| Description |
vi, 266 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages [241]-249) and index. |
| Summary |
The crime that inspired the movie Goodfellas. The story that couldnt 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 Americas infamous crime families--with never-before-told stories, late-breaking news, and bombshell revelations: new details on the heists 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 Airport ; why 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 decades ; the 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 history ; the eye-opening testimony of gangsters-turned-informants Salvatore Vitale and Gaspar Valenti--and what it reveals about the Mafia code of silence known as Omerta ; the greed, betrayal, murder, and other frightening insights into the Bonanno and Lucchese crime families ; disturbing 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 demise. An 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. |
| Subject |
Deutsche Lufthansa (1953- )
|
|
Robbery -- New York (State) -- New York -- Case studies.
|
|
Organized crime -- New York (State) -- New York -- Case studies.
|
| Genre |
True crime stories.
|
| Added Title |
GoodFellas (Motion picture)
|
| ISBN |
9780806538303 (hardcover) |
|
0806538309 (hardcover) |
|
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