It’ has been more than 26 years since the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist, and the paintings had never been recovered. A former mob boss has informed that he might have some information to help the FBI in their search.
Esposito used to go by the name Bobby Luisi Jr. when he was a made member of the mob. He said, "I was a capo in the Philadelphia family, but I was the boss in Boston. My main business up there was loan sharking, bookmaking, extortion and drugs.”
Esposito told that he didn't take part in the historic Gardner heist, but in 1997 he found out his crew member, Bobby Guarante, who did this.
Guarante mentioned the stolen paintings, while the two men were watching TV in a Waltham safehouse.
Esposito recalled, “I was sitting in the living room with Bobby Guarante and he says, ‘I know where the art is, it's buried in a cellar in Florida.you have anyone who could fence it? Get rid of it?’ I said, ‘I don’t know where to get rid of the art, I’m not a fence,’”.
Guarante died in prison, and Esposito said that he never learned where that artwork was being kept.
According to Esposito, still there are old time mobsters in Boston who might know the location. “If they do, they could get in touch with me. I’m a pastor. I could help them. I could middle man for them if that’s what they want”.
He told the reporters that he was not afraid to make his past life exposed to the public , because he had completely turned his life around.
The museum has planned a reward amount of a five million dollar for the information that would lead to its safe recovery.
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By Prakriti Neogi
