Lufthansa heist

Coordinates: 40.662°N 73.787°W

Date: December 11, 1978
Time: 3:00 to 4:30 a.m. (EST, UTC–5)
Venue: Lufthansa cargo building 261; John F. Kennedy International Airport
Location: New York, New York, U.S.
Coordinates: 40.662°N 73.787°W
Outcome: $5 million in cash and $875,000 in jewelry stolen
Accused:
James Burke
Louis Werner
Thomas DeSimone
Angelo Sepe
Joseph M. Costa
Louis Cafora
Paolo LiCastri
Joe "Buddha" Manri
Martin Krugman
Vincent Asaro
Robert McMahon
Verdict: Louis Werner convicted
Vincent: Asaro acquitted
Convictions: 1

The Lufthansa heist was a robbery which took place at New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport on December 11, 1978. An estimated US$5.875 million (equivalent to US$28.32 million in 2024) was stolen, with $5 million in cash and $875,000 in jewelry, making it the largest cash robbery committed in the U.S. at the time.

James Burke, an associate of the Lucchese crime family of New York, was reputed to be the mastermind of the robbery, but was never officially charged in connection with the crime. Burke is also alleged to have either committed or ordered the murders of many co-conspirators in the robbery, both to avoid being implicated in the heist and to keep their shares of the money for himself.[The only person convicted in the Lufthansa heist was Louis Werner, an airport worker involved with the planning.

The money and jewelry have never been recovered. The heist's magnitude made it one of the longest-investigated crimes in U.S. history; the latest arrest associated with the robbery was made in 2014, which resulted in acquittal.

Planning
The heist was allegedly planned by James Burke, an associate of the Lucchese crime family of New York City, and was carried out by several associates. The plot began when bookmaker Martin Krugman told Burke's associate, Henry Hill, that the German airline Lufthansa flew in currency to its cargo terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport. The information had originally come from Louis Werner, an airport worker who owed Krugman $20,000 for gambling debts (equivalent to $101,000 in 2023), and from his co-worker Peter Gruenwald. Werner and Gruenwald had previously been successful in stealing $22,000 in foreign currency (equivalent to $118,000 in 2023) from Lufthansa in 1976.

Burke selected Tommy DeSimone, Angelo Sepe, Louis Cafora, Joe Manri, Paolo LiCastri and Robert McMahon to carry out the robbery. Burke's son Frank would drive one of the backup vehicles, while Parnell "Stacks" Edwards was tasked with disposing of the van afterwards. Depending on his role in the robbery, each participant was to receive cuts of between $10,000 to $50,000. However, those amounts were based on the estimated haul, which was only $2 million compared to the actual take of $5.875 million. Werner was to receive a flat 10% of the take.

Heist
At around 3:00 a.m. on Monday, December 11, 1978, a black Ford Econoline van carrying the six members of the robbery crew pulled up to Building 261, Lufthansa's cargo terminal at Kennedy Airport. After cutting the padlock at the gate with a pair of bolt cutters, some of the crew climbed up the stairs of the east tower and entered wearing ski masks and gloves. A late model Buick was positioned in the terminal's parking lot with its lights off.

Inside the terminal, John Murray, a senior cargo agent, was the first employee to be taken hostage. He was escorted into the lunchroom where five other Lufthansa employees had been on their meal break since 3:00 a.m. and ordered to lie flat on the floor with their eyes closed. Murray was asked who else was in the warehouse. He replied that Rudi Eirich, the night shift cargo traffic manager, and Kerry Whalen, a cargo transfer agent, were present. Murray was forced to lure Eirich to come upstairs; he joined the rest of the captured employees.

Outside the terminal, Whalen noticed two unmasked men sitting in a black van parked at the loading ramp as he drove past. Whalen parked and walked toward the van. One of the men told him to get in the van. Whalen attempted to run and screamed for help, but was pistol-whipped and thrown into the van. He was brought inside the building to join the other hostages in the lunchroom.

Meanwhile, inside the warehouse, employee Rolf Rebmann heard a noise by the loading ramp and went to investigate; he was captured and brought with Whalen to the lunchroom to join the others. Some of the robbers took Eirich at gunpoint to the double-door vault. They removed 72 fifteen-pound cartons of untraceable money from the vault and placed them inside the van.

At 4:21 a.m., the van pulled to the front of the building and the crash car pulled in behind. Two gunmen climbed into the van as the others climbed into the Buick. The employees were told not to call the Port Authority Police until 4:30 a.m., when the first emergency call was recorded. The robbers drove to meet Burke at an auto repair shop in Canarsie, Brooklyn, where the boxes of money were removed from the van and placed in the trunks of two automobiles. Burke and his son drove off in one car. Four others – Manri, McMahon, DeSimone and Sepe – drove away in the second car.

Aftermath
Investigation
Edwards was instructed to drive the van to New Jersey, where it (along with any potential evidence inside) was to be destroyed in a junk yard belonging to John Gotti. Instead, he parked the black Ford van in front of a fire hydrant at his girlfriend's apartment, where police discovered it two days after the heist. The plates were stolen and the police impounded the van. They soon found Edwards' fingerprints and connected it to the robbery.

Lucchese capo Paul Vario subsequently ordered DeSimone to kill Edwards. Once they found out where Edwards was hiding, DeSimone and Sepe went to his hideout and shot him five times in the head.

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