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The Lufthansa Heist
''The Lufthansa Heist: Behind the Six-Million-Dollar Cash Haul That Shook the World'' is a non-fiction book written by Daniel Simone in collaboration with Henry Hill. It was published by Lyons Press, an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield, on August 1, 2015. Background Development Simone approached Henry Hill and proposed to develop the Lufthansa project. Hill agreed, and Simone began debriefing him on a daily basis for an exhaustive two-year period. To corroborate Hill's account, Simone solicited the cooperation of Steve Carbone and Ed Guevara, the two FBI agents who spearheaded the Lufthansa investigation, and Ed McDonald, the US Attorney who was in charge of the case. Simone conducted his own research, and interviewed several former Mafia gangsters who were indirectly involved in the Lufthansa raid. (See Authors' Notes and Sources Page in ''The Lufthansa Heist''). Simone also interviewed New York Police Detective Joe Coffey, who provided additional information regarding the f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daniel Simone
Daniel Simone (born in New York City) is an American author who specializes in writing about sensational crimes in collaboration with one of the perpetrators or investigators of the actual event. ''The Lufthansa Heist'' Daniel Simone co-wrote ''The Lufthansa Heist'' with Henry Hill. Hill was one of the organizers of the infamous 1978 Lufthansa robbery at Kennedy Airport. Hill's life and criminal career is portrayed in Martin Scorsese's film ''Goodfellas''. Simone also had the collaboration of the two FBI agents who led the investigation of the robbery. These two investigators declared their testimonials to Hill and Simone's account in the book's Foreword and Afterward, which were written by them. Additionally, Simone relied on numerous other sources such as the former US Attorney in charge of the Lufthansa case, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey officials, a former NYPD detective, and an ex Long Island Nassau County Assistant District Attorney. Simone interviewed several ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Goodfellas
''Goodfellas'' (stylized ''GoodFellas'') is a 1990 American biographical crime film directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Nicholas Pileggi and Scorsese, and produced by Irwin Winkler. It is a film adaptation of the 1985 nonfiction book '' Wiseguy'' by Pileggi. Starring Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco and Paul Sorvino, the film narrates the rise and fall of mob associate Henry Hill and his friends and family from 1955 to 1980. Scorsese initially titled the film ''Wise Guy'' and postponed making it; he and Pileggi later changed the title to ''Goodfellas''. To prepare for their roles in the film, De Niro, Pesci and Liotta often spoke with Pileggi, who shared research material left over from writing the book. According to Pesci, improvisation and ad-libbing came out of rehearsals wherein Scorsese gave the actors freedom to do whatever they wanted. The director made transcripts of these sessions, took the lines he liked most and put them into a revised script ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert's Lounge Gang
Robert's was a department store based in Long Beach, California. The chain began when Morris Burman opened the first store in East Los Angeles. In 1950, Burman bought an existing store in North Long Beach at 5350 Long Beach Blvd., and opened it as the Jones Department Store. In 1951, they opened Robert's at 16630 Bellflower Blvd. in Bellflower. It had branches in: *Bixby Knolls, Long Beach - opened December 1967, 52,000 sq. ft., 4450 Atlantic Ave., closed in 1994, empty for 15 years, razed only in 2009 to make way for a new Marshall's. The loss of the store was long symbolic of the decline of Bixby Knolls as a retail center * Bellflower, 16630 Bellflower Boulevard * Burbank (Burcal), 240 N. Golden Mall *East Los Angeles, 4771 Whittier Boulevard (now Fallas Paredes) *La Mirada Mall *Pico Rivera, Whittier Boulevard at Rosemead Boulevard * Pomona, Indian Hills Mall * Santa Ana, Honer Plaza *Santa Fe Springs, Santa Fe Springs Shopping Center *West Covina West or Occident is o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Queens County District Attorney
The District Attorney of Queens County is the elected district attorney for Queens County in New York State, coterminous with the New York City borough of Queens. The office is responsible for the prosecution of violations of New York state laws. (Federal law violations in Queens are prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York). The current Queens County District Attorney is Melinda Katz, who assumed the duties of the office on January 1, 2020. There was an inauguration on January 6, 2020 at her alma mater, St. Johns University. History In a legislative act of February 12, 1796, New York State was divided into seven districts, each with its own Assistant Attorney General. Queens County was part of the First District, which also included Kings, Richmond, Suffolk, and Westchester counties. (At that time, Queens County included much of present-day Nassau County, and Westchester County included present-day Bronx County.) In 1801, the office of Assistant Atto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York Police Department
The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in the United States. The NYPD headquarters is at 1 Police Plaza, located on Park Row in Lower Manhattan near City Hall. The NYPD's regulations are compiled in title 38 of the ''New York City Rules''. The NYC Transit Police and NYC Housing Authority Police Department were fully integrated into the NYPD in 1995. Dedicated units of the NYPD include the Emergency Service Unit, K9, harbor patrol, highway patrol, air support, bomb squad, counter-terrorism, criminal intelligence, anti-organized crime, narcotics, mounted patrol, public transportation, and public housing units. The NYPD employs over 50,000 people, including more than 35,000 uniformed officers. According to the official CompStat database, the NYPD responded to nearly 500,000 r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York Port Authority
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, PANYNJ; stylized, in logo since 2020, as Port Authority NY NJ, is a joint venture between the U.S. states of New York (state), New York and New Jersey, established in 1921 through an interstate compact Compact Clause, authorized by the United States Congress. The Port Authority oversees much of the regional transportation infrastructure, including bridges, tunnels, airports, and seaports, within the geographical jurisdiction of the Port of New York and New Jersey. This port district is generally encompassed within a radius of the Statue of Liberty National Monument. The Port Authority is headquartered at 4 World Trade Center. The Port Authority operates the Port Newark–Elizabeth Marine Terminal, which handled the third-largest volume of shipping among all ports in the United States in 2004, and the largest on the East Coast of the United States, Eastern Seaboard. The Port Authority also operates six bi-state crossings: three con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert's Lounge
Robert's Lounge was a saloon located at 114-45 Lefferts Boulevard, in South Ozone Park, Queens, New York City. The saloon was used as a hangout by Paul Vario. The basement was a graveyard for mob victims. A human leg bone and a portion of a human shoulder bone were excavated from the basement on June 6, 1980. The bones were thought to have been those of two of Burke's associates, Thomas DeSimone and Martin Krugman, who went missing a short time after the Lufthansa heist The Lufthansa heist was a robbery at New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport on December 11, 1978. An estimated $5.875 million (equivalent to $ million in ) was stolen, with $5 million in cash and $875,000 in jewelry, m .... References Bibliography * * {{American Mafia Drinking establishments in New York City Lufthansa heist Vario Crew Lucchese crime family Buildings and structures in Queens, New York ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Vario
Paul Vario (July 10, 1914 – May 3, 1988) was an American mobster and made man in the Lucchese crime family. Vario was a caporegime and had his own crew of mobsters in Brooklyn, New York. Following the testimony of Henry Hill, Vario was convicted in 1984, of fraud, and sentenced to four years in prison, followed by a conviction for extortion in 1985, and an additional sentence of 10 years in prison. He died on May 3, 1988, of lung failure in prison. He was portrayed as Paul Cicero by Paul Sorvino in the Martin Scorsese film ''Goodfellas''. Early life Vario was born on July 10, 1914, in New York City. In 1925, at age 11, Vario was sentenced to seven months in juvenile detention for truancy. He later became a member of the Lucchese crime family. Vario and his first wife, Vita, had three sons, Peter, Paul Jr., and Leonard. He later married his second wife, Phyllis. Vario allegedly had a very violent temper. One night Vario took his wife, Phyllis, out to dinner. While they were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caporegime
A caporegime or capodecina, usually shortened to capo or informally referred to as "captain" or "skipper", is a rank used in the Mafia (both the Sicilian Mafia and Italian-American Mafia) for a ''made member'' of an Italian crime family who heads a "crew" of soldiers and has major social status and influence in the organization. ''Caporegime'' is an Italian word, which is used to signify the head of a family in Sicily, but has now come to mean a ranking member, similar to captain or senior sergeant in a military unit. In general, the term indicates the head of a branch of an organized crime syndicate who commands a crew of soldiers and reports directly to the don (boss) or an underboss or street boss. The shortened version "capo" has been used to refer to certain high-ranking members of Latin American drug cartels as well. Background The Mafia, particularly the American Mafia, is typically divided into distinct and partially independent "crews" headed by a "capo" or leader of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Burke (gangster)
James Burke (July 5, 1931 – April 13, 1996), also known as "Jimmy the Gent," was an American gangster and Lucchese crime family associate who is believed to have organized the 1978 Lufthansa heist, the largest cash robbery in American history at the time. He was believed to be responsible for the deaths of those involved in the months after the robbery. Following the testimony of Henry Hill, Burke was convicted in 1982, of conspiracy charges related to his involvement in the 1978–79 Boston College basketball point-shaving scandal, and sentenced to 12 years in prison. While in prison, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to another 20 years. He died of cancer at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York, eight years before he would have been eligible for parole. Burke inspired the character Jimmy "The Gent" Conway, one of the main characters of the 1990 film ''Goodfellas'', played by Robert De Niro. Early life At the age of two, Burke was placed in a f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bookmaker
A bookmaker, bookie, or turf accountant is an organization or a person that accepts and pays off bets on sporting and other events at agreed-upon odds. History The first bookmaker, Ogden, stood at Newmarket in 1795. Range of events Bookmakers in many countries focus on accepting bets on professional sports, especially horse racing and association football or Indian Premier League cricket. However, a wider range of bets, including on political elections, awards ceremonies such as the Oscars, and novelty bets are accepted by bookmakers in some countries. Operational procedures By "adjusting the odds" in their favour (paying out amounts using odds that are less than what they determined to be the true odds) or by having a point spread, bookmakers aim to guarantee a profit by achieving a 'balanced book', either by getting an equal number of bets for each possible outcome or (when they are offering odds) by getting the amounts wagered on each outcome to reflect the odds. W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Extort
Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, although making unfounded threats in order to obtain an unfair business advantage is also a form of extortion. Extortion is sometimes called the "protection racket" because the racketeers often phrase their demands as payment for "protection" from (real or hypothetical) threats from unspecified other parties; though often, and almost always, such "protection" is simply abstinence of harm from the same party, and such is implied in the "protection" offer. Extortion is commonly practiced by organized crime. In some jurisdictions, actually obtaining the benefit is not required to commit the offense, and making a threat of violence which refers to a requirement of a payment of money or property to halt future violence is sufficient to commit th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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