Frank James Burke
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Frank James Burke (1954 - May 18, 1987) was the son of Irish American mobster Jimmy Burke. His father named him after the famous American outlaw Frank James. Like his father, he was a career criminal and a suspect in the famous Lufthansa heist.
[edit] Life
Jimmy Burke used to complain that Frank wet his bed all the time and that he had to "beat the shit out of him" almost every night. Jimmy had Frank sent to a private military school to "toughen him up" but his father still wasn't happy with him.
In adulthood, Frank James was a well known heroin addict in mob circles and had been arrested several times for possesion of the drug. He spent time at his father's clubs, Robert's Lounge and The Suite which was a hangout for hijackers, burglars, thieves and scam artists.
One of his father's proteges, Tommy DeSimone, took Frank out on his first "hit" or contract killing at the age of sixteen or seventeen. The target of Frank James's murder is unknown. Tommy DeSimone reportedly told his father and his criminal associates, that Burke had "held up good." This gave Frank James respect among the Italian wiseguys and made his father very proud. However, his criminal associates never make him a full-fledged member because of his Irish heritage.
It is also suspected by Henry Hill that Jimmy Burke used Frank (then aged eighteen) as a stickup man in the Lufthansa heist.
[edit] Death
Frank James Burke was found by police, shot to death on Liberty Avenue in the Cypress Hills section of Brooklyn, New York at 2:30 AM on May 18, 1987. He was thirty-three. Burke's death was the culmination of the suspect murderers following the Lufthansa heist. Two days later police arrested a 46-year old convicted drug dealer for the murder. Frank's death is not suspected to be in relation to the Lufthansa heist, but related to his heroin addiction. There is no record of any remorse or grief from Jimmy Burke about the death of his son.
