Arthur "The Brain" Rachel, 73, was sentenced to eight and a half years for his involvement in planning robberies with two other accomplices, both of whom are also in their 70s.
Before the sentencing in Chicago, US District Court judge Harry Leinenweber asked Rachel why he got involved after spending nearly a decade in prison for the London diamond robbery. "It's the way we are," Rachel answered. "We got nothing better to do. We sit around talking."
Rachel and Joseph "The Monk" Scalise staged a daring daytime theft of the Marlborough Diamond in 1980. Both men were convicted in Britain of threatening to use a hand grenade while robbing London's Graff Jewellers of ?2.3 million worth of goods, including the diamond. They began serving 15-year prison terms in 1984 and were released in 1993. The diamond was never recovered.
Federal prosecutor Amarjeet Bhachu did not mince words in characterising Rachel, noting his long criminal history. "This thug has the gall to ask for leniency when he does the same thing over and over," he told the court. "He is a parasite. He lives off of others. The public needs to be protected from this man."
Judge Leinenweber found Rachel guilty in a bench trial, while his co-defendants - Scalise, 74, and Robert Pullia, 70 - pleaded guilty earlier.
Evidence presented during Rachel's trial included a banged-up stepladder that the would-be robbers intended to use in a 2010 burglary at the home of the late Chicago mobster Angelo "The Hook" LaPietra. Authorities arrested the senior citizens, dressed in black, outside the house.
They had also planned to rob an armoured car, prosecutors said.
The FBI has said Scalise's resume included serving as a technical adviser on the film Public Enemies about Depression-Era gangster John Dillinger, which was filmed in Chicago in 2008.
Asked by reporters as he left court earlier this year if the Marlborough Diamond could ever be located, Scalise said: "If Lloyd's wanted to pay enough money, maybe they could."
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