It was one of the most daring heists in history.
Over the long Canada Day holiday weekend in July 1961, serial criminal Georges Lemay tunneled his way into the vaults of the Bank of Nova Scotia in Montréal, Canada, and raided safety deposit boxes of cash, bonds, and jewelry, escaping with an estimated $4 million before disappearing into thin air.
In “Satellite Boy: The International Manhunt for a Master Thief That Launched the Modern Communication Age” (Counterpoint), author Andrew Amelinckx tells the story of how one of North America’s most wanted criminals was finally tracked down by the emergence of new satellite technology, invented by Harold Rosen, a humble electrical engineer from New Orleans.
Amelinckx discovered the story in 2017 while reading an out-of-print book, “Almanac of World Crime” by Jay Robert Nash, in which the case of Georges Lemay was featured briefly.
“I couldn’t believe no one had written a book about it, so I figured I would,” Amelinckx tells The Post. “And the deeper I dug into it, the more fascinating the story became.”
With the means to escape, Lemay headed to South Florida where he lived on a luxury yacht, evading capture from a range of international law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, Interpol, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
“Lemay thumbed his nose at authority but I think his appeal is that he represented that part of us that longs to be a rule breaker and live life on our own terms, the world be damned,” says Amelinckx.
“In Lemay’s case, it doesn’t hurt that he was handsome, debonair, and lived the high life.”
It would be four years before Lemay was finally caught.
Just a couple of hundred miles away at Cape Canaveral, Harold Rosen had developed the world’s first commercial communications satellite, Intelsat 1 — or “Early Bird,” as it became known.
When Canadian authorities used the new technology to publicize their “most wanted” fugitives, Lemay’s image was splashed across TV screens across the continent, prompting one viewer from a marina in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. to call the police and report Lemay’s presence there.
While “Satellite Boy” charts the cat-and-mouse chase of Lemay, culminating in his capture, it also reveals two men who shared an intense drive to succeed, both with incredible intellects.
The difference, says Amelinckx, lies in their motives.
“Rosen wanted to bring the world closer together through technology but the other was only out for himself.
“Georges Lemay just used his intelligence for personal gain.”