Jeanne-d'Arc Michaud - Quebec's now-forgotten criminal mastermind who gained international fame from a huge heist

Marie Jeanne-d'Arc Michaud seen in custody in 1952

  Ste. Agathe's Marie Jeanne-d'Arc Michaud became North America's hottest front-page criminal in the summer of 1952 when the "tiny, hot tempered" songwriter faced trial for masterminding a $1.5 million burglary in Reno, Nevada.
   Michaud's criminal adventure began when she left Quebec to marry a doctor in Connecticut. After some time the two agreed to go to Reno for an uncomplicated divorce.
  Michaud, who grew up in a convent, was enthralled by the big spending, wild-west atmosphere of the fast-growing gambling mecca of Reno, so she opted to stay.
  In June 1951 Michaud, 35, met LaVere Redfield, 53, an eccentric millionaire who'd seek to save a penny on a cantaloupe on the same day that he lost $35,000 at the casino.
  Michaud - like many small town Catholic women from her era - knew how to maximize her charm to seduce a man into her web of desire.
  The long-married Redfield found himself falling in love with his spicy Quebecoise mistress Michaud and the two took covert trips together, with Redfield promising to marry her one day.
  Redfield lived in a gaudy 14-room mansion but sought to downplay his wealth by dressing like a farmhand in flannel shirt, jeans and work boots.

Michaud

   He had made a fortune from oil and other investments and moved to Reno from Southern California in 1935 along with wife Nell, as he was lured by the state's lack of corporate, state and inheritance taxes.
  He'd frequently attend Reno city council meetings to squabble with town council over his tax bill.
  Redfield mistrusted government and banks and had a then-staggering net worth of $70 million at the time of his death, yet he'd often walk a good distance from his mansion to save gas money.
   Michaud was enjoying intimate time with Redfield one day at his home while his wife was out of town.
   Visitors dropped by and  Michaud dashed to hide in the closet.
   While sitting in the dark, the tiny divorcee from Ste. Agathe felt something cold, hard and solid.
   It was a large safe.
   Michaud later asked Redfern about the safe.
   He opened it for her and tossed bundles of cash money into the air theatrically, "it's all mine!" he exclaimed joyously.
   "If you give me the contents of your safe it will make me financially independent," said Jeanne d'Arc Michaud, "that's something you said you wanted for me.".
   "Let me think about it," said Redfield said, leaning in to smooch her once again.
   But Michaud backed away. 
  "I will never be yours again unless you give me what I want," she said.

Redfield and Michaud

  Within 10 minutes, she said at her trial, Redfield agreed to give her the money in the safe if she made it look like a burglary.
    She later told a courthouse full of reporters and onlookers - including Redfield's wife Nell: "He was trying to kiss me but I said I will never be yours again unless this is a deal. We sealed a deal. you don't have to do it with pen and pencil. There are other ways."
   She'd need henchmen to pull of the heist.
   "But wouldn't they take some of the loot?" Redfield asked.
   "I would pick honest thieves," Michaud told Redfield with a straight face.
    Michaud got busy organizing the heist, making copies of floor plans, and assembling a crew of criminals that included Andrew Young, a 44-year-old construction worker, soap salesmen Frank Sorrenti, 35 and John Trilliegi, 37, both of Milwaukee, as well as 230-pound former boxer-turned casino bouncer Louis "Firpo" Gazzigli, 44, and the 65-year-old Benton Robinson, a handyman who lived in the mansion.

  One afternoon in early March 1952 when Redfield was out gambling with his wife, the gang entered Redfield's mansion.
   They took care to give the guard dog a big ham bone to quiet him down.
   They made off with the safe, which they later cracked open with a sledgehammer.

LaVere Redfield

  In it were "bundles of 1920s-era oversized $10 bills, packets of neatly banded $1,00 bills with chubby cheeked Grover Cleveland's glowering beneath his droopy moustache, Mrs. Louise Root's treasured emerald-and-diamond brooch, crisply signed securities issued by the sewer pipe manufacturer Gladd,, McBean and Company of San Francisco; and assorted other valuables almost too plentiful for the five conspirators to comprehend." (description courtesy Jack Harpster's The Curious Life of Nevada's LaVere Refeidl: The Silver Dollar King.)
   In all, the crew made off with a haul of $1.5 million, making it one of the greatest-ever thefts in America up to that point. They could have absconded with more had they taken another beaten-up suitcase laying around full of cash.
  Michaud fled to Los Angeles with her cut of the loot, taking the largest share.
  The two soap salesmen returned to Milwaukee in a Cadillac. The caretaker stayed put, hiding his $37,000 in the cushion of a chair.

Two views of Leona Mae Giordano

   But Andrew Young decided to stay in Reno for a few more days, where he met Leona Mae Giordano, a 30-year-old cocktail waitress and mother of two.
   Giordano accompanied Young to a tailor shop where he sought to be fitted for a new suit.
  While he was changing, Giordano stole Young's wallet and cash. She was astounded to find that it contained $10,000.
   Young rapidly realized that his new friend Giordano has robbed him. He sought her frantically around town, without success.
   Young went to the handyman and browbeat him into giving up part of his share.
   Giordano, meanwhile, took the cash to a casino and bought chips with a $1,000 bill.
   Casino staff had been alerted to keep an eye out for serial numbers of bills from the theft.  

   The casino cashier alerted cops and they came. Giardano confessed to robbing Young. Police located Young and he gave up the rest of the gang.

John Trilliegi

   Authorities then learned that Michaud was on a train from Los Angeles to Chicago. They took her off the train and jailed her in Flagstaff, Arizona. She was carrying $50,000 in cash, 28 pieces of jewelry and 180 shares documents in 57 corporations, all stolen from Redfield's home.
   She was also carrying a rhyming dictionary that she used in her efforts to compose song lyrics.
   Michaud attempted suicide in her Arizona jail cell by swallowing a large dosage of barbiturates. "My father's a doctor and from what he has told me, I thought it would take about half an hour for me to bleed to death." 
   She survived and was charged with carrying stolen property cross state lines.
     Michaud offered a confession to a Flagstaff newspaper reporter. "I planned the whole job and made all the arrangements. My parents taught me to be generous and to help needy people. I intended to use the money for good purposes. I made up my mind that as long as I was going to be Lavere Redfield's sweetheart, I was not going to be without the price of a room. The old miser had a couple of million dollars laying around the house."

Anthony Gazzigli

   Redfield wasn't cooperating with the investigation. He said that he was just happy that the dog wasn't hurt. Authorities jailed him to encourage him to cooperate. To everybody's surprised, Redfield refused to pay bail, saying that he'd prefer to be behind bars than face reporters.
   Redfield told the court that he barely knew Michaud but conceded that he had been friendly with her since meeting her at the roulette tables one year prior.
   When asked if he gave her permission to take the safe, Redfield repeatedly dodged the query. "The defendant Jeanne Michaud is quite a different personality" .. "I see no reason..." ... "to the best of my memory.. "
   On 25 June 1952 Michaud was found guilty and sentenced - like every one of the gang - to five years in prison.
   She was never heard from again and would be about 103 now if still alive.

   Redfield sentenced for tax evasion in 1958.