read the article online now at...

http://newyorkmetro.com/news/features/15590/index.html

and see me in my first TV appearance on the abrams report on msnbc, thursday feb. 2 (or friday feb. 3) at 4 and 6 eastern time. wish me luck. hopefully i don't break out in flop sweat like albert brooks in broadcast news.

questions for SF assistant DA jerry coleman

bb: while newspapers say that my former roommate is 47 years old, probation records make him 55. when will he be eligible for parole?

jc: dino smith has to do 85% of his 23-year sentence (minus whatever credit he has from his NYC capture in june 04), so about 18 1/3 years, or March, 2023.

bb: so he'll be either 65 or 73, at least, when he gets out. part of smith's journal that got cut from the article for space reasons read, "I should have called the cops as soon as he walked up to my car. Why did I even give MZ the fucking time of day. I know, the money right? Wrong, I knew something was wrong, something didn't sound right. And he's the only one going to make out with it all too, every dime." as you know, this may refer to mark zimmelman, the owner of lang antique and estate jewelry, suggesting this was an inside job. dino reportedly told SFPD inspector dan leydon that he and zimmelman had masterminded the job together, and as romney reported, the thieves "tunneled through the wall in the exact place from where safes had been moved aside with zimmelman's knowledge one week earlier."

jc: our office continues to pursue all criminal leads concerning this historic jewelry heist, but our primary focus remains on the actual robbery perpetrators, one of whom remains at large.

jerry coleman invites me to california

when he sent me my e-ticket, the confirmation number was DFGBXC, and coleman helpfully supplied a mnemonic: dino freedom gone brian xray coming west.

"you'll be returning to new york on a late flight, arriving tuesday morning at 6," he wrote to me. "but there'll be a movie!"

"it better be a damn good one," i groused.

"i'll see if i can arrange for the great train robbery."

"you'll arrive saturday evening. i won't speak to you then because i'll be in line for star wars," he told me.

when i was then waiting in the courtroom, rutledge, the defense attorney, was late for the one o'clock start time. "i move that he be fined one million dollars for tardiness," inspector dan joked. rutledge walked in at about eight minutes after the hour. when he saw coleman, he asked, "so -- is the force with you?" apparently everyone knew the DA's weekend plans. just then dino walked in and the joking stopped.

inspector dan casts the cops for the movie

when they were wrapping up searching my apartment, sergeant kane of the new york robbery squad joked that I should not go public with my story or a screenplay without checking in with them first. with that prompt, even the straight men couldn't resist: "okay, i'm gonna tell you who plays who," said gardner. pointing to sergeant kane, with his slicked-back black hair: "alec baldwin." indicating small, stocky fellow SFPD detective dan leydon: "sylvester stallone." he turned to strawberry-blond new york detective kevin flannigan: "any suggestions?"

"just not david caruso, please. no more david caruso!"

i joined in: "who plays gardner?"

gardner: "don knotts."

as you know, dino had cast the movie of his life, in a way flattering to himself, naturally. he pictured himself as an innocent man on the run from corrupt cops out to frame him. he even took notes on san francisco police accused of misconduct and practiced his alibi in his journal. presumably, the movie would have shown him to be a persecuted innocent, like samuel l. jackson in the negotiator or denzel's mistreated hero in john q, both in his dvd collection (along with goodfellas, the italian job, the usual suspects and so on). and who among us hasn't thought about who would play us and how our lives would be given a stronger narrative arc on screen?

gardner, on his way out: "oh, and by the way, do you have a sister named _____?"

i frowned. "no. i have a sister-in-law named _____ boucher who lives in ____."

"very good," said gardner.

bewildered, i asked, "what was that?!"

they laughed. "now, mr. boucher," said kane, "we don't go to somebody's house without doing a little digging on them first. we gotta make sure you are who you say you are! you could be one of the bad guys!" it was a test. gardner had asked me a question that someone impersonating me might have gotten wrong (i have no sisters).

"what did you find on me?" i asked.

"well, i hate to tell you this, mr. boucher," said gardner, "but you're pretty boring."

devin's letter to john walsh of AMW

after america's most wanted aired their segment on the smith brothers, devin responded with a letter to host john walsh, accusing him and AMW of character assassination and claiming innocence. i'd love to stroll into police headquarters and work this out, he wrote, but he claimed that vindictive police and prosecutors (and his inability to afford good counsel) meant there was no way he would get a fair trial. "assuming i'm not murdered first, i know how they will turn on the courtroom theatrics along with prosecutorial misconduct," he wrote. "in the process, i'll get stuck with the dim-witted lawyer from my cousin vinny. i'd rather take my chances with hypertension as a fugitive."

welcome to ghostwriter.

Seeking roommate for one-bedroom in Washington Heights. It's a bit small for two but I have to catch up on some bills. Two friendly cats, but we keep clean because I'm a little allergic myself. A little more than half of the $950 rent gets you the privacy of the bedroom.

with that simple craigslist ad, posted in august, 2003, started my adventure, published as the article "my roommate the diamond thief" in new york magazine. please read it and drop me a line. the full article will appear here on february 13.