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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
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