Greg Campbell (1)

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/the-road-to-kosovo-a-balkan-diary-by-greg-campbe...

I had a good read of this book by a Colorado journalist, sent to the Balkans by the Boulder Weekly and immediately immersed in a conflict that he struggled to understand. Of course, he is writing for the well-meaning Colorado reader who wants to be thrilled and informed, and not for me; I found the breathlessness a bit exasperating at times. (Though I did cheer on the couple of occasions when people who I know show more personally appeared on the page.)

I’ve read a lot of Balkan war stories over the years, and this one stands out for two paradoxical reasons. First, Campbell totally absorbs and regurgitates the collective narrative of the Balkan press corps at any given time – so he accurately reflects the media consensus without especially critiquing it. But second, he has a good eye for human detail, even if he doesn’t always put two and two together. His chapters on Kosovo in 1998 and 1999 are particularly good on incidental observation. So I was duly entertained by it, if not always in the way the author had intended. show less

Eighty percent of the world’s diamonds pass through Antwerp’s Diamond District. It’s a veritable fortress with armed patrols, two police stations, thorough video surveillance on the streets in the district and within the various buildings. There are many other safeguards.

But they were no match for a band of Italian thieves, a loosely aligned band of professionals who in toto were called “The School of Turin.” Two years before the heist, Leonardo Notarbartado rented an apartment in show more Antwerp and an office at what the thieves considered the least secure of the establishments in the Diamond District. Notarbartado scoped out all the security measures, and he and his band found work-arounds for all of them.
On February 15th (Valentine’s Day Weekend), 2003, the team of thieves broke into the vault, spent a night looting strong boxes and made off with an estimated half a billion dollars in diamonds, cash jewelry, bonds and other valuables.

When security entered the vault on Monday morning, the floor was covered with less valuable items such as smaller diamonds and even a gold bar which the thieves just couldn’t carry.

It would have been a perfect heist except for some bad luck when trash from the apartment was discarded in an out of the way forest with a very diligent forest-keeper. The trash led detectives to the thieves.

However – Belgian law has a maximum of a 5 year penalty for theft, no matter how large the theft is. A ringleader can be given ten years. So, while the trials were pretty much open and shut, incarceration was only five years for most of the men and ten years for Notarbartado. It is also a fact that convicts in Belgium usually serve only a third of their time. Very, very little of the loot was recovered. In effect, the thieves served two or three years in Belgian prisons for hundreds of million dollars each in payoff.

Hard to see a downside.

Fascinating look at the Antwerp diamond district, an almost Oceans 11 type theft and the Belgian justice system. Although there are several conflicting stories on how the theft was accomplished, the authors include a detailed bibliography of their research, giving this account an air of authenticity. show less

’m hesitant to discuss the details of this book for two reasons: first, because it is fascinating, and you should read it for yourself; and second, because much of the fun of it is reading about the obstacles Notarbartolo and his fellow thieves encountered and being amazed at how elegantly simple their solutions were. As Selby and Campbell put it, the School of Turin “had taken the crime of theft and turned it into an academic pursuit. They were masters of their craft” because “at show more the heart of every successful heist was a near-religious devotion to research.”

Whereas many true crime books become just as much (if not more) about the author’s research process as about the actual crime, with Flawless, Selby and Campbell keep themselves almost completely out of the narrative, allowing readers to be sucked into the story—which reads like the book version of The Italian Job but with more intellect and less melodrama—and swept away by the thieves’ compelling, surprising, and creative work. I was so impressed by their research and ingenuity that I found myself pulling for them on more than a few occasions!

Because there was enough information available to make the writing of this book possible, it should come as no surprise that Notarbartolo got caught. But what does come as a surprise is how he was caught (and what a salami sandwich had to do with it), how much of the story can be pieced together despite his refusal to give away any of the details, and how close he and the School of Turin came to pulling it off.

I thoroughly enjoyed Flawless and think its fun, accessible, informative narrative style will make it appealing to readers of all types. As a fine example of the ways in which nonfiction can be fun, readable, and just as entertaining as fiction, Scott Andrew Selby and Greg Campbell’s Flawless gets an enthusiastic 4.5 out of 5.

Read my full review at The Book Lady's Blog. show less

Flawless really does read like a heist movie in book form, a fact the authors acknowledge by referencing movies such as Snatch and Ocean's Eleven. (Each chapter has an epigraph, and all are well chosen and apt.) First, the authors take the reader through the heist itself: the years of preparation, the gathering of experts from the "School of Turin," the discovery of each obstacle in the Diamond Center's security system, and the formation of a plan to surmount each obstacle. This narrative is show more constructed based on facts, with only a small amount of necessary conjecture.
Once the authors have described the heist and its aftermath, including the thieves' escape and their trail, the narrative shifts to the Belgian police force and how they managed to crack the case. As it turns out, they had a great stroke of luck in Gust, a citizen who patrolled part of the forest for litter and came upon the thieves' trash, which contained a great many clues.
Four of the thieves, including Notarbartolo, were eventually caught and served time in Belgium or Italy, but have all been released, and little of their loot was ever recovered.

Typos/grammatical errors: repeated use of "free reign" instead of "free rein"; use of "discretely" instead of "discreetly," p. 161

Quotes

Chapter four epigraph (p. 61): "What do I know about diamonds? Don't they come from Antwerp?" -Snatch (2000)

"I am [the] chairman of De Beers, a company that likes to think of itself as the world's best known and longest running monopoly. We set out, as a matter of policy to break the commandments of Mr. Sherman [the U.S. Senator for whom the Sherman Antitrust Act is named]. We make no pretense that we are not seeking to manage the diamond market, to control supply, to manage prices, and to act collusively with our partners in the business." -Nicky Oppenheimer, 1999 (70)

Chapter eight epigraph (p. 115):
Linus: Smash-and-grab job, huh?
Rusty: Slightly more complicated than that. -Ocean's Eleven (2001)

The Italian thief [Leonardo Notarbartolo] was like a determined chess player desperately moving his lonesome king from one square to the next while his opponent's [detective De Bot] rooks and knights patiently worked him into checkmate. (168)

Chapter eleven epigraph (p. 171): "Whether we fall by ambition, blood, or lust, / Like diamonds, we are cut with our own dust." -Duke Ferdinand, The Duchess of Malfi (1613-1614)

Chapter thirteen epigraph (p. 210): "A diamond is the hardest substance known to man, especially if he's trying to get it back." -Proverb show less