Adolph (Jazz) Maffie; Last Survivor of Brink’s Gang

Adolph (Jazz) Maffie, 77, the last survivor of the Halloween-masked men convicted in the $2.7-million Brink’s robbery of 1950. There were 11 participants in the Jan. 17, 1950, robbery, in which armed men wearing Halloween masks took $1.2 million in cash and $1.5 million in checks and securities from the Brink’s counting room in a waterfront garage in Boston’s North End. At the time it was the biggest robbery in U.S. history and it took the FBI six years to solve the case. Eventually nine men went to prison but only $57,000 was ever recovered. Authorities said the robbery was planned in Maffie’s living room. Maffie was sentenced to life in prison for the heist but his sentence was commuted by then-Gov. John Volpe. Maffie was released in 1969 after serving more than 13 years. He rejoined his family in Quincy and worked as a car salesman. In Boston Sept. 25 after what was described as “a long illness.”