I didn’t recognize the number that showed up on my caller ID, so by habit I reverted back to my years as a Boston Globe reporter, giving my full name when I picked up. About a month before, I had written a letter to Vincent Ferrara, the former Boston gang leader, after hearing that he had told a lawyer I knew that he was interested in helping solve the Gardner mystery. After introducing himself, the caller, who asked to remain anonymous and identified as an intermediary to Ferrara, questioned what I knew about the Gardner Museum theft, and why I was interested in talking to Ferrara, whom he said he knew. Soon he sought my theory on the case. “I’ve been at this a long time,” I told the caller. “But really, I just don’t know. I’ll tell you one thing, though; the FBI is damn sure they know.” “Oh yeah?” the caller said. I told him that as far as I could tell, the FBI was certain the heist had been arranged by David Turner, who had turned the stolen art over to Robert Guarente, who before he died in 2004 had given at least several of the paintings to Robert Gentile.
