Lufthansa heist facts for kids
The Lufthansa heist was a very big robbery that happened at New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport on December 11, 1978. It was one of the largest cash robberies in American history at the time. The robbers stole about $5 million in cash and $875,000 worth of jewelry. That's a total of $5.875 million!
John F. Kennedy International Airport in 2011
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| Date | December 11, 1978 |
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| Outcome | $5 million in cash and $875,000 in jewelry stolen |
| Accused |
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| Verdict | Louis Werner convicted Vincent Asaro acquitted |
The money and jewelry from the heist were never found. This robbery was investigated for a very long time, making it one of the longest-running crime investigations in the United States. The last arrest related to the robbery was made in 2014, but the person was found not guilty.
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Planning the Big Robbery
The plan for the Lufthansa heist was put together by a man named Jimmy Burke. He worked with several other people to carry out the robbery. The idea for the heist came from a bookmaker, Martin Krugman. He told another person, Henry Hill, that the airline Lufthansa flew a lot of money into its cargo terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
This information originally came from Louis Werner, who worked at the airport. Werner owed Krugman money from gambling. Another co-worker, Peter Gruenwald, also helped with the information. Werner and Gruenwald had actually stolen foreign money from Lufthansa before, in 1976.
Burke chose several people to be the robbers, including Tommy DeSimone, Angelo Sepe, Louis Cafora, Joe Manri, Paolo LiCastri, and Robert McMahon. Burke's son, Frank, was supposed to drive one of the backup cars. Another person, Parnell "Stacks" Edwards, had the job of getting rid of the van used in the robbery afterwards. Each person involved was promised a certain amount of money, depending on their role. Louis Werner was promised 10% of everything that was stolen.
The Heist Happens
On December 11, 1978, very early in the morning, around 3:00 a.m., six men arrived at Lufthansa cargo building 261. They were in a black Ford Econoline van. They used bolt cutters to cut the lock on the gate. Some of the robbers went up the stairs of the east tower. They were wearing ski masks and gloves to hide their faces. A car was parked in the terminal lot with its lights off, ready to go.
Inside the building, John Murray, a cargo agent, was the first employee taken. He was led to the lunchroom where five other Lufthansa employees were on their break. They were all told to lie on the floor with their eyes closed. Murray was asked who else was in the warehouse. He told them about Rudi Eirich, the night shift manager, and Kerry Whalen, another cargo agent. Murray was forced to call Eirich upstairs, and Eirich joined the other captured employees.
Outside, Kerry Whalen saw two men without masks sitting in a black van. He drove past and then walked towards the van. One of the men told him to get in. Whalen tried to run and yelled for help, but he was hit and forced into the van. He was then taken to the lunchroom with the other hostages.
Another employee, Rolf Rebmann, heard a noise by the loading ramp. When he went to check, he was also captured and brought to the lunchroom. Some of the robbers took Rudi Eirich at gunpoint to the vault. They took out 72 heavy boxes of money from the vault and put them into the van. This money was hard to trace.
At 4:21 a.m., the van drove to the front of the building. Another car pulled up behind it. Two gunmen got into the van, and the others got into the second car. The employees were told not to call the Port Authority Police until 4:30 a.m. The first call to the police was recorded at that time.
The robbers then drove to meet Burke at a repair shop in Canarsie, Brooklyn. The boxes of money were taken out of the van and put into the trunks of two cars. Burke and his son drove off in one car. Four other men — Manri, McMahon, DeSimone, and Sepe — drove away in the second car.
What Happened Next
The Investigation Begins
Parnell "Stacks" Edwards was supposed to get rid of the van used in the heist. He was meant to drive it to New Jersey to be destroyed in a junkyard. But Edwards parked the van in front of a fire hydrant near his girlfriend's apartment. Police found it two days after the robbery. This was a big mistake because police found clues inside the van, including fingerprints of some of the people involved.
The FBI quickly suspected Burke's group was responsible, mainly because the van was found and Edwards was known to be connected to Burke. The FBI started watching the group very closely. They used helicopters and even put listening devices in their cars and on public phones near their usual hangout spot. The FBI recorded some conversations, but it wasn't enough to directly connect Burke's group to the heist, so they couldn't get search warrants.
According to someone who later helped the police, Jimmy Burke became very worried after Edwards' mistake. He decided that anyone who could link him to the robbery should disappear. With many people connected to the heist no longer around, there was little evidence or few witnesses left to connect Burke or his group to the crime.
However, the police eventually gathered enough evidence to charge Louis Werner, the airport worker who helped plan the heist. Werner was the only person found guilty of the robbery in 1979, and he was sent to prison for 15 years.
Later, when Kerry Whalen was questioned by the police, he looked at photos and recognized Angelo Sepe as one of the robbers. Rudi Eirich, the manager, also told police that the robbers knew a lot about the vault's security systems. They knew about the special double-door system, where one door had to be closed for the other to open without setting off an alarm. The robbers told Eirich to open the first door, but they knew that opening the second door would trigger an alarm to the airport police.
Years later, on January 23, 2014, Vincent Asaro, a member of another crime group, was arrested. He was accused of being involved in the Lufthansa heist. His cousin, Gaspare Valenti, gave information against him. However, on November 12, 2015, a jury found Asaro not guilty of all charges related to the Lufthansa robbery.
The stolen cash and jewelry were never found.
People Who Helped the Police
- Janet Barbieri, Louis Werner's girlfriend (and later wife), who shared information with the police.
- William "Bill" Fischetti, a taxi company owner who was involved in selling stolen bonds.
- Peter Gruenwald, one of the Lufthansa heist planners, who shared information about his friend Louis Werner.
- Frank Menna, a numbers-runner who had problems with Angelo Sepe.
- Louis Werner, an accountant who also handled money for criminals.
In April 1980, Henry Hill was arrested. He became worried that his former friends planned to harm him to keep him from talking about the heist. With a long prison sentence possible, Hill agreed to help the government. He joined the Witness Protection Program with his family. While he couldn't help get convictions for the Lufthansa heist against Burke, his information did lead to convictions for other crimes.
Stories and Movies
The Lufthansa heist has been the main topic of two well-known TV movies: The 10 Million Dollar Getaway (1991) and The Big Heist (2001). It is also an important part of the story in the famous movie Goodfellas (1990).
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See also
In Spanish: Robo a Lufthansa para niños
