Lengdon Moore Thief Country: USA

1. Biography of Langdon Moore
2. The Plan
3. The Search for an Agent
4. The Breakthrough

Biography of Langdon Moore

Langdon Moore was a notorious thief and the first hacker in history to use drilling and explosives for break-ins. On September 25, 1865, at noon, the cashier of Concord National Bank in Massachusetts locked the bank door and went out for breakfast. When he returned, he discovered that valuable papers worth $350,000 had been stolen from the safe. There were no traces of explosives or burglary tools, and the safe door showed no signs of tampering. It was clear that the safe had been opened with a fake key, as the only genuine key was hanging from the cashier's watch chain. This fake key was found in the possession of Langdon Moore, a humble small farmer residing a few miles away from the bank.

The Plan

Two years prior to these events, Moore had begun devising a plan to rob Concord Bank, which would be the first major bank heist of its time. Every night for six months, Moore and his accomplice would break into the bank after midnight and spend hours picking the locks of various doors leading to the safe. They successfully accomplished this task, but the keyholes in the safe were of a special English design.

The Search for an Agent

Moore started searching for an agent who distributed safes with this particular design. Posing as a safe buyer, Moore received detailed explanations of various secrets from the agent. Based on these explanations, he designed keys capable of opening the locks. Over the following years, Moore committed several more bank robberies. He did not always use lock picks and gained fame in the field of break-ins as the first hacker to employ drilling and explosives.

The Breakthrough

In the spring of 1866, Moore and his accomplice transported a drilling machine to the factory where their targeted safe was located. They secured the machine next to the safe on the floor and quickly drilled through the door. Five ounces of gunpowder were enough to shatter the safe door into pieces. Moore's technique became so popular and effective that safe manufacturers began placing locks on the inner surface of the safe door. However, Moore successfully overcame this innovation as well. The drill became longer, the amount of gunpowder slightly increased, and all that was left was to apply a little more force to the door to make the loosened lock fall inside the safe.