Vincent Asaro, mobster linked to 1978 Lufthansa heist, inspired ‘Goodfellas’ scene
The 78-year-old Howard Beach resident remained defiant, despite time and open-heart surgery, until his Thursday arrest.
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BY JOHN MARZULLI AND LARRY MCSHANE / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2014, 9:55 PM
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Vincent Asaro, 78, (center) being taken from FBI Headquarters at 26 Federal Plaza Thursday. Asaro was a participant as well as a witness to Mafia mayhem from murder to arson to one of organized crime’s most storied heists — the 1978 Lufthansa robbery, authorities say.
When gangster Tommy DeSimone pumped a bullet into a kid named Spider’s foot, future mob capo Vincent Asaro took the bleeding youth to get patched up.
The shooting, one of the most indelible scenes from the mob movie classic “Goodfellas,” epitomizes the geriatric gangster’s front-row seat to decades of mob history.
Asaro, 78, was a participant as well as a witness to Mafia mayhem from murder to arson to one of organized crime’s most storied heists — the 1978 Lufthansa robbery.
The Queens tough guy pops up several times in Nicholas Pileggi’s “Wiseguy,” plotting with mobsters Jimmy (The Gent) Burke and Henry Hill — later portrayed on film by Robert De Niro and Ray Liotta respectively.
Asaro kept a much lower profile than his fellow felons. The father of three put his kids through Catholic school in Queens while working his way up the mob hierarchy.
Asaro, whose rap sheet dates to 1957, became a made member of the Bonanno family more than 30 years ago.
He initially worked for the crew run by future family boss (Big Joey) Massino — who later flipped and implicated his standup underling to the feds.
Asaro eventually became a family captain, and recently served on the panel that ran the Bonannos. Four mob informants from three crime families linked Asaro to the Lufthansa robbery.
The gangster was running the Bonanno crew at JFK Airport at the time of the $6 million heist.
Mastermind Burke, though a Luchese family associate, followed mob protocol by cutting Asaro in on the near-perfect crime.
Tommy DeSimone (Joe Pesci) shoots Spider (Mike Imperioli) in 'Goodfellas,' before future mob capo Vincent Asaro takes the bleeding youth to get patched up.
Tommy DeSimone (Joe Pesci) shoots Spider (Mike Imperioli) in 'Goodfellas,' before future mob capo Vincent Asaro takes the bleeding youth to get patched up.
The two had a history. Burke and Asaro used a dog chain to kill a suspected “rat” in 1969, burying the body in a Queens basement, according to court papers.
As law enforcement attention followed the JFK robbery, Asaro’s bar on Rockaway Blvd. became a gathering spot for his co-conspirators.
According to court papers, Asaro brought his son Jerome into the mob family — and the two conspired to torch another Queens social club.
The owner of a nearby Italian restaurant went to Asaro to complain that the club’s new owners hoped to attract an African-American clientele, court papers said. Jerome Asaro and a second man allegedly doused the club with gasoline, then tossed a lit rubber ball through a window to set the place ablaze.
Michael Imperioli as Spider in 'Goodfellas.' The Spider shooting epitomizes the Asaro's front-row seat to decades of mob history.
Vincent Asaro greeted one of the arsonists with a kiss on each cheek in appreciation.
Father and son were also charged with conspiring to kill a relative suspected as a government informant during the mid-1980s.
The target — unlike Spider, later killed by DeSimone — survived.
Despite time and open-heart surgery, the Howard Beach resident remained defiant until his Thursday arrest.
Secretly recorded conversations captured Asaro explaining his hands-on approach to resolution dispute in a spat with a Bonanno associate.
“He’s a jerk---,” snapped Asaro in a typically profane rant. “I had a big beef with him two weeks ago. I hit him in the head with a bottle. He’s lost his f------ mind.”
