Bill Mason
09/01/2004
Bill Mason, a successful real estate investor, maintained a lucrative secret life for many years as a jewel thief. The law finally caught up with him, and he spent time in prison. He now insists he has gone straight. His new memoir, Confessions of a Master Jewel Thief (with Lee Gruenfeld; Villard/Random House, 2004) provides some insight into the type of man who seeks to separate us from our treasures, and what we can do about it. Mason now lives in New York with his wife.
The high society folks in Cleveland, where I grew up, now know it was me who stole Florence Mandel’s jewels—$1 million worth of diamonds, rubies, emeralds and other gems—in 1980. Her husband, Joseph Mandel, was a founder of Premier Industrial Corp., and their daughters are friends of my wife’s younger sister. They don’t talk to me much. But since I was arrested in the mid-1980s and the stories came out about the unlikely romance between my heiress wife, Fran, and me, and especially now that I have written a book about my life as a jewel thief, a lot of people seem to be intrigued with the fact that I robbed some famous people. Everybody is intrigued with Elizabeth Taylor, and with Phyllis Diller, whom I robbed twice.
I used to go to a lot of black-tie parties and
charity balls, prospecting. I would wander in late at night when everybody had
had a few drinks, dressed formally, and nobody ever questioned me. This sounds
vain but I used to be very nice looking, and when you are nice looking, people
want to talk to you. I knew how to blend in. Many of the women would be wearing
valuable jewels, and I had a sort of sixth sense for who had the best jewels.
One of my techniques was to make small talk with likely targets. I would ask
simple questions, like “Oh, you live on the beach, which building?” Since I
might be a neighbor, it sounded innocuous.As a backup strategy, I had a card printed claiming I was with United Press International—I still have the card in my wallet, though it is about 40 years old and very dog-eared. I would carry a camera, and if I saw someone who was interesting and I could not figure out her name, I would say I was taking photos for a story. Then I would say, “Give me your address, and I will have a copy of the picture sent to you for approval.” People were always happy to do that.
| People get complacent when they live in buildings that are supposed to have tight security. The security at the top was not adequate. |
Society magazines with pictures of women in jewels were like a candy store to me, but there are certain women who will not let their jewelry be photographed. They wear it at the festivities, but take it off for the photos. This is a very good idea because you never know who is going to be checking out the pictures.
A safe is a good investment. It should not be a wall safe behind a painting. That is too obvious. The best kind is a barrel safe that you put into the floor. First the thief has to find it, and then most thieves cannot get the back out because it is stuck in the cement. I have broken into a barrel safe, but I know how to open them. Normally you have to get to the back of them, which is difficult.
Ultimate Sport
Though I sold the jewels to a fence, it was not the
money that made me do it. I was earning a good living in real estate. I had
a wife and three great kids. It was an adventure to me, addicting, not unlike
climbing mountains. I specialized in high-rise luxury apartment buildings and
hotels. It might be easier to break into a house, but I was not looking for
ease, I was looking for the higher mountain to climb, the bigger adrenaline
rush. In Cleveland, in Saratoga, and all over south Florida, I got into
buildings.
Sometimes it took six months to plan a job; every building is
different and I would have to check it out to see how to get in. I might use a
rope and climb up a balcony to the floor, or take the stairs up to the roof and
come down on a rope. What I did takes a lot of agility. But it was often as easy
as just walking in; I could just walk into a building if I dressed
appropriately.
People can get complacent when they live in buildings that
are supposed to have tight security. Sometimes the security up at the top, or
close to the top, was not adequate. Sometimes the door was unlocked and the
alarm was not activated, or the door to the balcony was open. I’d often find the
jewelry in the top dresser drawer or on top of the dressing table. It would have
been smart to put some of the best jewelry in the freezer or the laundry room;
at least then I would have had to spend time looking for it.
I could walk out
during the day, with the jewelry in my pocket or a briefcase. Usually I had some
tools with me in case I had to open a safe, though not a great many. I always
went in unarmed, and I made sure that the residents were out. I suppose if you
were going to be robbed, you might prefer to be robbed by me. I always left the
place as neat as it was when I came in, unless I drilled open a safe or
something.
Nature and Nurture
No one influence turned me into a jewel
thief. I was born in West Virginia in 1940, which was a great place to climb
trees. Six-year-old boys love being in the woods. When I was 8, we moved to
Shaker Heights, near Cleveland, where my father managed two luxury apartment
buildings. I hated apartment buildings from the first time I saw them, but then
I adapted and started climbing buildings instead of trees. I saw the rich people
in the buildings demand a lot of my father, so I think I developed some
animosity. Still, at Shaker Heights High School I fit in with the rich kids,
although I also hung around with some of the hoody guys from the other side of
the tracks. I played football and dated the homecoming queen, who was from a
rich family.
I am not particularly a con man; I just have an ability to
adapt to the situation. Certainly now I do not resent people with money. I like
nice people, in general, which is why I never could let myself get to know the
people I robbed. I did meet Carol Channing, and she was such a nice lady I
decided not to rob her. But Phyllis Diller was a very nice lady, too. The New
York Times interviewed her about me and she said, “At my age, I can’t hold a
grudge,” and wished me well. Talk about a way to make you feel guilty.
I do
feel bad about taking heirloom pieces. I took a pile of jewelry from Johnny
Weismuller’s Florida condo, and in it was his gold medal for the 400-meter
freestyle swim at the 1924 Paris Olympics. He worked so hard for it. I mailed it
back to him.
Photograph by Abe Frajndlich.