This happened back in the 60's and is a facinating story.



Joel Singer



   Joel Singer was born  in 1943  and grew up in Chomedey, Laval, on the north  shore of  Montreal. After finishing  high school, he got involved with the  West End Gang, doing various  robberies, and  served  prison  time for burglarizing a store.

    In 1965, Singer joined into a clever conspiracy that would net him more money than  he's ever seen before. It would  almost be the  biggest mistake of his life.

    Jack Franck, a New York  mechanic and uncle of  Singer's, walked into a  Alexandria, Virginia  arms depot on  March 30, 1965  and purchased two Finnish Lahti 20mm Cannons  and 200 rounds of  armor piercing ammo for $800. He asked for the guns to be delivered to Plattsburgh, New York.  


    A suspicious store  employee  investigated the  address that Franck had provided  and discovered that it was fake. He  alerted the FBI who in turn contacted the Canadian  authorities, who were wary of  weapons being smuggled into Quebec for the terrorist group Federation du Liberation du Quebec (FLQ).

    The weapons arrived in Plattsburgh on April 5 and, like the rest of  the merchandise, was kept in a storage office. Singer knew that the police were probably watching the building and broke into the warehouse that weekend  and took his high-powered firearms back. The employees  arrived at work early Monday morning to find that the locks had been broken and that the weapons had disappeared.

    Singer was ecstatic. Things had  went off  without  a hitch so far. He  and four  associates, with one of  the Finnish cannons  and various other burglary equipment in their position, left Montreal six months later, on October 23, 1965, and headed for Syracuse, New York.  

    The group broke into its target, the  Brinks company, the  next  night. They entered  through the garage  and made  their way to the vault, where they shot 33 armor piercing rounds from one of the Finnish Lahti 20mm Cannons Singer  that stole  earlier that year. Their  mission took  more than two hours to complete and the group got away with almost $425,000!

    Singer visited his uncle, Jack Franck, the next day to tell  him that he was behind the spectacular robbery. He also handed Franck $200, for his help in getting the firearms.  

    Franck panicked and called the FBI. In return for immunity, he promised to tell them everything. Singer  was placed on the  FBI's 10 Most Wanted List on November 19, 1965 and was arrested  in a Henri-Bourassa  restaurant 12 days  later. Staying true to the  code of  the streets, Singer  refused to name his accomplices and was sentenced to ten months in prison.

    Singer was  among the inmates in  Attica when chaos  erupted on  September 9, 1971. Prisoners revolted  and the government had to take back the  penitentiary by force. 43 inmates were murdered and  the horrific incident  marked  Singer for life. He was transferred  a psychiatric  hospital in July, 1972 and released three months later.

    He returned to Montreal, where he continued to experience psychological problems. Singer killed himself by swallowing  cyanide in his  apartment on  February 6, 1973. Police  have only  recovered $166 of the nearly $425,000 stolen seven years earlier.  

Link

Isn't that thunderbolt and Lightfoot?

How many criminals are caught due to a complete inability to SHUT THE FUCK UP.

So they spent over 2 hours shooting off 20mm rounds indoors, in a city and no one suspected a thing?

Yet you keeping hearing about folks with asshat neighbors who complain after 10 mins of shooting in the rural countryside.

The used a potato silencer.

That's a deal!




OK....why did he want to have the guns shipped to NY? Why not just take possession of them and not attract attention?

That's an awfully big potato  

 

Was everyone deaf after blasting off those rounds?

That's about $5,400 when adjusted for inflation.

With a hard crew?  I've heard that it still happens.

Interesting story, and thanks for posting it.  Next time I see Clint Eastwood in "Thuderbolt and Lightfoot", I'll remember the history behind the plot.

Theres another thread about this rifle on here somewhere. I cant find it right now.

Yes, please!  Where do I sign up?

First thing I thought of, too.




 

For two 20mm Lahti's and 800 rounds of ammo, that would still be a hell of a deal.

Sure sounds like it.

Did they have a guy dressed up in drag during the robbery?

saw that on an episode of CSI:NY and though it was a pretty weak idea, did not know it had actually been done

Have you ever seen the potato’s served at some steak houses?  Some of them can be larger than your fists put together.  Suppressing a 20m should be easy for those monsters.

Still worth it.

The Lahti L-39 20MM

Video of Lahti in acton

The Lahti 20mm anti-tank guns were sold back in the early 60's for about $175. For that sum, you got the gun, 10 spare mags, tool kit, spare parts kit, snow sled mount, and a wooden crate made for the gun and accessories. As I recall, ammo was about .75 cents a round. Ammo and gun could be shipped right to your door with no paperwork. About 1000 were imported in the early 60's along with about 200,000 rounds of ammo.

Their is still one in Griggs dept store(sporting Goods) Pasco, WA....

Probably why he didn't give names. He didn't know what the fuck the police were saying.

One the funnier ads I remember reading in Shotgun news eons ago was from a fella who owned a Lahti.

He was begging for anyone- please- for the love of God- to sell him some ammo for his Lahti.

I think the ad title was "Need Food For My Boombeast"

This is an ad from a 1958 "Guns" magazine.

That's an S18-1000, not a Lahti.  Man I wish I had one.  Made by Soluthurn

+1 i hate the BS we have to go through today.

Murdered?

i was a kid during the 60s and into guns big time. you could order wwII howitzers and ammo outta the backs of magazines..

Every one we hear about, except DB Cooper, who is still being sought by the FBI by the way.

deep inside the building too. Anyone hearing the noise may have thought it was a air hammer or something.

  Of all places LA CA, Just go figure

Just think what he could have done with Teflon coating.

Another ARFCOM thread about the rifle from today

http://www.cafepress.com/Bowmans_mill

okay, managed to find this video on Youtube after watching enough 20mm vids.

"Stop That Tank"

pretty cool

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov4lOcD7O5c&feature=related

Me too
I loved the scene with the lunatic and the rabbits in the trunk.  Just plain bizzarre.

Heck no we wouldn't.



 

Lahti is hot.

This crew is good.

That is some serious Group Buy material.