FBI Closes 1980s Armored Car Theft Case After Suspect Dies in Asheville

John Anthony Quinn died at an Asheville hospital last December, admitted under the name Jim Klein. The FBI says he had been living as a fugitive since April 1988, when he allegedly stole $1.3 million in cash from the armored car company he managed and vanished without a trace.

Quinn was the manager of Federal Protection Service, an armored car company in Riviera Beach, Florida, when investigators say he emptied the company's vault and fled. The state of Florida charged him with first-degree grand theft; the FBI sought him separately for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. He was 48 years old at the time.

The case became a public spectacle. It was featured on both "Unsolved Mysteries" and "America's Most Wanted," yet Quinn remained undetected for decades. He built a series of identities over the years, using aliases that included Dale Calvin Cluckey, Dale Clucke, Jack Quinn, and James Sullivan before dying as Jim Klein.

The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and the FBI Laboratory Latent Prints Unit matched a fingerprint card from the deceased man to Quinn, resolving the case after nearly 38 years without a single arrest.

Rondell Lance, chairman of the North Carolina Fraternal Order of Police in Asheville, said the outcome, while rare, follows a recognizable pattern. "If you've got cash money and you don't have family ties or good close friends, it can be done," Lance said. Quinn appeared to have both: $1.3 million in untraceable bills and, based on nearly four decades of successful concealment, either no close personal contacts or none who ever came forward.

Whether anyone in Asheville knew Quinn's real identity remains unanswered. No official statement has addressed how long he lived in the area, what brought him here, or what became of the stolen $1.3 million. With his death preceding the FBI's identification, there will be no trial, no public testimony, and no courtroom accounting of where the money went. The victims at Federal Protection Service are left with a fingerprint match rather than a conviction.