Police got wind and busted everybody after much painstaking work.
Eleven were accused but only five convicted. Frank Cotroni, Robert Rocheleau, Frank Fuoco, Theodore Ted Orban and his son Pierre Desormiers and Ernest Bilodeau were among those accused.
Emile Trottier was described as the engineer of the project and was sentenced to five years in May 1969..
Some were acquitted when they explained that they came to the house to collect false coins which were manufactured at the home and then used to buy cigarettes from vending machines.
House on Trans Island where some guys started digging a tunnel in the basement, leading to the vault of the 5159 Decarie branch of the City and District Savings Bank, which was located behind the house, across a laneway. Cops watched them for months as they did their work, which included carting away all the excess soil in the dead of night. Vibration and noise sensors protecting the vault alerted the bank early on, so the guys were doomed to fail. That bank branch, now known as The Laurentian Bank, will close its doors for good on June 20, 2014, after more than 70 years at that location. Opened my first account there, about 50 years ago.
ReplyDeleteThe 5146 Trans Island duplex's basement was allegedly used by Frank Cotroni and co-conspirators to tunnel into the vault of the City and District Savings Bank located directly behind it.
ReplyDeleteSee: Gazette, April 1, 1967, pages 1 and 3
Police had been staking out the location for months, Cotroni was charged but later acquitted. His accomplises got off with light sentences.
See:
http://books.google.ca/books?id=JMJne5H6r0cC&pg=PA81&lpg=PA81&dq=cotroni+bank+robbery+tunnel&source=bl&ots=LVD7Ewkmze&sig=NtZswOpSiFRzkoNveAEnAH00dRE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Qs0EU9yiJqn4yAGA8YHAAw&ved=0CEUQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=cotroni%20bank%20robbery%20tunnel&f=false