Frank James Burke
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Frank James Burke (Cypress Hills, Brooklyn 1960 - May 18, 1987 Queens, New York) was the son of mobster Jimmy Burke and his mother "Mickey". Like his father, he was a career criminal and a suspect in the famous Lufthansa heist. He was the older brother of Jesse James born c.a. 1956 and Catherine (??), who would later be wed to the mobster Anthony Indelicato in 1992 and as of 2006 are still living together in Howard Beach, Queens, New York.
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[edit] Early life
Francis James was the first of three children by Jimmy Burke a.k.a. Jimmy Conway and "Mickey". He closely resembled his father in looks and physical appearance. His father named him after the famous American outlaw Frank James. As a child his father would tell Francis "Frank" James stories of favorite mob hits and other criminal exploits. Karen Hill, the wife of Henry Hill remembers about Burke's children that they always seemed to have a "dirty" and disheveled appearance about them, even after Frank James and his brother were bathed. He was truant in school and constantly having infractions with the police. He was said to have a striking resemblance to his father, Jimmy, tall and well built. Francis was a close friend of Henry and Karen Hill's daughters. Jimmy would take Frank and his brother on vacations to the Caribbean and the Bahamas when school was out.
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 in Upstate New York to "toughen him up" but this attempt failed and his father still wasn't happy with him.
[edit] Entry into organized crime
In adulthood, Frank James was a well known heroin addict in mob circles and had been arrested several times for possession 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 in 1976 or 1977. 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 made him a full-fledged member because of his Irish heritage. Frank was said by police at the time of his death to have been a Gambino crime family associate.
It is also suspected by Henry Hill that Jimmy Burke used Frank (then aged eighteen) as a stickup man in the Lufthansa heist. The police later named him as one of the top suspects but was eventually ignored. The constant verbal and physical abuse from his father was seen as a way to maybe have him become an informant. These attempts were unsuccessful.
[edit] Death
Frank James Burke was found by the NYPD, 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 twenty-seven. Burke's death was the culmination of the suspect murders following the Lufthansa heist following Angelo John Sepe. The three remaining witnesses or participants were his father, Jimmy Burke, Henry Hill and Paul Vario. This is excluding Lufthansa Air employees Louis Werner and Peter Gruenwald. On May 10, 1987 police arrested a 46-year old convicted drug dealer for his murder. Frank's death is not suspected to be in relation to the Lufthansa heist, but related to his own heroin addiction. There is no record of any remorse or grief from Jimmy Burke about the death of his son who was incarcerated.
[edit] Exclusion from Goodfellas
During the production of Goodfellas, the sister of Frank James, threatened to attempt to force the production company to pay $100,000 for the use of the name Burke, so they used Conway, which was her father's birth name instead. Catherine is suspected of being the one who saw that her late brother, Francis James was excluded entirely from the film. However, this may also be a decision made by director Martin Scorsese.
[edit] References
- Pileggi, Nicholas. Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985. ISBN 0671723227
