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EspañolJAMES BURKE (GANGSTER)
(Redirected from Jimmy Burke (gangster))
'James 'Jimmy the Gent' Burke' (July 5, 1931 – April 13, 1996), was a murderous Irish-American gangster and Lucchese crime family associate who is believed to have organized the Lufthansa heist in 1978. He is the father of small-time mobster and Lufthansa heist suspect, Frank James Burke "Frankie", Jesse James Burke and Catherine Burke. Catherine married Bonanno crime family member Anthony Indelicato in 1992. Nicknamed 'Jimmy The Gent' or 'Jimmy', Burke is familiar to most people via Robert De Niro's depiction of him (as Jimmy Conway) in the movie ''Goodfellas''.
He was born in New York City in 1931 and, for reasons unknown, was placed in a foster home when he was two, never to see his natural parents again. He was shuttled around various homes and orphanages, where he suffered physical and sexual abuse at the hands of various foster fathers and foster brothers. He eventually adopted the name of Burke after one foster family. When he was thirteen, Burke's foster father died in a car crash—he lost control of the car when he turned around to hit Burke, who was riding in the back seat. The deceased man's widow, who was in the car as well but survived, blamed Burke for the accident and gave him regular beatings until he was taken back into care.
As he approached adulthood, Burke began to get in trouble with the law and spent considerable time in jail. In 1949, aged eighteen, he was sentenced to five years in prison for forgery. This was, ironically, to turn out to be his break into the underworld of New York: his refusal to "rat" (inform) on his accomplices gave him a reputation as a "stand up guy", meaning he would not cooperate with the police and therefore could be trusted by other criminals. Behind bars, he mixed with a number of Mafia members and made many contacts. Being of Irish descent, Burke could not become a full-fledged member of the Mafia, as only Italians were accepted into their ranks. However, they were happy to have associates of any ethnic background so long as they made money and did not cooperate with the authorities. Italian-American mobsters dubbed him "the Irish guinea".
Burke was an immense presence: burly, tall, and with brick-layer arms as result of earlier work, along with a temper to match. He was known to be very polite and charming, but was a stone-cold killer. Said Henry Hill, "He was a big guy and knew how to handle himself. He looked like a fighter. He had a broken nose and he had a lot of hands. If there was just the littlest amount of trouble, he'd be all over you in a second. He'd grab a guy's tie and slam his chin into the table before the guy knew he was in a war....Jimmy had a reputation for being wild. He'd whack you."
It is rumoured that Burke committed a number of murders for the Mafia during the 1950s in addition to many other crimes such as importing cheap untaxed cigarettes and buying even cheaper liquor. He got married in 1962 to a woman named Mickey. He fathered a daughter, Catherine Burke and two sons: Frank James Burke and Jesse James Burke, (named after the famous outlaw brothers of the Old West). Burke is rumored to have murdered and dismembered an ex-boyfriend of his bride because he was being a nuisance. He gave the dismembered head to his new wife as a present. The police found his body cut up in pieces all over the inside of his car. After The Westies mobster Hugh Mulligan died, he took over his operations and became a close associate of Mickey Spillane.
Burke was a mentor of Thomas DeSimone and Henry Hill, who were both young men in the 1960s. They carried out errands for Burke, such as selling stolen merchandise. They eventually became part of Jimmy's crew and worked out of Ozone Park, Queens, Bensonhurst, Brooklyn and Long Island. The pair helped Burke with the hijacking of delivery trucks. According to Hill, Burke would usually give $50 to the drivers of the trucks they stole, as if he were tipping them for the inconvenience, which led to his nickname ''Jimmy the Gent''.
Corrupt law enforcement officers, bribed by Burke, would tell him about any potential witnesses or informants. As many as 12 or 13 bodies a year would be found tied up, strangled, and shot in the trunks of stolen vehicles abandoned in the parking lots surrounding JFK Airport. Said Henry Hill about Burke: "Jimmy could plant you just as fast as shake your hand. It didn’t matter to him. At dinner he could be the nicest guy in the world, but then he could blow you away for dessert."
He owned Robert's Lounge Bar in Ozone Park, Queens. He sold it just before he went away to prison, for six years, for the Florida extortion caper with Henry Hill. It was a favorite hangout of Burke, and many other mobsters, bookmakers, loan sharks, and other assorted criminals. Burke eventually began a loan shark and bookmaking operation that was based at the bar. Though Burke was not a made member of the mafia, he nonetheless had the respect of a capo in mob circles.
In 1972, Jimmy Burke and Henry Hill were arrested for beating up a man in Tampa, Florida who owed Casey Rosado a large gambling debt. They were charged with extortion, convicted, and sentenced to ten years in federal prison. Burke was paroled after six years, then went straight back to crime, as did Hill, who got out around the same time. Hill shortly began trafficking in drugs; Burke was soon involved in this new enterprise, even though the Lucchese Family—whom they were associated with—did not authorize any of its members to deal in drugs. This Lucchese ban was made because the prison sentences imposed on anyone convicted of drug trafficking were so lengthy that the accused would often become informants in exchange for a lighter sentence. This is exactly what Henry Hill would eventually do.
From a very young age, his mid teens, Burke was a willing hitman for the mafia and would kill anyone who stood in his way. His victims included the children, spouses, and other relatives of his enemies. The FBI believes he was involved in at least 50 murders during his career.
He notably slew nine people following the Lufthansa Heist. After a New York journalist had written a disparaging and accusative article on Paul Vario, Burke strangled the journalist, almost to death, in front of a bar full of witnesses. He ordered the murder of his best friend, Remo, who became an informant and helped the NYPD arrest Burke on a truck hijacking charge. Burke had Remo's body buried next to the bocce court behind Robert's Lounge. It was said that whenever Burke played bocce there with friends, he would jokingly say "''Hey Remo, how're you doing?''"
Much later, Burke allegedly attempted to kidnap and possibly hold to ransom, or kill Henry Hill's wife, Karen, and their two children when he suspected Henry of being an informant.
Burke frequently liked to lock his victims, notably the young children of his victims, in refrigerators. When Burke had a problem collecting money he was owed, and the unfortunate debtor had children, he would pick the child up in his huge arm, open the refrigerator with the other, and put the child inside and would say "if you don't do whatcha supposed to, I'm gonna lock your kid inside the fuckin' refrigerator".
Burke had no qualms about killing people; this was never more evident than his killing spree following the Lufthansa Heist.
The crime Burke is most famous for is the Lufthansa heist, the theft of approximately $6 million in cash and jewels from building 261 at the Lufthansa cargo terminal at JFK Airport. This was the largest robbery in American history at the time. He planned it and had it carried out by a crew of accomplices he put together that included Tommy DeSimone, Angelo Sepe, Louis "The Whale" Cafora, Joseph "Joe Buddha" Manri, Robert "Frenchy" McMahon, and Paolo LiCastri. Burke's son, Frank James Burke drove a "crash car" to ward off any possible chase of the robbery van by police. Another man who did not participate in the actual robbery, Parnell Steven "Stacks" Edwards was to dispose of the van used in the robbery at an auto junk yard in New Jersey where it was to be compacted. Burke never expected the robbery to yield so much cash; his initial estimate was that it would be only about $2 million. He realized that a robbery of this magnitude would attract the intense attention of local, state and federal authorities, causing a lot of problems for everyone involved. After the robbery was carried out, Burke and his son, Frank James Burke took all of the stolen money to a mob safehouse where they divided it up and then over the course of time distributed shares to the robbers and to others who played a supporting part in the robbery. Burke's take of the robbery money was believed to be a little over $2 million. Another $2 million went to capo Paul Vario. The remaining $2 million was disbursed among people who supported the robbery, and to the six actual robbers themselves, who ironically received the smallest share, anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 depending on what their role in the robbery was.
The robbery took place during the early morning hours on December 11, 1978. Because it took place in the territory of the Gambino family, Burke had to get their permission—his contact in the Gambinos was then capo John Gotti—and agree to pay them a portion of the stolen money. This included having Paolo LiCastri as the sixth gunman for the robbery to ensure the Gambino's interests were kept.
There were a number of murders and disappearances following the Lufthansa robbery, as Jimmy Burke became increasingly concerned that the others involved would lead the police to him, and because the robbers, having found out the amount of money they stole was a lot bigger than first thought, kept pressing Burke for a bigger share than was originally agreed upon. Parnell Steven "Stacks" Edwards was shot to death on December 18, 1978 because he got high and forgot to dispose of the van used in the robbery. Tommy DeSimone's wife Cookie reported to the police that he had disappeared on January 14, 1979, although it should be noted that even Henry Hill, who informed against Burke, admitted that the death of Tommy DeSimone was the only occasion upon which he ever saw Burke 'shed a tear'(It was widely believed that DeSimone was murdered in revenge for his participation in the murder of Gambino crime family member and Gotti associate William 'Billy Batts' DeVino, and was not connected to the Lufthansa heist). Louis Cafora and his newly wed wife were reported missing in March, 1979 and never seen again. Robert McMahon and his close friend Joe Manri were found shot dead in a Buick Electra on May 16, 1979. Paolo LiCastri was found shot dead, his body burning in a garbage-strewn lot on June 13, 1979. A cosmetologist and part time cocaine dealer named Theresa Ferrara, who often frequented "Robert's Lounge" who was at the time the mistress of Tommy DeSimone and Paul Vario, was killed on February 10, 1979 when it was found out she was an informant. Her dismembered body was eventually found dumped on a New Jersey beach.
Martin Krugman, who provided the tip for the heist to Henry Hill and Burke's crew, vanished on January 6, 1979 and was never seen again. Henry Hill stated Krugman was killed on the orders of Burke who did not want to pay Krugman his $500,000 share of the stolen money. Said Hill, "It was a matter of half a million bucks. No way Jimmy was going to deny himself half a million dollars because of Marty Krugman. If Jimmy killed Marty, Jimmy would get Marty’s half a mill.”
The only robbers that survived Burke's murderous rampage following the Lufthansa Heist were Burke's son, Frank James Burke and Angelo Sepe, a protege of Burke. Burke knew that Sepe would never cooperate with the authorities under any circumstances, and he never pressed Burke for a bigger share of the robbery proceeds. Sepe was murdered years later in 1984 in retaliation for having robbed a mafia-connected drug dealer. Frank James Burke was found shot to death in 1987, over a drug deal gone bad.
Frank James Burke (1960 - May 18, 1987) was one of two sons born to James and Michelle "Mickey" Burke in Brooklyn. Like his father, he was a career criminal and a suspect in the Lufthansa heist.
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 at the age of sixteen or seventeen. The identity of Frank's victim is unknown. Tommy DeSimone reportedly told his father and criminal associates that Burke had "held up good." This earned 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 James Burke was found by police, shot to death on Liberty Avenue in the Cypress Hills section of Brooklyn, New York at 2:30 a.m. on May 18, 1987. He was twenty seven. There is no record of any remorse or grief from Jimmy Burke about the death of his son.
A second son, Jesse James Burke, became involved in organized crime, but not to the extent of his father or older brother. Daughter Catherine married mobster Anthony Indelicato in 1992; as of 2006, the couple is still living together in Howard Beach, Queens, New York.
In 1980, Henry Hill was arrested for drug trafficking. He became an FBI informant in order to avoid a long prison sentence. Also that year, Louis Werner, the Lufthansa supervisor who supplied all of the inside information about how to rob the Lufthansa cargo terminal to Jimmy Burke's crew and the only person to have actually been prosecuted for the Lufthansa robbery became an informant after serving just one year of a fifteen-year prison sentence in the hope of getting an early release.
According to Hill, a search warrant for Robert's Lounge was granted by a Judge. But by the time the police arrived, Burke had already re-located the bodies he'd buried, such as those of Remo under the bocce court, and Spider, a Robert's Lounge bartender who was shot to death by Tommy DeSimone for an insult, under the basement floor.
Partly thanks to the testimony of Hill and Werner, Jimmy Burke was taken into custody on April 1, 1980, on suspicion of a number of crimes. In 1982, he was subsequently convicted of fixing Boston College basketball games as part of a point shaving gambling scam in 1978, and was sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment. Burke protested "I gave the little bastard (Hill) some bucks to bet on games, that's all!" Authorities knew he had planned and organized the Lufthansa heist, but they did not have enough evidence to prove it in a court of law.
Though Burke was suspected of committing over 50 murders he was only convicted of one: the murder of Richard Eaton, a hustler and con-man. If Burke had disposed of Eaton the way he disposed of most of his victims, he could have been out of jail before he died. Instead, Burke beat and strangled him to death and dumped his body, hogtied and gagged on the floor of an abandoned tractor-trailer in a garbage-strewn lot in Brooklyn. It was winter at the time, and his frozen body wasn't discovered until days later by children playing there. Detectives found a small address book sewn into the lining of Eaton's clothing with the name, address and telephone number of James Burke listed in the book.
Burke was later charged with the murder of Richard Eaton, based on evidence Henry Hill gave to authorities. At the trial, Hill took the stand and testified against his former friend. Hill tesified Eaton had convinced Burke to invest $250,000 in a cocaine deal that promised immense profit. However, Eaton kept the money for his own use, and one day Hill asked Burke about Eaton's whereabouts, observing that he hadn't been around in a while. Hill said Burke replied "Don't worry about him. I whacked the fucking swindler out". With only the evidence of Burke's address and phone number found in Eaton's coat lining when his body was found and Hill's testimony, Burke was convicted, and on February 19, 1985, he was given a life sentence, protesting "the bastard died of hypothermia!".
There was an attempt by Henry Hill and Eastern District of New York Special Assistant United States Attorney Ed McDonald to convict Burke of taking part in the murder in 1970 of William 'Billy Batts' DeVino, but Hill was the sole living witness, so the charge was dropped due to a lack of evidence.
Burke was serving his time in Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, New York, when he developed lung cancer. He died from this disease on April 13, 1996, aged 64, while being treated at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York. Had he lived he would have been eligible for parole in 2004.
Burke has been portrayed in three movies. In ''Goodfellas'', a 1990 film based on a book cowritten with Henry Hill, Burke was portrayed by Robert De Niro, and the character received his biological mother's maiden name "Conway" because Burke's daughter Catherine demanded $100,000 for the use of her father's name in the movie. The producers refused. He was also portrayed by John Mahoney in the 1991 television movie ''The 10 Million Dollar Getaway'', and again in the 2001 A&E television movie ''The Big Heist'', in which he was played by Donald Sutherland.
In ''Goodfellas'', Burke was portrayed as a powerful, arrogant, and shrewd gangster, but not as violent as he truly was: he was a classic sociopath. In ''The Big Heist'', Burke was portrayed as an aging immigrant gangster whose actions were primarily motivated to keep in the Mafia's good graces and to keep his son from being killed. In ''... Getaway'', which focuses solely on the Lufthansa Heist, Burke is seen as a schmoozing but kind-hearted ex-con whose loyalty to his crew is only second to his loyalty to the Mafia. Here, Burke has no hand in the Mafia-ordered murders of his "friends" who participated in the robbery, and is deeply saddened by their deaths.
★ ''The Heist'' by Ernest Volkman & John Cummings (1986)
★ ''Wiseguy'' by Nicholas Pileggi (1990)
★ ''Fixed: How Goodfellas Bought Boston College Basketball'' by David Porter (2000)
★ ''On The Run - A Mafia Childhood'' by Gregg & Gina Hill (2004)
★ ''Gangsters and Goodfellas: Wiseguys . . . and Life on the Run'' by Henry Hill & Gus Russo (2005)
★ ''Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish-American Gangster'' by T. J. English (2005)
★ Mobsters take a day off on Mother's Day: Each and every Mother's Day until he landed behind bars, mobster Jimmy (The Gent) Burke performed a sacrosanct ritual.
U.S. Marshals' mugshot of James "Jimmy the Gent" Burke taken on April 12, 1979 not long after the Lufthansa heist.
'James 'Jimmy the Gent' Burke' (July 5, 1931 – April 13, 1996), was a murderous Irish-American gangster and Lucchese crime family associate who is believed to have organized the Lufthansa heist in 1978. He is the father of small-time mobster and Lufthansa heist suspect, Frank James Burke "Frankie", Jesse James Burke and Catherine Burke. Catherine married Bonanno crime family member Anthony Indelicato in 1992. Nicknamed 'Jimmy The Gent' or 'Jimmy', Burke is familiar to most people via Robert De Niro's depiction of him (as Jimmy Conway) in the movie ''Goodfellas''.
| Contents |
| Early life |
| "Jimmy the Gent" |
| Child murders and serial murders |
| The Lufthansa heist |
| Children |
| Downfall and death |
| Movie depictions |
| Sources |
| External links |
Early life
He was born in New York City in 1931 and, for reasons unknown, was placed in a foster home when he was two, never to see his natural parents again. He was shuttled around various homes and orphanages, where he suffered physical and sexual abuse at the hands of various foster fathers and foster brothers. He eventually adopted the name of Burke after one foster family. When he was thirteen, Burke's foster father died in a car crash—he lost control of the car when he turned around to hit Burke, who was riding in the back seat. The deceased man's widow, who was in the car as well but survived, blamed Burke for the accident and gave him regular beatings until he was taken back into care.
As he approached adulthood, Burke began to get in trouble with the law and spent considerable time in jail. In 1949, aged eighteen, he was sentenced to five years in prison for forgery. This was, ironically, to turn out to be his break into the underworld of New York: his refusal to "rat" (inform) on his accomplices gave him a reputation as a "stand up guy", meaning he would not cooperate with the police and therefore could be trusted by other criminals. Behind bars, he mixed with a number of Mafia members and made many contacts. Being of Irish descent, Burke could not become a full-fledged member of the Mafia, as only Italians were accepted into their ranks. However, they were happy to have associates of any ethnic background so long as they made money and did not cooperate with the authorities. Italian-American mobsters dubbed him "the Irish guinea".
Burke was an immense presence: burly, tall, and with brick-layer arms as result of earlier work, along with a temper to match. He was known to be very polite and charming, but was a stone-cold killer. Said Henry Hill, "He was a big guy and knew how to handle himself. He looked like a fighter. He had a broken nose and he had a lot of hands. If there was just the littlest amount of trouble, he'd be all over you in a second. He'd grab a guy's tie and slam his chin into the table before the guy knew he was in a war....Jimmy had a reputation for being wild. He'd whack you."
"Jimmy the Gent"
It is rumoured that Burke committed a number of murders for the Mafia during the 1950s in addition to many other crimes such as importing cheap untaxed cigarettes and buying even cheaper liquor. He got married in 1962 to a woman named Mickey. He fathered a daughter, Catherine Burke and two sons: Frank James Burke and Jesse James Burke, (named after the famous outlaw brothers of the Old West). Burke is rumored to have murdered and dismembered an ex-boyfriend of his bride because he was being a nuisance. He gave the dismembered head to his new wife as a present. The police found his body cut up in pieces all over the inside of his car. After The Westies mobster Hugh Mulligan died, he took over his operations and became a close associate of Mickey Spillane.
Burke was a mentor of Thomas DeSimone and Henry Hill, who were both young men in the 1960s. They carried out errands for Burke, such as selling stolen merchandise. They eventually became part of Jimmy's crew and worked out of Ozone Park, Queens, Bensonhurst, Brooklyn and Long Island. The pair helped Burke with the hijacking of delivery trucks. According to Hill, Burke would usually give $50 to the drivers of the trucks they stole, as if he were tipping them for the inconvenience, which led to his nickname ''Jimmy the Gent''.
Corrupt law enforcement officers, bribed by Burke, would tell him about any potential witnesses or informants. As many as 12 or 13 bodies a year would be found tied up, strangled, and shot in the trunks of stolen vehicles abandoned in the parking lots surrounding JFK Airport. Said Henry Hill about Burke: "Jimmy could plant you just as fast as shake your hand. It didn’t matter to him. At dinner he could be the nicest guy in the world, but then he could blow you away for dessert."
He owned Robert's Lounge Bar in Ozone Park, Queens. He sold it just before he went away to prison, for six years, for the Florida extortion caper with Henry Hill. It was a favorite hangout of Burke, and many other mobsters, bookmakers, loan sharks, and other assorted criminals. Burke eventually began a loan shark and bookmaking operation that was based at the bar. Though Burke was not a made member of the mafia, he nonetheless had the respect of a capo in mob circles.
In 1972, Jimmy Burke and Henry Hill were arrested for beating up a man in Tampa, Florida who owed Casey Rosado a large gambling debt. They were charged with extortion, convicted, and sentenced to ten years in federal prison. Burke was paroled after six years, then went straight back to crime, as did Hill, who got out around the same time. Hill shortly began trafficking in drugs; Burke was soon involved in this new enterprise, even though the Lucchese Family—whom they were associated with—did not authorize any of its members to deal in drugs. This Lucchese ban was made because the prison sentences imposed on anyone convicted of drug trafficking were so lengthy that the accused would often become informants in exchange for a lighter sentence. This is exactly what Henry Hill would eventually do.
Child murders and serial murders
From a very young age, his mid teens, Burke was a willing hitman for the mafia and would kill anyone who stood in his way. His victims included the children, spouses, and other relatives of his enemies. The FBI believes he was involved in at least 50 murders during his career.
He notably slew nine people following the Lufthansa Heist. After a New York journalist had written a disparaging and accusative article on Paul Vario, Burke strangled the journalist, almost to death, in front of a bar full of witnesses. He ordered the murder of his best friend, Remo, who became an informant and helped the NYPD arrest Burke on a truck hijacking charge. Burke had Remo's body buried next to the bocce court behind Robert's Lounge. It was said that whenever Burke played bocce there with friends, he would jokingly say "''Hey Remo, how're you doing?''"
Much later, Burke allegedly attempted to kidnap and possibly hold to ransom, or kill Henry Hill's wife, Karen, and their two children when he suspected Henry of being an informant.
Burke frequently liked to lock his victims, notably the young children of his victims, in refrigerators. When Burke had a problem collecting money he was owed, and the unfortunate debtor had children, he would pick the child up in his huge arm, open the refrigerator with the other, and put the child inside and would say "if you don't do whatcha supposed to, I'm gonna lock your kid inside the fuckin' refrigerator".
Burke had no qualms about killing people; this was never more evident than his killing spree following the Lufthansa Heist.
The Lufthansa heist
The crime Burke is most famous for is the Lufthansa heist, the theft of approximately $6 million in cash and jewels from building 261 at the Lufthansa cargo terminal at JFK Airport. This was the largest robbery in American history at the time. He planned it and had it carried out by a crew of accomplices he put together that included Tommy DeSimone, Angelo Sepe, Louis "The Whale" Cafora, Joseph "Joe Buddha" Manri, Robert "Frenchy" McMahon, and Paolo LiCastri. Burke's son, Frank James Burke drove a "crash car" to ward off any possible chase of the robbery van by police. Another man who did not participate in the actual robbery, Parnell Steven "Stacks" Edwards was to dispose of the van used in the robbery at an auto junk yard in New Jersey where it was to be compacted. Burke never expected the robbery to yield so much cash; his initial estimate was that it would be only about $2 million. He realized that a robbery of this magnitude would attract the intense attention of local, state and federal authorities, causing a lot of problems for everyone involved. After the robbery was carried out, Burke and his son, Frank James Burke took all of the stolen money to a mob safehouse where they divided it up and then over the course of time distributed shares to the robbers and to others who played a supporting part in the robbery. Burke's take of the robbery money was believed to be a little over $2 million. Another $2 million went to capo Paul Vario. The remaining $2 million was disbursed among people who supported the robbery, and to the six actual robbers themselves, who ironically received the smallest share, anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 depending on what their role in the robbery was.
The robbery took place during the early morning hours on December 11, 1978. Because it took place in the territory of the Gambino family, Burke had to get their permission—his contact in the Gambinos was then capo John Gotti—and agree to pay them a portion of the stolen money. This included having Paolo LiCastri as the sixth gunman for the robbery to ensure the Gambino's interests were kept.
There were a number of murders and disappearances following the Lufthansa robbery, as Jimmy Burke became increasingly concerned that the others involved would lead the police to him, and because the robbers, having found out the amount of money they stole was a lot bigger than first thought, kept pressing Burke for a bigger share than was originally agreed upon. Parnell Steven "Stacks" Edwards was shot to death on December 18, 1978 because he got high and forgot to dispose of the van used in the robbery. Tommy DeSimone's wife Cookie reported to the police that he had disappeared on January 14, 1979, although it should be noted that even Henry Hill, who informed against Burke, admitted that the death of Tommy DeSimone was the only occasion upon which he ever saw Burke 'shed a tear'(It was widely believed that DeSimone was murdered in revenge for his participation in the murder of Gambino crime family member and Gotti associate William 'Billy Batts' DeVino, and was not connected to the Lufthansa heist). Louis Cafora and his newly wed wife were reported missing in March, 1979 and never seen again. Robert McMahon and his close friend Joe Manri were found shot dead in a Buick Electra on May 16, 1979. Paolo LiCastri was found shot dead, his body burning in a garbage-strewn lot on June 13, 1979. A cosmetologist and part time cocaine dealer named Theresa Ferrara, who often frequented "Robert's Lounge" who was at the time the mistress of Tommy DeSimone and Paul Vario, was killed on February 10, 1979 when it was found out she was an informant. Her dismembered body was eventually found dumped on a New Jersey beach.
Martin Krugman, who provided the tip for the heist to Henry Hill and Burke's crew, vanished on January 6, 1979 and was never seen again. Henry Hill stated Krugman was killed on the orders of Burke who did not want to pay Krugman his $500,000 share of the stolen money. Said Hill, "It was a matter of half a million bucks. No way Jimmy was going to deny himself half a million dollars because of Marty Krugman. If Jimmy killed Marty, Jimmy would get Marty’s half a mill.”
The only robbers that survived Burke's murderous rampage following the Lufthansa Heist were Burke's son, Frank James Burke and Angelo Sepe, a protege of Burke. Burke knew that Sepe would never cooperate with the authorities under any circumstances, and he never pressed Burke for a bigger share of the robbery proceeds. Sepe was murdered years later in 1984 in retaliation for having robbed a mafia-connected drug dealer. Frank James Burke was found shot to death in 1987, over a drug deal gone bad.
Children
Frank James Burke (1960 - May 18, 1987) was one of two sons born to James and Michelle "Mickey" Burke in Brooklyn. Like his father, he was a career criminal and a suspect in the Lufthansa heist.
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 at the age of sixteen or seventeen. The identity of Frank's victim is unknown. Tommy DeSimone reportedly told his father and criminal associates that Burke had "held up good." This earned 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 James Burke was found by police, shot to death on Liberty Avenue in the Cypress Hills section of Brooklyn, New York at 2:30 a.m. on May 18, 1987. He was twenty seven. There is no record of any remorse or grief from Jimmy Burke about the death of his son.
A second son, Jesse James Burke, became involved in organized crime, but not to the extent of his father or older brother. Daughter Catherine married mobster Anthony Indelicato in 1992; as of 2006, the couple is still living together in Howard Beach, Queens, New York.
Downfall and death
James "Jimmy the Gent" Burke arrested by FBI Agents.
In 1980, Henry Hill was arrested for drug trafficking. He became an FBI informant in order to avoid a long prison sentence. Also that year, Louis Werner, the Lufthansa supervisor who supplied all of the inside information about how to rob the Lufthansa cargo terminal to Jimmy Burke's crew and the only person to have actually been prosecuted for the Lufthansa robbery became an informant after serving just one year of a fifteen-year prison sentence in the hope of getting an early release.
According to Hill, a search warrant for Robert's Lounge was granted by a Judge. But by the time the police arrived, Burke had already re-located the bodies he'd buried, such as those of Remo under the bocce court, and Spider, a Robert's Lounge bartender who was shot to death by Tommy DeSimone for an insult, under the basement floor.
Partly thanks to the testimony of Hill and Werner, Jimmy Burke was taken into custody on April 1, 1980, on suspicion of a number of crimes. In 1982, he was subsequently convicted of fixing Boston College basketball games as part of a point shaving gambling scam in 1978, and was sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment. Burke protested "I gave the little bastard (Hill) some bucks to bet on games, that's all!" Authorities knew he had planned and organized the Lufthansa heist, but they did not have enough evidence to prove it in a court of law.
Though Burke was suspected of committing over 50 murders he was only convicted of one: the murder of Richard Eaton, a hustler and con-man. If Burke had disposed of Eaton the way he disposed of most of his victims, he could have been out of jail before he died. Instead, Burke beat and strangled him to death and dumped his body, hogtied and gagged on the floor of an abandoned tractor-trailer in a garbage-strewn lot in Brooklyn. It was winter at the time, and his frozen body wasn't discovered until days later by children playing there. Detectives found a small address book sewn into the lining of Eaton's clothing with the name, address and telephone number of James Burke listed in the book.
Burke was later charged with the murder of Richard Eaton, based on evidence Henry Hill gave to authorities. At the trial, Hill took the stand and testified against his former friend. Hill tesified Eaton had convinced Burke to invest $250,000 in a cocaine deal that promised immense profit. However, Eaton kept the money for his own use, and one day Hill asked Burke about Eaton's whereabouts, observing that he hadn't been around in a while. Hill said Burke replied "Don't worry about him. I whacked the fucking swindler out". With only the evidence of Burke's address and phone number found in Eaton's coat lining when his body was found and Hill's testimony, Burke was convicted, and on February 19, 1985, he was given a life sentence, protesting "the bastard died of hypothermia!".
There was an attempt by Henry Hill and Eastern District of New York Special Assistant United States Attorney Ed McDonald to convict Burke of taking part in the murder in 1970 of William 'Billy Batts' DeVino, but Hill was the sole living witness, so the charge was dropped due to a lack of evidence.
Burke was serving his time in Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, New York, when he developed lung cancer. He died from this disease on April 13, 1996, aged 64, while being treated at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York. Had he lived he would have been eligible for parole in 2004.
Movie depictions
Burke has been portrayed in three movies. In ''Goodfellas'', a 1990 film based on a book cowritten with Henry Hill, Burke was portrayed by Robert De Niro, and the character received his biological mother's maiden name "Conway" because Burke's daughter Catherine demanded $100,000 for the use of her father's name in the movie. The producers refused. He was also portrayed by John Mahoney in the 1991 television movie ''The 10 Million Dollar Getaway'', and again in the 2001 A&E television movie ''The Big Heist'', in which he was played by Donald Sutherland.
In ''Goodfellas'', Burke was portrayed as a powerful, arrogant, and shrewd gangster, but not as violent as he truly was: he was a classic sociopath. In ''The Big Heist'', Burke was portrayed as an aging immigrant gangster whose actions were primarily motivated to keep in the Mafia's good graces and to keep his son from being killed. In ''... Getaway'', which focuses solely on the Lufthansa Heist, Burke is seen as a schmoozing but kind-hearted ex-con whose loyalty to his crew is only second to his loyalty to the Mafia. Here, Burke has no hand in the Mafia-ordered murders of his "friends" who participated in the robbery, and is deeply saddened by their deaths.
Sources
★ ''The Heist'' by Ernest Volkman & John Cummings (1986)
★ ''Wiseguy'' by Nicholas Pileggi (1990)
★ ''Fixed: How Goodfellas Bought Boston College Basketball'' by David Porter (2000)
★ ''On The Run - A Mafia Childhood'' by Gregg & Gina Hill (2004)
★ ''Gangsters and Goodfellas: Wiseguys . . . and Life on the Run'' by Henry Hill & Gus Russo (2005)
★ ''Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish-American Gangster'' by T. J. English (2005)
External links
★ Mobsters take a day off on Mother's Day: Each and every Mother's Day until he landed behind bars, mobster Jimmy (The Gent) Burke performed a sacrosanct ritual.
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