Cosa Nostra News

Kirkus  describes  it as "a  straightforward update to the notorious 1978 Lufthansa Airlines heist. Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter Anthony DeStefano understands the difficulty of opening new aspects of a crime immortalized in journalism, memoirs, and the film Goodfellas. James Burke, aka Jimmy the Gent. “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.” Vincent Asaro, who now faces 20 years in prison on charges related to arson, was charged with (and acquitted of) co-masterminding the infamous $6 million Lufthansa heist with James "Jimmy the Gent" Burke; Asaro also was charged with (and acquitted of) murdering Paul Katz, a suspected mob snitch strangled to death with a dog leash.

This guy is 57 years old and still afraid of an 80 year old man. what a pu** A nearly unrecognizable Vinny Asaro walks home triumphantly with his daughters lawyers..... I first heard the term "jury nullification" Monday morning in conversation with a federal prosecution source regarding the Vinny Asaro verdict. I'd actually known what it meant, I just didn't know there was a term for it. Asaro departed Eastern District Federal Court in Brooklyn on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2015, after being found not guilty of masterminding the infamous $6 million Lufthansa heist at Kennedy Airport in 1978. The anonymous jury of six men and six women also found Asaro, 80, not guilty in the killing of mob associate Paul Katz in the 1960s as well as various extortion, robbery and gambling charges. His attorneys, Elizabeth Macedonio and Diane Ferrone walked with Asaro who no doubt was thinking about home-cooked food, the comforts of home.

Model of Lufthansa cargo terminal at JFK in 1978, exhibited in court.  A former Lufthansa Airlines worker described what happened on that night in 1978, when masked gunmen infiltrated the Lufthansa cargo area at JFK, committing what was then called the largest robbery in American history.  The witness took the stand today in Bonanno member Vincent Asaro's trial in Brooklyn Federal Court. The charges Asaro faces include co-masterminding the infamous $6 million Lufthansa heist with James "Jimmy the Gent" Burke. Asaro also is charged with the murder of Paul Katz, a suspected mob snitch strangled with a dog leash.  Early in the a.m. in 1978, Rolf Rebmann was among the staffers grinding out the hours at the Kennedy Airport terminal targeted by mobsters using inside information, including blueprints.

Vinny Asaro, last man standing, on trial risking a life sentence at 80. Vincent Asaro sat in a car with James Burke, about a mile away from the Lufthansa cargo terminal on a December night in 1978, when eight mobbed-up gunmen were stealing a haul expected to be around $2 million, only to discover -- first to their joy, then to their horror -- that the crime had netted them three times that amount. This story has been told before of course, initially in the iconic book  Wiseguy , followed by an equally iconic cinematic adaptation, Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas , not to mention the library of articles and additional books about the vaunted robbery. Once the largest heist in American history, it has been eclipsed. The 1990 Boston Museum robbery , valued at $300 million, currently is considered the largest. Still, there remains information about the Lufthansa Heist  that only now is being revealed. That is if you believe Gaspare Valenti who claims he flipped in 200...

De Niro as Burke, left, Ray Liotta as Henry Hill. No Vinny Asaro character was in Goodfellas, though he certainly was mentioned in the book. We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.... Prosecutors blasted reputed Bonanno capo Vincent Asaro , 79, with new charges based on a superseding indictment, as reported last week . The charges have not been revealed yet because evidence recorded on tape needs to be digitized, prosecutors said. Described as looking gaunt, Asaro seemed to be suffering from involuntary shivering at the proceeding last week in which his lawyer attempted to push back the date of Asaro's racketeering trial slated for July in Brooklyn Federal Court..

Bud Zuccaro The fourth witness apparently is Peter "Bud" Zuccaro, who testified against Charles Carneglia (who had been Zuccaro's best man) and John Gotti Jr in Manhattan. The three other cooperating witnesses are Joe Massino, Salvatore Vitale, and a relative of the Asaros whom I refer to as The Mook, (a foolish, insignificant and contemptible person) Gaspare (Gary) Valenti. According to court papers CW-4 was an associate of the Gambino family, who pled guilty pursuant to a cooperation agreement in the Eastern District of New York to two counts of murder in-aid-of racketeering, narcotics distribution conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy. CW-4’s information has been corroborated by, among other things, physical surveillances, consensual recordings and the testimony of other witnesses. CW-4 cooperated in the hopes of obtaining leniency in sentencing and protection in the Witness Security program. At sentencing, the government moved, pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 5K1.1 ...

Boss Tommy D DiFiore has reasons to be  somewhat perturbed at a capo. Considering all the hoopla over the 36-year-old Lufthansa heist, which is pretty big news, admittedly, garnering coverage around the globe, 70-year-old acting Bonanno boss Thomas "Tommy D" DiFiore from Commack, Long Island, must be feeling somewhat marginalized. Maybe not, but Tommy D is more than likely pretty furious with Bonanno capo Vinny Asaro, considering Asaro's big mouth is the only reason DiFiore is part of the Lufthansa indictment and now living in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. And on top of that, Asaro was caught on tape saying not very nice things about DiFiore. "Tommy D was not caught in any incriminating conversations by the FBI's secret snitch, Asaro cousin Gary Valenti," Jerry writes this week ."But in recorded talks with his cousin, Asaro managed to implicate DiFiore in the only crime that he is accused of, and establish to a judge's sa...