Guard wanted in ’93 heist arrested in Missouri
OZARK, Mo. — A British armored car guard suspected of driving off with a fortune worth $1.5 million back in 1993 has been captured in rural Missouri, where he had been working as a cable guy and raising a son who apparently knew nothing of his father’s past.
Edward John Maher was dubbed “Fast Eddie” in news reports after the heist in England, but he quickly vanished. After nearly two decades as a fugitive, he was arrested Wednesday in an apartment in the tiny town of Ozark, 160 miles southeast of Kansas City, where he had been living under a brother’s name, Michael Maher.
Maher’s guise began unraveling Monday, when Ozark police received a tip that a man going by that name was really a fugitive from Britain. An officer compared his driver’s license photo with a picture from 1993 and contacted the FBI, which also compared the photos and determined the two photos were likely the same man.
On the same day, Maher was bailing his adult son out of jail in the nearby town of Nixa when a police officer told him he knew Maher was wanted in England, but the officer could not arrest him.
The next day, Maher’s son was being interviewed by an FBI agent when his father called and said they had to leave immediately. The son refused to go. A short time later, Ozark police officers and federal agents saw Maher, a woman and a boy leaving their home carrying clothes. They were later seen checking into a local motel.
The son contacted the FBI agent Wednesday and reported that his father had changed his mind about fleeing.
He is accused of driving off in an armored car while a fellow security guard was making a delivery to a bank in Suffolk, England. The van was later abandoned. Fifty bags containing coins and notes worth 1 million pounds, or $1.5 million, were missing.
While at Maher’s home, investigators talked to his wife, Deborah Brett, who told them about several guns her husband had purchased since coming to the U.S. She said she didn’t want the weapons around and showed officers where to find them in the home and in a storage facility in town.
Federal prosecutors charged him with weapons violations, and he was scheduled to appear later Thursday in federal court in Springfield.
Maher made an initial appearance Thursday in federal court in Springfield and asked for a court-appointed attorney because he didn’t have enough money to pay for representation.