The true crime story of a family of altruistic jewel thieves and four decades of daring capers and sweet escapes, including a 1992 New York mega-heist.
Punch Stanimirovic insists: “My father, known as Mr. Stan, is the greatest gentleman thief who ever lived—a true genius.”
Punch was raised to be an exceptional diamond thief. He could work magic on a safe that would have sent Mandrake the Magician back to the novelty store, and Dr. Strange back to medical school. He and his family risked it all to make the patriarch, Mr. Stan, proud.
Punch’s pop culture sensibilities, his father’s proven skills, and his mother’s artistic input merged to create cinema-style capers—elaborately planned and executed, including a spectacular 1992 New York mega-heist of over one billion dollars in diamonds, gold, and precious gems—and they got away with it.
Many of the crew members went on to invest in real estate, helping to “build the New York skyline”, while others moved to Europe and became the Pink Panthers.
They had one rule: No One Gets Hurt. From daring heists to the ultimate escape, discover the true story of Punch, his extraordinary crew, and his high-society family . . .
Edgar Award winner and New York Times–bestselling author Burl Barer brings to light the remarkable story of four decades and two generations of America’s First Family of kind and generous “altruistic outlaws” in Stealing Manhattan: The Untold Story of America’s Billion Dollar Gem Heist Masterminds.
Praise for Stealing Manhattan
“Barer has that all-important knack for seeking and finding hidden truth. In Stealing Manhattan, those who pulled off this caper were professionals who knew how to keep their mouths shut. And lucky for us, some of these mouths have recently opened to Barer . . . now the world can know the truth. You will not want to miss this “gem” of a book!” —Kevin Sullivan, author of The Bundy Murders: The Yearly Journal
