agent discovered the stolen books, all undamaged, as well as the five-page typed plan for the heist, an accounting ledger, wigs, instructions for opening a Swiss bank account, and stun guns, which had apparently arrived after the robbery. The partnership flourished, with Warren as the face of the operation and Eric in charge of ID production, until the two had an argument over $2,000 that went missing from Eric's drawer. agents poured in over the wreckage. Among them was the 2002 photo from the Lexington Herald-Leader of Spencer and Warren playing soccer. (Spencer had had to do a rush job on them because his art-history final had run long.) If not, we were going to get caught and it was going to be a crazy story., And now that weve diverted from that path, we feel liberated, Warren tells me, waving his arms around the room. So we get the passport from the dude, plane tickets. Serving a seven-year prison sentence following his involvement in a notorious heist (portrayed in the film American Animals), Spencer Reinhard was committed to not losing the best years of his life. He turned to his own art, determined to refine his craft and technique. The L.P.D. Spencer drives me out to Lexington [Blue Grass Airport] on a Friday. By that point Warren, Eric, and Spencer knew for certain they were going down. He scored a joint before checking into a hole-in-the-wall and falling asleep. Over the phone and by e-mail, Beckman had asked to view, among other items, a first edition of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species and four double-size folios of John James Audubon's Birds of America. One evening it occurred to Spencer that they had used the Walter Beckman Yahoo account to contact both Christie's and Gooch. Spencer received a commission to paint murals at a local school and kept up his soccer training, Eric started a lawn-care business with his friend Chas Allen, and Warren landed a job at a local day camp. The four men. It had some tennis trivia in there that I wasn't expecting.. If we got away with it, we'd be in Europe living this crazy life thinking we were Ocean's 11 types. Warren, under an alias, would make an appointment with Gooch for that afternoon to view the books they wanted to steal. If we go in there theyre not going to suspect that we stole these. Although the two hadn't really been in contact in the first few months of school, Warren knew that Spencer's artistic talents would be an asset. Back at Warrens later that afternoon, the boys were transfixed by local coverage of the Transy Book Heist. According to the news, it appeared that neither Gooch nor anyone else was able to provide the police with an accurate description of the boys. A witness had written down a license-plate number, but it was way off. The whole operation would have to be completed by 12:30 P.M., as the boys say Chas needed to return the Dodge Caravan to his mother in time for her to sell it, and Spencer and Eric had to get to their final exams in sociology and tennis, respectively. Afterward, Warren and Spencer briefed the others, and the four went to lunch, where, the boys say, Chas insisted they spend another night in New York and attempt to see Mr. Leckey the next day. All four were brought to Lexington police headquarters and individually interrogated by F.B.I. Chas backs up [the van] and almost hits the woman as Eric comes around to the door. Eric would stay on the main floor while Warren subdued Gooch in the Rare Book Room. They tried to come up with some link the cops could make between them and the theft, but they couldnt. Improvising on the plan, he kicked Eric and Warren out on the street, believing three men in a gray minivan would draw too much attention. (Throughout the interviews with the three, it became clear that Chas was the odd man out among the group. He thought he was much better than everybody else, and he got to the point where he wasnt like us. No response. The L.P.D. Phase 2 involves the actual theft, and begins when Spencer takes his position at an upper-floor window of the nearby athletic center, where he will be on lookout. When Halloran inquired about them, Spencer spoke up and offered to fetch them from the car. Having concluded that the next logical stage of his development was to study art in college he enrolled at Transylvania University in Kentucky. No response. None the less, still super stoked Lex Art League accepted 3 of my artworks. I'm expecting when I get up there it's going to be taken care of and I'm just going to start lifting books. I was kind of skeptical, continues Spencer, but the way I rationalized it was: it's the biggest auction house. Each has a different style of facial hairmuttonchops (Lipka), a Fu Manchu (Borsuk), a Tom Selleck (Reinhard)which Lipka informs me they had carefully trimmed for my visit. The other was short and quiet, wearing a yellow jacket two sizes too large and a matching scarf. And the woman there says, We had a set just like this that we sold four years ago for like $12 million. It could have been eight. Still shaken from her ordeal, Gooch, in her 50s, told police that shortly after entering the Rare Book Room with the two men she had been struck on the arm with a Taserlike weapon, her hands and feet were bound with zip ties, and a wool cap was pulled over her eyes. Along the way a stoned Spencer read aloud from the purloined first edition of On the Origin of Species, particularly fascinated by the section on how the ears of domesticated animals have drooped over generations due to the disuse of the muscles of the ear from the animals not being much alarmed by danger.. Warren sectioned off a bedroom by hanging bedsheets from the rafters and furnished it with an old mattress and a tangerine easy chair he had picked up from Goodwill. They were skeptical, Warren recalls. Waiting for the law to snatch them was nerve-racking, but they went on with their lives as if nothing had been amiss. Warren was already busily working out the problem, returning for advice to his underworld contact: What if we had some artwork that we wanted to sell? Warren remembers asking him. Aside from harming B. J. Gooch, Spencer, Warren, and Eric maintain that they have no regrets. Realizing that the only way out was through the main floor, they took the elevator up once again and carried the books into a back stairwell that led to another exit. As they scooted down the stairs their arms gave out and they stopped to catch their breath. The stun guns Warren had ordered never arrived, so he drove around town and returned with a Black Cobra Stun Pen, and had Spencer zap him and Eric to test its knockdown power. Eric couldn't get hold of his friend's car, leaving Chas to borrow a Dodge Caravan his mother was fortuitously selling the next day, the boys say. Though they attended different high schools, both were varsity captains, and both made all-state. The painting is a kaleidoscope of images, including what appears to be a computer, a cell phone, a bong, the Transylvania library, and loose sheets of notepaper, floating above a desiccated one-eyed young man in a watch cap, kicking back on a beat-up couch with a blue dog on his lap. So we ate at Pazzos pizza pub. If you were referring only to my paintings featuring birds, I would say its my ability to render the birds accurately, but in a way that gives them personality.. Phase 2 ends when the loot is loaded into the G.T.A.V. Spencer assembled his outfit with even greater care. After high school I chose to attend Transylvania University where I would continue to play soccer and study art. After a quick powwow in the stacks, the conspirators decided to abort the mission for the time being and retreated to the bungalow. Warren went up to the third floor to meet Gooch, while Eric waited downstairs for him to call. Spencer was born in 1984 in Lexington Kentucky. Because the boys made the highly unusual decision not to accept the prosecutors offer to testify against one another during sentencing in exchange for leniency, they were each sentenced to identical seven-year terms. Warren called Gooch back to change Walter Beckmans appointment to three P.M. On the morning of December 16, Warrens carefully scripted plan began to unravel almost immediately. Spencer Reinhard and Warren Lipka had grown up together in adjacent subdivisions on Lexington's south sidefully planned residential tracts wedged in between the city and the gradually receding horse country that rings it. By that point Warren, Eric, and Spencer knew for certain they were going down. What they would tell me, then, is their version of eventsand the only complete account of the planning, execution, and aftermath of the heist. What I found incredibly valuable about prison was the multiculturalism. Because this is so much bigger than anything we've done before.. Seeing something in the wayward Warren, the preppy grifter pitched him the idea of selling fake Kentucky driver's licenses in the U.K. dorms. Who do we trust?. The meeting initially hit a snag when Barry was put off by the boys' youth. Aside from harming B. J. Gooch, Spencer, Warren, and Eric maintain that they have no regrets. Having told their parents that they were going on a ski trip to West Virginia, that weekend they loaded the loot into Erics Ford Explorer and took off on the 12-hour drive to New York for their Christies appointment. Churchill's statement can be agreed with. American Animals, the 2018 biopic, written and directed by The Tinder Swindlers Bart Layton, is an acclaimed cinematic account of a younger Reinhard, a then Transylvania University junior whose plot to steal one of the rarest of US art history titles naturalist icon John James Audubons 1827 tome Birds of America as well as a first-edition Origin of the Species by Charles Darwin - led to guilty pleas from Reinhard and three chums, who paid the price: seven-year convictions across the board. Oh, yeah, he almost got shot, says Eric, laughing. As she inspected the items, Halloran dutifully took notes, then asked a few questions regarding their provenance, which Spencer answered as best he could under the circumstances. There were all sorts of theories as to why they had done it: they were drug addicts; they had amassed large gambling debtsor Lipkas father had, and the boys did it to save the familys honor (the variant most popular with the local papers). In the case of 67-year-old Alan Slattery of the U.K., it prevented a robbery from even happening. The other was short and quiet, wearing a yellow jacket two sizes too large and a matching scarf. Suddenly without Eric's mock-ups, software, and equipment, Warren thought of Spencer. Both boys were spitting images of Mr. Stephens and Mr. Williams. Thats what we were doing, kind of living this little Matchstick Men, college kind of life.. Despite the differing temperamentsand the disapproval of Spencer's parentsthe two were best friends from the age of eight, a friendship that revolved largely around soccer. Spencer, meanwhile, was accepted to Transylvania on an arts scholarship, his sights firmly set on a career in graphic design. He thought he was much better than everybody else, and he got to the point where he wasn't like us. The reality however was rather more mundane, he sensed that his studies were little more than a continuation of his high school. The take could be more than $5 million. Believe me, you havent heard the last of us yet.. He looked like he was dressed from a thrift store, Halloran told the agents. His malaise was likely exacerbated by his parents impending divorce amid his mothers allegations that his father, Big Warren, the celebrated coach of the universitys womens soccer team, had gambled the family into bankruptcy. But before long they were put to chase once again, this time by two local thugs. (Through his attorney, Allen declined to be interviewed.) They take you in the Special Collections and show you these books, Spencer remembers, including Transys prized Birds of America, by John James Audubon, a four-volume set of life-size engravings the pioneer wildlife artist completed in London in 1838. Seeing something in the wayward Warren, the preppy grifter pitched him the idea of selling fake Kentucky drivers licenses in the U.K. dorms. He then explains: "And as for the boy, his parents were believers, and we feared that he would overburden them by transgression and disbelief. American painter Spencer Reinhard is loving the new art he is diligently producing. The meeting initially hit a snag when Barry was put off by the boys youth. He said, You do that and you are free then to give them to us when you can. O.K., great. Theyre all slim and dressed identically in cheap sneakers and a khaki uniform emblazoned with their incarceration numbers, and all have hair down to their shoulders. They were 20 steps ahead [of the librarian]. It had been agreed that Warren, with his smooth talk, and Spencer, with his artistic knowledge, would go to the meeting. Thanks for the on my post. Two months later, amid a local media frenzy, the four formally pleaded guilty to all six federal charges, including theft of cultural artifacts from a public museum and interstate transportation of stolen property. received two additional pieces of evidence from Christies: security-camera footage of the meeting and a cell-phone number the men had left behind. Warren made an appraisal appointment at Christies in New York for Walter Beckman, a pseudonym inspired by the soccer star David Beckham. agents were sitting behind them the whole time, listening to their every word. 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