Vincent Asaro, the ‘Goodfellas’ mafioso suspected of the Lufthansa robbery

Although gangster Vincent Asaro was acquitted of participating in the infamous 1978 Lufthansa robbery and strangling a man with a dog chain, he was ultimately felled by his road rage.

ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy Stock PhotoVincent Asaro is escorted by FBI agents in 2014.

Although the so-called golden age of the Mafia was seemingly over as the 21st century approached, mafioso Vincent Asaro would remain in the news well into the 2020s. Asaro was a prominent member of the Bonanno crime family in New York City and was said to have overseen much of the family’s operations at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Asaro, sometimes called “The Last Goodfella,” faced numerous mob charges throughout his life but only a handful of convictions, including theft of interstate shipment and burglarizing a post office. But he reached a new level of notoriety in 2014, when the then 78-year-old was indicted for his alleged participation in the infamous 1978 Lufthansa heist. He was also accused of murdering associate Paul Katz, whom Asaro reportedly believed was cooperating with law enforcement.

Vincent Asaro was ultimately found not guilty on both charges, but in 2017 he pleaded guilty to a separate arson charge, in which he ordered the torching of a driver’s car following a road rage incident that occurred in 2012. He was originally set to serve eight years in prison for the crime, but was eventually granted compassionate release in 2020 due to his advanced age and poor health. And he died a free man three years later.

But despite the fact that prosecutors were unable to convince the jury that Asaro was involved in the Lufthansa heist, his long career within the Bonanno family is as violent and legendary as that of any other mob boss.

Vincent Asaro was born into a life of crime

United States Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New YorkAn undated image by Vincent Asaro.

While other gangsters found their way into the Mafia because they saw an opportunity or wanted money, Vincent Asaro was literally born into it. Asaro was born on July 10, 1937 in Queens, New York and grew up knowing that both his father and grandfather were Bonanno family members.

As ABC 7 reported, Assistant District Attorney Alicyn Cooley said Asaro “fully embraced” a life of crime, adding that his devotion to the Bonanno family was “as permanent as the ‘death first, honor second’ tattoo on his arm.”

As Asaro rose through the ranks, he developed a close bond with James “Jimmy the Gent” Burke, an associate of the Lucchese family who was the infamous mastermind behind the Lufthansa heist. This connection would eventually become one of the key points in Asaro’s Lufthansa trial.

Lucchese family associate-turned-informant Henry Hill would later identify Asaro as a capo in the Bonanno family, known for overseeing the family’s interests at JFK Airport. There aren’t many in-depth chronicles of Asaro’s life story, but thanks to his name being mentioned in connection with various crimes, key details of his life can be discerned.

United States Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New YorkVincent Asaro (right) with his cousin Gaspare Valenti (left) in an undated photo. Valenti would later testify against Asaro.

For example, Asaro was suspected of killing co-worker Paul Katz, the owner of a Queens warehouse where Asaro and Burke often stashed their belongings, in 1969. Although Katz’s remains weren’t found until 2013, Asaro was reportedly so shaken by the discovery that he accidentally drove into a metal pillar. While that by no means proved Asaro had anything to do with Katz’s death, his known connection to Katz’s warehouse — and the fact that the warehouse had been raided by police, almost as if Katz had tipped them off — certainly seemed to imply that he knew something about it.

Asaro and his son Jerome were also charged in the 1981 arson of a former nightclub in Ozone Park, Queens. The nightclub had been called “Afters,” for “after Lufthansa.” Vincent Asaro was reportedly upset that the club was being replaced by another venue that would cater to black patrons.

Years later, Asaro’s cousin Gaspare Valenti, a Bonanno crime family member turned informant, revealed a series of chilling, secretly recorded conversations between Asaro and other members of the Mafia. In one of them, Asaro can be heard talking to his associate John Rangano about collecting a debt.

“Stab him today,” Asaro said. “Today, today.”

While his arrests in 2014 and 2017 made waves, they weren’t Asaro’s only run-ins with the law. Since 1957, Asaro has been arrested more than 20 times for various crimes, including bank robberies, kidnappings, rapes, and assaults. Most of the charges against him were dropped, but he was convicted of theft of interstate shipment and burglarizing a post office in the early 1970s. And in 1998, he was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison for possession of stolen property and enterprise corruption.

But it wasn’t until the 2010s that he really came into the spotlight.

Acquitted in Lufthansa robbery case, but found guilty of arson

ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy Stock PhotoVincent Asaro leaves court after being charged in 2014 in connection with the 1978 Lufthansa robbery.

When Vincent Asaro was indicted for the Lufthansa heist in 2014, it was big news. After all, the $6 million heist was one of the most notorious Mafia heists of all time, and it was also one that led to the downfall of many of the criminals involved.

The robbery was famously depicted in the crime drama Good guyswhich was inspired by the book by Nicholas Pileggi Smart guy about the life of Henry Hill — a book that only exists because Jimmy Burke became so paranoid after the robbery that he was determined to take out everyone involved. Hill, fearing for his own life after authorities played a tape of Burke and Lucchese crime family capo Paul Vario discussing “mob-beating” Hill, became an informant.

But while Henry Hill implicated Burke and Vario in his testimony, and had plenty of stories to tell about other gangsters like Tommy DeSimone and Billy Batts, Hill seemed to mention Asaro only in passing, and Asaro seemed to hide any involvement he had in the robbery. By and large, people thought they knew who was really involved. Had the authorities really failed to catch Vincent Asaro all these years?

Thomas Monaster/NY Daily News Archive via Getty ImagesAlthough James “Jimmy the Gent” Burke was sentenced to prison after Henry Hill’s testimony, authorities were never able to definitively prove that he orchestrated the Lufthansa heist.

As a jury would determine, the answer was no. To the dismay of prosecutors, who had spent years building a case against Asaro, he walked free. Even the testimony of Asaro’s cousin, star witness Gaspare Valenti, failed to convince the jurors. As Valenti testified, Asaro had personally recruited him for the Lufthansa heist, reportedly saying, “Jimmy Burke’s got a big one coming up at the airport soon, and you’re invited to go.” Valenti also alleged that Asaro and Burke had strangled suspected police informant Paul Katz with a dog chain.

But the then 80-year-old was acquitted in 2015. Asaro believed the jury acquitted him because the prosecution’s charges were “overkill.” He said, “(The prosecution) must have put 30 cops on the stand, all lies.” And Asaro was so happy after his acquittal that he joked before getting into a waiting car, “Don’t let them see the body in the trunk.”

Unfortunately for Asaro, a more recent incident from 2012 would resurface and prove to be his undoing in 2017. He was involved in a road rage incident that ended in arson after he was cut off at a stoplight. Enraged, Asaro and two coworkers — one of whom was John Gotti’s grandson — went to the driver’s home and set his car on fire, according to the New York Post.

United States Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New YorkSurveillance photo of Vincent Asaro (center) with John Gotti, the notorious boss of the Gambino crime family.

“Asaro harbored enough resentment over being cut off in traffic that he not only followed and terrorized a citizen for a time, but also had a coworker track down his home address and then, a few days later, ordered the man’s car to be set on fire,” said Brooklyn federal judge Allyne Ross.

This time, in 2017, Asaro actually pleaded guilty to the crime and even apologized: “It was a stupid thing I did and I’m terribly sorry. I was on my way home — it happened. It just got out of hand.” He was sentenced to eight years in prison for the crime, but he did not want to serve the full sentence.

Vincent Asaro’s release from prison and his final years

Apparently Vincent Asaro’s luck wasn’t up yet, as he was released on compassionate grounds in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“If Asaro were to contract COVID-19, it is not unlikely, given his age and current condition, that the consequences would be serious,” Judge Allyne Ross wrote in a 16-page ruling granting Asaro early release from prison in April 2020.

Asaro’s health had already begun to deteriorate in his later years, and he had suffered a stroke in prison. Fears that he would contract COVID-19 were not unfounded, and so he was released from prison. Fortunately, Asaro seemed to stay out of trouble in his final years.

Then, on October 22, 2023, it was announced that Vincent Asaro had died at the age of 86. His former attorney Gerald McMahon noted, “He’s clearly had nine lives. But this must have been the tenth.”

After reading about Vincent Asaro, learn about Bugs Moran, the Chicago mobster who rivaled Al Capone. Then read about Philip Johnson, the man who nearly pulled off the biggest money heist in American history.