The robbery was organized by Samuel Nalo and Robert "Bobby" Comfort, two professional thieves who had already stolen $1 million in jewelry from Sophia Loren's suite at the Sherry-Netherland Hotel and pulled major jobs at the Regency, the Drake, the Carlyle, and the St. Regis. Nalo was the planner; Comfort, the organizer. On December 30, in the back room of Nalo's nightclub, the Port Said, he assembled the full team for the first time and told them the target. The crew included Lucchese crime family associate Robert "Bobby" Germaine, who would pry open the lock boxes; Ali-Ben, a contract killer who worked primarily for the Albanian Mafia; and Ali-Ben's brother-in-law, Al Green. They arrived at The Pierre dressed in disguises -- Nalo wore a massive wig, fake nose, and eyeglasses -- and every man wore gloves and carried a gun.

Green, wearing a chauffeur's uniform, drove a black Cadillac limousine to the 61st Street entrance. Bobby Germaine told the security guard they were there for "Dr. Foster's party" -- Comfort's alias, backed by a real reservation. The guard unlocked the door and was immediately held at gunpoint. The crew rounded up all staff on duty, handcuffing them with three dozen pairs they had brought for the purpose. Nineteen hostages were gathered in an alcove near the registration desk, ordered to lie face down. Nalo forced the hotel auditor to produce the index cards matching lock boxes to depositors. They only cracked boxes belonging to names they recognized: real estate magnate Harold Uris, Boston Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey, shipping heiress Calliope Kulukundis. Throughout, the robbers referred to their hostages as "sir" and "miss" and never raised their voices. They did not handcuff anyone who appeared ill.

At 6:15 a.m., Comfort told the hostages they were leaving and warned them against identifying anyone to police. Before departing, he gave a $20 bill to each hotel employee they had detained -- except the security guards. They were gone by 6:30, half an hour before the morning shift arrived. What happened next was a masterclass in criminal self-destruction. Nalo took the loot to Christie "the Tic" Furnari, a Lucchese family consigliere, to fence. Furnari demanded 33 percent. Furious, Nalo stashed the bulk of the haul with a friend in Detroit. That friend grew nervous after the arrests and turned $750,000 in jewels over to police. Another associate absconded to Mexico with millions more and was never heard from again. Comfort tried to fence his share through Rochester mobsters who simply kept the jewelry and nearly killed him when he tried to get it back.

The robbery's aftermath was bloodier than the heist itself. Donald Frankos, a crew member who had been promised $750,000, received only $50,000 initially and eventually a total of $175,000. He blamed Nalo for the shortfall and vowed to kill him. Ali-Ben and Al Green, believing Nalo had swindled them, fled to Europe with what they had managed to keep. Samuel Nalo was murdered by an unknown gunman in 1988. Frankos killed both Ali-Ben and Al Green in 1981. Bobby Comfort, who had been muscled out of his share by the Rochester mob, died in 1986. Of the original crew, only Nick "The Cat" Sacco survived -- he entered the Federal Witness Protection Program for an unrelated matter and later collaborated with writer Daniel Simone on a book about the heist, "The Pierre Hotel Affair." The robbery that was executed with such meticulous courtesy devolved, in the end, into a story of greed, betrayal, and murder.