The Great Diamond Heist of 1911
(Backstory)
Danny ‘Lucky’ Malone was a small-time thief. He operated in the early 1900s and was famous for his generous habit of ‘robbing the rich to give to the poor’. He was considered to be a relatively successful criminal as well as a handy escape artist. Countless times, he was arrested and managed to escape from prison, thus earning the nickname Lucky.
One of Malone’s most famous and successful heists was the Pennsylvania Railroad diamond heist of 1911. On December 6th, an Adams Express train, No. 17, en route from Altoona to Pittsburgh was carrying Henry Frick’s fortune of diamonds, valued at $10 million (over $100 million today). The train derailed just outside of Manor, near Hershey’s Crossing, in the early am., some 75 yards east of Devil’s Bend, and came to rest at the edge of Brush Creek. Engine No. 2988 left the rails first and pulled the front baggage and express cars down the embankment with it. The speed of the train at the time of the accident was estimated to be about 40 to 45 miles per hour.
The baggage car held the train’s safe, which broke open during the wreck. Malone, a passenger on the train, was thrown clear of the wreckage and left unscathed. He quickly saw the train’s safe had broken open, and Frick’s diamonds were spilled about the baggage car. Malone snatched up the diamonds and quickly fled before the railroad detectives could secure the area. Malone fled east along the tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad; the railroad detectives were soon to follow.
The following day, Malone’s luck ran out. During the pursuit, Malone was shot and eventually captured just outside of Bovard. Malone developed gangrene from the gunshot wound and would later die in jail. Before he died, Malone managed to write a coded letter and send to his brother, Sean. In the letter, Malone claimed to have hidden the rocks just off of the tracks. Somewhere in the woods, of which is now present-day Twin Lakes Park, and as luck would have it, the postal service lost the letter. Consequently, to spare embarrassment, the Pennsylvania Railroad owners never revealed the robbery to the public and settled privately with Frick, as the diamonds were never recovered by the railroad detectives.
Well hallelujah! Three young Floridian code breakers came by the letter at an estate sale and snagged it for a pittance. After endless hours, they’ve cracked the code and found the diamonds. Being amateur geocachers and in keeping with Lucky’s habit of ‘robbing the rich to give to the poor’, they’re willing to share their diamonds with you. However, to keep the sparklers secret and secure, you’ll need to find the hidden cache. Given are the GPS coordinates and Lucky’s letter to Sean. The letter is encrypted below.
Closing caveat: The above tale could be nothing more than the spin of an old man’s yarn—maybe true, maybe not. Nevertheless, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Good luck my dear geocache friends. Let the adventure begin—you got this!