Both born in 1938, Scalise grew up in a hard environment. Scalise was nicknamed "Witherhand" because he was born minus four fingers on his left hand. He became a thief and by 1961, at the age of 23 he was sentenced to probation and later spent few months in prison. By the late 1960s, he was involved in the Outfits chop shops businesses. In 1970 Jerry Scalise was arrested and sent to eight years in prison on auto theft charges. When he got out of prison, he was also connected with Outfit terrorists like Butch Petrocelli and Gerry Scarpelli. Scalise was also a suspect in the murder of William” Billy” Dauber, a known Chicago Outfit hitman, who was shot to death along with his wife Charlotte on July 2, 1980. He was considered by lawmen as a very dangerous person that worked for notorious Outfit big shots Albert "Caesar" Tocco and Joe Ferriola.
Arthur Rachel was a Taylor Street mob connected guy and was considered a borderline genius on the basis of intelligence tests administered to him in prison. His criminal record dated since the age of 16. Rachel was one of a four men gang who was convicted in federal court for printing phony government bonds and travellers checks with total values of $250,000. In 1958 he was sent to prison for a bank robbery During the 1960’s Rachel was sentenced to 15 years in prison for counterfeiting and bank robbery. In 1968, while in custody, he pleaded guilty to 1962 robbery of a savings and loan association on the South Side, in which $14,333 was taken. During the early 60’s, he was a suspect in seven other bank burglaries and robberies in the Chicago area. He was paroled in 1975 and was released from parole in 1978. He was called “The Brain” because while in prison he taught basic courses in computer programing to other inmates and reportedly worked for a computer firm while he was on parole.
In 1980, Scalise and Rachel left Chicago and travelled to London, England. This wasn’t a vacation trip, but it was trip for the most ambitious heist of their entire criminal careers. They received info that a very expensive diamond is going to be placed from Graff Diamonds in a store at the very fashionable Knightsbridge section of London. Laurence Graff, who was the owner of the store, announced that the very expensive diamond named the Marlborough stone is on sale. The 45 carat diamond belonged to Gladys Marie, the Dowager Duchess who was married with the ninth Duke of Marlborough, Winston Churchill’s cousin. Gladys Marie died in 1977. The diamond was valued at $900,000.
The Marlborough Diamond
On September 11, 1980 Scalise and Rachel “went for the kill”. Scalise, well dresses, entered the store and the security guard greeted him into the exclusive store shortly after opening, thinking he was a customer. Once inside the store, Scalise asked the employees if he could see the diamond because he was interested in buying it. At the moment he laid his eyes on it, he pulled out a gun and ordered the staff and customers to lie down on the floor. In few seconds, Rachel walked in with a fake beard, waving a hand grenade. The Marlborough diamond was packed into a briefcase and they also stole other gems also, including a diamond ring worth $482,000 and African ruby worth $72,300. In a matter of minutes, they fled the store into a getaway car Fiat Mirafiori parked about 50 yards away. Like taking candy from a baby. No one was hurt during the raid, and customers on the other two floors of the three-storey shop were unaware of anything taking place. Laurence Graff said that the thieves knew exactly what they wanted because they picked out the very special pieces from the window. While driving fast, Scalise arranged for a London cabby to drop them in a mailbox and to be sent to unkown location.
The robbers were less efficient covering their tracks than they were with the robbery. The problem was that one of the store clerks ran out and followed the men and noted the registration number of the car they used to escape. Both men went straight to the airport and managed to board their Chicago-bound flight without incident. Before they arrived in Chicago, the Scotland Yard made a few phone calls to the Chicago office of the FBI and told them about the situation. So within 11 hours of the raid were arrested as they stepped off a British Airways plane at O’Hare International Airport and were arrested by Chicago’s FBI team.
Scalise(second from left” and Rachel(far right) during the arrest
Now the feds tried to convince Scalise and Rachel to become informants in return for shorter sentences or the chance to serve their remaining years in the United States, because the UK police force wanted them back to stand trail. But the loyal Scalise and Rachel were not going to violate the Outfit’s code of silence. Scalise told the FBI that “You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.” They were immediately extradited to England, where they were convicted and sent on the Isle of White prison of the UK, which was one of the worst prisons at the time. They were sent to 20 years in jail and the diamonds they stole were never recovered.
During the 1980s, while Scalise and Rachel sat in the dark UK cells, the FBI declared war against the Outfit and many top bosses were sent to jail. When the smoke cleared, in 1992 Scalise and Rachel were released by the UK authorities and came back to Chicago. But by now the Outfit was no longer taxing them on everything they stole, so the Outfits old foot soldiers were mostly left to take care for themselves. Old man Scalise continued with his criminal activities, including burglaries and narcotics trafficking. Rachel had become a “recluse” since returning from the UK, spending most of his days alone, painting, and used to hang out from time to time with old mob guys.
In 1998, Scalise was arrested and pleaded guilty to intent to distribute cocaine. For that crime he served six and a half years and got out of prison in 2006, at the age of 69. Then in 2007 Scalise and Rachel were prime suspects in the 2007 robbery of a Harris Bank branch in LaGrange. They were questioned and with the lack of evidence they walked free. Then in April 2010, federal agents arrested Scalise, Rachel and another old timer Bobby Pullia outside Angelo LaPietra's Bridgeport home. LaPietra used to be one of the most notorious Outfit bosses that died in 1999 and his daughter remained living in the family house. Under the cover of night in dark clothing and armed with a police scanner, drilling tools, a ladder, and a toolbox, the geriatric trio were arrested, went to trial and were found guilty. They all received 9 years in prison. Secret government recordings revealed that they hoped to find a secret stash of jewels and valuables at the LaPietra home.(maybe the Marlborough diamond?). In 2012 Loop jeweler Rammi Sabatini said that “If the Marlborough Diamond is still in one piece, it would be worth up to $50 million today”.
In the past we used to hear more about big time art and jewel heists and also about masters thieves who were the best in the business. Today the “heart-warming” sight of an old-fashioned burglar penetrating a bank vault is slowly swept away by a rising tide of “joyless” online fraud.
