Ocean National Bank robbery

In June 1869, the Ocean National Bank in Manhattan, New York City was robbed of $768,879.94 in cash, securities, and jewelry by the gang of George Leonidas Leslie.

[8] The robbery would essentially function as Leslie's initiation and trial run for the city's crime world.

Mandelbaum got her associate, pickpocket[11] Johnny Irving to steal an emerald ring from one of Black Lena's high society guests.

The woman informed her husband, a New Jersey district court judge, who called in Pinkerton agents to investigate.

Pinkerton agents and police raided Lena's home in Hackensack and found plenty of stolen property.

[7] Leslie deposited a large sum into Ocean National Bank, and visited it multiple times under the guise of a depositor.

[9] Leslie had dinner with the bank's officials, including the president, and he asked which company had made the safe they used.

Leslie used the info he gained talking to the locksmith to make adjustments to the "little joke, accommodating the device to the size and shape of the safe's dial.

[2] Mandelbaum provided the burglars with tools, drawing up her own blueprints, and using one of her empty warehouses to construct identical copy of one of the bank's rooms.

[9] He also asked Mandelbaum for $1,000 to rent an office basement located directly under the bank vault and leased by William Kell.

During the weekend, when the robbery was supposed to take place, Irving wouldn't be working, so Leslie decided to drill a hole in the ceiling of the basement, giving them access to the vault.

[8] During the robbery, which took place over two nights during a weekend, Leslie, Dobbs, and Leary entered the bank twice, Porter was parked in a get-away carriage up the street, and Hope, Yost, and Draper served as lookouts.

[15] Several days prior to the robbery, a hole was drilled in the floor of the president's office, which was two feet long and 20 inches wide, right in front of his desk.

[17] On the first night, Friday, Irving worked his cleaning job and let Leslie, Dobbs and Leary in the back door.

[14] On the second night, Sunday, Leslie asked Draper to dress like a woman, with a blond wig and a parasol, and be a lookout.

The porter, who had a "decided sensation in the breast", rushed to the safe-room, which confirmed his fears that the bank had been robbed.

The police station on Liberty Street was notified,[22] and detectives Elder, Kelso, and Farley came to investigate.

He learned that Leslie had visited Mandelbaum's dinner parties, and said "this can't lead to anything good.

They received their cuts after the newspapers stopped reporting on the robbery,[24] which was during the Black Friday gold panic.

The robbery of the Institution would finally fulfill Leslie's promise to Mandelbaum of performing the highest-paying criminal heist in history.