Vincent Asaro

Vincent Asaro
Born 1935
Ozone Park, Queens, New York

Vincent "Vinny" Asaro (born 1935) is a New York City mobster and captain in the Bonanno crime family.[1]

According to Lucchese crime family associate turned informant Henry Hill, Asaro was a caporegime in the Bonanno crime family who oversaw the family's interests in JFK airport.[2] Asaro is the nephew of Michael Zaffarano and since the 1970s, controlled a crew in the Queens faction in the crime family. With his father's help, Jerome Asaro also became a captain in the Bonanno family. However, the two men had a falling out in later years and did not speak with each other.[3]

On January 23, 2014 Asaro was indicted on federal racketeering charges stemming from the 1978 Lufthansa heist.[4] The charges also included the theft of $1.25 million of gold salts, involvement in the pornography industry, and for the ordering of the murder of a cousin who testified in court.[3]Arrested along with Asaro were his son Jerome, acting boss Thomas DiFiore, acting capo Giacomo Bonventre, and soldier John Ragano.[5][3]

Controversially, author Daniel Simone, Henry Hill's co-writer of their upcoming book, The Lufthansa Heist, claims that Henry Hill asserted to him that "Asaro had no involvement in the famous robbery."[6]

Asaro is currently a suspect in the 1969 death of Paul Katz. Katz owned a warehouse that Asaro and James Burke used to store stolen goods. When law enforcement raided the warehouse, Asasro and Burke immediately suspected Katz of being a government informant. The two men allegedly killed Katz with a dog chain and buried his remains under a vacant house. When the NYPD reopened the Katz case, Asaro and Burke allegedly moved the remains to the house of Burke daughter and reburied them there. In 2013, a police search uncovered the remains.[3][5]

References

  1. ↑ Norimitsu Onishi (March 19, 1995). "Your Car, the Sitting Duck". New York Times.
  2. ↑ Allan May. "The Lufthansa Heist Revisited". Tru TV Crime Library.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Goldstein, Joseph. "As Seen in ‘Goodfellas’: Arrest Is Made in ’78 Lufthansa Robbery". New York Times. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  4. ↑ Selim Algar; Jamie Schram, Larry Celona, Bruce Golding (2014-01-23). "Mobster charged in 'Goodfellas' JFK Lufthansa heist". New York Post.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Larry McShane; John Marzulli (2014-01-24). "Feds charge mobster in $6 million Lufthansa heist at Kennedy Airport that was portrayed in 'Goodfellas'". New York Daily News. Retrieved 2014-01-23.
  6. ↑ newspaper=New York Post|date=2014-01-25|author=Emily Smith