Albert Spaggiari

Albert Spaggiari (14 December 1932 – 8 June 1989), nicknamed Bert, was a French criminal chiefly known as the organizer of a break-in into a Société Générale bank in Nice, France, in July 1976. Albert Spaggiari was born on 14 December 1932 in Laragne-Montéglin in the Hautes-Alpes to Richard and Marcelle (née Clément) Spaggiari. His father died in 1935 and he grew up in Hyères, where his mother ran a lingerie store.

At the age of 19, he enlisted as a paratrooper in the First Indochina War, and was posted to the 3rd Battalion colonial paratroopers. During this time, he and a few accomplices put a gun to the head of someone that they claimed had robbed them. The military court, however, believed that this was actually a stickup, and Spaggiari spent the next four years in jail.

Following his release, he moved to North Africa and joined the Secret Armed Organisation (OAS), a right-wing group that wanted to prevent Algerian independence. This later led him to be sentenced to three and a half more years in jail, on the charges of political terrorism. Spaggiari, seemingly having had put politics behind him, then moved to Nice, France, alongside his wife, Audi.

They lived in a country villa, called The Wild Geese, where they raised chickens. Professionally, he started working as a photographer. In 1975 Albert Spaggiari and the Corsican Brotherhood (CB) were recruited in France by the Chilean secret police, DINA. His codename was "Daniel", his activities are unknown but other CB members were tasked with watching Chilean exiles in France.

This group was called the DINA "Brigada Corsa" ("Corsican Brigade"). When Spaggiari heard that the sewers were close to the vault of the Société Générale bank in Nice, he began to plan a break-in into the bank. Eventually he decided to attempt digging into the bank vault from below. Spaggiari told police he rented a box in the bank vault for himself and put a loud alarm clock in the vault.

He set the clock to ring at night to check for any acoustic or seismic detection gear. However, bank records discredit this assertion, as he only visited his safe-deposit box twice - the day he rented it, and the day before the long week end. In fact, there were no alarms protecting the vault because it was considered impenetrable: the door wall was extremely thick, and there was no obvious way to access the other walls.

Spaggiari contacted professional gangsters from Marseille, who, after examining his plans and the site, decided not to participate in the heist. His accomplices probably were recruited through old OAS friends. His men made their way into the sewers and spent two months digging an eight-metre-long (26 ft) tunnel from the sewer to the vault floor. Spaggiari had taken many precautions during this long dig while his men worked long hours continuously drilling.

He told them not to drink coffee or alcohol, and to get at least ten hours of sleep every shift to avoid any danger to the mission. On 16 July 1976, during the long weekend of Bastille Day, Spaggiari's gang broke into the vault itself. They stole an estimated 30–100 million francs worth of money, securities and valuables. It was the largest heist in the history of bank robberies to that date.

... Source: Article "Albert Spaggiari" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.