Gerald Blanchard grew up in Canada, and later moved to Omaha, Nebraska with his mother Carol Phegly and sister.
15 Facts About Gerald Blanchard
1.
2.
In 1998, Blanchard stole the Star of Empress Sisi, one of 27 diamond-and-pearl hair ornaments worn by Elisabeth of Bavaria, consort of Francis Joseph I, from the Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria.
3.
Gerald Blanchard later said that he parachuted onto the palace roof from a small airplane in the middle of the night to make the swap.
4.
The loss of a priceless part of Austria's history remained unsolved until Gerald Blanchard offered to turn the jewel over to police following his arrest in Canada on fraud and robbery charges.
5.
In 2004, Gerald Blanchard stole $750,000 from the ATMs of a soon-to-open Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, in Winnipeg, Canada.
6.
Gerald Blanchard took police to his grandmother's basement in Winnipeg where he had hidden the Sisi Star.
7.
In return for the jewel, Gerald Blanchard's co-accuseds received conditional sentences.
8.
Gerald Blanchard never identified his accomplices in any of his global heists, and he was the only one to serve prison time.
9.
Gerald Blanchard pleaded guilty at the Court of Queen's Bench of Manitoba on 7 November 2007 to 16 charges of robbery and fraud in Canada and elsewhere in the world.
10.
Gerald Blanchard faced a maximum of 160 years in prison for the 16 charges, but was sentenced to just eight years by agreeing to make guilty pleas.
11.
In June 2009, after serving two years of his sentence, Gerald Blanchard was first given day parole, and paroled to a halfway house.
12.
In January 2010, Gerald Blanchard was released and was reported to be developing a new career as a security consultant.
13.
In 2017, Gerald Blanchard, using the name Rick White, with an accomplice, was arrested for stealing PlayStations from a Best Buy in Ontario.
14.
In 2023, Gerald Blanchard was the focus of the Hulu documentary The Jewel Thief.
15.
The documentary chronicled his entire criminal career and Gerald Blanchard was interviewed in addition to his mother, father, several friends and accomplices, and several law enforcement officers who investigated Gerald Blanchard.