Daily News from New York, New York • 301

Sunday, July 20. 1986 DAILY NEWS 3 uoaaiy tri police to speculate that his killer wanted him to sign something, maybe papers dealing with a crooked stock deal or blackmail which Rubinstein had been known to use as a business lever. There also was speculation that he was the target of a gang hit There were so many attractive women in Rubinstein's love life that when detectives called them in for questioning, the squad room looked almost like a runway at the Miss America Pageant Every clue fizzled, Stella Rubinstein put up a $25,000 reward for an arrest A year after the murder, a seance was held in the victim's bedroom. The medium said a "baby-faced" woman was in the room when Rubinstein was killed by three men, "Stan, Freddie and Joe." The only name linked to Rubinstein was "Stan" a business partner named Stanley Stanley. But Stanley had also left this world; he died of a heart attack weeks after Rubinstein's murder.

SERGE FROM PAGE ONE Rubinstein had dinner with an Estelle Gardner, whom he had known for two weeks. She told police she accompanied him to his home at 1 a.m. but left him at 2 a.m., contradicting Stella Rubinstein's vague story about loud voices in the bedroom at 12:30. Gets 5 rejections No sooner was Gardner out the door than Rubinstein phoned another pal, Patricia Wray, and asked her to come visit. He called her five times between 2 a.m.

and 2:30 a.m. and five times she said no, she told police. Detectives were intrigued by a tape recording they found in Rubinstein's bedroom. It played back an intimate chat between Wray and a government Police discovered Rubinstein had been bugging her apartment for months; they never figured out why. Rubinstein was found with his hands tied in front of him, leading ttt'iniimi Mil nn ii' in -mr mnim-ir uuim urn it i muni I niiiniiimi in iimi in nr RUBINSTEIN AND his mother, Stella, outside Federal Court By JOHN MELIA 5 Diana Elsroth Christos Potamitis Daily News Staff Writer It was a short cut to the American Dream It was a brazen grab for riches found in the wildest imaginings of dreamers and idlers.

It was a plot hatched by young men who came here from Greece and shunned the idea of standing midnight guard over someone else's money. And when it was over, the Sentry Armored Courier Corp. heist on ton Road in the Bronx on Dec. 12, 1982, was the largest cash robbery in United States history, netting the bandits $11.2 million and long jail terms. To this day, $9 million of the loot is missing and nobody is saying where it is.

Theories abound as to the whereabouts of the missing cash, ranging from tales of hidden Swiss bank accounts to bags of money spirited to sunny Greece, but none of the theories has been substantiated. The FBI, which has been searching for the money since it was stolen, won't say if there are any leads, and the robbers themselves, despite turning on one another, clam up when asked where the money is. Those in jail Five men currently are serving jail terms ranging from four to 18 years for their roles in the heist They By LARRY COLE Daily News Start Writer It's more than five months now since 23-year-old Diane Elsroth of Peekskill died after taking two cyanide-laced Tylenol capsules at the Yonkers home of her boyfriend's parents. Authorities are no closer to solving the mystery of who put the cyanide into the bottle of Tylenol as well as why, when, where or how it was done than they were in February when Elsroth died. Elsroth, a stenographer for a Manhattan real-estate firm, took the two deadly Tylenol tablets around 1 a.m., Saturday morning, Feb.

8, while at the 62 Ardell Road, Yonkers, home of her boy friend, Michael Notarnicola, and his parents. She had complained of a headache before going to bed, and Notarnicola broke the seal on a Tylenol bottle to give her the two capsules. Elsroth was found dead in her bed early the following afternoon. Toxieological exam A routine autopsy the next day revealed no apparent cause of death, but a toxieological examination the day after that produced findings of cyanide in the dead woman's blood and stomach. Westchester County Medical Examiner Millard Hyland ruled that Elsroth's death was due to cyanide poisoning.

The bottle of Tylenol, which had been purchased at a nearby A in Bronxville, was analyzed, and it was discovered that three of the 21 remaining capsules in the. bottle Notarnicola's mother had taken one after learning of Elsroth's death, but suffered no ill effects were laced with cyanide. This incident coming only three-and-a-half years after seven people in the Chicago area died as a result of ingesting cyanide-laced Tylenol capsules, triggered, nationwide concern about the safety of over-the-counter capsule drugs. Tylenol capsules were taken off shelves across the country, Johnson Johnson (the manufacturers of Tylenol) stopped making and selling the drug in capsule form and Westchester County Executive Andrew O'Rourke called for a nationwide ban on the over-the-counter sale of capsule drugs. A task force of 40 investigators from the FBI, Westchester County District Attorney's Office, State Police and Yonkers Police Department was immediately formed to sift through all clues and leads in an effort to solve the mystery.

They're still at it though the task force has been reduced in size to 10. "It's still a matter we are very actively pursuing," FBI spokesman Joe Valiquette said. "Obviously, we would like to solve this case sooner than later." "We're continuing to pursue all available leads," noted Bruce Bendish of the Westchester County District Attorney's Office, who added, however, "There has been no significant movement in the case." "We're sort of spinning wheels now," Yonkers Deputy Police Chief Owen McClain acknowledged, "but we're still working very hard on this. We're talking to a lot of people more than once and running down every tip we get" But it's not going to be easy to identify the person who caused the death of Diane Elsroth. Just ask Chicago-area authorities, who have been trying unsuccessfully for four years now to determine who is responsible for the seven 1982 deaths there.

ory, 45, a small-time hood and bank robber who evaded capture for nearly two years. Gerassimo (Captain Mike) Vinieris, 36, another small-time hood, from New Jersey, who didn't take part in the actual robbery but who was found with more than $700,000 of the proceeds in his possession. Arnold Roseman, Potamitis' lawyer, said of the money, "If I were a betting man, it would seem to me, from inference, that the money is in Greece." Bags with 300G George Legakis, 25, a college student, and part-time dishwasher who was in on the robbery but escaped prosecution in exchange for his testimony, said that Eddie Argitakos once showed him a garbage bag and a duffel bag stuffed with nearly $300,000. Asked if he knew where the money was now, he replied, "No." When U.S. District Court Judge Edward Weinfeld sentenced Vinieris to 15 years in jail and fined him $30,000 last year, he said he was imposing the long prison term because Vinieris "knows where the money is but isn't talking." Maybe we'll find out in the year 2000, when Vinieris is scheduled to be released from jail.

are: Christos Potamitis, 28, the "inside man" in the job. He was the only guard on duty at Sentry offices the night masked gunmen came through the roof, tied him up and escaped with a truckload of money. Eddie Argitakos, 27, the alleged mastermind of the robbery, whose plan was formed in a Queens diner. Argitakos is an accountant who worked in his father's Queens travel agency. Steve Argitakos, 60, Eddie's travel-agent father, who tried to hide nearly $400,000 of the ill-gotten gains upstate and then fled to Greece.

Nicholas (Nick the Greek) Greg-.