Martin Scorsese’s “Goodfellas” was released in 1990. Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.
“As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster…”
With those revealing words 25 years ago, Ray Liotta opened a seminal film on the American organized-crime experience.
And thrust Queens into a leading role in a blockbuster.
Told in haunting first-person by Liotta’s Henry Hill, and illustrated by the deft hands of director and Flushing native Martin Scorsese, “Goodfellas” presented the borough as protagonist—home to the wild nightspots, lucrative criminal capers, and the dead men who tell no tales thanks to guys like Tommy DeVito and Jimmy Conway, played by Joe Pesci and Robert DeNiro, respectively. Pesci took home the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his portrayal of the real-life Tommy DeSimone.
Scorsese and Michael Ballhaus, director of photography, captured the Queens of decades past on 32nd Street in Astoria, the Jackson Hole Diner on Astoria Boulevard, the Clinton Diner on Maspeth Avenue in Maspeth and Spartan Restaurant on Grand Avenue, also in Maspeth.
Who can forget Liotta and Pesci’s forgettable double date at Salerno’s Restaurant on Hillside Avenue in Richmond Hill? Henry Hill meets his Karen (Lorraine Bracco) for the first time in that scene.
“Goodfellas” also chronicled an historical event that made Queens infamous: the Lufthansa Heist at John F. Kennedy International Airport in 1978, which netted the brazen bandits nearly $5 million in untraceable cash and $875,000 in jewelry—the largest cash robbery committed on American soil.
According to published reports, the heist was masterminded by the ruthless Jimmy Burke (DeNiro’s Jimmy Conway character in the film) and carried out by a laundry list of made men, La Cosa Nostra associates and degenerate gamblers.
Tipped off by an airport worker who was tens of thousands of dollars in debt to his bookie, Burke and his crew planned to abscond with the haul, which for the most part was American currency flown in once a month from monetary exchanges for military servicemen and tourists in the former West Germany, after executing their strategy with seemingly military-like precision.
While not nearly as simple as “Goodfellas” depicted, the robbery took approximately an hour to complete. Burke expected to score no more than $2 million, and was said to be shocked when the count revealed a nearly $6 million pilfered prize.
The staggering heist, which adjusted for inflation would have set up Burke and his boys with more than $20 million in cash and jewels today, made recent headlines when five reputed members of the Bonanno crime family were federally indicted last January. Among the defendants was Bonanno captain Vincent Asaro, 78, who according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office participated in the JFK robbery.
“As alleged in the indictment, Vincent Asaro and his co-conspirators were not only involved in typical mob activities of extortion and murder, but Asaro himself was in on one of the most notorious heists—the Lufthansa robbery in 1978,” said FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge George Venizelos. “It may be decades later, but the FBI’s determination to investigate and bring wiseguys to justice will never waver.”
By Michael Cusenza
