Bigger and Brighter | 05

Listen to the complete season "Add Free" by subscribing to curious cast discovery exclusively on Apple Podcasts. 2001, a construction site in Edmonton, Canada. It's a flurry of high viz vests and hard hats. The pressure's on to get the work finished. The buildings due to open in just a few days' time, so it's all hands on deck. Among the workers is a slight man who's carrying a heavy metal toolbox. There's a small step ladder tucked under his arm. His yellow safety hat has slipped down a little over his forehead. But there's no mistaking who it is. It's been three years since he returned from Vienna, with the stolen CC star smuggled inside his scuba mask. But Daniel Blanchard hasn't changed much. Well, maybe he's lost a bit of his old swagger. He looks more serious than when we last saw him in Austria. Head down, not making eye contact with anyone. Maybe he's lost a bit of confidence. I mean, I'm not knocking Daniel for earning an honest living, fixing the thermostat or whatever he's doing with that step ladder. It's just that going from skydiving international jewel thief to plain old construction worker. Well, it isn't quite how any of us imagined his story panning out. So what if I tell you that Daniel isn't actually employed here? Sure, he's got a lamio around his neck, but that's not his name on it. In the swarms of people rushing about the sights, Daniel goes unnoticed. In his overalls and hard hat, he just blends in. But his workman outfit, well, it's just that. An outfit, a costume from a fancy dress store, the perfect disguise. And in his big toolbox? Okay, there are a few screwdrivers, a handful of nuts and bolts. But it's mainly packed with pinhole cameras, monitors and wires. Because this building, it's a brand new branch of Alberta Treasury. Basically, Daniel Blanchard's casing the joint. Why? Well, I mean, once you've stolen the last remaining CC star, you can do just about anything, right? So he's about to take things to the next level. Daniel's about to rob his very first bank. From curious cast and Blanchard House, I'm Seren Jones. And this is a most audacious heist. [Music] Episode 5. Bigger and brighter. If things are heating up in Daniel's life, they're positively sizzling in Empress C.C.'s world. It's summer, 1866, and the Austro-Prussian War is raging. Remember, Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress C.C. rule over the Austrian Empire. The Empire is in conflict with Prussia. Prussia is kind of modern-day Germany. And it's not looking good for Franz Joseph. Prussia very much has the upper hand in this war. But C.C. has botted an opportunity. As Prussian troops move closer to Vienna, the Austrian people are in despair. Historian Tessadunlobs says, for the first time, Emperor Franz Joseph fears for the survival of his empire, the Habsburg Empire. It was a bit of a basket case. It was going to eventually take World War I to undo it totally. But it was teetering on the edge. At the Shernbren Palace, Empress C.C. fears for her family safety. But since her husband gave her those 27 diamond stars, she has a newfound confidence. So she tells her husband, she's leaving, and taking refuge in neighboring Hungary, a country that has somewhat frosty relations with ruling Austria. But C.C. has good reason for her choice. Austrian historian Regina Neuhauser. Hungary was a merit that touched her heart. You see, a couple of decades before the Austro-Prussian War began, Hungary had had a revolution, which was very firmly squashed by Franz Joseph, crushed even. So you can imagine that he's not exactly Mr. Popular when he visits. Basically, Franz Joseph sees the Hungarians as rebellious ruffians to be kept in line. But when C.C. accompanies him on diplomatic trips, she sees something quite different. She liked their temperament that were very vivacious, they were fiery. They could dance the charter, which is a very temperamental dance, which would have been completely forbidden and was looked down upon in Vienna. She enjoyed that. C.C. sees in Budapest what she loved in her native Bavaria. Free spirits, fun. The polar opposite in fact of her conventional day-to-day life at the stifling Vienna's court. Plus, she sees an opportunity. If she can get hungry on board, she can beef up the faltering Habsburg Empire and secure the throne for her son. So she hatches an ambitious plan to reconcile hostile Hungary with the Hortie Austrians. The plan starts small, but stealthily. She decided to learn Hungarian and in order to do that, she hired Hungarian lady in waiting. And these two now shared a common language that nobody else understood. Little by little, C.C. replaces all her Austrian maids with Hungarians, so no one can eavesdrop on her conversations. So this was a prime bubble that she created for herself. And during those long and laborious beauty routines, C.C. has plenty of time to quiz her Hungarian ladies, until she knows everything there is to know about the culture, history and political landscape of the country. So on her next visit to Hungary, she's on full charm offensive. Historian Tessa Dunlop notes C.C. even makes a speech to the Hungarian National Assembly in their mother tongue. Leaving these men with tears streaming down their cheeks, they couldn't believe it. Not only is she fluent in their language, she seems to truly get them. Plus, she's also a total stanna. How can they resist? She was a tease, a flirt, a great flirt. C.C. has already learned that her extraordinary beauty gives her power over men. Now she realizes it gives her political sway too, because she soon melts the heart of the key mover and shaker in Budapest, Jula and Dressy. Who, by the way, just happens to be a very handsome count. And you might remember that back in Bavaria, Teenage C.C. had a bit of a thing for handsome counts. Andressy was this dashing gypsy-like, fur-clad count. She quite fancered Andressy and he was a good horseman. There's gossip about them of course, but C.C. keeps Andressy, demurly at arms length. She does that famous, princess-diana thing, ducking her chin and peeping up at him from under her eyelashes. But never getting too close. Because C.C. is playing Andressy. She wants him for much more important things than sex. She wants him at the negotiating table. She wants his country. She was absolutely his right-hand woman. She was a facilitator. She was the conduit through which he communicated with the emperor and vice versa. Remember at the time, Austria's weakened, ground down by its war with Prussia. So when Austria signs a peace deal with Prussia, C.C. spies her chance. She pounces on her doting husband and puts Prussia on him. Wouldn't it now be a good time for Austria and Hungary to kiss and make up too? This was high diplomatic stakes and C.C. was a political player. Before C.C. began to shine quite so rightly, France Joseph was steered by just one policy adviser, his mother. But Hungary is C.C.'s pet project. Something his mother knows precious little about. So it's now his beautiful young wife who has the Emperor's ear. And France. Joseph can't refuse his angel Cece anything, so he finally gives into her and agrees to sign a reconciliation with Hungary. And Cece is its architect. Her name was on that deal, that compromise as it was known. Whether acquiring Hungary into the Austrian Empire's portfolio was ultimately a wise move is something today's historians still argue about. But in 1867, the creation of the all-new Austro-Hungarian Empire, a dual monarchy, was a huge deal. Bruce and battered Austria could lift her proud head again. In Hungary, handsome Count Andrassi was made prime minister. Thanks to the glittering Empress, the Habsburgs were no longer hated. And Cece, she was actually loved. For places like Hungary, she helped bind Hart and Seoul to a bigger, dynastic picture. It's more than good diplomacy. Cece's charm is electrifying, almost hypnotic. She was this really extraordinary, physical symbol of something out with the ordinary. And you need the magic and sparkle to make people look beyond their very narrow nationalistic ambitions. You have to give Cece a gold star for her political maneuvering. Through her spellbinding soft power, she secured the survival of the Habsburgs. Her husband's dynasty. Plus, she's moved the way future potential conflicts that might damage the empire. But she's not entirely motivated by altruism. On her own terms, when she wanted to, Cece could be better than the best if there was something in it for Cece. And there is something in this piece deal for Cece. Something she's long fantasized about. Because thanks to this compromise, Cece will also now be crowned Queen of Hungary, which gives her the perfect excuse to escape Vienna and its stifling court once and for all. Let's go back to that Alberta Treasury branch in Edmonton, Canada, 2001. It's been a good few days since Daniel installed those surveillance devices in the ceiling of the bank. And it's the early hours, so all is still and quiet. The construction workers sweated big time to get the building completed. You can still smell the fresh paint on the walls and the solvent from the heavy duty carpet. Tomorrow, the brand new shiny doors of the bank will open for the very first time. Well, actually, for the second time, because the first customer is not prepared to wait till morning to get served. He'd rather help himself. Literally. He plays the ATMs like slot machines. Until they're all empty. And his pockets and backpack are bulging. With $60,000. Do I really need to spell out what's happening here? Since he stole the CC star from Austria three years earlier, Daniel Blanchard has been meticulously polishing his skill set. Remember, he always saw that crown jewel as a badge of honour. So from the moment he came home to Canada, he's been looking for an opportunity to really shine. And okay, yes, to make a fast buck too. We know he loves money. And then says writer and journalist Jennifer Bauer's bani. It hits him. So he decided to go where the money was, which would the banks. And of course, he had a terrible relationship with banks. They had foreclosed on his home when he was a child. He saw them as victimizing the little guy. And then he said, "I'm not a victim of that. I'm a victim of that." And he said, "I'm a victim of that." And then he said, "I'm a victim of that." And then he said, "I'm a victim." Grab a copy of the plans, the building plans. And he said that he took them across the street and photocopied them. And then took them back. And nobody questioned him because he looked just like the other construction workers. Except unlike the other workers, Daniel now has a take home blueprint, which he studies very carefully. He knew what room the ATMs were going to be and how many ATMs machines they were going to be, what kind of surveillance they would be using. Surveillance. That reminds me. You can say whatever you like about Mr. Blanchard, but there is no denying that he was very good at surveillance. You might recall US Special Operations Veteran Nick. We first met him in episode 1. When he talked us through the high stakes of Daniel's nighttime skydive onto the Shurnbrun Palace. I can't give you the next full name because he still works in war zones. But I can tell you that aside from being a seasoned parachuteist, Nick's also highly trained in surveillance. Basically, he specialises in infiltrating secret targets. And I guess it kind of takes one to no one. He made all the right moves. He had perfected it to a science. For obvious reasons, Nick's worry about giving too much away about surveillance techniques. But he says there are basically two types we need to know about. Physical and electronic. Let's start with electronic. You need an analytical mind, for sure. Well, we know Daniel's got that in spades. And you need to be someone that knows how to exploit things that other people might not necessarily know about, including the people that are using that surveillance technology. Daniel certainly saw the whole in the Shurnbrun Palace's security systems when he swiped the CC star in '98. And three years on, sophisticated security systems, even in banks, were still really in their infancy. This was when technology was first coming into play. And if you were a gentleman that understood technology and you knew how to exploit it, it can be done. It can be done. And here's where Daniel's special education comes in. Remember as a teenager in reform school how he loved those technology classes? Then of course, there's his college years spent in an Nebraska jail. Well, Daniel's a guy who never forgets a lesson learned. So when it comes to new technology, he's way ahead of the curve. He would put in his own surveillance devices. He used a baby monitor to listen in to the guys getting the bank together. He knew exactly how much money was going to be in each drawer of the ATMs because he had been listening in and watching with these little pinhole cameras. Now let's just get one thing clear. Daniel didn't just rock up at the bank in a hard-hought one day, then break in and clean the place out the next. He put in some serious groundwork before executing his second audacious heist. So incredible planning. Weeks, if not months of planning. He had the patience of a saint. There was a part of him that could just focus. And if you want to be good at surveillance, figure from a US special operations veteran. The most important thing I would say as a prerequisite for surveillance is you need to be a patient person, a very, very patient person. Now the thing about physical surveillance is that it's quite boring. Well, it's actually mind-blowingly boring. A lot of sitting around, watching and waiting, but it's gotta be done. The reason behind that is that you're just mitigating risk and that's all there is. You're mitigating risk before you actually go and do what you intend to do. And Daniel's patience is legendary. Remember as a kid how he once hid in this ceiling panels of a Nebraska police station, waiting for the officers to go home for the night so he could jump down and steal their stuff. So monitoring the building for weeks from a nearby parked car is nothing to him. He's been following the bank being built in real time, watching and listening to the feed from his secretly installed monitors and cameras. You need someone that's going to develop a plan and is willing to sit there for days if that's what it takes to understand what's happening on the objective and he was in no rush, he was in no rush. In fact, Daniel takes sitting tight to an extreme degree. He even had adult diapers that he wore so that he could, you know, last as long as needed. Now that's dedication. So by the time Daniel is ready to rob the bank, he knows the layout like the back of his hand, and he doesn't just recognize every worker who stepped through its doors. He knows what they do, which part of the building they do in, what time they arrive for work, and crucially, what time they leave. And as we all know, hard work pays off, which is why the night before the bank opens, Daniel just slips in, empties the ATMs, and slips out again. And most importantly, he got away. So quite suddenly, Daniel has his new MO, bank pists. After that, he was kind of out of control. He just wanted to hit every bank he could. All over Canada, he hit banks. I think he felt invincible. And he does. Hit a lot of banks across Canada, that is. But never with violence. That's just not in Daniel's nature. And anyway, that old stick him up type of heist went out of fashion years ago. "You know, the old bonding client running in with a gun to rob a bank, that really doesn't happen much anymore." Gordon Schumacher knows almost everything about the art of bank robbery. And Daniel almost always uses the same MO, banks under construction. "If you've gotten a ball, you can go take a look at the blueprint, you can see exactly where things are going to be. You can take pictures of where things are going to be." If Gordon makes it sound easy, Daniel certainly makes it look easy. Over the next few years, he targets bank after bank, with the same winning formula. And he hits the jackpot. Every time. Until suddenly, Daniel's a very rich man. Gordon is the hungry little boy who had to steal milk for his sister's breakfast. Daniel Blanchard is now moving among the greats and the goods. And if there's a celebrity party in town, actually a celebrity party in any town, Daniel will be there. Robin shoulders with the stars. "Dan was a bit of a documentarian of his life. He would meet famous people and he would video and photograph himself with famous people." Danny Gunn, Daniel's lawyer, says it's about much more than just being star struck. It's about feeling accepted. "I think that Dan felt as though if he could show that here he was with this professional hockey player or with this politician or with this person of substance that's been recognized that it made him part of the club." They may not know Daniel's name, or in any case his real name, but they know he counts. Does Daniel think of his star or are the C.C. star as he cracks each new bank? Does he maybe keep it in his pocket like an amulet and touch it for good luck before each heist? Because C.C. star has paved the way to where he is now, right at the top of his game. Which is why Daniel has found a very special place for his duel. A place that's very close to his heart. Long live the king and queen of Hungary. It's June 1867. An emperor, Franz Joseph and Empress Elizabeth of Austria are now rulers of a duel empire. The Hungarian people are mesmerized when they see 29-year-old queen C.C. pass by in the imperial coach. She wears a white and silver brocade dress, seemed with diamonds and a velvet bodice of midnight blue that's laced with pearls. Glittering on top of her gleaming chestnut hair is a diamond crown. She's so beautiful, she looks unreal like she's not quite of this world. In the papers the next morning she's described as being supernaturally lovely, a celestial being and when she steps down from her carriage she seems not to walk but according to reporters to float. She could walk like a butterfly. Royal historian Tessa Dunlop, a father put a lot of emphasis on comportment. He encouraged his daughters to believe that their ankles had wings attached to them. Perhaps C.C. wears a few of her famous diamond stars for the evening celebration. She's actually very superstitious. She crosses the street if she sees a black cat. She trusts in rainbows and horse shoes and she knows it's the stars woven through her hair that have turned her into a legend that have brought her to this point of good fortune. You can see the star as a symbol, as something out of reach beyond the earth, unearthly, that very much embodied much of what I think C.C. believed she represented. The Hungarians give the royal couple a castle as a coronation gift. It's a palatial retreat set in the beautiful countryside. In fact, C.C. has had her eye on it for ages. And there, far from her smiping mother-in-law and the rigid rules of the Viennese court, C.C. feels heavenly. She's so grateful for her freedom that she even allows Franz Joseph into her bedigan. Just the ones. But once is enough. Their daughter Marie Valerie is born the year after the coronation and C.C.'s smitten with her. She calls her the only one because she's the only one of C.C.'s children that she actually gets to look after. And to make sure she keeps her all to herself, she only speaks Hungarian to the child, a secret language just for the two of them, which her husband and other children can't understand. Austrian historian Regina Neuhauser says C.C. rather smothered her new baby. C.C. showered all her love obsessively on Valerie and she ignored the other children. Pretty tough on her 13-year-old daughter and her 10-year-old son, which might just come back to bite her. Over the next four years, the Empress barely visits Vienna. It's like she pretends it just isn't there. She's safe in her fairy tale Hungarian castle, in her make-believe world of perfect beauty. It's almost a sort of cult, if you like. She doesn't break out of it but leans into it because it's her own escape. But real life always finds a way to seep into fantasy and time will always keep ticking. However much C.C. steps up her beauty routines, however many times she brushes that magnificent hair. Age will leave its mark on her. But she knows her public won't want that. Her public, her followers demand only the stunning 27-year-old woman in that famous winter-halter painting. The one with the stars woven through her hair. There's simply no appetite for an older C.C. for a real life C.C. They want the C.C. just the way she was. How do you control those who are trying to control you? You control yourself. Which is why C.C. is so exacting over those beauty routines. The three-hour hairdos, the face masks stuffed with raw veal. But the ugly truth is that the most beautiful woman in the world is getting older. That psychiatrist professor Chris Fairburn. And that's why there are almost no images of C.C. after that iconic winter-halter painting. The one that sent the public wild. She refused to have her portrait painted again. She absolutely understood the obsession with youth. That the elixir of youth equals beauty that persists today. One of the reasons we hold up Diana is this great beauty. We never saw her get old. And C.C. feels she's only valued for her looks. Her name is never mentioned without the word beauty attached to it. Professor Chris Fairburn warns that for competitive people like C.C. that's deeply unhelpful. Yes, they like it. But it just keeps it at the front of their mind. The time judged this way. I'm succeeding. I better keep it up. Maybe I could do it better. But beauty is subjective and difficult to measure. Beauty is a tricky one to see how your face compares in terms of beauty to someone else's. It's very difficult to do that accurately so people never feel satisfied really. Certainly comparison-making can shift onto other people. things. Driven to be the best, Cece needs a more concrete goal than beauty, a more measurable goal, and she finds one, her weight. You can tell how well you're doing in terms of weight by the scale, so she would be measuring her success by her weight, her body shape, her waist, and other things get pushed aside. Soon Cece is only calculating her value in pounds and in inches. Spring 2004 and in Winnipeg, Daniel Blanchard's on another long stakeout, probably wearing diapers. He's been sitting in his car in the parking lot for hours now, eyes fixed on the prize, which you won't be surprised to learn, is a bank, a C-I-B-C branch actually, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, or at least it will be, once work on the building is finished. The marble floor tiles and the reception area are going down tomorrow, then the leather sofas will get delivered, and the pot plants. Daniel knows this of course because he's seen the construction schedule. He stole it along with the blueprint when he snuck in a notice a few weeks back, in his overalls and hard hats, to install his surveillance devices. By now, he's pulled this off not just once or twice, but six or seven times, and he's rolling in money. He's got a big house, actually multiple properties, condos all over Canada, the US. There's money offshore too, accounts and investments in Europe. Okay, his wife's no longer with him, somewhere along the way she jumped ship. Maybe she wasn't a fan of Daniel's unorthodox way of bringing home the bacon, but these things happen, and Daniel's got no problem attracting the ladies. I mean he's charming, right? And very rich. He knows the drill off by a heart now. Could almost do it with his eyes shut. You need to take breaks. That's Nick, our US Special Operations Veteran. And if you've been going nonstop, you're likely to let more things slide. Careful, Daniel. No matter how good you are at surveillance, the longer you do it, you're going to let more things fall by the wayside because you've had so much success. And Daniel's Mr. Czech and Double Czech. What reason would you have to doubt yourself? But Daniel has made a mistake, a schoolboy error, and worse, somebody's seen him do it. You've been listening to a most audacious heist, a Blanchard House production for curious cast, hosted by me, Seren Jones. It's written and produced by Emma Jane Kirby, research by Hannah Tava-Kolizade. Original music is by Daniel Lloyd Evans, Louis Nank-Minell and Toby Matamong. Sound design and mix engineering by Toby Matamong and Louis Nank-Minell, with special thanks to Rob Johnston. The creative director of Blanchard House is Rosie Pie. The head of content at Blanchard House is Lawrence Grisel. For Blanchard House, the executive producers are Amika Shautino-Nolan and Lawrence Grisel. For curious cast, the executive producers are Dileva Lasquez and Chris Duncombe. A most audacious heist is inspired by the book "Stealing Cece Star" by Jennifer Bowers-Barnie. Will you help? Happy to. The prior country, only Fridays and 90s turn on global. Stream on Stack TV.