Kathryn Canavan - True Crime Philadelphia: From Americas First Bank Robbery to the Real-Life Killers Who Inspired Boardwalk Empire

The burglary crew drove uphill to the back entrance of the Rich mansion on Mahantongo Street, the most prestigious street in Pottsville, Pennsylvania.
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and Queen Anne porches. It was home to Pottsville societydoctors, lawyers, bankers, and coal barons. Novelist John OHara grew up in a six-bedroom Italianate townhouse there. The Yuengling Brewery scion occupied a stately 20-room, turn-of-the-century Tudor. Millionaire John Rich raised his family in a three-story stucco built in 1927 on one of the best corners.

So why were four mooks from out of town cruising up and down Mahantongo in a yellow Lincoln on the picture-perfect high-summer evening of August 7, 1959? And why were they packing a hacksaw, a sledgehammer, and an empty carryall bag?

They came to hunt for negotiable bonds in a strangers basement. They drove almost 100 miles on an inside tip from Lillian Reiss pot-bel-lied sugar daddy.

Clyde Bing Miller, a one-time college football star at Bucknell, was lovesick over Reis, a curvy chorus girl 25 years his junior. Miller, a paunchy 53-year-old mining engineer, had done business with John Rich of 1801 Mahantongo Street, owner of Gilberton Coal Company.

Rich was aptly named. He was so wealthy he owned the largest dragline strip mining shovel in the world, one with a scoop the size of a one-car garage.

Miller knew Rich routinely stashed bonds in a safe in his basement because he didnt report all his income to the Internal Revenue Service.

Then, by chance, in the first week of August, Miller was admitted to Pottsville Hospital, where he heard chitchat that Rich was vacationing in Italy and wouldnt be home for another three weeks.

He immediately thought of Reis, the cigarette-voiced stunner he had already showered with cash and cars and furs and jewels worth more than $150,000. He paid her rent. He paid for her maid. He bought a mink stole for her and one for her sister. He bought her a garbage disposal, a washing machine, and a full-length fur coat.

With that 45-cent call, he set up the most lucrative house burglary in Pennsylvania history.

The next day, the four men in the Lincoln drove roller-coaster roads deep into anthracite coal country to check whether Millers tip was solid. Two of the men in the Lincoln also had been romantically involved with Reis.

When the Lincoln turned onto Mahantongo Street around 6 p.m., it was still sunny and mild.

By the time they returned sometime after 8 p.m., darkness enveloped Mahantongo Street. They walked around the back of the house near the swimming pool and broke in through the kitchen door.

Ralph Staino Jr., Reiss broad-shouldered, 27-year-old current flame, walked to a front window to serve as lookout. John Berkery, 30, a handsome oil salesman from New Jersey, headed to the basement to crack the safe with Vincent Blaney, 28, a Philadelphia man with one distinguishing feature, an oversize front tooth. Robert Poulson, 24, followed with a carryall bag for the cash.

As Blaney approached the safe, it was a typical Friday night elsewhere in Pottsville, with couples headed out to the pictures. The musical South Pacific was playing at the Capitol Theatre in CinemaScope and high-fidelity stereophonic sound. The Strand was offering a horror double featureThe Woman Eater and The H Man, the latter with the tame tagline, Its H on Earth.

Blaney had the safe open in fewer than 15 minutes. He peeled it, removing the outermost layer and the asbestos lining. Then they broke the handle.