2017-05-09
A straightforward update to the notorious 1978 Lufthansa Airlines heist.Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter DeStefano (Gangland New York: The Places and Faces of Mob History, 2015, etc.) understands the difficulty of opening new aspects of a crime immortalized in journalism, memoirs, and the film Goodfellas: "Of all the Mafia heists, rip-offs, scores, and plunders, none has been more iconic a part of American popular culture than the brazen [Lufthansa] robbery." The author focuses on the 2015 trial of Vincent Asaro, an aged survivor of the era's Five Families crews. Asaro, whose alleged participation in the crime had not been recognized, was wiretapped over several years for the FBI by his cousin Gaspare Valenti, another low-level mobster. The tapes revealed both men scuffling for years as their influence faded within the mob, itself more constricted in today's New York City, as well as the chilling moment when Asaro realized Valenti's betrayal. DeStefano leads up to Asaro's trial with a narrative re-creation of the crime, its murderous aftermath, and the notorious figures involved, including Lucchese family underboss Paul Vario, robbery mastermind Jimmy Burke, and turncoat Henry Hill, the protagonist of Goodfellas. The author tries to counter the ambiguity surrounding the crime, noting, "while Hill's public statements on the heist excluded Asaro...he had actually claimed to law enforcement as far back as 1983 that Asaro was involved." Following the heist and the murders of many participants, Asaro ran stolen car operations for a Bonanno family crew, finding himself marginalized over time: "Part of the problem was Asaro's volatility and temper." Despite Valenti's testimony, Asaro was acquitted at trial, a startling development. Though Asaro's connection to Lufthansa still seems inconclusive, DeStefano paints him as a poignant if unlikable character, a criminal journeyman who survived a violent life to watch his status, wealth, and cherished lifestyle slip away. The book will please Mafia completists, but the overall arc will feel more familiar than revelatory to most true-crime readers.
The crime that inspired the movie Goodfellas. The story that couldn't be told-until now.
One of the biggest scores in Mafia history, the Lufthansa Airlines heist of 1978 has become the stuff of Mafia legend-and a decades-long investigation that continues to this day. Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Anthony DeStefano sheds new light on this legendary unsolved case using recent evidence from the 2015 trial of eighty-year-old Mafia don Vincent Asaro, who for the first time speaks out on his role in the fateful Lufthansa heist. This blistering you-are-there account takes you behind the headlines and inside the ranks of America's infamous crime families-with never-before-told stories, late-breaking news, and bombshell revelations:
New details on the heist's planning: who was involved, how they pulled it off, and what really happened to the almost $6 million in cash and jewels they stole from JFK AirportWhy suspected heist participant Vincent Asaro was found not guilty of all charges-racketeering, theft, and murder-even after being observed by the FBI for more than three decadesThe shocking discovery of human bones in a Queens home belonging to a relative of Jimmy Burke, the homicidal Lucchese crime family associate who assembled the Lufthansa heist team-and masterminded the caper, then the biggest cash robbery in American historyThe eye-opening testimony of gangsters-turned-informants Salvatore Vitale and Gaspar Valenti-and what it reveals about the Mafia code of silence known as OmertaThe greed, betrayal, murder, and other frightening insights into the Bonanno and Lucchese crime familiesDisturbing claims about how some members of the NYPD leaked information to mobster Jimmy Burke and may have helped hide evidence of a mob murder victim's demiseAn invaluable addition to any crime library, this is the most complete, thorough, and up-to-date account of the Lufthansa heist currently available. Pulitzer Prize winner Anthony DeStefano draws from his years of experience reporting on the mob for New York Newsday-as well as his firsthand coverage of the Asaro indictment and attendance at the trial-to expose the all-too-human heart of organized crime in America. The Big Heist is thrilling, shocking, and impossible to put down.
The crime that inspired the movie Goodfellas. The story that couldn't be told-until now.
One of the biggest scores in Mafia history, the Lufthansa Airlines heist of 1978 has become the stuff of Mafia legend-and a decades-long investigation that continues to this day. Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Anthony DeStefano sheds new light on this legendary unsolved case using recent evidence from the 2015 trial of eighty-year-old Mafia don Vincent Asaro, who for the first time speaks out on his role in the fateful Lufthansa heist. This blistering you-are-there account takes you behind the headlines and inside the ranks of America's infamous crime families-with never-before-told stories, late-breaking news, and bombshell revelations:
New details on the heist's planning: who was involved, how they pulled it off, and what really happened to the almost $6 million in cash and jewels they stole from JFK AirportWhy suspected heist participant Vincent Asaro was found not guilty of all charges-racketeering, theft, and murder-even after being observed by the FBI for more than three decadesThe shocking discovery of human bones in a Queens home belonging to a relative of Jimmy Burke, the homicidal Lucchese crime family associate who assembled the Lufthansa heist team-and masterminded the caper, then the biggest cash robbery in American historyThe eye-opening testimony of gangsters-turned-informants Salvatore Vitale and Gaspar Valenti-and what it reveals about the Mafia code of silence known as OmertaThe greed, betrayal, murder, and other frightening insights into the Bonanno and Lucchese crime familiesDisturbing claims about how some members of the NYPD leaked information to mobster Jimmy Burke and may have helped hide evidence of a mob murder victim's demiseAn invaluable addition to any crime library, this is the most complete, thorough, and up-to-date account of the Lufthansa heist currently available. Pulitzer Prize winner Anthony DeStefano draws from his years of experience reporting on the mob for New York Newsday-as well as his firsthand coverage of the Asaro indictment and attendance at the trial-to expose the all-too-human heart of organized crime in America. The Big Heist is thrilling, shocking, and impossible to put down.
The Big Heist: The Real Story of the Lufthansa Heist, the Mafia, and Murder
The Big Heist: The Real Story of the Lufthansa Heist, the Mafia, and Murder
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Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940169867244 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Blackstone Audio, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 06/27/2017 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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