HISTORY HIGHLIGHT

The Dunmovin Heist

In 1939, engineer Oscar Ulysses Zerk purchased Dunmovin Estate, the home and peony garden originally constructed by Henry S. Cooper in 1913. Zerk had made a fortune from his portfolio of 300 patents, the most prominent of which was the Zerk, or Grease Fitting, which became a standard mechanism for lubricating machinery. Zerk used his riches to collect art and natural history specimens, including paintings, fossils, and the largest private collection of carved ivory in the United States. To display his collection, Zerk converted several rooms in his manor into a museum, and he would regularly give tours and host academic lectures.

Zerk with a portion of his mineral collection. Photo courtesy of Sue Tenuta.

On the evening of February 8th, 1954, Zerk, then aged 75, was home alone, reading in his bed, when three men entered the house through an open kitchen door. The men silently entered his room and attacked him, tying him to a chair, and demanding to know the location of his safe. With a gun to his head, Zerk swore repeatedly that he had never had a safe in his home. Forced to abandon their questioning, the burglars took Zerk's keys from his dresser and began to clear out the collection, loading approximately $150,000 (almost $2 million today) worth of items into Zerk's car before making their escape. After they left, Zerk managed to escape his binds and call the police.

On March 1st of that year, an FBI informant, posing as a South American art dealer, was introduced to Americo De Pietto, who brought him to the loft of a plumber's shop in Melrose Park, where the majority of Zerk's stolen goods were being stored. Two days later, following an interview with Zerk, where he identified both men, arrest warrants were issued for De Pietto and Nick George Montos, a notorious burglar and safe cracker who had been on the FBI's most wanted list since 1952. De Pietto gave himself up to the FBI on April 1st, and Montos was captured on August 23rd after accidentally pulling up next to FBI agents while waiting at a train crossing. The third burglar, James Mirro, a Chicago nightclub owner with ties to organized crime, was indicted in early September and turned himself in on the 13th. All three men pleded guilty in November.