Albert Spaggiari (14 December 1932 – 8 June 1989), nicknamed Bert, was a French criminal chiefly known as the organizer of a break-in into a Société Générale bank in Nice, France, in July 1976 that resulted in the theft of an estimated 46 million francs, none of which were ever found.

Early life

Albert Spaggiari was born on 14 December 1932 in Laragne-Montéglin in the Hautes-Alpes to Richard and Marcelle (née Clément) Spaggiari. His father died in 1935 and he grew up in Hyères, where his mother ran a lingerie store.

At the age of 19, he enlisted as a paratrooper in the First Indochina War, and was posted to the 3rd Battalion colonial paratroopers. During this time, he and a few accomplices put a gun to the head of someone that they claimed had robbed them. The military court, however, believed that this was actually a stickup, and Spaggiari spent the next four years in jail.

Following his release, he moved to North Africa and joined the Organisation armée secrète (OAS), a right-wing group that wanted to prevent Algerian independence. This later led him to be sentenced to three and a half more years in jail, on the charges of political terrorism. His codename was "Daniel". This group was called the DINA "Brigada Corsa" ("Corsican Brigade").

According to a CIA document declassified in 2000 and published by the National Security Archive, Michael Townley, the DINA international agent responsible for the Assassination of Orlando Letelier, a member of Salvador Allende's government, in Washington, DC, 1976, was in contact with Spaggiari. Information contained in the document suggests that Spaggiari conducted operations on behalf of DINA.

Bank robbery in Nice

After Spaggiari heard that the sewers were close to the vault of the Société Générale bank in Nice, he recruited accomplices through the OAS to access the vault from the sewer system and remove its proceeds. The heist involved at least 20 people, 6 of whom were later arrested, They set up picnic tables for meals and air mattresses for sleeping.

On 16 July 1976, during the long weekend of Bastille Day, when most locals were on vacation, Spaggiari's gang broke into the vault. They stole an estimated 46 million francs worth of money, securities and valuables. It was the largest heist in the history of bank robberies to that date.

They spent hours picking through the various safe deposit boxes. Before they left on 20 July they left a message on the walls of the vault: sans armes, ni haine, ni violence ("without weapons, neither hatred, nor violence").

Capture and escape

At first the French police were baffled. However, at the end of October, on a tip from a former girlfriend, they arrested one of the thieves. After a lengthy interrogation he implicated the entire gang, including Spaggiari. When Spaggiari, who had been accompanying the mayor of Nice Jacques Médecin in the Far East as a photographer, returned to Nice, he was arrested at the airport.

Spaggiari chose Jacques Peyrat, a veteran of the French Foreign Legion who belonged at the time to the National Front, as his defence attorney. Spaggiari first denied his involvement in the break-in, then acknowledged it but claimed that he was working to fund a secret political organization named Catena (Italian for "chain") that seems to have existed only in his fantasy.

During his case hearings, Spaggiari made a coded fictitious document which he claimed as evidence. He was in court on 10 March 1977. While judge Richard Bouaziz was distracted by the document, Spaggiari jumped out of a window, landing safely on a parked car and escaped on a waiting motorcycle.

Life in hiding

Spaggiari remained free for the rest of his life. He was sentenced via a trial in absentia to life imprisonment. He is reported to have had plastic surgery to change his appearance, and to have spent probably most of the rest of his life in Argentina, visiting France clandestinely to see his mother or his wife "Audi".

While publishing his last book Le journal d'une truffe a 15-minute interview with him by Bernard Pivot was recorded, reportedly in Milan, Italy, for the TV program Apostrophes.

Death

Spaggiari, a heavy smoker, died of lung cancer at age 56. His body was found by his mother in front of his home in Hyères on 10 June 1989. He had no children.

Three films were produced which were also based on the Nice bank robbery:

  • Les égouts du paradis, a 1979 French film directed by José Giovanni.
  • The Great Riviera Bank Robbery, also known Dirty Money and Sewers of Gold, a 1979 British film directed by Francis Megahy.
  • Sans arme, ni haine, ni violence, a 2008 French film directed by Jean-Paul Rouve.

The Canadian television series Masterminds produced and aired an episode titled "The Riviera Job," reenacting the story of the robbery.

A Czech film, Prachy dělaj člověka, contains a reference to the heist, suggesting that one of the characters participated in it.

In 2016, Italian author Carlos D'Ercole published a book about the heist titled Le Fogne del paradiso.

References

  • The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability