PrimeWire

It’s worth mentioning that this is very loosely based on a true story referred to as The 20 mm Brinks Heist. In late March 1965 Jack Franck, an auto mechanic from New York City, purchased two Lahti 20 mm anti-tank rifles and 200 rounds of armor-piercing ammunition at the Alexandria, VA, offices of Interarmco.

Franck paid approximately $800 for the two Lahti L-39 AT rifles. Under the National Firearms Act of 1934, these are regulated as Title II weapons and considered “Destructive Devices” because they have a bore in excess of .50 caliber in size and shoot explosive rounds that exceed 1/4 of an ounce. An extensive background check and tax stamp of $200 for each gun would have been necessary. This was all a straw purchase for his nephew, Joel Singer, 22, a native of Montreal and young man with a criminal record in Canada.

Fast forward to 23 October 1965. Singer and a crew of 4 other guys hid one of the cannons in the back of a van, transported to a parking garage in Syracuse, NY and used to blast through a cinder block wall after hours to access the Brinks Armored Car Depot’s vault next door.

33 armor piercing rounds were fired to create a 18” x 24” passageway. They absconded with almost $425,000 in cash, coins and checks. Franck had panicked after he heard the story, called the FBI and told them everything. But that’s not all, A suspicious store employee investigated the address that Franck had provided and discovered that it was fake. He alerted the FBI who in turn contacted the Canadian authorities, who were wary of weapons being smuggled into Quebec for the terrorist group Federation du Liberation du Quebec (FLQ). So the authorities were already waiting. Singer was convicted 31 January 1967 of 3rd degree burglary and sentenced to 10 years in Attica Prison.

But the craziness doesn’t end there. In September of 1971 there was a prison riot, at least 43 people were dead, 10 hostage correctional officers and civilian employees and 33 inmates, nearly all killed by law enforcement gunfire. Singer stated it had left him emotionally scarred and he no longer felt safe. They transferred him to a psychiatric facility in July of 1972 to convalesce before he was released not long after. He returned to Montreal and committed suicide 6 February 1973. The method used was cyanide. He was 31 years old.