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Brooklyn prepares for trial over Lufthansa heist featured in Goodfellas
The Guardian ^ | October 17, 2015

Posted on 10/19/2015 1:50:58 PM PDT by ETL

Vincent Asaro, accused of receiving a cut of one of US history’s biggest cash thefts, was arrested last year after allegedly keeping his role secret for decades.

For decades, prosecutors say, Vincent Asaro managed to keep hidden his role in an infamous mob heist that was immortalized in the hit movie Goodfellas. As he did so, others of his generation were locked up or died gangland deaths.

A frail-looking Asaro finally emerged from the shadows after his arrest last year. He will go on trial on Monday on charges that he pocketed a cut of the $6m Lufthansa robbery at Kennedy Airport in 1978 – one of the largest cash thefts in American history.

If convicted, he will become the latest casualty of an erosion of the Mafia’s code of silence that has decimated the aging upper echelon of New York City’s underworld, sometimes called the “Oldfellas”.

Prosecutors at the trial in federal court in Brooklyn will give jurors a lesson in a bygone era when the five Italian Mafia families had a greater appetite for brazen crimes and deadly payback for betrayals. The defense will counter by accusing the government of using shady turncoat gangsters with faded memories or incentives to lie.

Asaro, 80, who has a history of convictions for lesser mob-related crimes, was arrested after his cousin, Gaspare Valenti, came forward with new information about the Lufthansa heist and agreed to wear a wire to try to coax admissions out of the reputed longtime member of the Bonanno crime family.

Prosecutors have not revealed why the key witness turned on Asaro, though it is believed he may have held a grudge after being cheated out of a cut of Asaro’s $750,000 take from the heist, said Jerry Capeci, a Mafia expert who writes the ganglandnews.com web column.

(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; News/Current Events; US: New York
KEYWORDS: goodfellas; lufthansa; lufthansaheist; vincentasaro
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1 posted on 10/19/2015 1:50:58 PM PDT by ETL
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CBS/AP January 23, 2014:

Reputed mobster pleads not guilty in 1978 Lufthansa heist that netted $5.8M

NEW YORK - More than 30 years after hooded gunmen pulled a $6 million airport heist dramatized in the hit Martin Scorsese movie “Goodfellas,” an elderly reputed mobster was arrested at his New York City home on Thursday and charged in the robbery and a 1969 murder.

Vincent Asaro, 78, was named along with his son, Jerome, and three other defendants in wide-ranging indictment alleging murder, robbery, extortion, arson and other crimes from the late 1960s through last year. The Asaros, both identified as captains in the Bonanno organized crime family, pleaded not guilty through their attorneys and were ordered held without bail at a brief appearance in federal court in Brooklyn.

The elder Asaro’s attorney, Gerald McMahon, told reporters outside court that his client was framed by shady turncoat gangsters, including former Bonanno boss Joseph Massino - the highest-ranking member of the city’s five organized crime families to break the mob’s vow of silence.

Massino “is one of the worst witnesses I’ve ever seen,” McMahon said. He added that Asaro had given him “marching orders” that “there will be no plea and he will walk out the door a free man.”

A lawyer for Jerome Asaro declined comment. ...”

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/alleged-bonanno-crime-family-member-arrested-in-1978-lufthansa-heist-that-netted-58m/

2 posted on 10/19/2015 1:52:17 PM PDT by ETL (Ted Cruz 2016!! -- For a better and safer America)
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To: ETL


3 posted on 10/19/2015 1:52:56 PM PDT by JoeProBono (SOME IMAGES MAY BE DISTURBING VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED;-{)
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Feb 2014...

Defendants in ‘Goodfellas’ Lufthansa heist make shackled court appearance

Four reputed mobsters, with an average age of 65, came to the routine court appearance in shackles and chains. ...”

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/19/goodfellas-lufthansa-heist-court-appearance-new-york

4 posted on 10/19/2015 1:54:30 PM PDT by ETL (Ted Cruz 2016!! -- For a better and safer America)
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To: JoeProBono
 photo Goodfellas 01_zpsdn66n0h8.jpg
5 posted on 10/19/2015 1:55:00 PM PDT by ETL (Ted Cruz 2016!! -- For a better and safer America)
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To: ETL

“Jimmy I want my money!”.


6 posted on 10/19/2015 1:59:39 PM PDT by AU72
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To: JoeProBono

"I've been tellin' ya for forty years now. Don't buy anything. Don't get anything. Especially nothing flashy or big. Haven't you been hearing what I've been saying all these years? Why not? You're going to get us all pinched, that's why. What are you, stupid?


7 posted on 10/19/2015 2:03:26 PM PDT by SamAdams76 (A businessman gets things done with own money. A politician takes money and gets nothing done.)
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To: ETL
...$6m Lufthansa robbery at Kennedy Airport in 1978 – one of the largest cash thefts in American history.

That isn't even small change compared to what politicians and UN officials steal.

8 posted on 10/19/2015 2:05:06 PM PDT by TigersEye (This is the age of the death of reason and rule of law. Prepare!)
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To: AU72
Page not found | AnZ Computers and Electronics

Page not found | AnZ Computers and Electronics

Page not found | AnZ Computers and Electronics

9 posted on 10/19/2015 2:07:08 PM PDT by ETL (Ted Cruz 2016!! -- For a better and safer America)
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To: TigersEye

That was $6 million in 1972; adjust for inflation...


10 posted on 10/19/2015 2:15:18 PM PDT by Army Air Corps (Four Fried Chickens and a Coke)
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To: SamAdams76

11 posted on 10/19/2015 2:15:36 PM PDT by SkyPilot ("I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6)
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To: ETL

“What did I tell you.....Don’t buy anything!”


12 posted on 10/19/2015 2:15:50 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: ETL

“I thought he’d never shut the .... up.”


13 posted on 10/19/2015 2:16:20 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: ETL

Poor Morrie never got paid.


14 posted on 10/19/2015 2:17:30 PM PDT by headstamp 2
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To: ETL

Poor Stacks.


15 posted on 10/19/2015 2:17:32 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: SkyPilot

I could never listen to “Layla” quite the same way ever again.


16 posted on 10/19/2015 2:18:59 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: SkyPilot
I lived 2 blocks from there at the time they were shooting (that scene). Didn't know about it, although I do recall a large film crew outside Salerno's restaurant for a day or so. That was where they filmed the Tommy-Henry double date scene.
17 posted on 10/19/2015 2:20:38 PM PDT by ETL (Ted Cruz 2016!! -- For a better and safer America)
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To: ETL

Salerno’s was also within 3 blocks of where I lived at the time. I think it’s a Mexican restaurant now. Most Italians have deserted NYC.


18 posted on 10/19/2015 2:25:02 PM PDT by ETL (Ted Cruz 2016!! -- For a better and safer America)
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To: Army Air Corps

I don’t think inflation would quite catch it up to $6 billion missing from the State Dept. or the hundreds of millions skimmed off of the Oil-for-Food Program in Iraq. A program coincidentally initiated by Slick Willie Clinton.


19 posted on 10/19/2015 2:28:41 PM PDT by TigersEye (This is the age of the death of reason and rule of law. Prepare!)
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To: ETL

Danny DeVito wears wire in SNL skit.

https://screen.yahoo.com/jon-lovitz-snl-skits/wired-danny-000000907.html


20 posted on 10/19/2015 2:29:34 PM PDT by Larry Lucido
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