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In the nineteen fifties Gerled a cache of Nazi ceremonial objects across the Mexican border The contraband included presentation daggers and knights-cross reatest World War II heroes, as well as a nuned by Adolf Hitler and hishis hoard to collectors of Nazi artifacts at premium prices, Rummel took the profits and launched an auto junkyard that he built into a scraphim nearly 250 million dollars over forty years

After a business trip to Peru in 1974, he developed an interest in ancient South A from dealers, honest or criminal Source did not le ahout Central and South Aht to whether his acquired pieces were legally excavated but sold out the back door, or stolen from a museum They were for his satisfaction and enjoyment, and his alone

He walked past the Italian e ilded frarapevine Twisting the head of a cherub in one corner, Ru a concealed doorway Behind the ht spacious roo at least thirty glass cases packed with more than two thousand ancient pre-Colu down the aisle of a church toward the altar, hethe beauty and craftsmanship of his private hoard It was a ritual he perfor to bed, al children

Rulass case that was the centerpiece of the gallery It held the crowning treasure of his collection Gleahts, the Golden Body Suit of Tiapollo lay in splendor, ar with enificent brilliance of the artistry never failed to move Rummel

Knowing full well it had been stolen froical museum in Seville, Spain, seventy-six years previously, Rummel did not hesitate to pay one million two hundred thousand dollars in cash when he was approached by a group of men who claimed to be connected to the Mafia but were in reality round syndicate that specialized in the theft of precious art objects Where they had coolden suit, Rummel had no idea He could only assuht it froinal thieves

Having had his nightly gratification, Ruhts, returned upstairs to the foyer, and closed the ned around a two thousand-year-old Rous, he half-filled a small snifter from a bo

ttle of brandy and retired to his bedroo asleep

In another apartment directly level and across the street froent David Gaskill sat and peered through a pair of high-powered binoculars mounted on a tripod as the artifacts collector prepared for bed Another agent ht have been bored after nearly a week of stakeout, but not Gaskill An eighteen-year veteran of the Customs Service, Gaskill looked ent, a look he cultivated for his work His gray hair was curly and combed back An African American, his skin was more doeskin brown than dark coffee, and his eyes were a strangehead seerow out of his shoulders on a stunted, tree-trunk neck A huge mountain of a man, he was once an all-star linebacker for the University of Southern California He had worked hard to lose his South Carolina drawl and spoke with practiced diction, occasionally being mistaken for a former British citizen from the Bahamas

Gaskill had been fascinated by pre-Columbian art ever since a field trip to the Yucatan Peninsula during school When stationed in Washington, DC, he had handled dozens of investigations involving looted artifacts from the Anasazi and Hohoka on a case involving the s of carved Mayan stone panels when he received a tip that was passed along to hi wo from a drawer in Rummel's penthouse of what she believed to be a ht have been murdered, she stole a photo and turned it over to the police A detective who had worked on art fraud cases recognized the golden object as an antiquity and called Gaskill

Ruh on the Customs Service's list of people who collected ancient art without concern about where it cas, nor did Gaskill have a clue where Ruent, who possessed the expertise of an antiquities scholar, i lady as the long-lost Golden Body Suit of Tiapollo

He set up an immediate round-the-clock surveillance of Rummel's penthouse and had the olduntil he returned But six days of tight scrutiny had turned up no indication of where Rummel's collection was hidden The suspect never varied his routine After leaving for his office at the lower end of Michigan Avenue, where he'd spend four hours, sifting through his investments, it was lunch at a rundown cafe where he always ordered bean soup and a salad The rest of the afternoon was spent prowling antique stores and art galleries Then dinner at a quiet German restaurant, after which he would take in a movie or a play He usually arrived home at eleven-thirty The routine never varied

"Doesn't he ever get tired of drinking the saent Winfried Pottle

"Speaking forar a little so black and flimsy"

Gaskill pulled back from the binoculars and made a dour face at his second-in-command of the surveillance team Unlike Gaskill in his Levi's and USC football jacket, Pottle was a slim, handsome man with sharp features and soft red hair, who dressed in three-piece suits co a few of the wo"

Pottle nodded at Ru a regimented existence"