Aging gangster accused of 'Goodfellas' heist goes on trial
By AP | DailyMail.com | October 19, 2015


In this Jan. 23, 2014, photo, FBI agents flank Vincent Asaro as they escort him from FBI offices in New York. More than 30 years after one of the largest cash robberies in U.S. history, the now 80-year-old Asaro will stand trial in New York for helping to plan the heist that became immortalized in the Martin Scorsese mob movie “Goodfellas.” Charles Eckert AP

NEW YORK (AP) — An aging gangster went on trial Monday on charges he was in on the $6 million Lufthansa holdup in 1978, a legendary theft dramatized in the hit film "Goodfellas."

The brazen armed robbery of cash and jewelry in the dead of night at a cargo terminal at Kennedy Airport was "the score of all scores" for Vincent Asaro and other mobsters of his generation, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lindsay Gerdes said in opening statements in federal court in Brooklyn.

Asaro, 80, teamed with heist mastermind, the late James "Jimmy the Gent" Burke - played by Robert De Niro in the 1990 Martin Scorsese film - "because he knew Burke was someone he could make money with," Gerdes said. "Jimmy Burke and Vincent Asaro were true partners in crime."

The prosecutor told jurors — who had been asked on questionnaires if they had seen "Goodfellas" — that Asaro became a real-life member of the Bonanno organized crime family in the 1970s, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. She also said he has the mob slogan "death without dishonor" tattooed" on forearm.

"For him, the Mafia was literally the family business," she said. "The defendant is a gangster through and through."

[...]
The defendant also is charged in the 1969 murder of a suspected law enforcement informant, Paul Katz, whose remains were found during an FBI dig in 2013 at a house once occupied by Burke. Asaro told his cousin that Burke "had killed Katz with a dog chain because they believed he was a 'rat,'" the court papers said.

If convicted of racketeering conspiracy and other charges, Asaro faces a maximum sentence of life behind bars.

More at link (photos): http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-3280088/Aging-gangster-accused-Goodfellas-heist-goes-trial.html

Goodfellas (1990) Full HD Movie Biography Crime Drama Robert De Niro
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Mob snitch spills details about 1978 Lufthansa heist at Vincent Asaro’s trial
By John Marzulli, Corky Siemaszko | New York Daily News | Updated: Tuesday, October 20, 2015, 8:32 PM

If looks could kill, his dad would be dead.

As mob turncoat Gaspare Valenti testified Tuesday at the racketeering trial of 80-year-old Vincent Asaro, his hulking son Anthony (Fat Sammy) Valenti glared at his pop.

Dressed in a navy-blue suit and looking more like Larry David than a Bonanno family hood, Gaspare avoided his son’s eyes as he betrayed his cousin Asaro in a Brooklyn courtroom.

“Lufthansa,” Valenti answered, when asked by prosecutor Nicole Argentieri what was the most serious crime he ever committed. “We robbed the Lufthansa air freight company.”
[...]
The government witness also revealed that deceased Gambino family chief John Gotti got a cut of the loot, even though he had nothing to do with the heist.

“To keep peace among the families, we didn’t want retribution or anyone to rob us,” Valenti answered when asked why the Dapper Don got some of the dough.

As an angry-looking Asaro sat at the defense table, Valenti identified him as the man in an FBI surveillance photo shaking hands and laughing with Gotti outside the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club in Queens.
[...]
Through all of Valenti’s testimony on Tuesday, Fat Sammy stared daggers at his dad — a sinister scene that could have been lifted from “The Godfather: Part II.”

But Valenti was not rattled into recanting by his boy, who like the accused is a member of the Bonanno crime family.

“I have nothing to say,” Fat Sammy told the Daily News politely during a break. “I would appreciate it if you don’t bother me anymore.”

Valenti — in his first public account of the heist — described in detail how the Lufthansa robbery went down. And he rattled off the names of the other members of the robbery crew that Asaro and legendary Luchese mobster James (Jimmy the Gent) Burke assembled.

Valenti also named Henry Hill, a mobster turned FBI informant whose biography was the basis of “Goodfellas.”

“We thought there was going to be $2 million in cash and there was $6 million,” he said. “I was separating gold chains and watches and the diamonds and emeralds and rubies.”

More at link (old photos, video): http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/mob-snitch-spills-78-lufthansa-heist-asaro-trial-article-1.2404298

‘Goodfellas’ mob snitch explains why he turned his back on his cousin as Vincent Asaro’s trial continues
By John Marzulli, Corky Siemasko | New York Daily News | Updated: October 21, 2015, 4:03PM

The Goodfella who helped pull off the biggest heist in U.S. history was a brokefella some 30 years later when he helped the feds set a trap for his cousin — Bonanno crime family captain Vincent Asaro.

Gaspare Valenti began secretly taping Asaro after they had a falling-out three decades after the infamous 1978 Lufthansa robbery that netted them and their crew $6 million in cash and jewelry.

“Over money, as usual,” Valenti testified Wednesday, when asked at Asaro’s racketeering trial what their argument was about.

Testifying in Brooklyn federal court, Valenti said that by 2010 he was out of cash and sick of the mob life.

“I called the FBI,” he said. “I needed help financially to support my family. I was just tired of that life. I was having nightmares about things that I had experienced.”

Valenti, who returns to the stand on Thursday, said the FBI quickly signed him up to be an informant and he agreed to wear a wire to tape Asaro.

In the meantime, Valenti said, the government paid his expenses, including the rent and electrical bill.

“All this time you’re with me I never got you pinched,” Asaro told Valenti at the Esquire Diner in Ozone Park, Queens, unaware that his cousin is taping him.

But Asaro, who is also charged with strangling a suspected snitch in 1969 with a dog chain, had also became a shadow of his formerly fearsome self, the tapes revealed.

In one taped conversation, Asaro described his bleak existence.

More at link: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/goodfellas-mob-snitch-explains-betrayal-asaro-trial-article-1.2405940

EXCLUSIVE: Lufthansa heist defendant Vincent Asaro ranted and raved about new mob era
By John Marzulli | New York Daily News | October 26, 2015, 4:00AM

In the words of “Goodfella” Henry Hill, to be a gangster was to own the world.

But more than three decades after he allegedly conspired with Hill to pull the legendary $6 million heist of the Lufthansa cargo hangar at Kennedy Airport, Bonanno capo Vincent Asaro owes the world.

In secretly recorded tapes played last week at his racketeering trial in Brooklyn Federal Court, it’s clear Asaro is a relic from another mob era, a has-been, the Rodney Dangerfield of the crime family who doesn’t even get respect from his son Jerome, who is also a capo.

Asaro rants and rages on many topics, notably Jerome refusing to lend his old man money and putting him on a “pay me no mind list.”

“I’m a f---ing friend, 37 f---ing years, a wiseguy,” Asaro vents to his treacherous cousin Gaspare Valenti, who had been secretly recording their conversations for the FBI. “Friend” is code for a made member of the mob.

“C---suckers never did s--t. Never did s--t what I done in my life. They never stole a f---ing napkin,” Asaro rants.

[...]
If Asaro sounds pathetic, it could have been worse. The prosecutors say they “sanitized” many transcripts to remove racial epithets and degrading comments about women.

More at link: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/lufthansa-heist-defendant-ranted-raved-new-mob-era-article-1.2410917

Grandson of John Gotti heard on secretly recorded tape played during racketeering trial for Vincent Asaro
By John Marzulli, Corky Siemaszko | New York Daily News | Updated: October 23, 2015


John Gotti Agnello was heard greeting Gaspare Valenti
and Vincent Asaro when they turned up at an auto parts
store sometime in November 2011 looking to meet up with
a mobster named Jumbo. (O Magazine/Getty Images)

One of John Gotti’s grandsons made a cameo appearance on a secretly recorded tape that was played Friday at the racketeering trial of Bonanno gangster Vincent Asaro.

John Gotti Agnello was heard greeting Gaspare Valenti and Asaro when they turned up at the auto parts store sometime in November 2011 to see a mob associate identified only as Jumbo.

“How you doin’ Gar,” the 28-year-old son of Victoria Gotti and mobster Carmine Agnello can be heard greeting Valenti, apparently unaware he was wearing a wire for the feds.
[...]
As the tapes played, Valenti’s hulking son, Anthony (Fat Sammy) Valenti was back in the Brooklyn federal courtroom staring daggers at his 68-year-old dad.

The younger Valenti, a Bonanno hood, has been coming to the trial to support Asaro, 80.

He may want to rethink his allegiances after prosecutors played a tape in which Asaro tells Valenti he regrets that his son Jerome moved to have Fat Sammy join the Bonanno family.

“I told Jerry he should have never been straightened out,” Asaro was heard saying.

When the prosecutor asked Valenti if he wanted his son to join the mafia, he replied “No, never.”

As his father spoke, Fat Sammy stared up at the ceiling.

“I have no comment,” he said later.

More at link: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/grandson-john-gotti-heard-tape-vincent-asaro-trial-article-1.2408696

Former Lufthansa cargo agent recalls infamous ‘Goodfellas’ heist at Vincent Asaro trial
By John Marzulli, Corky Siemaszko | New York Daily News | October 27, 2015


Rolf Rebmann, a victim of the 1978 Lufthansa
robbery at Kennedy Airport, leaving Brooklyn
Federal Court after testifying Tuesday.
(photo: Jesse Ward)

The gun-toting, mask-wearing men meant business.

“Do what we tell you, we don’t want to hurt you,” a former Lufthansa cargo agent recalled a gunman telling him.

Testifying Tuesday at the trial of the Bonanno hood accused of pulling off the biggest heist in U.S. history, Rolf Rebmann said the robbers punished his co-worker Kerry Whalen when he tried to sound the alarm.

“One of them stepped over me and hit Kerry. He said, ‘There is the guy who hollered and tried to run,’” Rebmann testified. “They asked for our wallets and car keys and told us to ‘Stay and don’t get up.’ They said, ‘We have your wallets and we know where you live’”
[...]
Whalen was the first worker robbers Gaspare Valenti and Frank James Burke, the son of Jimmy the Gent, encountered when they burst into the facility. And it was Valenti who cracked him in the head with a gun.

“They were looking for the key to open the overhead (garage) door,” Rebmann told prosecutor Alicyn Cooley. “They asked for the keys and I gave them the keys.”

Then, after opening the door and backing the van into the warehouse, they marched the captives to the lunchroom.
[...]
Rebman was followed on the stand by a parade of retired FBI agents who testified about conducting surveillance on Burke and other members of his robbery crew in the days and weeks after the stunning heist.

Rebman took the stand after Valenti, who is the government’s star witness and Asaro’s cousin, spent four days on the stand testifying about the heist and the tapes he secretly made for the feds that were played in court.

More at link: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/lufthansa-worker-testifies-vincent-asaro-trial-article-1.2413158

Lufthansa heist trial witness, ex-mobster recalls intimidation from Vincent Asaro’s crew after he shot, killed guard dog
By John Marzulli, Corky Siemaszko | New York Daily News | October 28, 2015, 5:58PM


Peter (Bud) Zuccaro

Several years after the spectacular 1978 Lufthansa heist, Bonanno hood Vincent Asaro rounded up his crew to do another job — punish another mobster for shooting a dog.

An accused killer who apparently loves animals more than people, Asaro was furious when Peter (Bud) Zuccaro shot a guard dog protecting his nephew’s auto body shop.

Testifying Wednesday at Asaro’s racketeering trial, Zuccaro said the dog went after him because he just returned from a robbery and was wearing a disguise. He did not specify if it was “Champ” or “Blackjack.”

“The dog zeroed in on me, jumped over the desk, I guess he didn’t recognize me, as started chewing on my arm,” the 60-year-old mob turncoat testified. “I shot him in the head. He mauled my arm. I had no choice.”

Later, Zuccaro said in Brooklyn federal court, Asaro showed up at his home with other members of the gang that pulled off the $6 million robbery at Kennedy Airport that was immortalized in the movie “Goodfellas.”

There was James (Jimmy the Gent) Burke, the murderous architect of the heist portrayed in the mob movie by Robert De Niro, and his son, Frank, Zuccaro told the court.

Asaro also brought along more muscle — Tommy DeSimone, who was played in the flick by Joe Pesci, and Parnell (Stacks) Edwards, who was depicted by Samuel L. Jackson.

The beef was later settled without anybody getting hurt by then-Bonanno capo Joseph Massino, who broke with the mob in 2011 and is also testifying against Asaro.
[...]
Asaro is also accused of helping Burke strangle a snitch with a dog chain and burying the body beneath the basement of a Long Island home.

Zuccaro, an admitted murderer and pot purveyor in witness protection, also related the now familiar mob tale of how he and another hood beat — and shot in the buttocks — Victoria Gotti's then-boyfriend Carmine Agnello on orders from Victoria's father.

Agnello’s crime was beating up the Mafia Princess.

More at link: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/lufthansa-trial-witness-asaro-upset-killed-dog-article-1.2414778

Nervous witness testifies his 'cousin Vinny' Asaro shook him down several times over the years at the Bonanno capo’s trial
By John Marzulli, Corky Siemaszko | New York Daily News | Friday, October 30, 2015, 2:27PM


John Zaffarano

“Do you want to be here?" Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole Argentieri asked 57-year-old John Zaffarano.

"No I don't,” said Zaffarano, visibly nervous and glancing at Asaro in Brooklyn federal court.

Sitting on the stand, the chubby witness looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there, and at times claimed to have trouble remembering what he told the grand jury earlier.

His pop, Mickey Zaffarano, was a Bonanno family capo and sleaze merchant whose Pussycat Theater in Times Square showed some of the biggest porn movies of the 1970s like “Deep Throat.”
[...]
Zaffarano told the court that after his dad was felled by a heart attack in 1980, Asaro lied at the funeral and told him his pop still owed $250,000.

“Yeah I believed it, I guess,” he said.

Argentieri reminded Zaffarano that he had testified to a grand jury that he believed Asaro was lying and that he ended up paying him more than $250,000.

“I had a substance abuse problem back then and I was on a white cloud so I really don't remember,” the worried witness sputtered.

Then Argentieri asked Zaffarano what happened in 1986 after he sold the building on 59 St., where his pop’s porn emporium was located for $18.5 million .

Zaffarano said Asaro demanded a cut of that action and wound up getting between $300,000 and $400,000. He said his cousin also presided over a sitdown at a Little Italy restaurant with legendary Genovese gangster Matthew “Matty the Horse” Ianniello, who wanted $1 million in compensation because his shuttered peep shows were in the sold building.

“He suggested I pay (Ianniello) because he's not the kind of person to fool around with," Zaffarano testified, saying he wound up coughing up $750,000 to the fearsome gangster.

"I gave money to my whole family," he said. "Vinny helped me negotiate that thing."

Zaffarano admitted he moved to Florida to get away from Asaro. He said he was running a waterfront bar called Rumbottoms and owned a replica Viking ship in the 1990s when Asaro and Valenti came calling.
[...]
Zaffarano was followed on the stand by another alleged Asaro shakedown victim who testified what happened to him after he missed his weekly “protection money” payments.

Guy Gralto told the court he was shot and robbed after Asaro drove his car through the fence of Gralto's auto parts store on 101st Ave. in Queens.

More at link: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/vincent-asaro-cousin-boss-shook-trial-article-1.2417977

Son of man allegedly strangled to death with dog chain by mob boss Vincent Asaro testifies at Lufthansa trial
By John Marzulli, Corky Siemaszko | New York Daily News | November 3, 2015, 5:13PM

When mob murder victim Paul Katz was getting ready to leave his house after getting a mysterious phone call, his worried wife told him to take one of the kids along — as protection.

“He said no,” Katz’s son Lawrence testified Tuesday at the trial of a Vincent Asaro, the 80-year-old Bonanno hood and Lufthansa heist leader accused of helping strangle his father with a dog chain.

“She said at least take the dog, but he said no. He said, ‘If I'm not home in a couple of hours, call the cops.’”

And those were the last words, the younger Katz testified in Brooklyn federal court, he ever heard his father say.

The remains of Katz, who Asaro suspected of being a rat, were found buried in Queens basement in June 2013 — 44 years after his death.

Investigators were led there by mob turncoat Gaspare Valenti, who has already testified that his cousin Asaro and James (Jimmy the Gent) Burke murdered Katz.

Burke was the brains of the spectacular 1978 robbery at Kennedy Airport that netted nearly $6 million in cash and jewels — and was dramatized in the mob movie “Goodfellas.”

More at link: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/son-mob-murder-victim-testifies-lufthansa-trial-article-1.2422481

Ex-Lufthansa worker challenges mob turncoat's account of 'Goodfellas' heist
By John M. Annese | SILive.com | November 4, 2015 at 8:55PM

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – An ex-Lufthansa worker and longtime critic of the FBI said two long-dead mobsters, and not mob turncoat Gaspare Valenti, held him at gunpoint during the infamous 1978 "Goodfellas" heist at Kennedy Airport.

Kerry Whalen, 60, told his story on Wednesday at the federal trial of 80-year-old reputed mob capo Vincent Asaro, who's accused of racketeering, murder, and planning the $6 million Lufthansa cargo robbery.

Whalen, a witness for the defense, sought to contradict the testimony of Valenti, the government's star witness, who gave a first-hand account of the crime early in the trial.
[...]
Neither men wore masks, he testified: "They threw me on my back. The driver stuck a pistol way deep into my brain, my left eye. And with my right eye I could see two bullets the size of submarine torpedoes. And I thought they were going to kill me."

Whalen identified the passenger as Angelo Sepe and said the driver resembled a photo of Thomas DeSimone -- who was played by Joe Pesci as "Tommy DeVito" in the film "Goodfellas."
[...]
Whalen was one of two witnesses called by Asaro's defense lawyers.

They also called Carmine Muscarello, a Tottenville electrical contractor, who refuted the prosecution's assertions that Asaro and Valenti shook him down for $3,000.

After the defense rested, Asaro chastised his lawyer, Elizabeth Macedonio, saying, "I couldn't say one word in my defense, one word. I had to hand control of the case over to the both of youse."

More at link: http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2015/11/lufthansa_worker_challenges_mo.html

CLOSINGS ARGUMENTS UNDERWAY IN 'GOODFELLAS' LUFTHANSA HEIST CASE
By WABC-TV/AP | November 5, 2015

NEW YORK -- An aging mobster lived a long life of crime highlighted by the $6 million heist in 1978 that was retold in the classic Mafia movie "Goodfellas," a prosecutor said Friday in closing arguments at a federal racketeering trial.

Vincent Asaro, whose grandfather and father were members of the Bonanno organized crime family, "was born into that life and he fully embraced it," Assistant U.S. Attorney Alicyn Cooley told a jury in Brooklyn. "The defendant was a rare breed in the Mafia - a third-generation wiseguy."

The 80-year-old defendant's devotion to the crime family "was as permanent as the 'death before dishonor' tattoo on his arm," Cooley added at a trial that's given jurors a lesson in the lifestyle of gangsters from a bygone era.

[...]
Asaro's cousin, mob associate Gaspare Valenti, became a cooperator and implicated him in the holdup and other old crimes. Taking the witness stand last month, Valenti testified that Asaro ordered him to join the robbery crew, telling him, "Jimmy Burke has a big score at the airport coming up, and you're invited to go."

Asaro was "very happy, really euphoric" when he learned about the mountain of $100 bills and jewels scored in the heist, Valenti testified.

"We thought there was going to be $2 million in cash and there was $6 million," the witness said.

Prosecutors say Asaro ended up with a $750,000 cut that he gambled away at the racetrack.

More at link: http://abc7ny.com/news/nyc-jury-to-hear-closings-in-$6m-goodfellas-heist-case/1071339/

VERDICT WATCH possible Monday afternoon.

Trial of Vincent Asaro Highlights Loss of Mafia’s Code of Silence
By Stephanie Clifford | The New York Times | November 9, 2015

After he had helped pull off one of the biggest cash robberies in American history — the Lufthansa heist of 1978 — and stashed millions of dollars, along with burlap sacks of gold chains, crates of watches, and diamonds and emeralds, in his cousin’s basement, Vincent Asaro thought first about the code: Protect the family.

“He says, ‘We got to be real careful now,’” his cousin testified. “‘Don’t spend anything. Don’t buy anything major.’”

He kept quiet, but another part of Mr. Asaro, a Mafia yeoman working his way up through New York’s Bonanno crime family, could not resist. He bought a Bill Blass-model Lincoln and a Formula speedboat — symbols of a man who wanted to belong.

Mr. Asaro did not realize his world was vanishing.
[...]
In closing arguments, Elizabeth Macedonio, a defense lawyer, portrayed the cooperating Mafia witnesses as liars, and Mr. Asaro as someone who, despite years of being surveilled by federal agents, was never once caught doing anything wrong.

The case, which is expected to go to the jury Monday afternoon, has depicted a Mafia life from a time when the organization still ruled New York, drawn from testimony, recorded conversations, wiretapped phone calls, court filings and F.B.I. surveillance records going back 40 years. Vincent Asaro was brought down in his old age by a violation of the codes he so embraced; his is the story of the disappearing New York Mafia, and of a disappearing way of life.

More at link, In-Depth: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/10/nyregion/trial-of-vincent-asaro-highlights-loss-of-mafias-code-of-silence.html

Jury finds alleged mob captain Vincent Asaro not guilty

By Yon Pomrenze | CNN.com | November 13, 2015, 3:57PM

New York (CNN)A federal jury in New York found alleged former Bonanno crime family captain Vincent Asaro not guilty Thursday of one count of racketeering conspiracy and two extortion-related counts.

Asaro, 80, was accused in connection with the famed 1978 Lufthansa heist at JFK International Airport that helped inspire part of the plot in the 1990 film "Goodfellas."

After the verdict was announced, he broke out in a big smile, pumped his fists and gave one of his attorneys a huge hug.

The prosecution's case relied on recordings provided by Asaro's cousin, Gaspare Valenti.

The mobsters involved in the Lufthansa heist were themselves surprised by the size of the take: about $5 million in cash and nearly $1 million in jewels from an airline cargo building. It was "the largest bank robbery in New York history," according to a 2014 release from the U.S. Justice Department.
[...]
The trial, which began October 19, has involved more than 70 witnesses, most of them for the prosecution.

More at link (video): http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/12/us/vincent-asaro-trial/index.html?sr=twCNN111215goodfellas-vincent-asaro-trial0856PMVODtopLink&linkId=18712907