Gerald Blanchard

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Gerald Daniel Blanchard (born c. 1972) is a Canadian best known for orchestrating complex frauds and heists on three continents. Gerald Blanchard grew up in Canada, and later moved to Omaha, Nebraska with his mother Carol Phegly and sister. In 1998, Blanchard stole the Star of Empress Sisi, one of 27 diamond-and-pearl hair ornaments worn by Elisabeth of Bavaria, consort of Francis Joseph I, from the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria. Police thought that, accompanied by his wife and father-in-law posing as tourists, Blanchard disabled the alarm and replaced the jewel with a replica purchased at the souvenir shop. A parachute was found hidden near the palace grounds. Blanchard later said that he parachuted onto the palace roof from a small airplane in the middle of the night to make the swap. A few days earlier, Blanchard had toured the palace with his wife and father-in-law while video recording the layout. Police recovered a video tape on one of the many raids of Blanchard's high-end properties. The swap was not discovered until two weeks after the robbery. The loss of a priceless part of Austria's history remained unsolved until Blanchard offered to turn the jewel over to police following his arrest in Canada on fraud and robbery charges.