the
Gardner endgame.
Youngworth's only communication with the Herald in recent days was a profanity-laced note in which he said a reporter would "meet (his) fate screaming!" He
did not elaborate. |
