After 35 Years, Collar Made In Caper
One of the alleged participants in the infamous 1978 “Lufthansa Heist” at John F. Kennedy International Airport was among five reputed mobsters arrested by federal law enforcement agents last Thursday, Jan. 23, for a host of violent crimes, it was announced.
Vincent Asaro, 78, of Howard Beach-identified by federal agents as a captain in the Bonnano crime family-was charged for his alleged connection to Dec. 11, 1978 armed robbery of the JFK Lufthansa cargo facility, in which $5 million in cash and $1 million jewelry was stolen.
Additionally, he was booked for allegedly participating in the 1969 murder of Paul Katz, whom he and other mobsters believed was a government informant. During a search last June of an Ozone Park home owned by relatives of the late Jimmy “The Gent” Burke, a member of the Lucchese crime family, investigators found remains that were identified as belonging to Katz.
Asaro and his son-Jerome Asaro, 55, of Bethpage, L.I.-were also indicted for joining other reputed Bonnano members in a host of crimes dating back over 40 years, including racketeering, extortion, bookmaking, murders and armed robberies.
The indictment came about through an extensive investigation by the FBI that included various information-gathering techniques and testimony from cooperating witnesses and confidential sources.
“Far from a code of honor, theirs was a code of violence and brute force,” said U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Loretta E. Lynch in announcing the charges last Thursday. “Those suspected of cooperating with law enforcement paid with their lives. … Neither age nor time dimmed [Vincent] Asaro’s ruthless ways, as he continued to order violence to carry out mob business in recent months.”
“These ‘goodfellas’ thought they had a license to steal, a license to kill and a license to do whatever they wanted,” added FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge George Venizelos. “However, today’s arrests of the five members of the Bonnano crime family brings an end to their violent and ruthless ways.”
According to federal authorities, Vincent Asaro allegedly worked with Burke to plot and execute the Lufthansa Heist, which occurred during the early morning hours of Dec. 11, 1978. The conspiracy was developed based on inside information about the cargo terminal’s valuables and day-to-day operations gathered by fellow mobsters and colleagues.
Federal agents said Vincent Asaro and Burke each expected to receive $750,000 in cash and large quantities of gold jewelry from the robbery’s proceeds.
On the morning of the heist, a group of armed mob members made their way into the Lufthansa cargo terminal, restrained several security guards and forced one of the workers to unlock the vault.
In a little over an hour, it was reported, the robbers hauled away in a van a total of $6 million in cash- the untraceable proceeds from American currency exchanges in then-West Germany-and jewelry stored within the vault. The amount reportedly surprised even the robbery’s main conspirator, Burke; sources indicated it was three times what he anticipated would be stolen.
To date, none of the loot-which would be worth $17.5 million today-has been recovered.
At the time, the Lufthansa Heist was the largest such robbery in U.S. history and remains the most lucrative theft ever to take place in New York City. It prompted a massive investigation by federal, state and city law enforcement agents that would go on for the next 35 years.
The public attention the heist garnered led to deadly consequences for many of those involved in the caper. In the weeks and months that followed, Burke ordered the murders of many of the heist’s participants, as well as those who had knowledge of the robbery. Reportedly, he feared their actions might lead detectives to implicate him with the crime.
The Lufthansa Heist and its bloody aftermath were famously portrayed in the 1990 Martin Scorsese film Goodfellas, which was based on the story of mobster Henry Hill, an associate of Burke.
Burke was eventually convicted in an unrelated criminal case and died in prison in 1996.
Aside from the heist, in 1969, Vincent Asaro and Burke allegedly teamed up with others to kill Paul Katz, whom they suspected of being a cooperating witness in a government investigation. Law enforcement agents said Katz was fatally strangled with a dog chain.
Katz’s body was buried in a vacant home until the mid-1980s, when Asaro and his son, Jerome, removed it to an undisclosed location. Reportedly, the body was moved after mob associates were tipped off to a state investigation of Katz’s disappearance.
Last June, federal agents searched the home, which remained in Burke’s family. During their search of the basement, authorities recovered remains that were later tested and found to match Katz’s DNA.
Prosecutors said Vincent and Jerome Asaro also solicited a cousin’s murder between 1983 and 1985 whom they also suspected of testifying against another relative in a federal criminal case.
The father-and-son team, law enforcement sources stated, allegedly worked with its associates to carry out a number of armed robberies in the last three decades, including the theft of $1 million in gold salts. The criminal complaint also charges the Asaros with allegedly burning down a building on Rockaway Boulevard in Ozone Park between January 1980 and January 1981.
All five defendants were arraigned last Thursday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn before Magistrate Judge Marilyn D. Go. Vincent Asaro faces a life sentence if convicted of the charges; the other four suspects could face a maximum sentence of 20 years behind bars if found guilty.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nicole M. Argentieri and Alicyn Cooley are prosecuting the case.
