[10] Lynn's vision for the project was a 3-3.5 hour Martin Scorsese styled film with a budget of 90 million dollars, this led to creative differences with the studio and the eventual departure of Lynn from the project. In court a prosecutor revealed an undercover Dedham Police Officer tripped up Sequeira. The film ends with a written disclaimer: "Charlestown's reputation as a breeding ground for armed robbers is authentic. Filming also took place at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut, for casino scenes,[17] Massachusetts Correctional Institution Cedar Junction in Walpole, Massachusetts, for use of their visiting room, and at Anderson Regional Transportation Center in Woburn, Massachusetts, for the ending Amtrak scenes. [34][36] The film makes reference to the definition of "Toonies" during one of Doug and Claire's dates. The Boston Police Department's Bank Robbery task force tackled. However, unlike the movie, this shop is actually located in South Boston, not Charlestown. Its sad, Peletier says. Fergie then threatens to kill Claire if Doug does not do the job, and he reveals to him that he controlled his father by making his mother an addict, which led to her suicide. BOSTON At 59 years old, William Sequeira has spent much of his adult life doing time. An accused banker robber who claimed Ben Affleck played him in "The Town" has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges in connection with a spree of bank robberies in Massachusetts earlier this year. A Fall River man with a history of attempted bank robbery was charged in connection with a September incident at a TD Bank branch in Boston. William Sequeira claims to have robbed 150 banks and inspired the character Ben Affleck portrayed in the heist movie, "The Town." But when he walked into the Citizens Bank in the Back Bay . Now she's facing charges. At Fenway, Doug and Jem enter disguised as Boston police officers, steal $3,500,000 in gate cash, and prepare to escape in an ambulance while disguised as paramedics. The charge of bank robbery provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. William Sequeira was arrested after fleeing the scene of a robbery and crashing his car. We tackle difficult conversations and divisive issueswe dont shy away from hard problems. View the profiles of people named William Sequeira. FBI found over $500,000 . He was asking for leniency with regard to some traffic tickets. Sequeira was arrested at the third incident, when police say he attempted to rob a Citizens Bank on Boylston Street. According to Frawley, the elder MacRay hijacked a "bread truck" (armored car) up to New Hampshire, and when one of the guards saw his face, he executed both of them with their own weapons. Sequeira is also facing charges in Fall River, in connection to a robbery at the Citizens Bank located at 501 Rodman St. Detective Luis Vertentes of the Major Crimes Division was assigned as the lead investigator in this case, according to a press release from FRPD. Earlier that day, the intersection of Tremont and Avery streets was temporarily renamed "The Town Take 2 Place" in a small ceremony, attended by Welliver and Boston city officials. The site's critical consensus reads, "Tense, smartly written, and wonderfully cast, The Town proves that Ben Affleck has rediscovered his museand that he's a director to be reckoned with. EAST PROVIDENCE Bill Black, Principal, Shane Messier, Assistant Principal, Lian Furtado, Assistant Principal, Bob Hanlon, CTC Director, and the amazing staff of East Providence High School, announce the Honor Roll for the 2022-2023 Third Quarter. Based on actual events, it received praise from critics for its direction, screenplay, editing, and the performances of the cast (particularly Renner) and grossed $154 million worldwide. William Sequeira, 59, was charged in Boston Municipal Court Central with two counts of armed robbery of a bank and one count of attempted armed robbery of a bank. Whitehouse said he will refer the case to a federal grand jury. Do celebrities in Africa make you cringe? Ben Affleck played this real-life bank robber in 'The Town'. or call us at 1-617-450-2300. In 2003, Paramount Pictures had optioned the rights to Chuck Hogan's novel Prince of Thieves before it was even published, and Dick Wolf signed on to produce before the project fell through. According to prosecutors,. Investigators believe Sequeira was also the suspect responsible for the first two robberies. They suspect Sequeira might return to Boylston Street where two banks were hit in the last few days. According to prosecutors, Sequeira has served previous long sentences for bank robbery.. William Sequeira, 59, has served long sentences for bank robbery.. FILEA man who claims he's robbed at least 100 banks and that Ben Affleck's character in"The Town" was based on him was held without bail Thursday on charges of robbing two Boston banks and attempting to rob a third, prosecutors said. Both versions include special features and an audio commentary including a look at Affleck as a director and actor. Claire tells Doug she saw a tattoo on one of the robbers but did not tell the FBI, and he realizes that she can identify Jem and send them all to prison. Prosecutors revealed he's also suspected in a September 27 Santander Bank robbery on Berkeley Street and another robbery the following day at M&T Bank on Boylston Street. Ben Affleck played this real-life bank robber in 'The Town'. A lot of us turned out pretty good, he says. 2023 Cox Media Group. Townies, those born and raised here, dont take kindly to being portrayed in Mr. Afflecks film as a bunch of dumb bums" (to use the words of one resident). Ben Affleck plays me in the movie.. Members of the Gang Unit told Vertentes that the suspect resembledan individual suspected of multiple bank robberies in and around Boston. The film premiered on September 8, 2010, at the Venice Film Festival before being released in the United States on September 17, 2010. In Boston Municipal Court, Sequeira briefly arged with his own lawyer as he was arguing for low bail. A Providence man who claims he's robbed at least 100 banks and that Ben Affleck's character in "The Town" was based on him was held without bail Thursday on charges of robbing two Boston banks and attempting to rob a third, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office said. log out. 19802023 The Christian Science Monitor. Wenn Sie Ihre Auswahl anpassen mchten, klicken Sie auf Datenschutzeinstellungen verwalten. One month free trial to the Monitor Daily. King in turn showed it to Warner Bros. studio, who agreed to make an adaptation directed by Lyne and written by Sheldon Turner. Explore them here. The hour-long chase drew state police and officers from Johnston, Coventry and Hopkinton, R.I., as it proceeded onto Routes 295 and 95. At 59 years old, William Sequeira has spent much of his adult life doing time. Four lifelong friends from the neighborhood of Charlestown, Boston, Douglas "Doug" MacRay, James "Jem" Coughlin, Albert "Gloansy" MacGloan, and Desmond "Dez" Elden, rob a bank. Was the small community of Charlestown really a locus of bank robbers? Most of these professionals live in a 1-square-mile neighborhood called Charlestown." Powered by WordPress.com VIP. Two men entered the First Bank and Trust at 1005 a.m. on Dec. 11. You can renew your subscription or contact customer service The U.S. Attorney's Office said 59-year-old William Sequeira of Fall River has been charged for robbing a TD Bank branch near Faneuil Hall in Boston, days before he was arrested for trying to rob another bank in the same city. You dont have a Christian Science Monitor Instead of coming off as a regular heist movie, the film compromises on the efficiency of its heists, and instead, focuses more on its characters and its well-established Charlestown setup. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. However, one must not forget that the movie only draws some inspiration from Charlestowns past and is no way implying that the Boston neighborhood is still replete of crime. At 59 years old, William Sequeira has spent much of his adult life doing time. https://www.caughtinprovidence.com/ He still cares about us, Looney says. continue to use the site without a Our work isn't possible without your support. The movie brought in over $154 million worldwide and was named one of the top 10 movies of 2010. . William Sequeira appears in Boston Municipal Court, Thursday, Oct 6, 2022. Caught in a firefight with FBI SWAT operators, Dez and Gloansy are killed. William Sequeira, 59, of Providence, was arrested on Wednesday during an attempted robbery of the Citizen's Bank located at 426 Boylston Street in the Back Bay, police said. They don't deserve negative scrutiny. The actors remarks, Mr. Looney says, made it clear that the movie is in no way a poor reflection on the people of Charlestown. Doug asks Claire to go away with him, and she accepts. Frawley notes that this incident led to the passing of regulations prohibiting the driver from leaving the cab even if his partner is being held at gunpoint. Doug tries to back out of the next heist at Fenway Park. While Affleck had grown up in nearby Cambridge, Massachusetts, he barely knew the harsh inner-city environment of Charlestown. Sie knnen Ihre Einstellungen jederzeit ndern, indem Sie auf unseren Websites und Apps auf den Link Datenschutz-Dashboard klicken. There, it is alleged that Sequeira approached the teller, said Give me hundreds, and then threatened to shoot the teller if they did not move fast enough. William Sequeira, 59, was charged with one count of bank robbery and will appear in federal court in Boston at a later date, according to a press release from the office of United States. William Sequeira, 34, of Boston, and two brothers, Philip Lafond, 33, of Acushnet, and Donald R. Lafond Jr., 37, of New Bedford, already face state charges in connection with the robbery, at. FBI Special Agent Adam Frawley recognizes their ties to local Irish mobster Fergus "Fergie" Colm. Search in titles only Search in THE MEDICAL MEN AND DOCTOR REPORTS only Claire donates the money, in memory of Doug's mother, to refurbish the local ice hockey arena in which Doug once played. Frawley spots Jem and they exchange gunfire in which Jem is severely wounded. Check out why Ben Affleck gets it right in Congo. The Town is a scintillating crime drama that grips from its very onset and keeps you hooked till the end. [11] Later the film's actors also researched within the community to make for more believable characters and performances. Although we dont have the exact figures for Charlestowns crime rate in the 90s, statistics suggest that there was indeed a surge in the rate of robberies in Massachusetts in the 80s and 90s, which substantially dropped in the mid-aughts. Sequeira is a serial bank robber who served decades in prison. All rights reserved. Against the wishes of Doug, Jem takes bank manager Claire Keesey hostage but later releases her unharmed. I talked to people involved in the movie, people who allowed them to use their homes. Boston. Doug reluctantly agrees but swears that he will kill Fergie if anything happens to Claire. [24] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale. William Sequeira, 59, of Providence, Rhode Island, was arraigned Thursday in Boston Municipal Court on a charge of attempted unarmed bank robbery, according to the Boston Police Department.. Watching from across the street via binoculars, he sees the FBI are with her as she tells him to come over. "It was just so remarkable that this one very small community was the focus for bank robbers," he said, but he was very aware that crime was only one part of the community, and he did not want to make all residents of the neighborhood look like criminals. Police had that location under surveillance and were able to arrest Sequeira after he allegedly went from one teller to the next, demanding "give me hundreds.". Later, while she is gardening, Claire finds a buried bag containing money, a tangerine, and a note from Doug that suggests that she can make better use of the money than he can and that they might see each other again. According to a September 2010 article in The Boston Globe, Charlestown was once known as an area where bank robbers were concentrated, but has not been since the mid-1990s, and the subject has been a sore point for "Townies". This Freetown mom tried to expose school security failures. Donald Lafond and Sequeira fled into the woods, but were soon captured by police, who found a loaded .357-caliber pistol on Sequeira and a .22-caliber pistol in the snow near Donald Lafond. But after his arraignment in Boston Municipal Court on charges of robbing three Boston banks over the last week,. [14][15] The former MASSBank branch located in Melrose, Massachusetts, was used as the location for the first robbery of the film, taking on the name Cambridge Merchants Bank[16] (the exterior shots, however, are of Cambridge Savings Bank in Harvard Square). One of them pointed a handgun at bank employees and told them to get down on the floor while the other jumped over the counter and took money from the teller drawers. Copyright 2023 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. I dont think we want to officially comment on whether a certain place has a higher count of robberies than another place, he says. Facebook gives people the. He. In some cases, he demanded money and threatened to shoot bank tellers. William Sequeira, 59, was charged in Boston Municipal Court Central with two counts of armed robbery of a bank and one count of attempted armed robbery of a bank. [22][additional citation(s) needed], On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, The Town has an approval rating of 92% based on 235 reviews, with an average rating of 7.70/10. I got a job! Sequeira interrupted. Receive the latest news and breaking updates, straight from our newsroom to your inbox. (CNN/WBZ-TV) A Providence man accused of trying to rob a bank in Boston has been charged in another bank robbery in. The film was released in the United States on September 17, 2010. In fact, there were 23 reported bank robberies in the entire state of Massachusetts in the first quarter of 2010, compared with 49 in Illinois and 136 in California, according to the FBI.[34]. "[27] Xan Brooks, in The Guardian, wrote that the action sequences were "sharply orchestrated" but added "it's a bogus, bull-headed enterprise all the same; a film that leaves no cliche untrampled. Brick houses and old-fashioned gaslights line Charlestowns narrow colonial streets, and ordinary folks bustle about the Dunkin Donuts, and the CVS drugstore. Doug knows that Jem will kill her if he knows so, to dissuade her from talking, Doug tells her that if she tells the police, they will put her in witness protection and send her to live in another state. Fall River police were able to help law enforcement officials connect the dots, after a September bank robbery on Rodman Street. By continuing to browse the site William Sequeira, 59, was charged in Boston Municipal Court Central with two counts of armed robbery of a bank and one count of attempted armed robbery of a bank. [20], On March 6, 2011, the three-disc The Town: Ultimate Collector's Edition DVD/Blu-ray set was released. Weitere Informationen ber die Verwendung Ihrer personenbezogenen Daten finden Sie in unserer Datenschutzerklrung und unserer Cookie-Richtlinie. We William Sequeira, 59, was charged with one count of bank robbery and will appear in federal court in Boston at a later date, according to a press release from the office of United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins. Boston 25 News facebook feed(Opens a new window), Boston 25 News twitter feed(Opens a new window), Boston 25 News youtube feed(Opens a new window), School administrators: Create a closings account, Caught in the act: Accused bank robber who says Ben Affleck played him busted during heist spree, Deepest condolences: Boston Childrens Hospital pays $15M to family of baby who died during study, Hopkintons former deputy police chief indicted on child rape charges, Hingham Police officer accused of brandishing gun while off duty on Stoneham roadway, 12-year-old girl suffers cardiac episode during soccer practice, 4 men from Mass., NH arrested in Lawrence-based drug trafficking ring, federal authorities say. A Fall River man, who claims to be the inspiration for Ben Affleck's character in the bank heist film "The Town," has been charged in connection with robbing a TD Bank branch in downtown Boston. Thank you.\r---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\rCaught in Providence airs on television weekdays, please visit www.caughtinprovidence.com/showtimes for local listings.\r\rSUBSCRIBE AND FOLLOW:\rFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/caughtinprovidence/\rTwitter: https://twitter.com/caughtinprov\rInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/caughtinprovidence/\rReddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/CaughtinProvidence/\r\rContact us for sponsorship opportunities! The film was chosen by the National Board of Review as one of the top ten films of 2010, while Renner was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor[6] and Postlethwaite was posthumously nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor.[7]. Prosecutors revealed he's also suspected in a September. Philip Lafond was charged with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, the getaway car. Its gentrified and diverse now. What we know after a Fall River man was killed outside the Cadillac Lounge. Shocked that Doug was one of her assailants, she cooperates with the FBI and breaks up with him. Stay up to date on all the latest news from Boston.com. In its opening shot itself, the film establishes that it is set in Bostons Charlestown. The Town is a 2010 American crime drama film co-written, directed by, and starring Ben Affleck, adapted from Chuck Hogan's 2004 novel Prince of Thieves. Behind the news are values that drive people and nations. ", Halfway home:Houston House helps residents get back on their feet. A third defendant, William Sequeira, 34, of Boston, is scheduled to be sentenced next month. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case. you are agreeing to our. He will appear in federal court in Boston at a later date, according to United States Attorney Rachael Rollins. He was taken into custody moments later. Sequeira was once featured in an episode of the show "Caught in Providence." Doug flees by donning an MBTA uniform and escaping on a train. Sequeira appeared in Boston Municipal Court Thursday and was held on $50,000 bail for bank robbery charges. Right now, Sequeira is charged with three Boston bank robberies. But after his arraignment in Boston Municipal Court on charges of robbing three Boston banks over the last week, it might be some time before he ever gets his freedom back. Now William shares his story after his Caught in Providence case went viral.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\rThese are real people, not actors. The scenes in this flower shop, labeled as 'Town Flowers' in the movie, were filmed in an actual shop known as Thornton Flower Shop, 111 Dorchester Street. Immediately preceding each screening, a vice president from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment thanked all those in attendance, including Titus Welliver (Dino Ciampa), Dennis McLaughlin (Rusty), and Affleck's mother, for coming out and supporting director Affleck's "preferred" version of the film, leading to a short, prerecorded introduction by Affleck himself. | The chase ended on the side of Route 95 south, where police arrested Philip Lafond. On Wednesday, Sequeira was on the move again, traveling from his home in Providence to Boston, unaware that the Joint Violent Crime Task Force was already on his tail. The FBI, having received information from Doug's ex-girlfriend and Jem's single-mom sister Krista, whom Frawley had threatened, surround the perimeter with the Boston police and State police. [29] Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun Times gave the film an A+, noting that he found the film incredibly similar to Michael Mann's Heat, which he described as "one of [his] favorite movies of all time. At first, he thinks she means to betray him, but she gives a clue verbally to warn him away. [32], As a Boston-based crime drama, the film forms part of a "crime-movie subgenre" typically marked by "flavorsome accents, pungent atmosphere and fatalistic undertow", according to Chang. This station is part of Cox Media Group Television. He will appear in. A witness reported seeing a man run from the bank into a car with Massachusetts plates. William Sequeira, 59, was charged with one count of bank robbery and faces a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000. So ultimately, although there seems to be some truth to the films depiction of Charlestown, its authenticity should be taken with a grain of salt. Peter Looney, a townie who hosts a local TV show called Charlestown Live, went to the Boston premire of The Town Tuesday night at Bostons Fenway Park, where Affleck appeared. The prosecution also said Sequeira is suspected in three more robberies in Boston, Dedham and New Bedford. 2022 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW. The Town is not based on a true story. Others in the Dunkin Donuts, including William McNelley and his wife, Linda, also defended Charlestowns image. After finding out that Claire lives in their neighborhood, Doug follows her to find out how much she has told the police and to ensure that the hot-headed Jem does not eliminate her as a witness. It is alleged that surveillance footage of the robbery and subsequent interviews positively identified Sequeira as the robber. William Sequeira, 59, was charged with one count of bank robbery and faces a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000. Bei der Nutzung unserer Websites und Apps verwenden wir, unsere Websites und Apps fr Sie bereitzustellen, Nutzer zu authentifizieren, Sicherheitsmanahmen anzuwenden und Spam und Missbrauch zu verhindern, und, Ihre Nutzung unserer Websites und Apps zu messen, personalisierte Werbung und Inhalte auf der Grundlage von Interessenprofilen anzuzeigen, die Effektivitt von personalisierten Anzeigen und Inhalten zu messen, sowie, unsere Produkte und Dienstleistungen zu entwickeln und zu verbessern.