George Leonidas Leslie lived a strange double life.

By day, he was a distinguished architect who hobnobbed with New York City’s elite.

By night, he was one of history’s most prolific bank robbers, orchestrating an estimated 80% of all bank robberies in the US in the late 1800s — a total haul worth $200m today.

  • Unlike other heisters, Leslie’s approach was academic rather than brutish. He studied the anatomy of locks, drafted up blueprints of banks, and invented mechanical safe-breaking devices.

The final bank heist he orchestrated is still, to this day, the largest in US history — an astounding $81m haul, adjusted for inflation.

But a mysterious murder would prevent him from ever seeing it play out.