Alleged Bonanno Crime Family Member Arrested in 1978 Lufthansa Heist That Netted $5.8M
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.
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