Black Dogs: The Possibly True Story of Classic Rock's Greatest Robbery

In July 1973, Led Zeppelin played three sold-out shows at New Yorks Madison Square Garden. Before the final performance, $203,000 of the bands money went missing from a safe deposit box at the Drake Hotel in what was called the single highest deposit box theft in the citys history. The money was never recovered. Black Dogs might be the story behind the greatest rock n roll heist of all time.

the last thing nineteen-year-old Patrick Sullivan needed was a new scam. Just months earlier, he had left a trail of broken friendships and new enemies in Baltimore for a fresh start in New York City after a botched robbery attempt landed one of his best friends in jail. But when he spies a briefcase full of cash backstage at a Led Zeppelin concert, Patrick makes plans for one last crazy mission–one that he hopes will redeem him in the eyes of everyone he left behind.

To pull it off, Patrick will have to return to his hometown to round up his crew: Alex, the one who did time for Patricks last crime; Frenchy, the neurotic musician who still lives with Mom; and dim-witted but endearing Keith, the greasy-haired loner who excels at installing car stereos and then uninstalling them, all in the same day.

When the unlikely teams plan goes horribly wrong, the boys find themselves mixed up with Backwoods Billy, the psychotic leader of the Holy Ghosts Christian motorcycle gang. They need some help, and they find it in some unlikely places: by crossing paths and making deals with a pill-popping DA, a safe-cracking funk band called the New York Giants, and the Maryland chapter of the Misty Mountain Hoppers Led Zeppelin Fan Club. Sporting a rare 1958 Les Paul guitar and a complicated plan that could either go wonderfully right or horribly wrong, the guys, fueled by beer and egos, make a desperate attempt at robbing the worlds coolest rock band–to hilarious result.

Black Dogs brings to life one of the infamously unsolved rock n roll mysteries and introduces us to a lovable bunch of knuckleheads who may have just pulled off the greatest heist in rock n roll history.

"Rock 'n' roll fans will best appreciate Buhrmester's debut, an average crime novel based on a real-life robbery — the theft in 1973 of $203,000 from a safe-deposit box in New York City's Drake Hotel containing Led Zeppelin's earnings from a recent concert series. The subtitle is a bit of a tease, as it becomes clear how unlikely a bunch of losers could plan to rip off a popular band and manage to do so by dumb luck. Patrick Sullivan, a 19-year-old scam artist who specializes in break-ins, returns home to Baltimore to round up a crew hoping to make a big score by stealing Led Zeppelin's proceeds. The bulk of the book recounts their misadventures, complete with run-ins with the Holy Ghosts, a Christian motorcycle gang. The breezy writing will carry some along, but many will wonder if the plot might've been better served if Buhrmester, the current editor of Inked, hadn't relied on a factual foundation." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

This rocking heist tale is a hysterical, fictionalized look at four Maryland hoodlums who pull off one of the greatest rock n' roll swindles in history--robbing the biggest group of the 1970s.

Former editor at Playboy, current editor of Inked, JASON BUHRMESTER has been published in Maxim, Spin, Wired, the Village Voice, and other publications. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, where he is working on his second novel and listening to Black Sabbath.