STATEMENT NYDA-EHM-106A.
MANN: It was now twenty minutes after one. Perhaps one thirty. Everything was going very well. Everyone had been assembled in Apartment Four B except for the superintendent, drunk and asleep in his basement apartment, and the crippled boy in Apartment Five A. So then, the building secured, we moved into the second phase of the operation in which we were divided into three teams.
QUESTION: Teams?
MANN: Yes. The man I knew as John Anderson and I constituted the first team. We worked from the basement upward. He had a checklist. We would move to an apartment. I would unlock the door and. …
QUESTION: Pick the lock?
MANN: Well … ah … my assignment was purely technical, you understand. Then we would enter the apartment. Anderson, who carried the checklist, would point out to me what he wished me to do.
QUESTION: What did that entail?
MANN: Well … you understand … perhaps a box safe, a wall safe. Perhaps a locked closet or cabinet. Things of that sort. Then, as we left the apartment, the second team would enter. This was the very short man, Tommy—effeminate, I believe—and the two men I knew as Ed and Billy. Tommy, who apparently knew the value of things, carried a copy of Anderson’s checklist. He would direct the two brothers as to what should be removed and carried down to the truck. They were merely laborers, you understand.
QUESTION: What did they remove and carry to the truck?
MANN: What did they not remove! Furs, the triptych from the super’s apartment, a small narcotics safe from one of the doctor’s offices, jewelry, paintings, silver, unset gems, objets d’art, even rugs and small pieces of furniture from the decorator’s apartment in Two A. One unexpected treasure was discovered in the medical doctor’s suite on the lobby floor. There, this man Anderson, after I had opened the door, went directly to a closet in the doctor’s office and there, on a back shelf of the closet, he discovered a cardboard shoe box containing a great deal of cash. I would say at least ten thousand dollars. Perhaps more. The Internal Revenue Service will be interested in that … nein?
QUESTION: Perhaps. You had no problems opening the doors or safes?
MANN: None. Very inferior. After we gained the third floor, I was confident I would have no need for the torches and tanks in the truck. Quite frankly, it was not a challenge to me. Simple. Everything went well.
QUESTION: You mentioned three teams. Who were on the third team?
MANN: They were the Negro and the uncouth man. They were detailed to guard the people assembled in Apartment Four B, and to look in on the sleeping super in the basement and the crippled boy in Apartment Five A. They were what is called muscle. They took no actual part in removing objects from the house—and, of course, I didn’t either, you understand. Their duties were merely to keep the building quiet while it was being emptied.
QUESTION: And everything went well?
MANN: Beautiful. It was beautiful! A remarkable job of organization. I admired the man I knew as John Anderson.