“Gardner Art Theft Suspect Is Study in Intrigue,” Boston Globe, June 3, 1992

There was a day last autumn when Brian McDevitt, sitting in the office of his small loft house in Hollywood Hills, proposed writing a screenplay about a brazen art theft during which the thieves hid the stolen treasures deep in a German cave.

Just a few weeks later, McDevitt found himself at the center of an investigation into the largest art theft in history, when the FBI summoned him back to his lawyer's Salem office and asked him what he knew about $200 million in paintings missing from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

McDevitt's lawyer said yesterday that his client, who was convicted in a similar, but bungled art robbery in upstate New York in 1980, knows nothing of the 12 missing artworks.

The lawyer, Thomas Beatrice, said it would be impossible for McDevitt to have been involved. First, he had an alibi, which Beatrice declined to disclose. Second, he had a beard for years before and for at least months after the theft, and the suspects were described by Gardner guards as clean-shaven.

Reached by telephone yesterday, McDevitt, 31, described in a New York Times story as an "intriguing suspect," declined to discuss his interview with the FBI or his life in Hollywood and Boston. "I have no comment about anything," he said.

According to the Times account, McDevitt came under suspicion in the Gardner heist because of the theft's striking similarities with an attempted robbery of the Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, N.Y.

In that attempt, according to the Times, McDevitt and an accomplice hijacked a Federal Express truck, knocked out the driver with ether and carried handcuffs and duct tape to the museum, apparently to bind the guards. Dressed in Federal Express uniforms, they also brought tools to cut the paintings from their frames. The plan was bungled when they arrived at the museum a few minutes after it closed. McDevitt, later identified by the truck driver, was convicted and served a few months in jail.

In the Gardner theft, two men posing as Boston police officers rang the museum's doorbell at 1 a.m. on March 18, 1990. Two young security officers on duty let them in. In seconds, the guards were handcuffed, bound and gagged and led to the basement.

The two thieves, described as being in their 30s, cut a dozen paintings, drawings and objects from the walls of the 89-year-old building in the Fenway. The men passed over some works that were more valuable than those they stole. But what they removed was irreplaceable: Jan Vermeer's "The Concert," Rembrandt's "The Storm on the Sea of Galilee," "Self Portrait" and "A Lady and Gentleman in Black," a canvas by Edouard Manet and five pieces by Edgar Degas. They also stole a vase and a flag.

McDevitt, a native of Swampscott who is described by some as charming, witty and confident, and by those less charitable as scheming and conniving, lived in a Beacon Hill apartment when the Gardner was robbed. He moved to Los Angeles within the next year.

"He was born and raised here in this city," said Beatrice. "He made a decision to relocate based on his own lifestyle. It had nothing to do with the Gardner."

In Hollywood, some of those who know McDevitt say he moves thoughout the underworld of screenwriters with a collected confidence, claims to be represented by the best agents, and gets into the most desirable clubs by walking past the line and just appearing at the door.

But they also say he is someone with a past that does not support his boastful claims to be an accomplished writer. Some say he is even a fraud.

Joseph Straczynski, a producer and writer for the television show "Murder She Wrote," said yesterday that watching McDevitt's Hollywood ascension is like "watching a car crash in slow motion. A lot of us are absolutely befuddled."

Shortly after moving from Boston to Los Angeles, McDevitt told business associates that he was a distinguished writer, with stories published in The New Yorker, Harper's magazine, and The Guardian, and had won the prestigious O'Henry and Ernest Hemingway Foundation awards, according to those who say they knew him. He also said he was represented by Creative Artist Associates, perhaps the most prestigious agent in Hollywood.

With his strong resume, he was given a position as chairman of the grants and foundations committee of the Writers Guild, putting him in a position to help other screenplay writers to earn lucrative income.

But when some of his trade colleagues began checking on his assertions, they found them to be incorrect. They said he had not been published in any of the magazines and had not won the awards. Indeed, they said he was not even a Creative Artist client. But when they tried to bring charges against McDevitt within the guild, they were blocked by guild officials.

Within the past few months, the guild has forbidden members to even use McDevitt's name while corresponding through the computerized bulletin board.

"I said to {guild officials} that McDevitt was a walking time bomb," said Peter Lake, a free-lance investigative reporter and television screenplay writer and producer. "They told me not to worry about it."

Lake was eventually censured by the guild for his accusations against McDevitt.

In Hollywood, McDevitt was also part of a company he helped found, Inkwell Productions, that eventually dissolved under strange circumstances. One of the cofounders and financiers, Jeffrey Bydalek, a self-described, self-made millionaire from Chicago, was arrested by FBI agents last October for alleged grand larceny relating to a scheme in Illinois, sources said. The company was closed this year.

FBI spokesman William McMullin in Boston said yesterday that federal investigators "have been aware for some time of the Hyde Museum theft," but would not comment on whether any persons connected with that theft were interviewed by agents investigating the Gardner theft.

But a source familiar with the investigation said McDevitt "was looked at because of his past exploits, but he is not being carried around as the prime suspect." The source noted that the interview occurred several months ago. Beatrice said that McDevitt flew from his Los Angeles home to be interviewed, fingerprinted, and palmprinted..

The source said that while there is no prime suspect in the theft, the subject of a $1 million reward, McDevitt is not at the top of the investigators' list.

McDevitt was just "one of a number of people all over the place who were looked at because of their past exploits," the source said.

There was a day last autumn when Brian McDevitt, sitting in the office of his small loft house in Hollywood Hills, proposed writing a screenplay about a brazen art theft during which the thieves hid the stolen treasures deep in a German cave.

Just a few weeks later, McDevitt found himself at the center of an investigation into the largest art theft in history, when the FBI summoned him back to his lawyer's Salem office and asked him what he knew about $200 million in paintings missing from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

McDevitt's lawyer said yesterday that his client, who was convicted in a similar, but bungled art robbery in upstate New York in 1980, knows nothing of the 12 missing artworks.

The lawyer, Thomas Beatrice, said it would be impossible for McDevitt to have been involved. First, he had an alibi, which Beatrice declined to disclose. Second, he had a beard for years before and for at least months after the theft, and the suspects were described by Gardner guards as clean-shaven.

Reached by telephone yesterday, McDevitt, 31, described in a New York Times story as an "intriguing suspect," declined to discuss his interview with the FBI or his life in Hollywood and Boston. "I have no comment about anything," he said.

According to the Times account, McDevitt came under suspicion in the Gardner heist because of the theft's striking similarities with an attempted robbery of the Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, N.Y.

In that attempt, according to the Times, McDevitt and an accomplice hijacked a Federal Express truck, knocked out the driver with ether and carried handcuffs and duct tape to the museum, apparently to bind the guards. Dressed in Federal Express uniforms, they also brought tools to cut the paintings from their frames. The plan was bungled when they arrived at the museum a few minutes after it closed. McDevitt, later identified by the truck driver, was convicted and served a few months in jail.

In the Gardner theft, two men posing as Boston police officers rang the museum's doorbell at 1 a.m. on March 18, 1990. Two young security officers on duty let them in. In seconds, the guards were handcuffed, bound and gagged and led to the basement.

The two thieves, described as being in their 30s, cut a dozen paintings, drawings and objects from the walls of the 89-year-old building in the Fenway. The men passed over some works that were more valuable than those they stole. But what they removed was irreplaceable: Jan Vermeer's "The Concert," Rembrandt's "The Storm on the Sea of Galilee," "Self Portrait" and "A Lady and Gentleman in Black," a canvas by Edouard Manet and five pieces by Edgar Degas. They also stole a vase and a flag.

McDevitt, a native of Swampscott who is described by some as charming, witty and confident, and by those less charitable as scheming and conniving, lived in a Beacon Hill apartment when the Gardner was robbed. He moved to Los Angeles within the next year.

"He was born and raised here in this city," said Beatrice. "He made a decision to relocate based on his own lifestyle. It had nothing to do with the Gardner."

In Hollywood, some of those who know McDevitt say he moves thoughout the underworld of screenwriters with a collected confidence, claims to be represented by the best agents, and gets into the most desirable clubs by walking past the line and just appearing at the door.

But they also say he is someone with a past that does not support his boastful claims to be an accomplished writer. Some say he is even a fraud.

Joseph Straczynski, a producer and writer for the television show "Murder She Wrote," said yesterday that watching McDevitt's Hollywood ascension is like "watching a car crash in slow motion. A lot of us are absolutely befuddled."

Shortly after moving from Boston to Los Angeles, McDevitt told business associates that he was a distinguished writer, with stories published in The New Yorker, Harper's magazine, and The Guardian, and had won the prestigious O'Henry and Ernest Hemingway Foundation awards, according to those who say they knew him. He also said he was represented by Creative Artist Associates, perhaps the most prestigious agent in Hollywood.

With his strong resume, he was given a position as chairman of the grants and foundations committee of the Writers Guild, putting him in a position to help other screenplay writers to earn lucrative income.

But when some of his trade colleagues began checking on his assertions, they found them to be incorrect. They said he had not been published in any of the magazines and had not won the awards. Indeed, they said he was not even a Creative Artist client. But when they tried to bring charges against McDevitt within the guild, they were blocked by guild officials.

Within the past few months, the guild has forbidden members to even use McDevitt's name while corresponding through the computerized bulletin board.

"I said to {guild officials} that McDevitt was a walking time bomb," said Peter Lake, a free-lance investigative reporter and television screenplay writer and producer. "They told me not to worry about it."

Lake was eventually censured by the guild for his accusations against McDevitt.

In Hollywood, McDevitt was also part of a company he helped found, Inkwell Productions, that eventually dissolved under strange circumstances. One of the cofounders and financiers, Jeffrey Bydalek, a self-described, self-made millionaire from Chicago, was arrested by FBI agents last October for alleged grand larceny relating to a scheme in Illinois, sources said. The company was closed this year.

FBI spokesman William McMullin in Boston said yesterday that federal investigators "have been aware for some time of the Hyde Museum theft," but would not comment on whether any persons connected with that theft were interviewed by agents investigating the Gardner theft.

But a source familiar with the investigation said McDevitt "was looked at because of his past exploits, but he is not being carried around as the prime suspect." The source noted that the interview occurred several months ago. Beatrice said that McDevitt flew from his Los Angeles home to be interviewed, fingerprinted, and palmprinted..

The source said that while there is no prime suspect in the theft, the subject of a $1 million reward, McDevitt is not at the top of the investigators' list.

McDevitt was just "one of a number of people all over the place who were looked at because of their past exploits," the source said.

Copyright Boston Globe

 

 

 

Gardner Museum Heist