Long past midnight, the phone rang in a motel room near Miami. The caller spoke swiftly. Minutes later, a New York City detective named Richard Maline stood before Locker 0911 at the Trailways bus station in downtown Miami and opened it. Inside, he found two small, waterlogged leather bags containing several tissues. Wrapped in the tissues were a couple of handfuls of gems, including the golfball-sized, 563.35-carat Star of India sapphire. Thus were recovered nine of the 24 sapphires, diamonds, rubies and emeralds that had been taken from New York City's American Museum of Natural History (TIME, Nov. 6) in one of the most imaginative jewel robberies ever perpetrated offscreen.
If this predawn denouement seemed melodramatic, it was nothing compared with the events that preceded it.
Wise in the Ways. Within 48 hours after the robbery. New York police had got a tip and picked up three suspects: Roger Clark, 29. Allan Kuhn, 26, and Jack ("Murph the Surf") Murphy, 27, all habitués of Miami Beach spas. They were lean, tanned fun lovers who apparently made their living as beach boys and instructors in swimming, surfing and undersea diving. All were members of a loose fraternity of similarly inclined young men who earn untidy amounts of money entertaining lonely middle-aged ladies.
The police could not hold the trio after the museum robbery without evidence, and so let them go back to Miami on bail. Nevertheless, Murph the Surf and his two friends were tailed constantly. Police suspected that the boys, wise in the ways of Gulf Stream currents and coral reefs, might be stashing their loot beneath the sea.
Sweat It Out. Their new-found notoriety brought them some further attention. A Manhattan hotel clerk identified Murph the Surf as one of the men who held him up and pistol-whipped him last summer; Actress Eva Gabor accused Murphy of having beaten and robbed her; and Murph's 22-year-old mistress, Bonnie Lou Sutera, committed suicide, leaving a cryptic note that said, "I guess this is what you want."
To keep the boys safe while sorting out their complex affairs, the cops hauled them back to New York, in creased their bail ($190,000), and when they could not pay, tossed them in jail to sweat things out. Sure enough, they sweated. At length, Kuhn sent word to Assistant District Attorney Maurice Nadjari: perhaps it might be possible to locate some of the gems.
Said Kuhn, according to one report, "I'll get back 15 jewels for you. The rest of the white stuff has already been sold to pay lawyers and bondsmen. Nine are gone forever. Of that I'm sure."
Blabbing Hackie. With the understanding that the accused men would get reduced sentences for their cooperation, Kuhn was permitted to return to Miami with Nadjari and four detectives. It was to be a secret mission —but it turned into a public and fantastic chase.