FEMALE FIEND

12/30/1610 - While some nay-saying historians now claim that she was railroaded into infamy because of wealth, political status, religion, or status as a strong woman in a time that didn't believe in that trait, most experts agree that with her arrest at Cachtice Castle in Hungary by Gyorgy Thurzo (at the behest of King Matthias II), caught covered in blood torturing her latest victim, with corpses on the grounds of her home, on this day the murderous career of Countess Elizabeth Bathory de Ecsed comes to an end (the Guinness World Records will pin her with the infamous title of the most prolific female murderer in history).

1565 Portrait

Born at a family estate in Nyirbator, Hungary on 8/7/1560, and raised at Ecsed Castle, Elizabeth has the best of everything growing up, including having on uncle on her father's side of the family that is the Voivode of Transylvania (the highest ranking official of the region), and on her mother's side, another uncle who has also been the area's voivode, plus another uncle, Stephan Bathory, who is the King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuana, and Prince of Transylvania.  Surrounded by power and wealth, she is raised as a Protestant Calvinist, and learns to read and write in Latin, German, Hungarian, and Greek ... and it is said that she also receives an education in cruelty and sadism from her family (which dovetails nicely with rumors of her having epileptic seizures and sudden fits of mad rage), watching officers execute prisoners, seeing family beat servants, and having an aunt that secretly initiates her into Satanism and Witchcraft.  At the tender age of only 10, she becomes engaged to the son of a baron, Ferenc Nadasdy (between betrothal and nuptials, Elizabeth is said to have been impregnated by a local servant boy, to which Nadasdy responds by having the lad castrated, and then torn to pieces by starving dogs).  When the pair marry in May of 1575 before 4,500 guests at the palace of Vranov nad Topfou, Elizabeth is 15 and Nadasdy is 19 (for a wedding gift, Elizabeth is given Cachtice Castle, a Cachtice country home, and 17 local villages.

Count Ferenc Nadasdy

Main Tower Of Cachtice Castle

Bathory - Circa 1580

A strange marriage at best, with war against the Ottoman Empire raging at the time, Nadasdy spends most of his time away from home, building up a successful military career that will eventually have him known to history as The Black Knight of Hungary, while his wife is left behind to run the family's many estates and business affairs ... during visits home, the relationship also produces two daughters, Anna and Katalin, and a son, Paul.  And the two are said to exchange correspondence that feeds Elizabeth's budding blood lust, stories of Nadasdy's impalements of Turkish prisoners and of his wife's experiments with human blood as a skin care product.  To war once too often, in 1601, Nadasdy contracts an unknown disease that causes him debilitating pain in his legs, paralysis in 1603, and death in 1604 ... ending a mad marriage of 29 years, the Black Knight is 48 when he leaves.

A Bad Way To Go!

With rumors growing of her demonic misdeeds, seemingly growing worse as she ages, Elizabeth, and a local witch, Dorotta Szentes, harvest local servant girls for their blood to the point that a new pool of victims is required ... solution, open a boarding school on proper court behavior in the castle for the daughters of lessor nobles.  But this is a step too far, and when these ladies begin vanishing, Lutheran minister Istvan Magyari makes complaints that eventually reach King Matthias II, who assigns his second in command, Gyorgy Thurzo, the Palatine of Hungary, to investigate the matter (the same man that Nadasdy has asked to watch over his wife prior to his death).  Gathering evidence, Thurzo finally leads a surprise December raid on Elisabeth's castle in 1610 ... where he and his band of knights are horrified to discover Elizabeth and her minions (Szentes, two female servants, Ilona Jo and Katarina Benicka, and a male servant, Janos Ujvary ... later, the female accomplices have their fingers torn off by hot iron tongs, before being burnt to death, while Ujvary, thought to be a lessor participant, is merely decapitated) in the process of torturing a young girl (beating her with a club and slashing her with scissors), while nearby, there is another young girl's corpse and yet another young girl in the process of dying.  Searching the castle and its grounds, more young women will be discovered locked away for future evil play, and bodies are found showing signs of murderous torture.

Matthias

Thurzo 

Placed under house arrest, two hushed up trials quickly take place in which the black deeds within the castle are documented ... skeletons and cadavers found on castle's grounds are examined and over 300 witnesses testify (all but one of Elizabeth's servants testify against her).  The story that emerges is a tale of decades of murder and torture that includes burning objects being placed in orifices where they don't belong, a servant having her mouth torn apart by hand, cold water being poured on girls placed outside to freeze to death, poison experiments, mouths being sewn shut, victims made to eat their own flesh (cut out of their buttocks) or drink their own urine, cannibalism, extended beatings of over 500 blows, lips and noses being burnt off, naked girls covered in honey, pegged down, and then left for ants and other insects to delight on, needles being driven under fingertips and toenails, girls being buried alive, and multiple scissor and razor slashings leading to murder (only later will rumors begin of her blood bathing beneath freshly killed virgins, a tale that is said to start when she draws blood slapping a servant and notices her skin seems younger).  The number of victims is unknown, but authorities believe her murders are in excess of 650, but they settle for an official count of 80.  Her own death and torture seemingly in order for her many crimes (an outcome King Matthias II is in favor of), to avoid scandal to the wealthy and powerful Bathory family, Thurzo instead comes up with a compromise that Elizabeth's family agrees to ... it will be a crime for her name to be mentioned in public, the money the King owes the family for funding his wars against the Turks will be waived, and Elizabeth will spend the rest of her days under house arrest, walled into a room with no outside windows, and only thin slots for ventilation and food.

Elizabeth Bathory Coat Of Arms 

Blood Bath

Bathory Choosing Her Victims

Elizabeth takes her medicine for four years, but on the evening of 8/21/1614, she complains to her guard that her hands are feeling cold.  Told it is probably nothing and she should just go to bed, she lies down, but never gets back up, her lifeless body discovered the next morning.  Buried at first in the Cachtice churchyard, when locals complain about having a demoness buried among family and friends, she is moved to crypt on the grounds of the home she grew up in at Ecsed Castle ... from which it fittingly mysteriously vanishes, the location of her body now unknown to this day.

Castle & Lake

And like the vampire legends she will become a part of, dead but undead, the Blood Countess lives on ... she appears as both heroine and villainess in history books, novels (pieces of her tale are woven into Bram Stoker's "Dracula"), poetry, comic books and Japanese anime, stage plays, television shows, films, radio dramatizations, video games, toys (6 Faces of Madness, a group of action figures that also includes Jack the Ripper and Rasputin), and music (along with songs and music, eight international bands, stretching from Sweden to Mexico and America, will name themselves after Elizabeth Bathory) ... along with tours of her haunts (a 45 minute hike takes on to the ruins of Chchtice Castle).  Elizabeth Bathory takes no more victims after today ... 12/30/1610. 

The Countess With Julie Delphy
As Bathory

Beneath Castle Cactice

Aerial View Of The Castle - Tour at Your Own Risk!

VALLEY FORGE

12/19/1777 - As 1776 ends, Thomas Paine sums up the situation for the American revolutionaries trying to break loose from Great Britain's rule (in the American Crisis) ... "These are the times that try men's souls: The summer soldier and sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of our country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.  Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us; that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."  Concluding a year that has seen American forces defeated in battle time after time, General George Washington and his men are living Paine's words when they arrive at an easily defendable Pennsylvania location of forested plateaus (along the slopes of Mount Joy and Mount Misery) near the Schuylkill River, about 20 miles northwest of Philadelphia (where the British have gone to ground for the winter) that will become their winter camp for the next six months (in defiance of the Continental Congress demanding Washington attack the British at once) ... a place where torment and tragedy will be miraculously transformed into triumph, a location called Valley Forge (so named for an iron forge on Valley Creek).

Paine

1778 Encampment Map

An army almost ready to come apart, 12,000 men begin setting up camp ... a rag wearing, weaponry lacking, slowly starving force in which only one in four men have shoes, that leaves behind bloody footprints on the march.  Freezing winds whipping about the men, the first windowless wooden hut appears three days after the men's arrival ... by February, there will 2,000 huts around the camp (in the spring, windows will be cut into each for ventilation, and gaps between logs will be properly chinked with mud).

Replica Hut At Valley National Historical Park

Inside

Misery

As poor as the shelter situation is at first, the men's need for sustained sustenance is even worse.  Not enough meat and bread to go around, soldiers make due by eating "firecakes" (a tasteless mixture of grilled flour and water) and supping on "pepper pot soup" (a black pepper flavored tripe broth).  And it is no better for the Continental Army's stock animals ... by the end of the winter of 1777-1778, over 700 horses will perish from the cold and lack of food.  Even the water situation is pour as the nearby creeks are frozen over and a lack of ground snow often prevents the men from boiling water for drinking or bathing.

Washington & Lafayette Make The Rounds

Washington And The Continental Army - 12/19/1777

Inadequate shelter, lack of clothing, not enough food, and the cold and wet of course conspire into creating a huge petri dish of disease and pestilence, which in turn causes men to start dropping from typhoid, typhus, smallpox, dysentery, pneumonia, malnutrition, and exposure (along with numerous desertions of soldiers seeking more hospitable climes) ... by the end of winter, over 2,500 men will die in the cause of freedom without firing a shot in battle.

Washington Praying For Guidance

As bleak as the Continental Army's fortunes appear to be, the force is blessed by being commanded by Washington (battling Congress along with the British, Washington offers to resign and return to Mount Vernon if the government can find a better leader ... but they never do!), a special individual who will not accept defeat or the dissolution of the cause of freedom and changes soon begin around camp, helped immensely by a visit from five members of the Continental Congress, who get the flow of supplies to the army started again (additionally, understanding the supply situation is a full-time priority, Washington delegates the task to his number one lieutenant, the incomparable Nathanael Greene. as Quartermaster General).  At the same time, supporting their men and giving a great boost to morale, wives, mothers, sisters, and children of the soldiers begin arriving in Valley Forge (enduring the same conditions, or worse, as the soldiers), including Martha Washington (it will be estimated that there is one woman in camp for every forty-four soldiers, about 500 in all), and immediately bring help to the camp hospital, while gathering food, washing clothes, and starting a sewing circle that mends socks, trousers, and shirts.

Martha Washington

During Martha's Visit

Washington And His Men

To prevent the men's minds for locking on their tribulations, and to correct an obvious deficiency in his men's battlefield talents so recently on display against the British, Washington institutes relentless drilling of his soldiers by a newcomer to the army ... Baron Friedrich von Steuben.

Von Steuben

Von Steuben Drilling The Continental Army

Born the son of a Royal Prussian Engineer in 1730, von Steuben, as a young child is indoctrinated into military life, accompanying his father to various posts, and joining the Royal Prussian Army himself at the age of 17.  As a member of that army, von Steuben serves as a second lieutenant in the Seven Years' War in 1756. is wounded at the Battle of Prague, is wounded a second time at the Battle of Kunersdorf (a bloody battle of over 100,000 men in which more than 30,000 will become casualties), appointed the headquarters deputy quartermaster, serves as aide-de-camp to King Frederick the Great, and in 1762, is one of 13 young officers selected to participate in special military instructions from the king himself (considered a military genius of the time).  A baron by 1771 and out of work with the downsizing of the Prussian army, von Steuben goes looking for other employment, but is thwarted in Europe by never proven rumors of homosexuality, and the American congress refusing to offer more officer jobs to foreigners.  Nonetheless, holding an introductory letter to George Washington from Benjamin Franklin (the two men meet when Franklin is an American minister operating out of Paris), von Steuben leaves for the American colonies, aboard the frigate, Flamand, on September 26, 1777 (along with his dog, an Italian greyhound named Azor, who accompanies his master everywhere!).

von Steuben

Volunteering as a private, the Prussian arrives at Valley Forge in early 1778, and after meeting with Washington, soon finds himself appointed temporary Inspector General of the army (in May, on Washington's recommendation, the position is made permanent), and as such, he establishes standards of sanitation, gives the camp a different layout that is healthier, groups the men by units, and brings book-keeping to the supply situation.  While those changes are taking place, von Steuben also goes about selecting 120 soldiers to turn into an honor guard for Washington, men who can then train the rest of the army in unit movements, firing accuracy, and use of the bayonet ... an extremely difficult task, made even harder by the fact that von Steuben knows very little English (each night, he will work with his secretary, Peter Stephen Du Ponceau, and a Washington secretary in translating his drills from Prussian to French, and then from French to English, preparing for the next day's work). Dressed in full uniform, each day, von Steuben works the men to exhaustion ... and gradually, falling in love with the man who is shaping them (they also enjoy learning the cuss words sent their way in seven different languages), they become soldiers worthy of any army in the world (working with Colonel Alexander Hamilton and General Nathanael Greene, von Steuben's training agenda will be written down and called "Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the troops of the United States," better known as the "Blue Book," which will be used by the army until 1814, and will still affect drilling in 1846, as the Mexican-American War begins).

Du Ponceau

A portent that the tide might turn in the war if the men can just survive the winter, in February news is received at the camp that a decisive victory has been won over the British, German, and Tory forces of Brigadier General "Gentleman" John Burgoyne at the Battles of Saratoga, and that France will begin fighting on the side of the Americans ... news that is celebrated with marching, fired salutes, proclamations of love for France, and one gill of rum being issued to each celebrating soldier.  And there is even more celebrating when the army learns the British have left Philadelphia, and that the Continental Army will leave Valley Forge and to once more pursue battle with its English foes, which they do on June 19, 1778. Tempered into steel by the shared hardships they have endured at Valley Forge, the change in the army is first evident in the force fighting the British to a draw at the Battle of Monmouth Court House (where the legend of female gunner, Molly Pitcher, begins) and in the night bayonet charge that wins the day at the Battle of Stony Point ... and then is placed on display for all the world to wonder at, when the army's Valley Forge core, marches from New York to Virginia, and wins the freedom to create a new country by besting the British (with major help from France) at Yorktown, the climatic 1781 battle of the American Revolution.

Washington Rallying The Troops At Monmouth

Yorktown Surrender

Valley Forge ... a name now forever associated with heroic sacrifice and epic endurance ... the Continental Army's horrific six month winter experience begins on this day ... 12/19/1777!

Inspection Rounds - Washington & Lafayette - Valley Forge

Continental Army!

National Park - Present Day

THE LUFTHANSA HEIST

12/11/1978 - In the wee hours of a cold December evening, a crew of New York thugs hits the Lufthansa cargo terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport ... when they leave undetected roughly an hour later, the thieves get away with $5 million in cash and $875,000 in jewelry (worth about $22.1 million today), at the time, the biggest robbery to ever take place on American soil.  No Happy Endings for the culprits though, almost everyone associated with the crime will soon be in jail ... or silenced for good.

Big News

Masterminding the robbery is a murderous 47-year-old hoodlum with ties to the Lucchese Mafia Crime Family named James Burke (he is also known to the criminal underworld and authorities as Jimmy the Gent, or simply, The Irishman).  Born in New York City to Jane Conway of Dublin, Ireland in July of 1931 (his father is never identified), Burke's troubles begin early ... at only two his mother places him in a foster home (he will never see his mother again) and he spends most of his youth in a Roman Catholic orphanage managed by nuns or shuttling between homes where he often is abused by his foster caretakers.  In 1944, he survives the car accident that kills his foster father when the man turns away from watching the road to strike Burke, sitting in the backseat ... and he survives the beatings his foster mother gives out, blaming the youngster for the death of her husband.  Violence learned, violence meted out ... when told his fiancee Mickey is being bothered by an ex boyfriend, there is no surprise at all when on the couple's wedding day, the body of the ex is found in a car, cut into more than a dozen pieces (during his interludes from crime, Burke will father two daughters and two sons).

Burke

Becoming a career criminal, Burke becomes adept at distributing untaxed cigarettes and liquor, loan sharking, bookmaking, running illegal poker games, selling drugs, laundering money, and hijacking delivery trucks in the South Ozone Park area of Queens and East New York region of Brooklyn ... and when he is crossed, murder (though never convicted of a killing, associates and authorities peg him for being responsible, either on his orders or personal participation, in between 9 and 60 violent endings).  Operating out of a tavern called Robert's Lounge that becomes a gathering place for the gang of toughs Burke is soon running (he acquires the name Jimmy the Gent for handing his victims $50 to stay silent about who robbed them, while threatening their deaths should they talk after finding out where they live by taking their wallets), and a dress factory named Moo Moo Vedda's, Burke pays tribute money to, and receives protection from Mafia caporegime and friend, Paul Frank "Paulie" Vario, a hulking six-foot-three, 250 pound sociopath with a criminal resume that includes truancy (in 1925 at the age of 11), loan-sharking, tax evasion, burglary, bookmaking, bribery, contempt of court, assault, murder, and even engaging in fisticuffs with a maitre d' that had the temerity to spill wine on the gangster's wife.  Both men always looking for the next caper to increase the loot in their coffers, their huge score arrives when a worker at the airport with a gambling debt of $20,000, Louis Werner, tells the man he owes the money to, bookmaker Martin Krugman (who also owns a wig shop and men's hair salon, both called "For Men Only"), that if his debts are ignored, Werner can show how millions of dollars in untraceable cash can be easily garnered (co-worker Peter Gruenwald is soon also involved ... information which is passed on to Burke associate, Henry Hill, and then makes it's way from Hill to Burke himself.  Inside info obtained, plans are put together at Robert's Lounge that include a Ford Econoline van being used to haul away the cash, details on where to park for the raid, a crash car to run interference should the robbery be interrupted and the men chased, and a goon squad of Burke's gun carrying operatives that include Tommy DeSimone, Joe Civitello Sr., Louis Cafora, Angelo Sepe, Tony Rodriguez, Joseph M. Costa, Frank James Burke (Burke's son), and Paolo LiCastri (a member of the Gambino Family, along to protect the family's interests, a cut of the loot, for giving their okay for the crime).  Burke's black associate Parnell "Sticks" Edwards, will serve as "gofer," chauffeur, and get rid of the van upon completion of the operation.  Burke will not be there, but will receive a full cut of the looting for masterminding the caper, and along with each robber, Hill, Werner, Gruenwald and Krugman are to receive cuts, as are Vario and Vincent Asaro, a Bonanno Family member in for a portion since the airport is part of his family's territory.

Vario

Burke Outside His Tavern

At 3:12 in the morning, cargo agent Kerry Whalen spots a black van at the Lufthansa cargo area, goes to investigate, and for his troubles is thrown in the back of the van by armed men where he and his family are threatened with death if he doesn't cooperate with the robbers (he will later identify Sepe as one of his assailants).  Senior agent Rolf Rebmann hears the noise of Whalen being taken, investigates, and soon he is taken too.  Access to the building gained using a key Werner has provided, the six masked bandits that enter the facility, check corridors for other employees, and then break into the employee lunch room where they take other workers hostage ... each man is known by name and their families are threatened if cooperation isn't forthcoming.  And cooperation they get ... senior cargo agent John Murray calls guard Rudi Eirich to the breakroom (saying there is a problem with a shipment just arrived from Franfurt, Germany), the only man on duty that night with the combination to the facility's double-door vault.  While the hostages are watched, three gunmen escort Eirich down to flights of stairs to the vault, and once the safety system is bypassed (if both doors are opened at the same time in entering or leaving, an alarm will go off at the Port Authority Police office at the airport), the men enter a 10-by-20 foot room and begin plundering the vault, using manifests and invoices to determine which sealed parcels are of interest (Eirich is forced to lie on the floor during this process).  In all, the robbers will remove around 40 parcels before safely exiting the area.  Back upstairs, the parcels are moved to the van, Eirich and the other employees are tied up, and everyone is threatened with death if they advise authorities of the robbery before 4:30 (more insider work in action, the Port Authority has the capability of shutting down the entire airport in 90 seconds).  Out of the building at 4:16, the van and crash car leave the airport at 4:21 (the robbery as lasted 64 minutes), then proceed to a garage in Canarsie, Brooklyn where the loot is transferred to another car, which is driven to a safe house by Burke and his son (hoping for a score of $2 million, Burke discovers triple the loot), and the robbers drive off into the morning in their own vehicles (except for LiCastri, who insists on taking the subway home) having completed the largest theft in American history.

Scene Of The Crime

Investigation

And then things begin to go wrong.

Headlines

Tasked with disposing of the van at a car compactor in New Jersey, Edwards instead celebrates his coming wealth, getting stoned on marijuana, driving in the van to his girlfriend's home, parking the vehicle in a no-parking area, getting drunk, snorting cocaine, and spending the night with his lady friend.  The next morning, while Edwards is still asleep, the police discover the van, impound it, realize it was used in the theft, and then soon discover a fingerprints belonging to Edwards, along with Puma tennis shoes inside the vehicle which can be linked to footprints in the mud outside the Lufthansa cargo area.  First suspect identified, Edwards is a known associate of Burke and the authorities are on the scent (Robert's Tavern has its payphones bugged, the vehicles of Burke's crew are also bugged, and followed by helicopters, and payphones near the tavern are bugged) ... causing a reaction from Burke for his friend's stupidity and potential to inform, and eliminating someone who he might have to share the booty with, Edwards is executed by DeSimone and Sepe on 12/18/1978.  And the death toll related to the crime is just beginning ... .tired of Krugman demanding his share of the proceeds, Burke and Sepe murder, dismember, and then vanish the body of the bookmaker (the corpse is never found), Richard Eaton and Tom Monteleone are murdered and hung in meat freezer truck for skimming robbery loot money to themselves that they were hired to laundry, Burke's former cellmate, Louis Cafora, tasked with laundering loot, is killed, along with his wife Joanna, for spending loot on buying her a custom pink Cadillac Fleetwood (neither of their bodies is ever found), Joe "Buddha" Mann, a Air France cargo supervisor that hangs out at Robert's Lounge after-hours and has provided Burke with inside information about the airport is found in a car, shot to death in the back of the head, alongside another Air France supervisor, killed in the same manner and for the same reasons, Robert McMahon (both men turn down a chance to enter the Federal witness protection program), and Paolo LiCastri is shot to death and then left on a burning trash heap, Tony Rodriguez is found dead from natural causes at the age of only 30 in 1987, and Joseph Costa is never seen again.

The Van

Edwards

Krugman

No need to eliminate DeSimone, he is killed by Gambino Family hitmen for murdering William "Billy Batts" DeVino and Ronald "Foxy" Jerothe, both made en in the Mafia, without first getting the permission of the Gambinos.  Theresa Ferrara is dismembered and found floating in the Barnegat Inlet, near Tom's River for being the mistress of DeSimone, spending too much time with McMahon and Mann, and knowing too much about the job.  For foolishly robbing a Lucchese drug trafficker, Sepe and his girlfriend, are both assassinated by a mob hit squad.  And Burke's son, Frank James, is killed by his own drug dealer in a botched heroin deal.

DeSimone

Ferrara

Sepe

Frank James Burke

And the major players don't escape either.  Worried that Henry Hill might squeal when he is busted on Federal drug charges, Burke has plans to take Hill and his wife out before the case reaches court, which causes Hill to testify against both Burke and Vario, before vanishing into the government's witness protection program, and though neither crook is charged for the heist, Hill's testimony puts them both away for the rest of their lives.  Burke will be convicted of involvement in the 1978-1979 point shaving scandal with the Boston College basketball team and the murder of drug dealer, Richard Eaton, dying at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York of stomach cancer at the age of 64, while Vario is convicted of fraud against the government and racketeering charges and dies of heart failure while incarcerated at the Fort Worth Federal Prison in Fort Worth, Texas in 1988 at the age of 73.

Burke In Custody

Vario

Burke Towards The End

Hill, vanished into witness protection (Peter Gruenwald, Bill Fischetti, and Frank Menna all enter the Witness Protection program too) lives long enough to not only tell his story to Federal prosecutors, but also author Nicholas Pileggi, who will write the book Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family, a bestseller, which in turn will be filmed by Martin Scorsese as the Academy Award winning move, Goodfellas ... starring Ray Liotta as Hill.  He dies in a Los Angeles, California hospital of heart failure at the age of 69 in June of 2012.  Only Louis Werner will ever be convicted for playing a part in the Lufthansa robbery ... partially convicted by the testimony of his girlfriend, Janet Barbieri,whom he marries following his release from prison.

Henry Hill And Family

Hill Before Witness Protection

Movie Poster

Booty never found, the government takes one more at crack trying to convict someone of the caper in 2014, when it puts Bonanno Family member Vincent "Vinny" Asaro on trial for the heist, along with other racketeering charges, including the murder of Burke associate, Paul Katz (who the two men think is an informer).  But with Henry Hill and investigators all saying Asaro had no part in the robbery, and the testimony of Asaro's cousin, mobster Gaspar Valenti (Asaro's cousin) being found unreliable, a jury finds Asaro not guilty of the robbery in November of 2015.  Off on major charges, New York prosecutors go after Asaro by a different route, and as a result of road rage upon being cutoff in Howard's Beach, Queens (he has a mob friend fire bomb the man's car ... John J. Gotti, the grandson of former Gambino Family boss, John Gotti), 82-year-old Asaro is brought to court and pleads guilty to ordering car arson.  Behind bars, sentenced to eight years, he is scheduled to be released from incarceration in 2024 ... game over!

Asaro - 1966

Asaro