01x04 - The Lufthansa Heist

[bunniefuu]

It's supposed to be easy:

Get in... get out.

Get rich.
Nobody gets hurt.

Each airline had
their own cargo vaults.

There's a lot of money
and a lot of valuables.

But when New York mobsters
go after the millions

in Lufthansa's cargo area...

If anybody's seen
that movie, "Goodfellas,"

this is the way it happened.

Nothing goes to plan.

If anything goes wrong,
they're dead.

Like, he wanted
something to go wrong.

An inside job with
more than a few twists.

It's shocking and violent.

The Lufthansa heist
is definitely

one of the deadliest robberies
that's ever been committed.

♪ ♪

It was about staying alive.

♪ ♪

The masterminds
behind every great heist

see what most people don't...

♪ ♪

Risking everything to pull
off the score of a lifetime.

It takes a bold plan...

the right team...

and the skill to stay
one step ahead of the law.

[jazzy music]

♪ ♪

[rock music]

♪ ♪

John F. Kennedy
International Airport,

one of the busiest cargo
terminals in the world,

and the largest in the US.

It's December, 1978, and more
than a million tons of goods

are moving through here,

goods that include cash, jewels,

you name it.

For New York's mafia families,

the airport is a cash cow,

[mellow rock]

♪ ♪

There are five main
organized crime families.

By the 1970s, they've
been occupying New York

and operating for so long

that, in a lot of ways,
they feel invincible.

These families
operate independently,

but they also
cooperate together.

They have their own
spheres of influence.

The mob,
they would make money

out of the airport
in any way they could,

but mostly
they would hijack trucks.

You would get the driver

and literally
take his load from him.

JFK was the king of
the hill.

Today, there's going
to be $10 million

worth of goods coming in.

Next week, there's
going to be 50 million.

So you might think that
there was a lot of robberies

going on at the airport...
not so.

Where most thefts happened
were off-airport.

But sometime in 1976,

a Lufthansa cargo agent

named Peter Gruenwald

gets an idea.

Why not stage
a heist right here

inside Lufthansa's cargo area?

His only questions are:
when and how?

He thought he was a schemer
and a great planner,

and he knew
the cargo movements.

So he thought about
this a long time.

For the next 24 months,

Gruenwald obsessively
looks for shipping patterns

and security flaws.

What he sees
are dollar signs.

By the late fall of 1978,

he knows December
is the right time to strike.

December, without a doubt,
is the busiest time

for cargo traffic
at Kennedy Airport.

Lufthansa Cargo
would get pretty busy

during the holidays,

especially around
the Christmas holidays.

European banks use Lufthansa

to ship
millions of dollars a month

in currency exchange
to banks in the US.

The airline also transports
expensive luxury goods.

People are sending gifts,
valuable gifts,

to the United States.

It could potentially
be millions

and millions of dollars.

It's the perfect target.

♪ ♪

And it's in
the perfect location.

Lufthansa's cargo
is held in building 261,

the last warehouse inside the
airport's secure perimeter.

The Lufthansa building
was huge.

It was about 180,000
square feet.

It had three floors,

and the third floor was
where all the offices were,

and the lunchroom was there.

The main floor
was all the cargo area.

And there was
the high value room.

At Lufthansa, we call
the vault the val room.

Each airline had
their own cargo vaults,

warehouses where they
put in the high value,

like currency and jewelry
and maybe some high-value art.

The most valuable shipments

are held in Lufthansa's
high-value room

until they can be picked up
by armored cars.

Brinks would take those
things to a designated bank

that the airline
would have deposited.

And jewelry, a lot of times,

would go into the jewelry
center in Manhattan.

The high-value room at
the Lufthansa Cargo hangar

was actually two rooms that
were divided by a steel door.

When you went
into the outer door,

you had to lock it behind you

before you could
open the inner door.

If you didn't,
you would set off an alarm

again at the Port Authority.

And the inner room is where

they had all of
the high-value items...

cash, jewels.

And so you needed to get
into that main room there

in order to pull off the heist.

And there are
more challenges.

Even if Gruenwald
hits the warehouse

during the night shift,

he needs to subdue
seven workers.

Once they're under control,
he can

use the supervisor's keys to

get into the high-val room.

There's just one problem,
Gruenwald has a plan.

What he doesn't have
is a team.

So he turns to a colleague
with a known gambling problem

and ties to the mob...
Louis Werner.

I heard from guys at work,
Louis liked the gamble,

and he was into
some money to the mob.

Louis Werner
owes about $6,000

in gambling debts,
which is about $26,000

in today's money.

So he was desperate
to pay off that debt.

You don't want to
be in debt to the mob

because they'll ask you
once for the money.

And if you don't have it
the second time

they'll come back
and break your legs.

♪ ♪

A lot of guys like this guy
Werner want to get involved

with the mob and want to
bring something to the mob

to get into their good graces.

Once a civilian brings
something to the mob,

there's no turning back.

Werner brings Grunwald's
plan to his bookie,

and it eventually makes its
way to a notorious mobster,

Jimmy Burke.

He's a member of New York's
Lucchese crime family,

and the guy played by Robert
De Niro in "Goodfellas."

Jimmy Burke
was an associate

for the Lucchese family.

Jimmy was more like a captain,
the status of captain,

because he had his own crew,

even though
he was an associate.

Jimmy Burke has a nickname,
it's "Jimmy, the Gent,"

and he gets
this nickname because

of this little habit
of tipping drivers $50

whenever he hijacks
their trucks.

Either you take the tip and
your truck gets hijacked,

or you get k*lled and
your truck gets hijacked.

Burke spies an opportunity

and sends a trusted lieutenant
named Joe Buddha

to check out Werner.

♪ ♪

Werner, he really does feel
that this is his only way out

of his gambling debts,
and so he meets with Joe Buddha

as sort of a gamble.

When Lou Werner met up
with Joe Buddha,

he put his life on the line.

Because if things
didn't go right,

or they suspected him
of being an informant,

he was getting k*lled.

But he's a gambler.

He's willing to take
that shot,

willing to take that bet.

[suspenseful music]

Werner gives Buddha

essentially everything that he has.

♪ ♪

So that's the site plan,

that's the list
of employees' names,

the security protocol
for the high-value room.

♪ ♪

But Werner is too
scared to really make

the conditions of this deal.

And so the mob
sort of implies, yeah,

you're going
to get a cut of this,

but Werner doesn't leave
these meetings knowing exactly

what he's going to get.

There's always
a chance if you're

coming to a crew
like the Burke crew

and you are telling them
how to steal $1 million

that they will k*ll you and
take you out of the equation

to make a million dollars
on their own.

A civilian who goes
to the mob

never thinks
about the end game,

and it's never
gonna go good for them.

With a plan
that's a roadmap to riches,

Jimmy the Gent
starts building his team.

Some of New York's
most vicious made men

will be part of it.

[dramatic music]

[suspenseful music]

It's just after
Thanksgiving, 1978,

and mobster Jimmy the Gent

is holding a meeting
in Queens.

He's gathered
the most trusted members

of his crew to brief
them on what could be

the score of a lifetime.

♪ ♪

The first person invited
onto the job: Vinny Asaro,

not part of Jimmy's
usual crew.

Jimmy was with the
Lucchese crime family,

and Vinny was
with the Bonannos.

There was no
question whatsoever

that Jimmy Burke
would bring Vinny Asaro

onto the Lufthansa heist.

So that each of
the two crime families can,

in Burke's words, get a taste,

Vinny recruits his cousin,
Gaspare "Gary" Valenti.

Gary's an experienced
hijacker, and a big earner

for the Bonannos.

My cousin Vinny
came to me, he says,

"We got a big score
coming down."

He says Jimmy personally
wants me to invite you

to be part of the crew.

I says, okay, you know?
I'm honored.

In that life, it was an honor.

I says okay.

This is probably
$1 million or $2 million.

I said wow.

To head the team, Burke
picks his right hand man,

Tommy DeSimone,
immortalized by Joe Pesci

in "Goodfellas."

Tommy's a made man,
and a guy who scares even

the most hardened mobsters.

♪ ♪

The hairs just stood up
on the back of my neck.

Tommy was "Two g*n" Tommy.

He always carried two pistols.

He was just a wild guy.

He was about 6'3," 6'4,"
good-looking guy.

If anybody's seen
that movie "Goodfellas,"

he was an angel in that
movie compared to what

his real life was about.

[music playing]

Tommy was
a volatile individual.

He was quick to start a fight
and would not hesitate

to k*ll you if he needed to.

Jimmy showed us,
this is Lufthansa.

This is the score of scores.

♪ ♪

This should be
a million at least.

♪ ♪

Closer to $2 million in cash.

Jimmy Burke was the real
boss behind the robbery

at Lufthansa, knowing how
many employees were there,

how many handcuffs
would be needed,

how many individuals he
needed to conduct a robbery.

Jimmy put everything together.

♪ ♪

No doubt about that.

Jimmy's version of the
plan seemed simple on paper.

The crew would arrive at
Lufthansa at exactly 3:00 a.m.

during the night shifts'
meal break.

The van will drop off six men
at the front entrance

then continue to the back
of the building

and wait for a signal
that the robbers inside

have secured
the third floor lunchroom.

That's where all but one
of the employees

should be gathered.

[jazzy music]

That one employee?

He's the warehouse supervisor,
and he's key to the heist

because he literally holds the
keys to the high-val room.

To pull off that plan, the team
has to lure him of his office

and prevent him from tripping
the silent alarm.

[clicks tongue]

Hmph.

Our warehouse supervisor
was Rudy Eirich.

He needed two keys in
order to open the doors.

He needed both keys
to turn simultaneously

to unlock the door,
because if it didn't,

an alarm would go off
at the Port Authority.

[edgy music]

♪ ♪

The plan is set.

Insider Louis Werner
will tip off the heist team

when the val room is full.

He leaves original mastermind
Peter Gruenwald in the dark.

Werner never tells
the mob about Gruenwald,

and he never tells
his co-worker,

who invested
two years in planning,

what's about to go down.

Werner thinks that if he cuts
Gruenwald out of the heist,

that he's going to
make more money,

and this is important to him
because of his gambling debts.

Gruenwald doesn't really
realize what's happening.

He thinks that
he's still in on this,

and he thinks that Werner's
just biding his time

to come up with a plan.

December 8, 1978,

Werner learns
that a Lufthansa flight

just landed with
millions in cash

on board from overseas banks.

Whenever we had
valuable cargo coming in

on an inbound flight,
Brinks was notified

to pick up the valuable cargo.

Brinks would basically
pick up money,

and they would take it
to the bank.

And back in 1978,
the banks closed at 3:00.

So if it got too late, Brinks
was not taking the money.

They left it there
at our val room.

♪ ♪

If Werner can prevent
the Brinks armored truck

from making the pickup,
millions in cash

will spend the weekend
in the high-value room.

When the val shipment
came in,

Louis delayed the paperwork.

Brinks said, no,
banks are closed

and we're not taking
the money.

See, this is the key.

Brinks couldn't
make that pickup.

That meant all
that cash had to sit

in the vault over the weekend,
and it was a lot of money.

[energetic music]

♪ ♪

It's almost too
good to be true.

[phone rings]
So Werner lets the team know

there's a ripe opportunity
if they can move fast.

We already had the
supplies, the ski masks,

the cuffs, the gloves.

Everybody had g*ns.

We didn't have to
worry about that.

Jimmy's crew has
everything they need,

except for the perfect vehicle.

They need to steal one ASAP.

Jimmy tells the guys
get a van big enough

to hold eight or ten guys.

Because they're planning
the heist to be at nighttime,

they would want a black van
to blend in better.

It's difficult to come up
with the right vehicle.

They spent the whole weekend

looking for a black van
to steal.

Joe Buddha finally finds
the right van for the job,

just as another huge cargo
shipment arrives at Lufthansa.

It should be good news,
but there's a catch.

More cash also means
additional personnel on site,

something the heist team
doesn't know about.

Because we had
an extra freighter,

they called in people
on overtime.

That night, December 11th, we
had three more guys scheduled.

But if you weren't
working that day,

you didn't know about
the extra section,

you would not know
there was extra people

called in on overtime.

Unaware of the extra
workers, the heist team

meets to review plans.

It's finally go time.

That night of the heist,
we meet up at Jimmy's.

Everybody shows up.

[energetic music]

Everybody checked their g*ns,
checked their gloves,

checked the cuffs,
ski mask, everything.

Jimmy said, "Listen, guys,
you're the best there are.

"There's nobody
better than you guys.

"That's why I picked you.

"You guys are very capable
of pulling this off.

There's no doubt in my mind."

The crew heads out in the
van, followed by a crash car,

a vehicle ready and waiting

to crash into Port Authority
police vehicles if necessary.

They were parked there
at a gas station

about two miles
away from the airport.

They had their g*ns outside
the car behind the wheels

in case the cops came,
you know,

"What are you doing here?"
whatever.

So they would stash the g*ns
on the inside of the wheel.

At 3:00 a.m.,
the van pulls up

to the unrestricted
front entrance

of Lufthansa Building 261.

All but two of the
crew exit the van.

The heist begins now.

♪ ♪

To get into the building,
you needed nothing.

We had no alarms
and no security guard.

[jazzy rock music]

At that time at
Lufthansa Cargo,

we never expected
a robbery like this.

We had no idea
that the biggest

robbery in airline history was
about to happen that night.

Just after 3:00 a.m.
on December 11, 1978,

Tommy DeSimone and crew

storm into the Lufthansa
Cargo Building 261.

They've timed their
entry to coincide

with an employee meal break.

When the inside team
came in to the lunchroom,

most of the people,
from what we understand,

after speaking to them,
they were, my words,

"pissing in their pants."

They were very, very
scared because these guys

are flashing g*ns out there.

It was upstairs,
the lunchroom.

These guys come in.
Tommy was a bad dude.

He was homicidal.

He would k*ll you
without blinking an eye.

No reason. Just k*ll you.

If anything goes wrong,
they're dead.

All of the men that are
working that evening...

none of them expected
that this was going to happen.

This was sudden,
and it's terrifying.

I look at life, when
your number's up, it's up,

and there's nothing
you can do about it.

For some of the guys,
in fact, it might have

been the most terrifying
night of their life.

Meanwhile, the van drives
to the side of the building,

but Gary Valenti deals with
the padlocked gate

blocking access
to Lufthansa's loading dock.

♪ ♪

I was out of a van
with bolt-cutters.

I didn't cut the lock.

I was too smart for that,
because security would come

around and check the lock.

So I cut the link on
a chain and un-linked it.

And then when Frankie
pulled in with the van...

♪ ♪

I just hooked the link back up.

Valenti is right
to be cautious.

Kennedy is a 24-hour by 7 airport.

Planes come in late,
late at night.

They don't stop like at
midnight and shut down.

[edgy music]

So that's why we had a large
group of police officers

always patrolling.

We had about 60
on the midnight shift.

At that time of night, there
should have been no one back

behind the building unless
they were Port Authority people

or Lufthansa employees.

There should not have
been anybody there.

[dramatic music]

Back in the break room,
Tommy DeSimone

checks to ensure
he secured all the employees

listed by Louis Werner.

They rounded up all the
employees into the lunchroom.

They handcuffed them,
and they were

told to put their heads down.

We were told over
and over again,

do as we're told, and nobody
was going to get hurt.

♪ ♪

They asked for everybody's
wallet and car keys,

and they said this way
we know where you are.

If you say anything,
we know where you live.

If you threaten a person,
that person

may or may not try to be
a hero.

But when you start
threatening their family,

they think twice.

And these guys
weren't the brainiest guys,

but they knew how to
threaten people's families.

They go to the wife,
they go to the children,

and mothers and fathers.

They put that threat
to them, and nobody,

nobody wanted to do anything.

They just wanted them to
get the hell out of there.

♪ ♪

Even the heist team wants
to get the hell out of there,

but there are two men missing
from the list of employees.

Back outside, the guys in the
van are growing concerned.

By now, they expected crew to
have locked down the employees

and open the cargo door.

But
we're sitting in a van.

We took off the mask
because they see two guys

in a van with ski masks on...

something's wrong, you know?

[edgy music]

♪ ♪

Sitting in the van,
I saw a truck

headed towards the cargo area.

[uneasy music]

One of the guys working
overtime was Kerry Whalen.

♪ ♪

He was doing transfers,
taking cargo from Lufthansa

to the other airlines.

♪ ♪

He must have seen the van
out at the back door.

Kerry approaches
the cargo bay door

with his eyes on the van.

When he spots the
unfamiliar faces inside,

he panics and starts to run.

And if he makes it
from here to there,

it's not just the heist
that's in danger.

Tommy "Two g*ns"
up in the break room

is volatile and violent, and he
got his nickname for a reason.

[tense music]

When I seen the guy walking
towards me, he sees me,

and I know he made me.

I said he can't get away.

'Cause he gets away,

my guys in there
are going to get caught.

They're trapped.

I said this guy has got to be
taken, one way or the other.

Less than half an hour
into the heist,

Gary Valenti
and van driver Frankie Burke

are caught off guard by the
arrival of an extra employee.

I jumped out and ran up to
him, and I says, "Don't move.

Nobody's looking to hurt you."

And he starts to
run and holler.

[dramatic music]

So I hit him in the head
with the p*stol,

split his head open,
and he fell to the ground.

Frankie stuck his p*stol
in his eye and says,

"Don't move or I'll
blow your eye out.

Now just get up."

We cuffed him,
and put him in the van.

My crew went to lunch and
I was there working because

I was trying to get
everything caught up,

and I heard a
holler at the back,

and that's when I left
my desk to walk over

to see what the noise was.

[click]

So I open the outer
walkthrough door.

This other guy
Ralph comes out...

because he heard the screams.

There's a van back there,
and somebody's

standing outside the van.

I guess he heard the
door open, and he saw me,

and I asked him if
I could help him.

And he said, yes,
and stuck a g*n in my face.

I put the g*n to him.

I said, "Look, I'm not
looking for trouble.

Just follow me to the van.
Get in the van and be quiet."

And he accommodated,
no problem.

And so, we had two of them.

♪ ♪

I got in the van, and
then I was kind of worried

because I saw the guy
that stuck the g*n

in my face with no mask on.

[dramatic music]

The only thing that
came to my mind

is that if they're
going to sh**t me,

I hope it's fast, and worried
about my wife and kids.

♪ ♪

Then, Joe Buddha come out.

He says, "We can't find
two guys."

I said, "Look in my van."

Somebody hollered out.

We're looking for
this guy Ralph.

We got everybody.

We're looking for
this guy Ralph.

And then the guy that
was outside the van

that I saw said,
is one of you Ralph?

And I said, yes, me.

♪ ♪

They got me out of the van
to come in and open the door.

♪ ♪

Once the cargo
bay door opens,

the van pulls into
the warehouse.

They led me through
the warehouse with Kerry

with a g*n at my
back up the stairs.

♪ ♪

Things are not
going as planned.

There are too many employees,
and they're not all

where Werner said
they would be.

Potentially outnumbered now,
the crew needs to reassert

control of the situation.

♪ ♪

In the lunchroom, I could
see all the rest of the crew

laying face down on the floor.

I grabbed Kerry, and they
said what happened to him?

I said, well, I says,
he wanted to be a tough guy.

One of the guys that hit
Kerry outside was straddled

over him and hit him again,
and said,

"This guy tried to get away
when I told him not to."

I said, hey guys, take
a look at your buddy here.

It could happen to you.

Nobody wants to hurt you.
You're going to hurt yourself.

And I heard somebody say we
don't have enough handcuffs.

So somebody else said
use rope and tie them up.

And they tied me and
Kerry together with rope.

The cargo workers
may be accounted for,

but phase two is trickier.

They need to coax the
supervisor out of his office

and keep him from pressing the
Port Authority panic button.

Doing that hinges on the
questionable people skills

of Tommy
"Two g*n" DeSimone,

a man not known
for his patience.

Tricking the supervisor
to leave his enclosed office

was a critical part to
making the heist successful.

He was a person that knew
about the alarm systems,

and you needed to get
him in your custody.

[upbeat jazz]

Rudy didn't leave his
office, no matter what.

So they made the office senior
agent call Rudy on the phone

and told him he had to
come up to the office

and talk to them.

[phone rings]

He says anything goes
wrong, he says...

Like, he wanted something
to go wrong.

If anything goes wrong,
they're dead.

With a g*n to his head,
the senior agent

is finding it difficult
to lure Rudy Eirich

to the third floor break room.

Tommy DeSimone tells him,
get Rudy and his vault

keys upstairs, or else.

And he called down to
Rudy on the office phone

that he had a call
from Germany,

and they wanted to
talk to the supervisor.

♪ ♪

Please, just come up.

And it worked.

♪ ♪

When Rudy came upstairs,
they also stuck a g*n on him.

So now he knew there
was a robbery going on.

The crew heads for
the high-val room

with Rudy in tow, ready
to put their inside info

to the ultimate test.

If the locks on the
doors aren't handled

in exactly the right sequence,
tempers and alarms

will go off.

When the supervisor
is leading these men

into the vault,
he definitely at this point

does not realize that there's
an inside man for this job,

and I think that he believes
that he can still trigger

the alarm and get out of this.

Unlock it now.
Go ahead.

You needed both keys
and turned simultaneously

to unlock the door,
because if you didn't,

an alarm would go off
at the Port Authority.

[dramatic music]

The supervisor,
he was nervous.

His hands were shaking.

Tommy told him put your
hands down and just relax,

because if your hands
shake again, he says,

I'll blow your brains out.

Go ahead.
Come on.

It's nearly one hour
into the Lufthansa heist,

and Jimmy Burke's
crew still doesn't

have their hands on the loot.

Success hinges on persuading

the high-value room
supervisor to play ball.

Werner told Joe Buddha you
had to open the first door,

close it, and then
open the second door

to get into the vault.

The supervisor probably
could have done something,

but it was a risk I don't think
that he was willing to take.

I don't think he
wanted to jeopardize

all the employees' lives.

If I had a g*n
to my head, I think

it would be very hard
to say no to what

someone is asking you to do.

It's self-preservation.

When Eirich realizes
the thieves know

the secret protocols to avoid
tripping the alarm, he folds.

The supervisor went
along with everything.

He didn't want to
become a dead hero.

The val room is now theirs.

Once the robbers
had the vault open,

they moved quickly.

[energetic music]

I was the first one
in with Tommy,

and there were boxes
on the side.

♪ ♪

There were exactly 50 boxes.

So Tommy took one.

He threw it on the floor,
and he stepped on it.

And he saw 125,000
in hundreds.

When I seen the money, I
started doing math in my head.

This is the score of scores.

They're shocked
at the amount of money

that they have.

This is more than double
what they were expecting.

Thanks to the
surprise cargo shipment,

the crew now faces
the best kind of work,

carrying off even more cash.

As the boxes
are being taken away,

Gary Valenti
spies something else.

There was an aluminum case

that was about
maybe 3-foot by 3.

I opened up the drawer,
and I seen diamonds.

I opened another drawer,
and I seen rubies,

and another drawer
was emeralds.

The contents of the jewelry
case add nearly 900,000

to the whole.

Now, all they need
is a clean getaway.

[exciting music]

After they got the money
out of the val room,

they brought Rudy back
upstairs and told him

to lie down on the floor also.

And then we were
told that they were

going to leave a guy behind,
and we were not to get up.

They got everything out

right into the back of
the van.

They were like precise.

[tires screeching]

As we leave the
airport, we're driving,

and Jimmy and Vinny
were in a crash car.

And we pull up to them,
and say, where to?

Where should we go with it?

Just two minutes after
leaving with the loot,

the crew hits a speed bump.

They have a getaway van,
but no real getaway plan.

As some say,
the brains, right?

You pull off
a $6 million heist,

you don't know where to go.

So Vinny yells out,
"Go to my cousin's house."

That's what we did,
we went to my house,

backed the van in, and
unloaded it in my basement.

As the team heads to Gary's,
the employees managed to call

the police and share the news.

Lufthansa Cargo
has been hit...hard.

The Port Authority's
Operations Captain,

Henry DeGeneste,
is one of the first to arrive.

We had our own detective
unit that investigated the mob

for the Port Authority police.

And when they came,
they all said,

this has got to be a mob hit.

Nobody else would
be brazen enough

to do the robbery at John F.
Kennedy Airport than the mob.

♪ ♪

Back in Gary Valenti's
basement,

the heist team's spirits
are high,

and so are the stacks of cash.

And Joe Buddha
counted the money.

He says, $2 million,
$2.5 million, $3 million,

$4 million.

Oh my God. The money
was stacked this high,

all $100 bills.

He says, could you
believe this here?

And we're still
not done counting.

You talk about euphoria.
It was amazing.

You know, the idea
that they essentially

stumble upon 5 million,
almost $6 million,

it's incredible, especially
in that day and age as money.

I mean, this is more than
$20 million in today's money.

The idea that that is
just one night's take,

it's unbelievable.

♪ ♪

The next step should be
easy...get rid of the van.

Jimmy Burke assigns
this job to crew member

Parnell "Stacks" Edwards.

♪ ♪

When a mob uses
a car in a robbery,

it's mandatory to
get rid of that car.

Being there are so many
mob-related junkyards,

you would send it to a
junkyard to get crushed.

That's the plan here.

Burke orders Stacks to make
the van disappear immediately.

Stacks went over
his girlfriend's house,

got drunk, and did some drugs,

and he left the van on
the streets for two days

parked illegally.

Meanwhile, news of
the heist is everywhere.

There was a holdup
of historic proportions

at New York City's Kennedy
Airport this morning...

Several million dollars
in cash and jewelry

taken from a cargo hanger
by a band of armed men

wearing masks.

The news went viral.

It was the biggest robbery
in airline history.

And whispers about an
inside job are growing louder.

Within days,
our informants told us

that Jimmy Burke
and his crew

were involved in the robbery.

There's nothing
bigger and better.

We walk around with
our chests like this.

And the FBI said, well,
we know it was you guys.

Well, if you knew it was us,
why don't you pinch us?

The FBI got its first break

when the New York City
Police Department

called in the plates of a van
that was illegally parked.

When they ran the plates,
determined that the van had

been stolen, I specifically
was the individual

who recovered that evidence.

There were airway bills
from the Lufthansa,

and also envelopes
were marked Lufthansa.

What did they find?
They didn't find anything.

They said they found
this, this, and that.

They found nothing.

A few days later,
New York City PD connected

the van to Stack Edwards.

I'm sure when
Jimmy Burke heard

about Stacks and his failure
to get rid of the van,

that he was livid.

Stacks has to get rid of the
van, and he had one job to do,

and he didn't do it.

In Jimmy Burke's mind,
Stacks has to go.

♪ ♪

The Lufthansa heist
went off without a hitch.

When Jimmy Burke hears that
someone didn't do their job,

he sends
Tommy "Two g*n" DeSimone

to take care of the problem.

When NYPD tracked
Stacks to his apartment,

they found him dead.

In that life if you're
told to do something,

there's a reason
you're told to do it,

and you don't do it,
your life is at risk.

With $6 million on
the line and pressure

building from the FBI,
Burke is determined

to tie up loose ends.

Stacks Edwards
is only the first.

The first person Louie Werner
contacted to get to the mob

disappeared in January 1979.

Around that same period,
Tommy DeSimone also vanished.

Jimmy starts k*lling
people because people

start spending a couple of
dollars that he gave them.

He got paranoid.

They bought cars, mink coats
and fur coats for their wives,

jewelry, watches.

If members of your crew
are spending a lot of money,

it brings attention to you.

Throughout the course
of the investigation,

it seemed like
we were just a step

or two behind Jimmy Burke.

Every time I went out

to talk to one of
Jimmy Burke's associates

that was
involved in the robbery,

it seemed that they
would end up dead.

[dramatic musical sting]

Investigators
are also determined.

They need to find the inside
man before he disappears too.

♪ ♪

Poor Peter Gruenwald
finds out about the heist

at the same time that the rest
of the world does.

He gets so panicked that he
decides to flee the country,

and he's arrested
while trying to flee.

Gruenwald admits
that the plan was his,

but he tells investigators
he didn't act on it,

and that Louie Werner
brought it to the mob.

Werner winds up
being the only person

convicted for the
Lufthansa hijacking.

The very next day after
Werner is convicted

and starts talking
about Joe Buddha,

Joe Buddha is m*rder*d.

Law enforcement found
Joe Buddha dead on May 17.

They shot him in the head
in a car in Brooklyn

and left him there.

Eventually,
police link 12 murders

to the Lufthansa heist.

Even more, a classified
was potentially linked.

In organized crime circles,

knowing too much about this heist

is a death sentence.

People are getting k*lled
around Jimmy left and right.

I would say
approximately between 20

and 30 people got k*lled, massacred.

Not k*lled, I would say
"massacred," more or less.

The Lufthansa heist
is definitely

one of the deadliest robberies
that's ever been committed.

As the body count escalates,

the FBI recovers $60,000
from Louis Werner,

but more than
$5 million simply vanishes.

Jimmy got the lion's
share of the money.

Because of the people
who were getting k*lled,

he was keeping their share.

That's how it
goes in the mob.

The guy at the top is
getting most of the money,

and the cuts underneath that
just get smaller and smaller.

Vinny and I received
$750,000 apiece.

A lot of guys never
received a full amount.

And the rest of the loot,
$60,000 from Louis Verna,

well, that's all the
police ever recover.

In the end,
Jimmy Burke is convicted,

not for the greatest
airline heist in history

or all the murders
that followed,

but for his involvement

in a conspiracy to fix
college basketball games.

Burke died in prison in 1996.

In the late 1970s,
a detailed analysis

of the security measures
at JFK is undertaken

by Port Authority officials,

although some call it
too little too late.

Security in
the cargo buildings

changed dramatically.

We put cameras in all
the cargo buildings

that went right into
our police desks

so we also could see
what was going on.

Gary Valenti and his
cousin Vincent Asaro

are the last living
survivors of the team

associated with the heist.

In 2015, Gary testified
against Asaro,

regarding his
cousin's involvement

in the Lufthansa job.

Once I couldn't be
an earner anymore,

you know, in that life,
that's how you survive.

Either you earn,
you're dead,

or you're on a shelf.

So I said, you know what?

I'm gonna become
an informant.

I decided.
I made up my mind.

I cleared my soul,
and I wanna testify.

To the surprise of everyone,
including the defendant,

Vincent Asaro is acquitted
on all charges

relating to the heist
that started right here

in Lufthansa's Building 261.

What began as
one worker's fantasy

became the most
infamous heist in mob history,

its bloody aftermath,
immortalized in "Goodfellas,"

with dozens k*lled and a take

worth more than $20 million
in today's dollars.

The Lufthansa job belongs with
history's greatest heists.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪