Victor Manuel Gerena
Encyclopedia
Víctor Manuel Gerena is an American
fugitive
wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
for the armed robbery, in connection with the Los Macheteros group, of a Wells Fargo
armored car facility. On May 14, 1984, he became the 386th fugitive to be placed
on the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitives
list. He remains at large and, on April 11, 2010, became the fugitive to have spent the most time on the list, surpassing Donald Eugene Webb
. He is believed to be in Cuba
, but his exact whereabouts are unknown.
, Connecticut
from Puerto Rico
when Gerena was very young. He enjoyed wrestling
, winning many tournaments; he also played American football
. He was a good student, serving on the student council and was recommended to Trinity College
.
Gerena met Marion Delaney, then a clerk for the U.S. House of Representatives
, who became his friend and tutor. Delaney inspired Gerena to attend her alma mater, the Annhurst College
, a female-only college that had faced harsh economic times and was by then accepting male students. There were 200 women at Annhurst and only 25 men. Gerena was met with hostility by the college staff. Gerena returned home and began a relationship with an old friend and had a daughter together.
Gerena then became a security guard at a Wells Fargo
armored car depot in West Hartford
, Connecticut, the same facility he would later help rob.
, Machetero leaders Filiberto Ojeda Rios
and Juan Segarra Palmer
had heard of Gerena; Gerena's mother's background as a pro-independence advocate and his dislike of life in the army made him, in Ojeda Rios' and Segarra Palmer's eyes, a candidate to become a member of Los Macheteros. They flew to Hartford and convinced Gerena to help them with their cause by participating in the heist.
According to law enforcement authorities, on September 12, 1983, Gerena dropped off his girlfriend at City Hall, where she was to get a marriage license for the couple. He then went to his place of employment and spent the rest of the day with co-workers James McKeon and Timothy Girard. At some point, Gerena then removed McKeon's gun, handcuffed and tied up his two co-workers, and injected them with an unknown substance in order to further disable them. He put $7,000,000 in the trunk of a car, then left with the money. At an unknown point, Gerena transferred to another vehicle and disappeared.
, where he boarded a Cubana de Aviación
jet at Mexico City International Airport
in Mexico City
, arriving at José Martí International Airport
in Havana
. Years later, a cousin of Gerena accompanied journalist Edmund Mahoney to Cuba in an attempt to locate Gerena, but they did not succeed. Mahoney published a story in 2001 named Chasing Gerena. The FBI is offering a reward for information leading to Gerena's capture of up to $1,000,000.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
fugitive
Fugitive
A fugitive is a person who is fleeing from custody, whether it be from private slavery, a government arrest, government or non-government questioning, vigilante violence, or outraged private individuals...
wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
for the armed robbery, in connection with the Los Macheteros group, of a Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational diversified financial services company with operations around the world. Wells Fargo is the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by assets and the largest bank by market capitalization. Wells Fargo is the second largest bank in deposits, home...
armored car facility. On May 14, 1984, he became the 386th fugitive to be placed
FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, 1980s
The FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives during the 1980s is a list, maintained for a fourth decade, of the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation.-FBI headlines in the 1980s:...
on the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitives
FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives
The FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list arose from a conversation held in late 1949 between J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, and William Kinsey Hutchinson, International News Service Editor-in-Chief, who were discussing ways to promote capture of the...
list. He remains at large and, on April 11, 2010, became the fugitive to have spent the most time on the list, surpassing Donald Eugene Webb
Donald Eugene Webb
Donald Eugene Webb is an American career criminal and fugitive wanted for attempted burglary and the murder of police chief Gregory Adams in the small community of Saxonburg, Pennsylvania on December 4, 1980. It was the first murder in the town's history.- Background and family :Donald Eugene...
. He is believed to be in Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, but his exact whereabouts are unknown.
Early life
Gerena and his family, consisting of his mother, four brothers and one sister, moved to HartfordHartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...
, Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
from Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
when Gerena was very young. He enjoyed wrestling
Scholastic wrestling
Scholastic wrestling, sometimes known in the United States as Folkstyle wrestling, is a style of amateur wrestling practised at the high school and middle school levels in the United States. This wrestling style is essentially Collegiate wrestling with some slight modifications. It is currently...
, winning many tournaments; he also played American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
. He was a good student, serving on the student council and was recommended to Trinity College
Trinity College (Connecticut)
Trinity College is a private, liberal arts college in Hartford, Connecticut. Founded in 1823, it is the second-oldest college in the state of Connecticut after Yale University. The college enrolls 2,300 students and has been coeducational since 1969. Trinity offers 38 majors and 26 minors, and has...
.
Gerena met Marion Delaney, then a clerk for the U.S. House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
, who became his friend and tutor. Delaney inspired Gerena to attend her alma mater, the Annhurst College
Annhurst College
Annhurst College was a private Catholic college in South Woodstock, Connecticut. The college's curriculum was career-focused.It was founded by Mother Louis du Sacré-Coeur, D.H.S., the Provincial of the American Province of the Daughters of the Holy Spirit in 1940 as an all women's college...
, a female-only college that had faced harsh economic times and was by then accepting male students. There were 200 women at Annhurst and only 25 men. Gerena was met with hostility by the college staff. Gerena returned home and began a relationship with an old friend and had a daughter together.
Gerena then became a security guard at a Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational diversified financial services company with operations around the world. Wells Fargo is the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by assets and the largest bank by market capitalization. Wells Fargo is the second largest bank in deposits, home...
armored car depot in West Hartford
West Hartford, Connecticut
West Hartford is a town located in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The town was incorporated in 1854. Prior to that date, the town was a parish of Hartford....
, Connecticut, the same facility he would later help rob.
Bank heist
In Puerto RicoPuerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
, Machetero leaders Filiberto Ojeda Rios
Filiberto Ojeda Ríos
Filiberto Ojeda Ríos was the commander-in-chief of the Boricua Popular Army , a clandestine paramilitary organization that considers United States rule over Puerto Rico to be oppressive colonization and advocates the latter's independence.Ojeda Ríos was a...
and Juan Segarra Palmer
Juan Enrique Segarra-Palmer
Juan Enrique Segarra-Palmer is a Puerto Rican Nationalist who became eligible for release from prison five years after accepting President Bill Clinton's clemency offer on September 7, 1999. He had received a sentence of 55 years for seditious conspiracy, and weapons and conspiracy charges, along...
had heard of Gerena; Gerena's mother's background as a pro-independence advocate and his dislike of life in the army made him, in Ojeda Rios' and Segarra Palmer's eyes, a candidate to become a member of Los Macheteros. They flew to Hartford and convinced Gerena to help them with their cause by participating in the heist.
According to law enforcement authorities, on September 12, 1983, Gerena dropped off his girlfriend at City Hall, where she was to get a marriage license for the couple. He then went to his place of employment and spent the rest of the day with co-workers James McKeon and Timothy Girard. At some point, Gerena then removed McKeon's gun, handcuffed and tied up his two co-workers, and injected them with an unknown substance in order to further disable them. He put $7,000,000 in the trunk of a car, then left with the money. At an unknown point, Gerena transferred to another vehicle and disappeared.
Fugitive trail
According to published reports, Gerena was transported to MexicoMexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, where he boarded a Cubana de Aviación
Cubana de Aviación
Cubana de Aviación S.A., commonly known as Cubana, is Cuba's largest airline and flag carrier. The airline was founded on 8 October 1929, and has its corporate headquarters in Havana. Its main base is at José Martí International Airport...
jet at Mexico City International Airport
Mexico City International Airport
Benito Juárez International Airport , in Venustiano Carranza, one of the sixteen boroughs into which Mexico's Federal District is divided, is a commercial airport that serves Mexico City, the capital of Mexico...
in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
, arriving at José Martí International Airport
José Martí International Airport
José Martí International Airport , sometimes known by its former name Rancho-Boyeros Airport, is located southwest of Havana, Cuba, and is a hub for Cubana de Aviación, Aerogaviota and Aero Caribbean, and former Latin American hub for Aeroflot Soviet Airlines...
in Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
. Years later, a cousin of Gerena accompanied journalist Edmund Mahoney to Cuba in an attempt to locate Gerena, but they did not succeed. Mahoney published a story in 2001 named Chasing Gerena. The FBI is offering a reward for information leading to Gerena's capture of up to $1,000,000.