Alan Golder

Alan William Golder, also known as the "Dinnertime Bandit", is an American burglar who specialized in stealing jewelry from mansions, while their owners were inside their residences eating dinner. Between 1976 and 1980, Golder allegedly stole an estimated $25 million dollars worth of jewels and cash. Golder was stopped in an alley in Beverly Hills late one evening in 1976. On a hunch, a Beverly Hills police officer detained Golder for burglary. When no burglary was reported Golder was released. An officer in Santa Monica, doing routine investigative work matched Golder's prints from the Beverly Hills arrest to a burglary in Santa Monica. Golder was arrested and charged in a burglary. He was represented by Richard Poland, a certified criminal specialist working in Long Beach, California, and plead guilty to the burglary. Probation was postponed until an appeal was taken. The appeal was based on the fact that since the officer in Beverly Hills had no reason to arrest Golder, his prints were taken illegally. The illegality tainted the Santa Monica arrest. A three judge panel, led by Otto Kaus, a future California Supreme Court overturned the conviction. The appeal was done by Richard Poland. As a reward for Mr. Poland's legal services, Golder gave him a brand new Cadillac Seville. Golder was charged with burglarizing Johnny Carson's wife's home, however, all charges were dismissed. Between 1976 and 1980 Poland represented Golder on 5 cases, all resulting in dismissals.

In 1980, Poland was made aware that there was a robbery charge in New York against Golder. Golder wanted Poland to defend him there, however, Golder did not want any fees to go to Poland's legal associate. Poland refused to cut his partner out of the deal and Golder found another attorney to take him to New York. Upon arriving in New York, the robbery charge was dismissed and a murder charge was filed. Golder had hired two Thai nationals to help him with the burglary of Mr. Lever. One of them shot Lever in his mansion. The house was so big that Golder didn't know that Lever had died until he read it in the paper the next day. His girlfriend at the time assisted the police. Golder was arrested in 1980, and pleaded guilty as an accessory to the 1978 murder of millionaire Lawrence Lever, who was shot during a robbery gone awry. A deal was struck because Alan was afraid of being sent to the New York State Penetentiary general population. He worked a deal for Federal time, much of which was spent in Minnesota. During this time, Jimmy Breslin contacted him with regard to doing a book about his exploits.

Golder was paroled in 1996, but returned to burglary according to police. It is estimated that between 1996 and 2001, Golder stole approximately $5 million in jewelry and cash from homes and estates in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. He is also believed to have struck in Preston Hollow, an affluent suburb of Dallas, Texas in early 1998, when Republican fundraiser Harold Simmons had 100 pieces of jewelry worth $960,000 stolen from his mansion, which was guarded by an alarm system, dogs, and an armed guard. A rash of burglaries in affluent Greenwich, Connecticut in 1996 and 1997 is attributed to him. He was arrested in Antwerp, Belgium on December 14, 2006, by Belgian Federal Police. During his time in jail in Antwerp, Belgian authorities stated that they would not be charging Alan Golder with any crimes.

On November 21, 2007, after nine years on the run in Europe, Alan Golder was escorted from Antwerp Prison to Brussels, where he was formally taken into custody by a Greenwich Connecticut Detective and two U.S. Marshals. He was flown from Brussels to New York City's JFK Airport, and then taken to Greenwich, CT where he was charged with 38 felony counts and one misdemeanor, including burglary, larceny, robbery and kidnapping. [ [http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2008/02/10/ap_interview_dinnertime_bandit_suspect_tells_of_life_on_run?mode=PF AP Interview: "Dinnertime bandit" suspect tells of life on run - Boston.com ] ] On November 23, 2007 Golder was arraigned in Stamford Superior Court in Connecticut. Alan Golder plead not guilty in court on December 11 in Stamford, Connecticut. Alan's attorney, Howard Ehring stated that Alan did not "live the life of a wealthy man while in Europe".citequote Mr Golder has tried to blame his half-brother(s) for the crimes.Fact|date=January 2008 His next scheduled court appearance, according to Connecticut State Judicial services website, is on May 5, 2008.

References

*http://www.amw.com/fugitives/case.cfm?id=24269
*http://www.chron.com/cgi-bin/auth/story.mpl/content/chronicle/nation/98/03/03/connecticut.2-0.html
*http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E04E1DF1E31F937A15751C1A9609C8B63
*http://www.unsolved.com/1104-Golder.html
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2231748,00.html "Dinnertime Bandit" faces life in jail for robbing rich] , Guardian Unlimited, December 23, 2007.
* [http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2008/02/10/ap_interview_dinnertime_bandit_suspect_tells_of_life_on_run?mode=PF AP 2-10-08 "AP Interview: "Dinnertime bandit" suspect tells of life on run"]