Oldfellas

The Mafia has aged just like much of America and the rest of the world.  Guys who are up and coming no longer want a long apprenticeship.  They want everything now and have no intention of waiting.  Yet mafia leaders are living longer than ever.  The problem is just like the problem that faces legitimate Americans - they can no longer earn like they could in their heyday.  Today the problem with the aging Mafia is even more pronounced because the Feds take your assets away with powerful laws like RICO.  Let's say you own a business and property. Today they seize it and after your prison term you come back to nothing.  Not the case with Vincent Asaro, a former Bonanno Capo who is now on trial in Manhattan US District Court for (among other things) the 1978 robbery of $5 million in cash and $1 million in jewelry from Lufthansa Airlines.  It was most famously portrayed on the big screen in the movie Goodfellas.  

Vincent Asaro is now 80 years old and not only facing the robbery charge from the Lufthansa heist, but a 44 year old murder.  Paul Katz was an associate of Jimmy Burke’s, the Irish hoodlum made famous by Robert De Niro in Goodfellas.  Burke got information from his law enforcement sources that Katz was cooperating so he strangled him with a dog chain.  Burke and Asaro buried him in a vacant queens home under some concrete.  Years later Burke contacted Asaro from prison and had him move the skeleton to the basement of a home he owned.  It might never have been discovered, but one of the men who helped decided to cash in on his time in the Mafia.

Gaspare Valenti, a cousin of Asaro, was over his head in gambling debts.  So, he went to the FBI.  He started wearing a wire and he recorded over 1000 hours of conversations with many Bonanno family members. Valenti was paid by the FBI the whole time he was wearing a wire.  

The lawyer for Asaro is making a big deal about this, but Asaro’s words come from his mouth and that is a fact.  What the US Attorneys fail to realize is that American juries that are made up of mostly blue collar and retired people are sick of these government vendettas.  

They spend millions of dollars paying a loser criminal to record another older criminal for a crime that took place 30 years ago.  They cannot stop the killings today or the invasion from Mexico, but they waste resources to go after an old man?

The government spent 3 weeks presenting its case, which included playing some bad tapes of Asaro complaining he did not get his share of the famous heist.  He even spoke about being worried he would be put on the shelf by the Bonanno family.  The problem is that most of the tapes are bad and they are spoken in a code.  They have to be explained by Valenti and he did not come across as likable. Juries also resent that murderers and criminals get paid by the FBI when they have to work hard just to live.  The former Underboss Sal Vitale made an appearance on the stand. He was above Asaro and made millions and murdered many people, yet he is free?

The case rested on the tapes, yet as damning as they were, Asaro never says Lufthansa or admits directly to murder.  They brought in 33 witnesses and dozens of pictures but not one picture showed Asaro engaged in a criminal act.

Valenti did describe how the robbery of Lufthansa went down.  It is a riveting first hand description of what it was like to break in and steal so much cash.  They formed a chain and handed over 50 boxes of $125k in cash from the vault to the van.  How did they plan the robbery so well, only to forget to have a place to keep the cash afterwards?  They ended up keeping it at Valenti’s home for the next couple of days.  They had no idea that there would be so much cash and the heat it would cause.  The police found the black van just like in the movie Goodfellas.  They found the yellow styrofoam popcorn that was used in the boxes to pack the cash.  They just ate the details up, but all that showed them was that Valenti was in on the robbery.

Asaro’s lawyer spent just one afternoon on two witness and then rested.  The jury took two days but came back with a not guilty verdict on all counts.  After two years in custody, Asaro was free to go.  The first place he went was to get a plate of pasta.

Mafia Headlines Today - Lufthansa Heist

The Lufthansa Heist!  These headlines graced many newspapers this week.  When you dig deeper into the story, you see that only one man is charged with involvement in the legendary heist. The Feds had 4 informants, one of which is Joey Massino, one his Capo and Boss, and the other is his cousin!  

Vincent Asaro was inducted into the Bonnano Family in 1968.  One of Vincent’s crew mates was Anthony Mirra, who would be killed after the Donnie Brasco undercover investigation of the Bonnano Family.  Vincent was placed in his Uncle Mickey Zaffarano's crew.   Mickey at one time had been with his Brother-in-Law Joseph Asaro.  Let me explain who Mickey was in the Mafia.  Mickey was the man who ran the porn business in the 1970's by controlling the Pussy Cat theatres and other movie houses before video cassette.  I know he backed a few porn guys in California working out of the valley.  Mickey was also a mentor to Robert Dibernardo or “DeBee” who ran the porn business for the Gambino Family until John Gotti had him killed.

The way the new RICO case reads is this: on or about and between January 1, 1968 and June 30, 2013 both dates being approximate and inclusive. These are the words that enable the Government to charge three Made men in the Bonnano Crime family with Racketeering crimes even though the statute of limitations has run out.  The crimes include the staple of the Mafia, Shylocking or Loaning money. They also include the murder of Paul Katz in 1969 (he was buried and moved to a Queens backyard) and the December 11, 1978 theft of 5 million dollars in cash and over a million dollars in gold and jewels. Vincent Asaro and company were also charged with burning down a club known then as “Afters on Rockaway Blvd” because it catered to blacks and the Italian restaurant across the street thought it would be bad for business.

Vincent and his son Jerome (also known as Jerry) robbed a Fed Ex driver of 1.2 Million in gold salts.

The Lufthansa robbery was huge and it has been detailed in at least 3 films. In Goodfellas, Robert De Niro plays Jimmy Burke, the mastermind who they renamed Jimmy Conway.  Henry Hill, who was not part of the robbery crew, was played by Ray Liota, which is a huge improvement over the real-life drunken, drug-addicted Henry Hill.  Jimmy Burke had to include members of three crime families in the robbery because they controlled various parts of the airport.  Paulie Vario, a Luchese Family Capo, controlled the Union at the airport.  Another, who in the past has been misidentified as the Gambino guy in control of the airport, was Vincent Asaro who was really the Bonnano Family man at the airport.  Paulo LiCastri was the Gambino Family man who went on the heist.

Vincent Asaro is being charged as one of the men who kept watch outside, while others carried out the robbery.  Jimmy Burke went crazy with greed and paranoia after he realized how much he really stole.  He participated in and had over 10 people connected with the robbery murdered.  When the time came for the split of the cash, those who were still alive were never given their share of the robbery.  Pauli Variosent’s son Peter was to collect his end, which he did eventually get.  

Vincent Asaro eventually was able to collect 240,000 dollars, half of which he stole from one of the informants on his case.  Vincent also brought Joey Massino a box of gold and jewels as his end of the robbery.  That turned out to be a bad move, because Joey Massino is one of the informants that helped put together the RICO Case.

The FBI taped Vincent Asaro complaining about the Robbery to an informant. "We never got our right money,what we were supposed to get. We got fucked all around, Got Fucked all around, that fucking Jimmy Burke kept everything."  I guess he was pissed but he was still close to Jimmy Burke because even many years later he had his guys move the body of Paul Katz who he murdered with Jimmy Burke in 1969.

Vincent Asaro is now 78 years old and a Capo on the ruling panel that runs the family with Boss Tommy Di Fiore.  Vincent's father was a made man and so is his son Jerome who is indicted along with the rest of them.  Vincent has a bad gambling habit and he was even demoted from his Capo position and placed under his son when he took too much cash from his crew.  The FBI has some great tapes of him bad mouthing the Boss Tommy Di Fiore over cash and even former Boss Joey Massino.

It is never boring when you live in the Mafia, but this one instance goes to show that the FBI will get you no matter how many years have passed.