Lovers of a good true crime story should save the date of Sept. 27, when Wayne Worcester, an emeritus professor of journalism at the University of Connecticut, and his co-author, reporter Tim White, will discuss their book, “The Last Good Heist: The Inside Story of the Biggest Single Payday in the Criminal History of the Northeast.”
The Tolland Public Library Foundation is sponsoring the talk at 6:30 p.m. in Conference Room A of town hall at 21 Tolland Green as part of its Eaton-Dimock-King Authors Series.
The book, which White and Worcester co-wrote with Randall Richard, tells the story of the eight daring thieves who ransacked 148 massive safe-deposit boxes at a secret bank used by organized crime members in La Cosa Nostra in Providence, Rhode Island on Aug. 14, 1975. The reporters would later find out that the leader of the mob himself approved of the robbery and hired the thieves.
The crooks fled with duffle bags crammed full of cash, gold, silver, coins and jewels. The book reports that the true value of the goods was $30 million – the biggest single payday for criminals in the Northeast.
“The Last Good Heist” is the inside story of the robbery and its aftermath, which rocked the underworld in New England.
Worcester was a young police reporter at the Providence Journal the day news of the heist broke. The case would hold his interest for the next 40 years as none of the money or loot was ever found. White is an investigative reporter for the CBS news affiliate in Providence who covers organized crime, corruption and politics. Richard is a former investigative reporter and international correspondent for the Providence Journal and a former national reporter for the Associated Press.
Worcester, of Vernon, spent 21 years as a reporter and editor at the Journal before joining the UConn faculty in 1987. He taught newswriting, feature writing, magazine writing, copy editing and literary journalism before retiring in 2013. He has also written a series of Sherlock Holmes novels.
The talk is free and open to the public, but registration is required. To register, call the Tolland Public Library at 860-871-3620 or visit www.tolland.org/library and click on the Online Library Events Calendar.