Bonded Vault Heist: The Robbery, Trial, and Patriarca Link

The Bonded Vault heist was an August 14, 1975, armed robbery of a Providence, Rhode Island safe-deposit facility that doubled as the Patriarca crime family’s private bank. A crew of masked men pried open 146 of 148 boxes and walked out with cash, gold, silver, gems, rare coins, and jewelry belonging largely to mobsters and their associates. Estimates of the take range from $2 million to more than $30 million in 1975 dollars, and the job remains the largest heist in Rhode Island history.¹

The Mob’s Own Bank

The Bonded Vault Company operated inside the Hudson Fur Storage building at 101 Cranston Street in Providence.² On the surface it handled furs. Underneath, roughly 148 oversized safe-deposit boxes functioned as an off-the-books bank controlled by New England crime boss Raymond L.S. Patriarca. Associates and fellow mobsters used the vault to stash cash, gems, gold bars, and other valuables they wanted kept outside the formal banking system.³ Investigative reporter Tim White later called it one of the safest places in New England to hide illicit wealth, because robbing it was considered tantamount to a death sentence.⁴

Who Planned It and Why

By 1975, Patriarca was in a federal prison in Atlanta. The government’s chief witness, Robert “Deuce” Dussault, later testified that Patriarca was displeased his soldiers were not sending sufficient tribute, and that he sanctioned the robbery from behind bars to recoup what he felt he was owed.⁵

The man identified as the mastermind was John Ouimette, a member of his brother Gerard T. Ouimette’s faction, which operated under Patriarca. John Ouimette was not a made member of the family but played the organizational role.⁶ The crew he assembled was a mix of French-Canadian, Irish, and German criminals, led on the ground by Charles “Chucky” Flynn.⁷

The heist was originally scheduled for August 13 but pushed back a day. According to Dussault, Patriarca’s son “Junior” intervened to ensure a machine gun stored in one of the safe-deposit boxes was removed before the crew went in.⁵

The Morning of August 14, 1975

Shortly after 8 a.m., a group of men arrived at the Hudson Fur Center in a stolen green van carrying satchels, crowbars, and drills. Court records describe nine masked men entering the facility, though other accounts refer to seven or eight.⁸ Dussault, the lead gunman, went in first with a .38-caliber revolver. He ordered a female employee and several other workers to put pillowcases over their heads. The pillowcases were reportedly thin enough that the hostages could see through the fabric.⁵

With the employees restrained at gunpoint, the crew went to work. They pried open 146 of the 148 boxes and filled their satchels with cash, precious stones, precious metals, rare coins and stamps, jewelry, and silver bars.⁹

How Much Was Actually Taken

The total has never been settled. Prosecutors put the figure at approximately $4 million at trial.⁸ The Mob Museum, which ranks Bonded Vault as the third-largest heist in American organized crime history, notes estimates ranging from $2 million to $30 million.¹

The number is elusive for a reason. Because the box-holders were mobsters and their associates, most had no interest in reporting what they had lost, and many of the valuables were themselves the proceeds of crime. The authors of The Last Good Heist, journalists Tim White, Randall Richard, and Wayne Worcester, estimated the 1975 value at roughly $30 to $32 million, which would translate to well over $100 million in inflation-adjusted terms.⁴¹⁰

How the Case Broke

Early progress was slow. The FBI, Rhode Island State Police, and the U.S. Attorney’s office in Providence all worked the investigation, but key individuals refused to cooperate, and an unnamed state police captain doubted enough evidence existed to indict Patriarca himself.³

Dussault broke it open. After the robbery he reportedly burned through about $64,000 of his share gambling and traveling. On November 2, 1975, the Providence Journal reported that Dussault was seeking a deal with investigators while in Las Vegas. The publicity enraged the mob, and a contract went out on his life.⁵

The crew sent Chucky Flynn, Dussault’s childhood friend and fellow heist participant, to Las Vegas to kill him. Flynn could not go through with it. Dussault talked his way out of the assassination, and Flynn returned without completing the job.¹¹ Flynn was then killed by other accomplices for his failure. An investigator convinced Dussault that the mob had murdered Flynn as a warning, and Dussault agreed to cooperate.⁵

In January 1976, Dussault was interviewed by the FBI in Las Vegas, admitted to participating in the robbery, and identified other members of the crew.³ He entered the federal Witness Protection Program, was relocated under a new identity as “Robert Dempsey,” and given employment at Coors Brewing.¹²

The Trial and Verdicts

The trial began April 12, 1976, in Rhode Island Superior Court before Judge Anthony A. Giannini. Six men faced charges: John Ouimette, Charles Flynn, Ralph S. Byrnes, Gerald M. Tillinghast, Jacob Tarzian, and Walter Ouimette. The counts included conspiracy, robbery, kidnapping, possession of burglary tools, entering a building with intent to rob, and weapons offenses.¹³

Dussault was the government’s chief witness. His testimony provided the core narrative for the prosecution, including the claim that Patriarca sanctioned the heist from prison and that Junior Patriarca postponed it by a day. The case became the longest and most expensive robbery trial in Rhode Island history, with the jury sequestered for 79 days.⁹

Verdicts came in on August 12, 1976. Flynn, John Ouimette, and Byrnes were convicted. Tillinghast, Tarzian, and Walter Ouimette were acquitted.⁵ Flynn and Byrnes were convicted on four counts of robbery, five counts of kidnapping, and one count each of entering a building to commit robbery, possession of burglar tools, possession of a pistol during a violent crime, and conspiracy. Flynn faced additional counts for unlawful firearm possession and assault with a dangerous weapon. Ouimette was convicted on one count of conspiracy and one count of aiding and abetting as an accessory before the fact.¹³

Two additional defendants, Lawrence M. “Mitch” Lanoue and Robert S. MacAskill, had their charges dismissed in 1985 after the state failed to provide a speedy trial.¹⁴

What Happened to the Convicted

John Ouimette was initially sentenced to life in prison as the robbery’s architect. A three-judge panel later reduced the sentence to 45 years, with 15 years suspended and 15 years of probation, meaning 30 years of actual incarceration.⁸ On June 19, 1984, the Rhode Island Supreme Court affirmed the 45-year sentence, rejecting arguments that it was disproportionate or cruel and unusual.

Ouimette ultimately served about ten years before his conviction was overturned. While at the Adult Correctional Institutions, he and his brother Gerard were described as effectively running the facility, with privileges that included delivered alcohol, marijuana, and lobster dinners. In 1994, after his release, Ouimette was sentenced to six months in federal prison for defrauding an insurance company. He died at 75 in hospice care, with his death reported in March 2017.⁶

Gerald Tillinghast, the Patriarca enforcer acquitted at trial, went on to serve nearly three decades in prison for the 1978 killing of mob loan shark George Basmajian. He was paroled in 2007 and later died in hospice.¹⁵

Dussault spent years under his alias in Witness Protection. He was eventually imprisoned again on unrelated charges and died while incarcerated.¹²

Why Patriarca Was Never Charged

Raymond Patriarca was never formally charged in connection with the Bonded Vault robbery, despite Dussault’s testimony that he ordered it from prison. In a January 1976 interview with an FBI special agent, Patriarca flatly denied any involvement: “I can die right now and be placed in my grave, I swear to you that I don’t know any of the individuals involved in the Bonded Vault Job.”³

Lincoln Almond, who served as U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island from 1969 to 1978, was described in FBI records as “nearly singularly focused” on Patriarca during this period, and his successor later called him “the scourge of organized crime” for his prosecutions of Patriarca family members.¹⁶ Even so, indictments against Patriarca for the heist never came. The state police doubted enough evidence could be developed, and a key witness refused to cooperate.³

Why the Heist Still Matters

The Bonded Vault job is remembered as a turning point for organized crime in Rhode Island. Tim White called it a “seismic moment” that severely eroded trust within the Italian Mob.⁴ The Patriarca family had been robbed by its own people, and the aftermath — informants, a failed contract killing, prolonged trials — accelerated fractures inside the organization. White has described Rhode Island organized crime of that era as a “secondary government,” with enormous influence over local law enforcement and the judiciary; the Bonded Vault case, alongside concurrent federal investigations, began to chip away at that power.

The story has had a long cultural afterlife. White, Randall Richard, and Wayne Worcester published The Last Good Heist: The Inside Story of the Biggest Single Payday in the Criminal History of the Northeast in 2016.⁷ The book was adapted into the 2019 film Vault, starring Don Johnson and Theo Rossi.¹⁰ The Crimetown podcast devoted a prominent episode to the robbery, featuring interviews with Dussault and White.¹¹

1
The Mob Museum. The Top 5 Heists in Mob History
2
Providence Daily Dose. Crimetown Bonded Vault Robbery
3
GoLocalProv. What Do FBI’s Files on Ray Patriarca Tell Us About the Bonded Vault Robbery
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The Public’s Radio. Tim White: Bonded Vault Heist, New England Mob’s Greatest Payday
5
Providence Journal. Bonded Vault Heist: Rhode Island’s Greatest Caper, 50 Years Later
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Providence Journal. John Ouimette, Mastermind of Bonded Vault Heist, Has Died
7
Providence Journal. Book Review: The Last Good Heist
8
CaseMine. State v. Ouimette, No. 83-348-C.A.
9
Providence Journal. Von Bulow, Patriarca, Bonded Vault Heist Among RI’s Most Famous Trials
10
Forbes. Summer Reading List: The Last Good Heist
11
Providence Journal. Crimetown Episode 4: Heist Accomplice Tries to Talk His Way Out of Death
12
Boston Globe. Providence Heist and Organized Crime
13
vLex. State v. Byrnes, 433 A.2d 658
14
ArtInRuins. Hudson Furs
15
WHDH. Rhode Island Mobster Convicted of Murder Dies in Hospice
16
Provincetown Independent. Lincoln Almond of Rhode Island and Wellfleet Dies at 86