The Great Jersey City Bank Robbery

Former Semi Pro football player  and now High School Teacher and Football Coach Cockraine ''Cock" Robbins stood in the living room of my house...

I had known Cock Robbins as long as I had Sepia...He was her boyfriend at the time we met...Until she discovered he was also her mother's boyfriend..They hadn't spoken in close to nine years...

"Sepia, Kevin....I can't believe in all these years I've known you two...I've never been in your house...Your home is beautiful..." he said..

"Thank you.." was all Sepia would say...

''Well Sit down Cock..Join us for dinner.." I said.

Sepia had fixed some fried chicken...some macaroni and cheese ,string beans and south western corn...

We had a nice cooler of Sweet Ice tea to chase it down...

Cock smiled and played with Kimberly...

''Sepia, your little girl looks just like you..She's gonna be a heartbreaker.." said Cock..

"Yes she is.." I agreed as we sat down and began eating....

"Kev, you got a wonderful wife there...She's fine as hell, can cook...Gave you a beautiful baby girl... and you guys are doing well...You got your business and she has hers...Man...You guys have come a long way.." he marveled...

He sometimes looked at my wife with a sadness, a remorse....He thought of what he might have had ,had he not lied to her and cheated on her...

Sepia looked at him with anger...She blamed him for driving her mother into a homicidal rage, which led her to hire Richard Watkins...a sleazy private investigator, who wound up murdering close to six people,two of who were close friends of hers, who Cock had also slept with...to get to Cock...This landed Watkins and her mother in prison for the rest of their lives...She told me she still couldn't forgive Cock for that...Cock , the real target of her mother's rage, escaped unscathed...

This was my very first case...It was how Sepia and I met and got together...It was the basis..of how everything got started.

We ate the good food and drank the ice tea....

Cock was no fool...He knew he had been invited to our home for a reason...

"Kev, Sepia..I feel like I'm being fattened for uh slaughter...So uh what is this all about..?" he asked..

"I thought you'd never ask...Do you remember Brett Jano?" I asked..

Cock looked like he'd seen a ghost..

"My Room-mate...We had an apartment in Mt. Airy....He's dead!!" he said..

''Very dead...but his older brother, Rhett Jano is very much alive and he's here in town...Looking for you!"I said..

Cock Robbins looked like he had turned three shades of gray....He began to sweat....

"Oh Lord...I thought he was in prison..."he said.

''He's out.and he's been following me and my wife and my baby around ,learning our schedules..The reason being...He thinks Sepia knows something about a bank job...a bank job you pulled and some money owed to him..." I said..

''Nooooo, he's got it all wrong...Sepia don't know nothing...I kept her in the dark about this...Purposely..."he said..

"Cock ,What are you talking about?" asked Sepia..

II-

''Wait...Let me put Kimmie Cakes to sleep...Read her her story...I'll be back...Hold that thought.."said Sepia..

Cock watched her as she took the baby upstairs...

"You're a lucky man Kevin...Your wife is beautiful in every way...and I mean that as a compliment...I was a damn fool to ever let her get away..." said a remorseful Cock Robbins..

I grabbed a beer from the refrigerator...

"Relax Cock...Here...drink this...and calm your nerves...For the record...Rhett Jano is in jail for the moment...He uh got a little frisky with Sepia yesterday and my friend Walter put him to sleep for his troubles..The police picked him up on a weapons charge...He's cooling his heels in county lock up." I said.

"You don't understand Kevin...Rhett is a stone cold psychopath....He ,He, He kills at the drop of a hat...because he likes it...If I were you...I'd take Sepia and that baby and uh leave town for a few days or at least get them somewhere safe..It's not beyond him to hurt a child or a woman to get what he wants...You uh by any chance didn't tell him where I live did you?"asked Cock Robbins..

"No I didn't..but I had the idea that he knew where you were..He's been here for three weeks doing his research, following us around..asking questions...He knew our whole routine and he knew everything about me and Sepia...." I said..

Cock shook his head....

"Damn...We all gotta high tail it...He won't be in jail forever....He'll be out on bail..."said Cock..

"And if he's looking for a 2 million dollar payday....He won't just go away...He'll stick around..."I said..

Sepia returned to our living room...

"Cock, tell us about this bank robbery..." said Sepia..

Cock sat on our couch and held his head in his hands...

III-

"As you know...Brett Jano and I played semi-pro ball then...We were roomies in Jersey City....You used to come to see me there Sepia ,remember?" he said..

"I remember."said Sepia..

"Our third friend..Louis Cantrell..He was never that good and he got cut from several teams....Our goal was to play for a NFL team....and if you can't cut it on a semi-pro team..well the Giants and The Eagles , they aren't gonna look at you...Rhett was Brett's older brother...He was always into some kind of trouble or something...He knew this shot caller named Frankie Fallon..."said Cock..

"I remember him...He owned a Jewelry store...He was also a fence of stolen goods...A lot of people bought a lot of things from him that were hot.."said Sepia..

I knew guys like that myself, growing up...

Cock continued...

"Rhett and Louis told us that Frankie Fallon had a score , a big score...that could make us a lot of money...That we wouldn't have to keep banging ourselves up playing semi pro ball...Rhett told us that none of us was that good that the Giants, Eagles ,Redskins...None of em would ever sign any of us and that we were reaching the end of our prime...He said it was now or never..." said Cock..

"I wanted no part of any bank robbery, but Rhett and Louis were so keen on it.. Brett didn't want to either...but Brett was scared of Rhett and Rhett kind of bullied me into it...He said he knew I was screwing Mrs. Cokely and Opal Gardner...and he said if I didn't take part or I opened my mouth...He was going to make sure Sepia knew about me and Mrs. Cokely...I still refused....I believe to this day ,that's how Mrs. Cokely found out about me and Sepia.." he said, holding his head down in shame..

This explains a lot..I mused..

Sepia looked at Cock with derision...

Cock continued...

"When we heard the plan...It was one of pure genius... Frankie Fallon said...In order to take someone's mind off of what you're going to do...You divert their attention somewhere else...He ,Louis Cantrell and Brett placed explosives at the other bank in Jersey City, the smaller bank..I believe Opal Gardner, drove the get away car.....

The explosives went off and every copper in Jersey City headed towards that bank and The Fire department too...

Meanwhile...our main target was First Jersey City Bank....Louis, Brett and Rhett spent weeks digging an underground tunnel from the empty building behind the bank into the bank....On September the 11^th, They broke through the bank floor by use of explosives and immediately got to work clearing the place out...but one of the alarms went off..

Louis Cantrell, Brett Jano, Rhett Jano and another guy Angelo Atwood got inside and looted the bank...Their haul was close to 10 million dollars in cash...They escaped in a stolen car...Which they drove to a designated area....I was driving the switch car, which they all piled into....and we got away...."

"Cock...That was a masterful haul..."I said..

''Kev, I didn't want anything to do with it...I swear..." said Cock..

"But you helped them dig into the bank and plant explosives..."I said..

"No...I was outside , in the look out car, with a walkie talkie...when they did that...and when the explosives went off...I wasn't anywhere near there...I was a few blocks away in the switch car..."said a very nervous Cock..

"You were still involved..."said Sepia..

"There's something else...Something you don't know....It was a perfect heist...No prints...No DNA...They weren't caught on any street or traffic cams...but one cop, one cop responded to the scene as soon as he heard the explosives....Rhett and Angelo Atwood shot him multiple times...Killed him!!"said Cock ,who was crying....

"Oh My God...A Murder and a heist....Damn Cock!" I said.

''All I did was drive..All I did was drive, I swear...." said Cock...

"So what happened?" I asked..

"The shot caller...Frankie Fallon, he kept the money....He was a connected guy...Took it to New York, laundered most of it...he was livid that a cop was killed..FBI and State Police were all over it..It was hot around Jersey City....It was around this time That Brett and I moved to West Orange...I moved in with Sepia and Mrs Cokely...I never told either of them about my involvement in the robbery... Around December, four months after the robbery...Frankie Fallon vanished...Closed his shop up and he split with all of our money... None of us...Brett,Louis ,Rhett or Angelo ever got a dime of that money...Rhett was beside himself with anger...but none of us could say nothing without implicating ourselves... Louis, Brett and I continued playing Semi -Pro Ball and we moved to Philadelphia...as far away from Jersey City as possible.."said Cock..

"There was a lot you didn't tell us apparently....Louis and Brett are dead of course....What Happened to Angelo?" asked Sepia..

''Angelo pulled an armed robbery in Newark....Newark coppers shot him dead at the scene...about ten years ago..Right after all of this went down...Angelo needed money badly...He was a Heroin addict."said Cock...

"And Rhett went to prison...for what might I ask?" I said.

"Manslaughter....He killed a guy during a bar room brawl...He got 10-20...I don't know what he's doing out..." said Cock...

''Paroled...So you guys pulled the perfect heist and none of you guys got a penny of it...Incredible..." I said...laughing...

"Kevin,it's not funny...Rhett is a psychopath...He believes I know where the money is and that I told Sepia..He's very dangerous....He means to find that money...He won't stop until he gets some answers..."said Cock..

"Any idea whatever happened to this Frankie Fallon?" I asked..

"No idea at all...He has never been seen again...With ten million dollars...He could be anywhere...Out of the country for that matter.."said Cock...

''Don't worry Cock, your part was minimal..and besides...None of you got a dime and all of the players are dead...The man he should be looking for is Frankie Fallon...Perhaps I'll visit Mr. Jano in lock up and have a little talk with him tomorrow."I said.

"There is no talking to him Kev...He's crazy..perhaps you and Sepia should just sky up for a few days...Like Vanessa and I plan to do...He'll get tired of spinning his wheels and he'll go away.." said Cock..

"No he won't...I'm going to try and point him in the right direction.."I said.

Cock stood up...

"Okay Kev, Good Luck with that..." said Cock..

He looked around...

''Sepia..Beautiful home...And again, Thanks for the meal.." he said..

Sepia didn't say anything...

I walked Cock to the door...

"Thanks for coming by Cock...Take it easy...Everything is going to be alright..." I said..

"Thanks Kev..." he said as he left the house..

IV-

"You believe him?" asked Sepia, after he left...She had just finished washing the dishes..

"I do...Cock is no criminal...Whatever else he is...He didn't have the stones to take part in the robbery past what he did.. and none of those boys...Louis Cantrell, Brett Jano or him had any real money when we met them...They got duped into pulling that job and fleeced by the smooth shot caller known as Frankie Fallon..."I said..

''So what are you gonna do?" asked Sepia..

"I'm going to help Rhett Jano...I'm going to point him in the right direction.."I said..

"Meaning what?" asked Sepia..

"I'm going to find Frankie Fallon..."I said.

(TO BE CONTINUED)