Vojislav Stanimirović (born 19 March 1937, died 13 June 2022) was a Serbian-born American journalist and one-time crime figure, most famous for his leading role in The Vizcaya Heist. He emigrated to the United States in 1952. Vojislav Stanimirović was also later involved with YACS and the

Pink Panthers The Pink Panthers are an international jewel thief network responsible for a number of robberies and thefts described as some of the most audacious in the history of organized crime. The organization has roughly 800 core members, many of whom ...

among

Serbian mafia Serbian organized crime or Serbian mafia ( sr, Cpпска мафија / Srpska mafija) are various criminal organizations based in Serbia or composed of ethnic Serbs in the former Yugoslavia and Serbian diaspora. The organizations are primari ...

figures. He is the father of Pavle Stanimirović. He died of mesothelioma on June 13, 2022 in Novi Sad, Serbia.

The Vizcaya Heist

On 22 March 1971, three individuals from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

raided the

Villa Vizcaya The Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, previously known as Villa Vizcaya, is the former villa and estate of businessman James Deering, of the Deering McCormick-International Harvester fortune, on Biscayne Bay in the present-day Coconut Grove neighborho ...

and stole approximately $1,500,000 in artwork and silver items, some of which were of historical value. This trio of reputed jewel thieves was arrested on 25 March 1971. The

New York Police Department The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...

raided the luxurious

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

apartment of Vojislav Stanimirović and his wife Branka, and arrested them. The couple's accomplice, Aleksandar Karanović, was also arrested, and all three were charged with suspicion of stolen property and possession of a dangerous weapon. From the Stanimirovićs' apartment approximately $250,000 of the stolen goods was recovered. Sergeant Connolly stated that included in the theft was a silver bowl that once belonged to

Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

and was virtually priceless. According to Connolly, the three perpetrators had been under surveillance for four months for unrelated jewel burglaries that they had carried out in the Manhattan Diamond District. NYPD Captain Thomas Kissane said that the vast majority of the precious items stolen from the Vizcaya have never been recovered.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stanimirovic, Vojislav 1937 births 2022 deaths 20th-century criminals Serbian criminals Crimes in New York (state) Serbian expatriates in the United States Deaths from mesothelioma