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00:07tonight the heist of the century over five million dollars in cash and jewels disappears
00:14from one of the busiest airports in the country within hours it's international news they're
00:19calling it the crime of the century authorities have little to go on until the bodies start
00:24piling up every time police tracked out a suspect that person ends up with a bullet in the back of
00:30his head over the next six months you had eight bodies dropped now we'll explore the top theories
00:37as to who's responsible for the lufthansa heist the fbi gets a tip that someone deposited about
00:44250 000 in a safe deposit box but by the time that they are able to investigate the money's gone
00:51before he could be brought in for questioning his body is found riddled with bullets one of them to
00:57the back of the head so who orchestrated the lufthansa heist
01:16monday december 11th 1978 new york's john f kennedy airport among america's busiest
01:26around 3 a.m a black van carrying eight masked men drives past the departure gates to the back of
01:34the airport jfk it's one of the country's biggest and busiest airports but what the ordinary flyer
01:42would fail to notice is outside of the terminals there are a whole bunch of warehouses and those
01:49warehouses are used to store cargo that's bound for other destinations if you've got electronics
01:56from japan or wine from france they're going to be stored there until they can be shipped onward
02:02to their final destination lufthansa is essentially the unofficial airlines of european banks they are
02:11bringing in american currency european currency security bonds and on top of that luxury goods
02:17furs swiss watches fine jewelry all of this stored at the lufthansa warehouses this is the ramp up right
02:25before christmas so they're seeing an influx of merchandise influx of cash influx and jewels so
02:31that high value room which normally has a million now has five million dollars at least in cash
02:36and about eight hundred thousand dollars in jewels today's value about 28 million dollars
02:43later that morning it's scheduled to be loaded onto armored brinks trucks and delivered to points
02:49across manhattan until then everything remains under lock and key the most valuable goods are kept on
02:57the third floor of building 261 in a place called the high value room which is always guarded by
03:04nighttime guards accessing the high value room is a pretty intricate process there are two metal cages
03:11divided by a steel door to get through the door you first have to get through the first cage that
03:19has
03:19to be closed and then locked using two keys that have to be turned simultaneously before you can even
03:26open the next door and if this protocol is not strictly followed if it is deviated from in even the
03:33slightest way all sorts of alarms will start sounding and port authority police will be all over the
03:38place for decades it's been an airtight system no one has dared to try to breach it but within the
03:46hour
03:47all of that will change the van drives up and six of the eight men get out they cut off
03:55the padlock
03:55run into the warehouse and they seem to have timed it perfectly because all of the employees are in
04:02the employee break room all having a meal break they hold all of them at gunpoint and handcuff them to
04:09one another and then they take their wallets and they're looking at their ids and they're checking
04:13it against a list of guards so these guys know which guards are supposed to be there and they tell
04:19the guys while they're on the ground if you guys make any false moves not only are we going to
04:25shoot
04:25you but then we're going to go to the address on your id and we're going to kill your whole
04:29family
04:31missing from the list the nighttime supervisor with the keys to the high value room he's still
04:38downstairs in his office they can't actually just storm into his office because he's got a panic
04:44button under his desk and police would show up almost immediately so they pull one of the guards
04:48off the floor with a gun to his head and they force him to call the supervisor and he tells
04:53him that
04:54luftanza is on the phone from germany and they'll only talk to the person in charge so the supervisor
05:00comes out to the floor with his keys now all the thieves have to do is make sure that the
05:07manager
05:08turns both keys at exactly the same moment or the place will be swarming with cops one of these armed
05:16guys says we know how this system works if you have a single slip up you're a dead man so
05:22he follows
05:22the protocol exactly gets through the main door gets into the high value room they see more to steal
05:31than they could have ever imagined and they are ready to take it all they start stuffing all of this
05:37cash
05:38jewels watches into 40 burlap bags and dragging them meticulously out to the van and by 4 16 they've
05:48completely cleaned out the high value room it's the perfect heist in just 75 minutes the thieves pulled
05:57off the largest cash robbery in u.s history at the time 28 million in today's dollars
06:05usually with cash you're able to look at the serial numbers and track the currency but in this case
06:12because it's older currency and because it's coming from overseas there's no way to actually do that the
06:17serial numbers aren't listed anywhere so this money is actually untraceable they dust for fingerprints
06:23but no forensic evidence is left behind within hours it's international news they're calling it the
06:28crime of the century these guys just pulled off the perfect crime one thing seems highly probable
06:35that this was an inside job they knew too much they knew for example exactly which guards were going
06:43to be on duty they knew what time exactly 3 a.m they'd be going on their break they knew
06:50the protocol
06:51that was required to get through those doors and into the high value room so at least one of the
06:58robbers had to be someone on the inside two days after the heist the fbi gets an anonymous tip
07:04that a low-level lufthansa cargo agent named peter grunewald might be involved
07:17peter grunewald is approached by the fbi and at first he really rebuffs them i don't know anything
07:24i don't want to be part of this but they're pretty sure that he knows something after the fbi questions
07:31him he does something that makes him even more of a suspect he uses his employee discount to buy airline
07:38tickets to five different locations the philippines tokyo hong kong taiwan and bogota colombia
07:48obviously he's buying multiple tickets because he doesn't want anyone who's on his tail to find
07:53him however all of these flights are leaving from jfk grunewald ultimately chooses the bogota flight
08:01where agents are waiting for him at the departure gate peter grunewald folds entirely under pressure
08:08and what he says is yes technically i did organize this heist but i did not know it was going
08:17to happen
08:18someone stole my plan peter grunewald is driving to work on the morning of monday december 11 1978
08:26when he hears that there's been this big heist at the lufthansa cargo terminal and it sounds like
08:32exactly his idea and he thinks lewis did it lewis werner who had been with lufthansa since 1968
08:41works as a cargo supervisor for the airline he immediately went and confronted lewis werner
08:48and accused him of stealing his plans and carrying the heist out without him so he demands three
08:54hundred thousand dollars from warner to keep quiet warner however only gives him ten thousand dollars
08:59and basically tells him to keep that and he would throw him more money once things cool down
09:06using the information provided by grunewald police quickly turn their attention to his would-be
09:12accomplice louis werner his job is to sign for the money that's been brought in by lufthansa
09:20before it's taken away and placed in a secure bank but on friday december 8th when this big shipment was
09:28there he conveniently arranged to be away from his post for a full 90 minutes so when the brinks truck
09:35gets there there's no one to sign for the money that means it's going to be in the high value
09:41room
09:41all weekend the fbi starts trailing werner and it confirms all of their suspicions he's paid off all
09:49of his gambling debts and on top of that he's bragging to everyone he can he's bragging to his girlfriend
09:54his estranged wife he's telling everyone that he is involved in the heist so werner not a seasoned
10:02criminal makes a lot of mistakes first thing he does he spends a lot of money he buys a brand
10:07new
10:07van takes his girlfriend and her kids on a luxurious vacation how do you get this money working a job
10:13where
10:14you only get paid 20 grand a year he is the prime suspect at this point so they grab him
10:18coming out of
10:19a bowling alley with his girlfriend the feds pressure werner to give up his accomplices but he
10:25refuses to name names a trial date is set for may 4th 1979 with the help of grunwald's testimony werner
10:35is found guilty and sentenced to 15 years in prison so basically within six months of the heist authorities
10:42have their first conviction and the conviction of the potential architect of the whole plot
10:48but if werner was one of the original planners and the key man inside it doesn't explain what
10:54happens to the five million dollars after he goes to jail werner says he never spoke with any of the
11:02other participants face to face he simply got phone calls instructing him what to do and then of course
11:07he made phone calls passing information along and he didn't know any names even though he's the one who
11:13had the plan he was not the one who was behind it and in fact that money was with whoever
11:20did
11:23in the months after the lufthansa heist feds believe that only someone in the new york mafia
11:29would be brazen enough to pull off a robbery of this magnitude new york city in the 70s is pretty
11:37much
11:38run by the mob there are five families and they each have their own district jfk is controlled by
11:45the lucchese family but right around jfk and queens other mob families control that area so there's a
11:53little bit of cooperation among the families for much of the lucchese family's existence it was known as
12:02the least high profile of the five families however in the mid-1970s a new don took over and he
12:11was
12:11determined to make the lucchese family more powerful and he did that by stealing just about anything he
12:16could get his hands on one of the lucchese family's favorite hangouts is robert's lounge
12:24it's a run-of-the-mill bar in the working-class ozone park neighborhood a few miles from jfk airport
12:32authorities start to track members of the lucchese family and the activities around the lounge
12:37and they start to notice that one of the mafia members has been spending a lot of money recently
12:43as if he is suddenly come into some cash his name is angelo sepi he buys his girlfriend a brand
12:50new cadillac and he drops nine thousand dollars in cash on a brand new 1979 ford thunderbird
13:02authorities know angelo sepi as being affiliated with the lucchese family as being sort of a muscle
13:09man for the lucchese family and here's this guy with his new t-bird so what they do is they
13:17put a
13:17bug in the t-bird and they think they have great stuff because angelo sepi is talking about the
13:23heist in the t-bird they think they're on to something big okay this is the big break in the
13:30case
13:31unfortunately when they play the tape back later the voices are muffled only bits and pieces can be
13:39picked up angelo sepi as a way to combat the possibility that his car was bugged would turn
13:47up the radio when he'd have these conversations which would jumble their surveillance the people
13:51that were listening would have a difficult time deciphering between whether the participants in the
13:57conspiracy were talking or was it a disc jockey talking or was it a song that was playing on the
14:02radio police know sepi as an enforcer mob muscle who collects debts and carries out hits lately there
14:12have been several murders of potential lufthansa suspects all frequent visitors to roberts lounge
14:19one is stacks edwards who is known to have ties to the lucchese family stacks edwards has one job
14:27in this heist and that is to make the black van used in the heist disappear but rather than do
14:35as instructed he parks it illegally he partied all night with his girlfriend and he passed out forgot
14:43about the van meanwhile the cops all over new york i mean this is the biggest thing going they're
14:50looking for that van and they find it right in front of a fire hydrant they dust it for friends
14:55and lo and behold they find stacks prints on immediately he's on the watch list and the fbi
15:04law enforcement everybody wants to speak to this guy before he can be brought in for questioning
15:11his body is found riddled with bullets five of them total one of them to the back of the head
15:17which is
15:18the calling card of a mob hit execution style within the week two more lucchese associates turn up dead
15:27one of them is a bookmaker his body is found in a brooklyn garbage dump another lucchese associate
15:34who's called the stick up man is found in his car slumped over the steering wheel a bullet in the
15:39back of
15:40his head it seems that whoever's carrying out these executions is going after potential luftanza
15:47perpetrators before authorities can question them if there's one suspect in all of these it's angelo seppi
15:56authorities are convinced that seppi is somehow connected to all three murders
16:01it's possible he's killing off fellow mobsters either to shut them up or to prevent them from claiming
16:07their share of the luftanza loot lucky for law enforcement they can bring seppi in for an
16:14unrelated drug charge now when they bring him in they ask him about the heist he says nothing i know
16:20nothing it gives them time to go search his house they find nothing they know he's involved but they
16:27just don't have enough so he goes away for some time on a parole violation and they figure once he
16:33gets
16:33out from that they will follow him until he screws up makes an error after 10 months in jail seppe
16:42goes
16:42free and the fbi start tailing him again then comes a twist in the investigation angelo seppe mob enforcer
16:51turns up dead they find his body in the basement of his apartment building three bullets in his head and
16:57his 19 year old girlfriend dead one shot to the mouth well now it turns out seppe himself is a
17:05victim
17:05that means he isn't the guy behind the heist he's working for someone else and whoever that is wants
17:12him to be silenced as well though no one died during the luftanza heist a trail of bodies has turned
17:23up in
17:24its wake the fbi is now taking a long hard look at one man in the lucchese family cold enough
17:31to
17:31murder his fellow conspirators if there's any mobster who wouldn't think twice about shooting
17:38a friend in the back of the head it's jimmy the gent most people probably know jimmy the gent from
17:43the character that robert de niro played in goodfellas in 1962 jimmy burke is set to marry his fiancee
17:51and a few weeks before the wedding he realizes that she's being stalked by an ex the day of their
17:58wedding that ex is found killed with his remains strewn about his car burke is never actually charged
18:06with the crime but his reputation for bloody vengeance starts to spread he gets a new job in
18:14the lucchese family they put him to work hijacking cargo trucks and he earns the nickname jimmy the gent
18:20because he said to politely offer 50 to the drivers of these trucks in exchange for their contents
18:28by 1978 burke has grown wealthy so much so that he buys robert's lounge making it an official hangout
18:36for him and his fellow thieves because of burke's role in truck hijackings his connection with the lucchese
18:44family and his connection with the jfk rackets law enforcement are pretty sure that he has his hands
18:50in some way connected to the liftonza heist they just have to figure out how to prove this
19:02in order to get jimmy they start arresting anyone they can who spends time in robert's lounge these are
19:09people with parole violation minor criminal records and they offer pardons in exchange for information
19:17that might lead to the arrest of jimmy one low-level bookie confesses that he is in robert's lounge
19:24the night after the heist and that jimmy comes in waving a bunch of cash around saying let's have a
19:31drink on luft hansa jimmy is well aware that the cops are following him there's one time where there's
19:37an undercover cop at the bar and jimmy orders himself around a drinks and a glass of milk for
19:43the cop there's another time when they had bugged his car and he found it and shot it three times
19:51he is so convinced that he is invincible that he's really toying with law enforcement he knows that
19:58there are people surveilling his house so he gets up in the middle of the night and he'll go on
20:03these
20:03little joy rides and he knows that these guys have to follow him wherever he goes he just drives around
20:07the neighborhood and when he comes back he waves and laughs and just heads back in and goes to bed
20:14burke's cockiness may come from the fact that he appears to have an airtight alibi for the early
20:20hours of december 11th 1978 he's arrested in georgia for possession of cocaine and he's sentenced
20:28to three months in a rehab program he does those three months in the community treatment program in
20:34times square in manhattan and he's supposed to be there all the time and he's checked on on regular
20:41intervals that's where he is on the night of the heist so how could he possibly be involved in it
20:48and every time authorities find a potential new witness to finger burke they end up dead
20:56by the summer of 1979 nine more suspected people connected with the luftanza heist have been found dead
21:03authorities still find no clues left behind at these murder scenes but because associates of the lucchese
21:10family and of burke's keep turning up dead they think that maybe he's becoming paranoid and is
21:16continuing to cover his tracks then in may 1980 the lufthansa case takes a dramatic turn
21:25long-time burke associate henry hill is arrested on serious drug charges under interrogation he offers to
21:33make a deal according to henry hill burke is the guy who planned the heist executed it and now has
21:41been bumping off anybody who might be associated with it hill is afraid that he is on burke's hit list
21:47and that he's going to be next so better that burke get put away that he ends up dead burke
21:53isn't just
21:54knocking people off because he doesn't want them testifying against him he's doing it because everyone
21:59who is killed that's one less person to share the loot hill alleges that burke snuck out of the
22:07treatment center in between the bed checks and on the night of the heist he is in fact one of
22:13the six
22:13men there hill's testimony syncs up with everything else the feds have discovered the trouble is it's
22:21still not enough to pin the heist on burke law enforcement can't find anyone to corroborate
22:27hill's claims and added to that hill's doing this in exchange for a reduced sentence and federal
22:33protection so this calls into question the sincerity of everything he says still authorities are certain
22:42they have their man in burke they just need to find another way to bring him to justice authorities
22:49start questioning henry hill about his own alibi for that night and he says he can't possibly have
22:54been involved in the heist because he was off at boston college conducting a point shaving scheme
22:59under the orders of burke as part of the scheme burke and hill would pay players to throw certain
23:06plays or score a certain number of points in order to get within a certain scoring range that allows
23:13gamblers to then place high value bets on these games and reap huge monetary benefits
23:19in 1982 jimmy burke is convicted of racketeering and sports betting and he sent away for 12 years
23:27but 12 years isn't enough time for henry hill to feel safe so he provides the authorities with more
23:35information on another crime to try and keep jimmy burke behind bars because the minute jimmy gets out
23:41henry's a dead man burke is sent to prison but not for the lufthansa heist it's a classic mob history
23:50story you've got someone you can't pin a crime on them but you can pin other things
23:55problem is still means that the original crime is unsolved if all we have to go on is henry hill's
24:02testimony it seems like the lufthansa case is closed but there's one nagging concern about this
24:08burke is not a mob heavyweight even if burke is the one who plans the robbery and executes the robbery
24:16he's got to get the blessing of somebody higher up in the organization and whoever that is might be
24:23the one who's made off with the missing millions of dollars the lucchese crime family rules over the
24:30borough of queens and nothing happens on their turf unless it's sanctioned from the top
24:36so after the lufthansa heist in 1978 feds are convinced that while low-level mobsters might
24:44have carried out the actual robbery the five million dollar payload travels much further up the food
24:50chain to get it back they'll need to bring down the godfather himself crime families operate and are
24:58successful for so long because you have this separation the guy that's ordering these crimes to be committed
25:04is so far separated from people actually committing crimes that when the fbi and the local police are
25:11making these arrests they can only get this bottom level but the people above them that are pulling the
25:17strings they never go to jail this time the feds have a secret weapon they have henry hill who's turned
25:23informant and is in the witness protection program he's worked for the lucchese family for decades
25:28according to hill the lucchese family have their hands in all kinds of industries across new york
25:34trucking construction the garment industry and they also make a lot of money shipping stolen goods and
25:41shaking down transportation and union organizations the lucchese family used to be one of the smaller
25:47families but now under this dawn with the increased amount of smuggling and stealing not just from jfk
25:55but also from la guardia and newark they've become one of the strongest and most powerful families in
26:02the mall
26:08the head of the lucchese family is don antonio carralo better known as tony ducks he's been in
26:15charge of the family since 1974 and he gets his nickname because of his uncanny ability to duck law
26:21enforcement part of what makes him so hard to arrest is he's got 500 foot soldiers under his command he
26:28also rarely leaves his mansion in queens where he's surrounded by a two-story brick wall bodyguards and
26:35attack dogs authorities already pretty much know this but henry hill confirms that while the lufthansa
26:43heist might have been jimmy burke's idea or his brainchild he still needs the dawn's blessing
26:48and hill confirms that tony ducks gave him his blessing to carry out the heist in exchange for
26:54fifty percent of the loot according to hill tony ducks isn't just doling out blessings and collecting
27:02money he's organizing every detail of the operation at the time of the heist jimmy burke is serving time
27:10in the rehab center in times square in new york the thing is he should be serving that time in
27:15georgia
27:15because after all that's where he was busted for cocaine possession agents are wondering whether
27:21it's tony ducks who managed to arrange to have burke serve his time in new york rather than georgia
27:28so if that's the case then really tony ducks is the one who's in control of this operation and not
27:34jimmy
27:34the gent in addition to hill's testimony they also have the testimony of the don's chauffeur who says that
27:45just days after the heist the don was already planning the execution of many of the people
27:51involved nobody actually speaks to the don himself directly except for his lieutenants there are
27:58several levels of men before the order of a hit gets to the actual assassin and that's by design
28:04that's so that there are many levels of protection so that you can't trace that order directly back to
28:08the don if the feds can't nail tony ducks on the murders and the heist itself there's only one other
28:16way authorities think they can bring him down by finding the money authorities already know about the
28:25network that tony ducks uses to distribute money but he seems to be behaving with more caution than usual
28:31understandable understandable after a heist of this size the way his network operates is that the
28:38cash first comes to his walled compound in queens then he takes his cut which is going to be laundered
28:44through his various businesses but the rest of it is parceled out in small quantities and carried
28:51via couriers to various locations in the united states one of authorities major leads points them towards
28:59a lieutenant's house in hollywood florida where they believe couriers have brought a lot of this
29:05money to and they're sent back to new york to make that run again according to henry hill once these
29:11couriers have either outlived their usefulness or might be getting too close and might turn tony ducks orders
29:18their assassination once the money gets to florida where it goes is anyone's guess the fbi gets a tip that
29:27250 000 of it can be found in a safe deposit box in a florida bank in miami but by
29:33the time the fbi gets
29:34there it's been cleaned out law enforcement suspects at that point that tony ducks has laundered all of this
29:41money through legitimate businesses he's got a flower shop he's got taxi stands he's got bars and restaurants and
29:50that money was probably already laundered and will never be found at this point the only person ever
29:57arrested and convicted of the lufthansa heist is louie werner tony ducks ducks another one here and it's
30:05never pinned to him they find none of the cash and no evidence to bring him into court
30:12it's been almost seven years and the fbi is no closer to tracking down the mastermind or the five
30:18million dollars in cash from the lufthansa heist of 1978. the trail has gone completely cold by the
30:26early 1980s not only can the feds not find the money but key witnesses refuse to talk pretty much
30:33every suspect that they have in mind has been killed and there's really no way to connect the
30:39remaining players to the crime itself things start to change though when in 1985 there's a new mob boss
30:48on the rise in the gambino family who feds realize might have had a hand in lufthansa as well john
30:56gotti killed his way to power in december of 1985 by organizing the assassination of his predecessor paul
31:04castellano in a very high profile gangland execution carried out in midtown manhattan during the christmas
31:11shopping season the reason gotti felt that he had to murder his godfather is because he's totally
31:18anti-drugs and doesn't want the gambino family involved in narcotics at all gotti and his crew
31:24had been indicted on a drug charge so he's now afraid that when the don finds out he'll have him
31:29killed so it's basically a situation where gotti waxes godfather before he gets whacked himself
31:34now with narcotics sales sanctioned from the very top the gambino family becomes one of the most
31:42profitable and violent gangs in new york city under the control now of john gotti as the godfather
31:51the lucchese family expand their criminal empire this is the time where they start to make huge profits
31:56but also john gotti is not a low key under the radar guy the dapper john like he's seen a
32:03newspaper
32:04all the time he gets a second nickname and that's the teflon don because every time they came after
32:09him for these different crimes it just kind of slid off him gotti's flashy lifestyle definitely draws
32:16the attention of law enforcement and almost immediately after coming to power feds start wiretapping bugging
32:21his establishments trying to get information about him in order to bring him and the gambino family
32:27down thanks to those wiretaps in 1986 gotti is arrested on charges of racketeering and extortion
32:34as authorities are building their case against gotti another thing comes up it turns out that gotti
32:41received a huge cut of the take from the lufthansa heist
32:49this comes as a surprise to the fbi the agency knows the lucchese mob is behind the heist
32:57but never suspected they could have been cooperating with a rival family
33:02the gambino family holds a lot of sway in parts of south queens near jfk which is territory that they
33:09basically share with the lucchese family so it would have been pretty natural for gotti and the
33:15gambino family to be key players in the lufthansa heist during the course of investigation they find
33:22out that gotti is integral as part of the heist they use his garage as a waypoint to transfer the
33:29money from the robbery to a switch car and then gotti offers his other services to crush that van to
33:35destroy evidence stacks edwards got delayed and the car got discovered but initially the plan for
33:43john gotti was that him and his crew were going to get rid of the getaway vehicle that scrapyard
33:49is owned by the gambinos this suggests that the gambino family has been involved in the heist from
33:55the very beginning allegedly gotti's take from the lufthansa heist comes to around two hundred thousand
34:00dollars considering that other participants collect only a small portion of the money they're owed
34:08gotti's whopping payout suggests he played a major role behind the scenes
34:14if gotti did help haul the lufthansa loot it's likely that it was shuttled throughout the various
34:20gambino family activities including high-level narcotics so whether it's the lucchese family or the gambino
34:27family the result is the same the money is nowhere to be found in 1992 gotti is finally convicted not
34:34for the lufthansa heist but on various conspiracy charges agents continue to try to get him to
34:40confess to the heist but he remains silent with gotti's death in 2002 the only one directly involved
34:47in the heist who goes to jail for it is lewis werner everyone else either walks or takes the secret
34:53to their
34:54graves for nearly four decades after the lufthansa heist the investigation remains cold neither the
35:03mastermind nor the five million in stolen cash has ever been found in 2014 authorities make their first
35:11arrest in the lufthansa case in over 35 years they arrest 80 year old vincent asaro who's a made man
35:17and
35:18member of the banano family authorities say that asaro has been pretty entrenched in the banano family
35:23syndicate for decades the fbi has suspected for many years that asaro might have some connection
35:29to the case but they never had any hard evidence to implicate him however in this new investigation
35:36and trial the fbi thinks it's found enough to connect a third mob family to the heist
35:49in 1978 at the time of the lufthansa heist the banano crime family is essentially the smallest of
35:55the five families in new york and this small size allows them to really partner up with the other
36:00four families to pull off heists and other crimes even though it's been decades since the lufthansa heist
36:07authorities still want to figure out where that five million dollars went and they're convinced
36:13that vinnie asaro and the banano crime family might have the missing information they need
36:18to track down this money the key witness at the trial is asaro's cousin a long-time banano associate
36:26turned fbi informant at asaro's trial it becomes known that his cousin had secretly recorded
36:33conversations between them between 2010 and 2013 and one of these recordings asaro allegedly confesses
36:41to the lufthansa heist the cousin gets asaro to reminisce about that night in december 1978 when he
36:48showed up with burlap sacks filled with cash and gold coins and crates filled with watches and jewels
36:55asaro's cousin essentially gets vinnie asaro to admit to the whole events of the evening of the
37:02lufthansa heist including how asaro talked his cousin into being the person who would hide the
37:08money according to this taped confession a week later someone shows up at his cousin's door rings
37:14the doorbell and takes all the loot when asaro takes the stand and is forced to listen to the
37:20secret recordings he dismisses them with a wave of his hand asara takes the stand and is completely
37:27defiant he accuses his cousin of simply being a rat who will say anything in order to have his own
37:33crimes pardoned asaro admits under cross-examination that he knew about the heist but it was carried out
37:39by people he knew who hung out with him at robert's lounge asaro says i was never really involved
37:45another witness corroborates the cousin by saying that he saw asara with an attache case full of money
37:53and jewels and he saw asaro giving that attache case to a bonanno leader sort of as a tribute
38:02so of course he would have known about lufthansa heist asaro claims that he was offered hush money
38:08from jimmy the jet to keep quiet about the heist but that he never received it and he didn't go
38:14after
38:14that money because he says he knew better than to approach a man as violent as jimmy but another
38:21informant counters that claim he says asaro was suddenly able to pay off all of his gambling debts
38:26in just one day and then he proceeded to place even more bets thereafter by the 1990s asaro had
38:34really lost everything he was a gambler he was into drugs he used to be a captain of the banana
38:39family
38:40and they demoted him he really was kind of nothing he was living out in a small house in queens
38:45until
38:462014 when he was charged with being involved in the heist asaro is quite a character during his trial
38:53he is very insistent that he needs to have a clear sight line to all of his accusers and he
39:01essentially
39:01goes out of his way to threaten them he even mouths obscenities while he is on the stand as sorrow's
39:08defense
39:08team plays along with these belittling tactics by portraying his cousin as just a desperate guy
39:16who is out to have his own crimes forgiven by making up stories about a member of the family
39:22the strategy seems to work on november 12 2015 after just two days of deliberation the jury announces
39:31its verdict not guilty on all charges prosecutors are just speechless they've been working on this
39:39case for years and they had a dozen witnesses testifying that they thought that this would
39:44stick jurors don't offer any explanation for their verdict but many do feel that the prosecutors reliance
39:51on turned informants and witnesses who were trying to expunge their own records was unreliable
39:58it's yet another setback for the decades-old criminal investigation and most likely the government's
40:05last chance to try someone for the lufthansa heist asaro walks free he claps for the jurors he hugs his
40:14lawyers he thanks the judge and then he goes to get into his car and as he does so he
40:20says to his
40:21lawyer a very mafia sounding quip don't let them see the body in the trunk unfortunately
40:27asaro's full involvement in the lufthansa heist and the whereabouts of the five million dollars
40:32might never be fully known he dies in 2023 in his modest house in queens just a few miles from
40:39jfk
40:42to this day the only person actually convicted in the lufthansa heist is low-level airline worker
40:50louis werner jimmy burke the lucchese gambino and banano family godfathers and other major players
40:59all escaped charges related to the lufthansa heist and with all of them now dead the secret of what
41:06happened to the missing millions may be gone forever making it one of the most elusive and
41:11bloody open cases in american history i'm lawrence fishburne thank you for watching history's greatest
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