Rhode Island may be America’s smallest state, but organized crime in the Ocean State has a well-deserved yet underappreciated reputation for thinking big. In THE LAST GOOD HEIST, the exhaustively researched true-crime work by veteran Providence journalists Tim White, Randall Richard and Wayne Worcester, readers get an object lesson in how the Rhode Island mafia became unthinkably profitable without drawing anywhere near the national attention of the New York and Chicago mobs: boundless ambition masked by a humble façade.

THE LAST GOOD HEIST depicts the robbery of the Bonded Vault --- a plain-looking brick building in a working-class Providence neighborhood advertised as a fur storage facility --- that turned out to be the most profitable heist in New England history. Aside from storing minks and sables, the Bonded Vault also secretly contained 148 safety deposit boxes used by Rhode Island’s wealthiest and most notorious gangsters to hold their un-taxed wealth. When eight thieves broke into the boxes, they found literal treasure --- gold, silver, jewels and mountains of cash --- beyond what any of them could have possibly imagined.

"The Rhode Island mob deserves to be held alongside the syndicates run by men like Capone and Carlo Gambino in the history of organized crime. THE LAST GOOD HEIST will help readers understand that, for a small state, Rhode Island punches far above its weight."

The trio of journalists focuses the story on the leader of the heist, career criminal and escaped convict Robert “Deuce” Dussault. Deuce unwittingly impresses members of Rhode Island’s La Cosa Nostra while in prison in neighboring Massachusetts by managing to defraud wealthy members of the public even from behind bars, and he is hand-chosen to lead what sounds like a routine robbery at the Bonded Vault. When he sees the cash and treasure fall out of the deposit boxes and fill the room up to his knees --- at a value of at least $140 million in today’s money, all extorted, stolen, or otherwise earned from illegitimate means --- he knows he stepped into something much bigger than a simple stick-up. THE LAST GOOD HEIST follows Deuce and his new girlfriend, Karyne, as they crisscross the country and lavishly live “like it’s their last weeks on earth,” all while the heat on Deuce coming from law enforcement and other gangsters back in Rhode Island slowly builds. Back in the Ocean State, feds put a case together and bring the eight co-conspirators to trial in what becomes the highest of courtroom dramas.

THE LAST GOOD HEIST strikes a perfect balance, containing the fun, thrilling aspects of true-crime that many mafia stories over-embellish while presenting clear historical truths. The Bonded Vault has lived in the public imagination of Rhode Islanders for decades as a tale from folklore, but White, Richard and Worcester compile the facts with the precision of courtroom prosecutors to legitimately bring it into the historical record. The trio captures the personalities of the motley crew of eight robbers and seemingly countless other hoods to make the amorphous web of criminals and institutions that make up La Cosa Nostra in Rhode Island more understandable and real to their readers. The composition of the book in short but distinct chapters makes it an effortless read perfect for both casual crime fans and serious students of American crime.

What THE LAST GOOD HEIST does best is sum up what makes Rhode Island’s brand of organized crime --- and the state itself --- so special: what may look simple and insignificant to the untrained eye can contain marvelous or portentous meaning to those who understand it. The Rhode Island mob penetrated every layer of state government and public institutions to control Little Rhody to a greater extent than any criminal enterprise has ever controlled a state, with influence and profits that would make Al Capone blush. And they did it all from the modest Italian neighborhood of Federal Hill in Providence, home of some of the best pasta and cannoli in America. Out of a little vending machine business, godfather Raymond Patriarca (the most appropriate mafia surname in US history) ran all of the crime north of the New York Five Families’ territory with unquestionable authority. Without any of the flamboyance of John Gotti or Las Vegas gangsters, Patriarca led an efficient and dominant crime machine that rivaled those of his big city counterparts.

The Rhode Island mob deserves to be held alongside the syndicates run by men like Capone and Carlo Gambino in the history of organized crime. THE LAST GOOD HEIST will help readers understand that, for a small state, Rhode Island punches far above its weight.