George Reissfelder was a Boston career criminal and exonerated murder convict whom the FBI believes was one of the two men who posed as police officers and robbed the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum on March 18, 1990. He was never charged. He died of cocaine poisoning on March 11, 1991, less than a year after the heist, and the 13 stolen works, valued at roughly $500 million, have never been recovered.1Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. About the Theft
Sixteen Years in Prison for a Murder He Didn’t Commit
Born around 1940, Reissfelder already had a record for armed robbery, domestic abuse, and passing bad checks when a $20,000 payroll holdup at the Railway Express Agency office in Boston’s South Station turned fatal on October 14, 1966. He was 26. A jury convicted him of first-degree murder and armed robbery in 1967, and he was sentenced to life.2Boston Herald. Meet the Suspects: George A. Reissfelder
He did not do it. In 1980, court-appointed attorney Roanne Sragow began reviewing his case, joined by John Kerry, who had recently left the Middlesex County District Attorney’s office. They tracked down Reverend Edward Cowhig, who provided an affidavit that the actual killer, William “Silky” Sullivan, had made a deathbed confession declaring Reissfelder innocent. Roughly ten witnesses backed the account, and a co-defendant confirmed Reissfelder had not been his accomplice.3CJPC. Wrongfully Convicted On June 21, 1982, Judge Andrew R. Linscott granted a new trial. The district attorney declined to retry, and the charges were dismissed on August 30, 1982.4The New Yorker. Kerry’s Trials The day after his release, Reissfelder appeared on NBC’s Today show alongside Kerry and Sragow.5Alamy. Reissfelder on the Today Show, Aug. 31, 1982
He had served roughly 16 years. Massachusetts denied him any compensation.6WBUR. Two Bad Men
Falling In with the Merlino Crew
After his release, Reissfelder drifted into the orbit of Carmello Merlino, a reputed New England Mob figure and Dorchester drug lord who ran TRC Auto Electric on Dorchester Avenue. FBI records and court documents describe the shop as the base for a cocaine ring generating roughly $1 million a year, doubling as a hub for weapons distribution and armed robbery planning. FBI surveillance photos captured Reissfelder and Merlino together there.2Boston Herald. Meet the Suspects: George A. Reissfelder David Turner, another Merlino associate who later became a Gardner person of interest, was part of the same circle. A confidential informant identified Reissfelder as a member of Merlino’s crew involved in the museum robbery.
Why Investigators Believe He Was Inside the Museum
In the early hours of March 18, 1990, two men dressed as Boston police officers talked their way past the Gardner’s night guards, bound them with duct tape, and spent 81 minutes stripping the galleries of 13 works, including Rembrandt’s Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Vermeer’s The Concert, five Degas works, a Manet, a Flinck landscape, an ancient Chinese bronze vessel, and a Napoleonic eagle finial.1Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. About the Theft
Retired FBI special agent Geoffrey Kelly, who led the Gardner investigation for more than two decades, has said Reissfelder closely resembled one of the composite sketches drawn from the guards’ descriptions.7WBUR. George Reissfelder Investigators also believed Reissfelder owned the getaway car used that night.8WCVB. Inside World’s Largest Art Heist
The most striking piece of evidence involved the stolen Manet, Chez Tortoni. Gardner security director Anthony Amore contacted Reissfelder’s brother, Richard, a retired military officer, and showed him images of all 13 stolen works. Richard broke down at the Manet, telling investigators he recognized it because he had personally hung that painting above his brother’s bed in George’s apartment at 35 Brooks Avenue in Quincy. Richard’s ex-wife, Donna, corroborated the account, remembering “the man in the high hat” in a golden frame on the bedroom wall.9Boston Herald. Suspect’s Brother: I Saw That Painting When investigators searched the apartment after Reissfelder’s death, the painting was gone.
The “Crime Insurance” Backstory and a Possible Motive
Robert Beauchamp, a convicted murderer who had served time with Reissfelder and once escaped from prison alongside him in 1974, said Reissfelder and David Turner visited him “numerous times” at the Bay State Correctional Facility in Norfolk in 1988 and 1989, discussing a major robbery and asking how to hide valuables afterward.10WBUR. Robert Beauchamp
Beauchamp said he suggested stealing art as “crime insurance,” something the TRC crew could trade with authorities if the cocaine operation collapsed. He said he had proposed university museums with lighter security and never specifically mentioned the Gardner. After the heist, Beauchamp recalled, Reissfelder visited him in prison. Seeing the scale of what had been taken, Beauchamp told him, “Way too much, George.” According to Beauchamp, Reissfelder said Merlino served as the lookout, waiting outside in a van with a walkie-talkie while others went in.6WBUR. Two Bad Men Amore has acknowledged that Beauchamp’s leads about where the art might be hidden have never panned out, and FBI searches based on his statements in Dedham, Massachusetts, and in Lewiston and Orrington, Maine, came up empty.10WBUR. Robert Beauchamp
Beauchamp also suggested a motive beyond money. He said Reissfelder carried deep anger over the state’s refusal to compensate him for the years he spent wrongly imprisoned, and that bitterness made him willing to attempt an audacious theft.10WBUR. Robert Beauchamp
His Death in Quincy
On March 11, 1991, Reissfelder was found dead of cocaine poisoning in his Quincy apartment. Merlino himself alerted firefighters after not hearing from him for several days. Police had wanted to question Reissfelder about the Gardner robbery.2Boston Herald. Meet the Suspects: George A. Reissfelder
His brother Richard did not accept the overdose at face value. “I’m convinced they had my brother killed with an overdose of cocaine,” Richard told the Boston Herald, alleging that Merlino and his crew were responsible and that the motive was to seize the stolen artwork George had been holding.9Boston Herald. Suspect’s Brother: I Saw That Painting
Two weeks after Reissfelder’s death, Leonard “Lenny” DiMuzio, another Merlino crew member whom investigators suspected in the heist, disappeared. His body was found in June 1991 in the trunk of a car in East Boston. Kelly has said he believes DiMuzio was killed “for the paintings or to keep them quiet.”11Boston.com. What to Know About the Gardner Museum Heist 35 Years Later FBI agents and museum security officials eventually identified Reissfelder and DiMuzio as the two men they believe entered the museum dressed as police.12Boston Public Library. Boston’s Greatest Unsolved Mystery
Where the Case Stands
No one has ever been charged with the Gardner theft, and none of the 13 works have been recovered. The FBI has stated publicly that it believes the two men who entered the museum are both dead, a characterization consistent with its identification of Reissfelder and DiMuzio.6WBUR. Two Bad Men The empty frames still hang on the museum’s walls.13FBI. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Heist Reissfelder died an uncharged suspect, and the case against him rests on a composite sketch, an informant, a getaway car, a brother’s identification of a painting on a bedroom wall, and the account of a convict who said he helped plant the idea.