CHICAGO — Two men convicted of London’s $3.6 million Marlborough diamond robbery three decades ago have been arrested on charges of conspiring to rob a suburban Chicago bank, federal officials announced Friday.
Joseph “Jerry” Scalise, 73 and Arthur Rachel, 71, were arrested Thursday night along with Robert Pullia, 69, after months of FBI surveillance showed they were planning to rob the First National Bank of LaGrange, according to an FBI affidavit filed in U.S. District Court.
The FBI said that in addition to his long arrest record, Scalise’s resume included serving as a technical adviser on the movie “Public Enemies” about Depression Era badman John Dillinger, which was filmed in Chicago in 2008.
Defense attorney Terence P. Gillespie told reporters one of the men told him the charges were “nonsense” and that all three would plead not guilty.
Scalise and Rachel were convicted in a British court of being the two men who in 1980, using a hand grenade as a threat, robbed posh Graff Jewelers in central London of $3.6 million worth of goods including the big diamond.
Scalise and Rachel began serving 15-year prison terms in 1984 and were released in 1993.
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