In the history of the numbers racket, no one has made a better score. On July 3, 1962, two carpenters repairing a dingy row of garages in Jersey City came across an abandoned 1947 Plymouth. Inside, they saw some envelopes address to one Joseph Vincent Moriarty — a.k.a. Newsboy Moriarty, street lottery king of Hudson County — and this was more than enough to convince them that the shabby old sedan might be worth combing through.

Using crowbars, the workmen pried the trunk. A cloud of dust parted to reveal two leather bags and a tool box, and in these containers was a mountain of cash. The bills were smelly, moldy, even rotting around the edges, but they were beautiful. The total: $2,438,119.