Richard Gaglio reflects on his miracle recovery from shooting
By Elizabeth Roberts
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Photo by Mark Tatem
Richard Gaglio is seen at his home recovering from being shot during a robbery last month.
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A man who was shot and left for dead by robbers who burst into his home believes they'll never be caught.
Richard Gaglio who's made a miraculous recovery since the hold-up believes Bermuda's Police "aren't doing their damn job".
The blunt-talking 62-year-old made the comments as he spoke publicly for the first time about the heist on September 6 after a poker game he hosted.
He was clearing up with a friend in the early hours of the morning after the other players had gone home with their winnings when the two raiders struck.
After shooting Mr. Gaglio in the chest at almost point-blank range they made off with less than $140.
"That's the only reason why they came in. They realised there was only two of us left. All I can put it down to is somebody wants quick drug money," he said.
"I don't think they intentionally wanted to hurt anyone but people on drugs do stupid things."
Mr. Gaglio declined to go into detail about what happened during the robbery, other than that it all happened in a matter of 15 to 20 seconds and the men disguised their faces.
The next thing he remembers is waking up days later in King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, where he'd been placed in an induced coma. He'd suffered a stroke due to the trauma, and efforts to bring him out of it had failed.
His brain activity was at such a low level three on a scale of 15 that doctors told his family he was virtually "brain dead". But he regained consciousness despite the dire prognosis.
"A friend of mine was with me in the hospital and he said 'if you hear me, squeeze my hand'. Then the nurse got at it they didn't want him to stimulate me. But he said 'he's squeezing my hand. He's responding!' I can hear his voice saying that as he was holding my hand," he recalled.
Mr. Gaglio, a retired mechanic and house renovator, has been described as "bullheaded" by his twin brother Raymond.
He puts his recovery down to his previously good health coupled with strength of will.
"Obviously it's my own sheer determination that pulled me out of this coma," he said. "As healthy as I am, I pulled myself through it. Not too many people take a bullet in the chest and then survive."
Soon after he regained consciousness he was flown to Baltimore for specialist treatment at Johns Hopkins hospital.
He underwent surgery to remove the bullet lodged in his chest and drain four litres of blood from his chest cavity, which had caused one of his lungs to collapse.
He was allowed home just over a week later and has since made an almost complete recovery. All he has to show for his ordeal are a couple of small scars on his chest where the bullet entered and medics inserted tubes, plus blurred vision in his left eye resulting from the stroke.
The problem with his vision is preventing him from driving, although it's expected to clear up in time. Despite that, he's already active again, helping his wife Maryfrances with the maintenance of her horse boarding stables at their homestead in Hinson Lane, Smith's.
"It hasn't changed a thing," he said. "I'm just getting back to health and life again."
Police say the investigation is ongoing, but Mr. Gaglio is sure it won't yield any results.
"They're not going to catch anyone because there's nothing. No leads to go on. There was only 15 to 20 seconds that the other boy and I were involved with them. They'll never catch them and I have no faith in this justice system anyway," he said.
"Personally I would just like to see them be caught and punished but I don't have faith in that because I know how the Bermuda system's going."
Expanding on that view, he pointed to the wider problem with crime and "the drugs situation" and other recently-reported armed robberies where the culprits remain at large. He believes the same men may be responsible for similar armed hold-ups in August. As previously reported, a couple was forced to flee inside their Paget home on August 17 after being confronted by two gun-wielding men demanding money as they sat on their front porch.
That came less than a week after three men with a gun put two seniors in fear of their lives at a house in Devonshire and made off with cash. Speaking generally, Mr. Gaglio claimed: "The Police aren't doing their damn job. The attitude is they really want to catch these people and stop them but my theory behind the Police is you can't have a local Police force because they're all related."
Arguing for more overseas law enforcement officers to be brought in, he said: "You can't pick a jury because they're all related. We're having problems in the prisons because all the wardens and everybody is related. We've got to change the system. Personally I'd fire the whole damn lot of them but that's not going to happen.
"It's a crying shame when people are law abiding people and they come in and do this kind of thing because half the world's looking the other way."
He's yet to decide whether his poker nights will continue, but says if they do he'll hire off-duty Police officers as security guards. He also stressed that he's always operated in line with the law, having taken legal advice before he started a few years ago in order to protect the high-profile players his games attract.
"We have all types doctors, lawyers, accountants. Everyone who enjoys playing. People said it's a gambling den and a high stakes gambling place but it's all bulls**t. It's a group of people that enjoy this game. There's nothing else left in Bermuda so I have a private game."
Mr. Gaglio said that people put a minimum sum in the pot, and after it's split up and paid out "they leave and take that little bit of money with them and go. It's not like high stakes poker on TV where it's millions of dollars. And with today's (economic) crisis even that's limited. There's not a lot of money left in Bermuda."
Asked for an update, Police spokesperson Dwayne Caines said: "The investigation is ongoing and Police are still appealing for anyone with any information that may be helpful to please contact the Serious Crime Unit or Crime Stoppers."
On the topic of whether the case may be linked to other armed robberies he replied: "We at this point cannot link any other cases to the Gaglio investigation." The Serious Crime Unit can be reached on 299-8106 and Crime Stoppers on 1-800-8477.
