Jimmy Conway
Encyclopedia
James Burke, also known as Jimmy the Gent, and The Big Irishman (July 5, 1931 – April 13, 1996), was an Irish-American gangster
and Lucchese crime family
associate who is believed to have organized the Lufthansa heist
in 1978 and also believed to have orchestrated the murder of (or murdered) many of those involved in the months following. He is the father of small-time mobster and Lufthansa heist suspect, Frankie Burke
, Jesse James Burke, Catherine Burke and another unidentified daughter. Catherine married Bonanno crime family
member Anthony Indelicato
in 1992.
. His mother, Mary Conway, was originally from Dublin. The father of James has never been identified. At age two he was placed in a foster home by his mother, where he spent most of his early years in a Roman Catholic orphanage
run by nuns, never to see his birth parents again. He was shuttled around various homes and orphanages, where he suffered physical abuse
and sexual abuse
at the hands of various foster fathers and foster brothers. In the summer of 1944, at the age of 13 years old, 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.
He was finally adopted
by the "Burke" family and he took the family name of Burke during this time. Jimmy lived with them in a large wooden boarding house located on Rockaway Beach Boulevard and Ocean Promenade in Rockaway, Queens
. His time spent there during the beginning of his adolescence was a time of peace and calm. He remained close to the Burke family and visited his adoptive mother and father each Mother's Day, Christmas and on their birthdays. On a monthly basis he would send them several thousand dollars in an unmarked envelope as appreciation for their attempt at raising him. It is rumored that he buried a portion of the loot from the 1978 Lufthansa heist which he orchestrated and helped carry out, on the site of his childhood foster home. It is believed that only a quarter of the estimated millions in gold, silver, and currency taken in the heist has been recovered.
As he approached his teens, 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 bank forgery. He passed counterfeit
checks for Dominick Cersani. Burke did not act as an informant for the authorities and that helped him gain favor amongst his Mafia
contemporaries. Behind bars, he mixed with a number of Mafia
members and other criminals of all nationalities in New York area.
Burke was an immense presence: burly, tall, and with large, tattooed, muscular arms as result of earlier work as a bricklayer for the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers
, along with a temper to match. His job as a union bricklayer during the New York City construction boom was short-lived, and he gave it up to pursue a life of crime. 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."
In 1962, Burke and his future wife, Mickey, decided to get married, Burke discovered that Mickey was being bothered by an old boyfriend, who was calling her on the phone, yelling at her on the street, and circling her house for hours in his car. On the day Burke and Mickey were married the police found the remains of his wife's old boyfriend. The body had been carefully cut into over a dozen pieces and tossed all over the inside of his car.
s, but no victims were ever named. During the 1950s he was involved in various illegal activity such as distributing untaxed cigarettes and liquor. He fathered two daughters, one of whom was Catherine Burke and two sons: Frank James Burke
and Jesse James Burke (named after the famous outlaw brothers of the Old West). Jesse James suffered from a stutter speech impediment and was largely ignored by Jimmy, left to play in their home's basement filled with stolen toys. Burke is rumored to have murdered and dismembered an ex-boyfriend of his bride because he was being a nuisance. The police found his body cut up in pieces all over the inside of his car.
Burke was a mentor of Thomas DeSimone
, Henry Hill and Angelo Sepe, who were all young men in the 1960s. They carried out jobs for Burke, such as selling stolen merchandise. They eventually became part of Jimmy's crew and worked out of South Ozone Park, Queens
and East New York, Brooklyn
. The pair helped Burke with the hijacking
of delivery trucks. According to Hill, Burke would take the driver's drivers license and 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 witness
es or informant
s. 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. Burke told Henry Hill, bribing cops was like feeding elephants at the zoo. "All you need is peanuts." Said 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 a bar in South Ozone Park, Queens
called Robert's Lounge
. It was a favorite hangout of Burke and his crew, and many other mobsters, bookmakers, loan sharks, and other assorted criminals. The bar was also a cemetery
to Burke. Henry Hill claimed it was his private cemetery and over a dozen bodies were buried in and out of Robert's Lounge
. Burke ran a loan shark
and bookmaking operation that was based at the bar, and high stakes poker games in the basement, of which he would receive a cut. Burke also owned a dress factory, also in South Ozone Park, Queens, called Moo Moo Vedda's, which kept him awash in laundered
money. While not a Mafia member, Burke had one Mob member as friend and associate, Paul Vario
.
In 1972, Jimmy Burke and Henry Hill were arrested for beating up Gaspar Ciaccio in Tampa, Florida
who allegedly owed a large gambling debt to their friend the union boss Casey Rosado. They were charged with extortion, convicted, and sentenced to ten years in federal prison.
Burke was parole
d after six years, then went straight back to crime, as did Hill, who got out around the same time. Afterwards Hill once again partnered with Jimmy Burke who introduced Hill to Greg Bucceroni who Burke mentored. Hill shortly began trafficking
in drugs; Burke was soon involved in this new enterprise, even though the Lucchese crime family — with whom they were associated — 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.
It is claimed by some that Burke was involved in at least 50 murders during his career.
He supposedly killed nine people following the Lufthansa Heist. After Jimmy Breslin
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, Dominick "Remo" Cersani, who became an informant and was going to set Burke up in a cigarette
hijack for Burke to get arrested. Burke got suspicious about Cersani and later found out from one of his friends from a Queens, New York DA's office that Cersani was talking to the New York City Police Department
(NYPD) and that they were going to arrest Burke on a truck hijacking charge. Remo was killed within a week. At the Robert's Lounge
Burke told Remo "Lets take a ride." Tommy DeSimone strangled Remo with a piano wire
, Henry Hill said "Remo put up some fight. He kicked and swung and shit all over himself before he died." Burke had Remo's body buried next to the bocce court behind Robert's Lounge
. It was said that whenever Burke and Tommy DeSimone played bocce there with friends, they would jokingly say "Hi Remo, how ya doing?"
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 say "if you don't do whatcha supposed to, I'm gonna lock your kid inside the fuckin' refrigerator".
. This was the largest robbery in American
history at the time. Based on inside information from a Lufthansa Cargo Supervisor Louis Werner, who owed a large gambling debt to Burke-controlled bookmaker Martin Krugman, Burke planned and recruited a crew of criminal acquaintances that included Tommy DeSimone, Angelo Sepe, Louis Cafora, Joe Manri, Robert McMahon, and Paolo LiCastri
. Burke's son, Frank James Burke, drove a "crash car" whose function was to ram all police cars in pursuit of the getaway vehicle. Parnell Steven "Stacks" Edwards did not directly participate in the robbery but was ordered to dispose of the van used in the robbery at a junk yard compactor in New Jersey.
The robbery took place during the early morning hours on December 11, 1978. Because JFK Airport was divided between the Gambino crime family
and the Lucchese Family, permission was asked and granted by the Gambino capo who controlled the airport, John Gotti
. John Gotti's crew expected $250,000 from the proceeds of the robbery and Paolo LiCastri
, a soldier under John Gotti in the Gambino Family, became the sixth gunman to ensure the Gambinos' interests were looked after.
A van containing the robbers and a "crash car" arrived at the Lufthansa cargo terminal at 3:00 a.m. The crash car, driven by Frank Burke, remained in the parking lot. Three men got out of the van and entered the front door of the cargo terminal. The two men left in the van drove to the rear of the building, cut the lock on the security fence and replaced it with one of their own. The robbers, all armed, wore dark clothing and ski masks. Three men entered the building and rounded up all ten employees at gunpoint. Since 3am was 'lunch hour' for the shift, most personnel were already in the cafeteria. When the two men in the van returned to the front of the building, they encountered a security guard, who was pistol-whipped
and handcuffed
. One of the robbers led the security guard inside the building where he was forced to the floor.
Since the robbers had inside information, all the employees were accounted for, handcuffed, and forced down on the floor. At gunpoint the shift supervisor was forced to deactivate the general alarm system as well as all additional silent alarms within the vault and escort the robbers inside the vault. The supervisor was forced to open the cargo bay door. The robbers drove the van inside the loading bay and packed it with every bag of untraceable currency and jewelry they found in the vault.
After the van was loaded, the supervisor was taken back to the lunchroom, handcuffed, and forced to the floor next to the other employees. The robbers ordered the employees not to make a move for at least 15 minutes. To ensure compliance, the robbers confiscated the wallets of every employee and threatened the lives of their families if instructions were not followed. This 15-minute buffer was crucial because Werner's inside information made the robbers aware that the Port Authority Police could seal off the entire airport within 90 seconds, preventing any vehicle or person from coming in or going out.
At 4:21 a.m., the van containing the robbers and the stolen cash pulled out of the cargo terminal and left JFK, followed by the crash car, and drove to a garage in Canarsie, Brooklyn
, where Jimmy Burke was waiting. There, the money was switched to a third vehicle that was driven away by Jimmy Burke and his son Frank. The rest of the robbers left and drove home, except Paolo LiCastri
, who insisted on taking the subway home. Parnell "Stacks" Edwards put stolen license plates on the van and was supposed to drive it to an auto junk yard in New Jersey where it would be compacted to scrap metal.
Burke and his son Frank drove the third car with all the stolen money to a safehouse to be counted. This is when James Burke realized the true scope of the robbery. Over the course of time, shares were distributed to the robbers and to others who played a supporting part in the robbery. Burke's take of the robbery money was believed to have been a little over $2–4 million. Another $1–$2 million went to capo
Paul Vario. The remainder was disbursed among people who supported the robbery, and to the six actual robbers themselves, who received the smallest share, anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 depending on their role in the robbery. Besides Paul Vario and James Burke, few participants in the robbery received more than $50,000 and few lived more than six months.
Parnell "Stacks" Edwards was found shot to death in his apartment in South Ozone Park, Queens on December 18, 1978, only one week after the robbery. Henry Hill, who was not involved in the robbery, recounts that "Stacks" forgot to dispose of the van used in the robbery at a New Jersey compactor, instead getting high and passing out at a girlfriend's house, leaving the truck outside in a no parking zone. The next day the van was discovered by police with his fingerprint
s all over it, ski masks, a leather jacket, and a footprint from a Puma sneaker.
Louis Cafora, known as Fat Louie, and his newlywed wife Joanna were reported missing in March 1979 by her parents. They were never seen again. It was alleged that Cafora agreed to become a police informant and either Burke or Angelo Sepe murdered them and disposed of the bodies.
Robert McMahon and his close friend Joe Manri were found shot dead in a Buick Electra
parked on a Brooklyn street on May 16, 1979.
Paolo LiCastri
was found shot to death, his half-naked body smoldering in a garbage-strewn lot in Brooklyn on June 13, 1979.
A cosmetologist and part-time cocaine dealer named Theresa Ferrara
, who often frequented Robert's Lounge and who was a sometime mistress of Tommy DeSimone and Paul Vario, was murdered on February 10, 1979, when it was discovered that she was an informant. Her dismembered torso was found floating in the waters off Barnegat Inlet
near Toms River, New Jersey
, on May 18, 1979. She had met with the FBI, and was informed that members of the Vario Crew
wanted her murdered. She listened patiently, then asked them politely if she could leave. Several months later her dismembered body was found.
Thomas Monteleone, an Italian-Canadian mobster, used $250,000 of Lufthansa Heist money to become involved in a drug deal with Burke and Richard Eaton (a noted hustler and con-man). The drug deal didn't work out as planned. Monteleone was found dead in Connecticut in March 1979. Not directly related to the Lufthansa Heist, Monteleone's murder appears to have been collateral damage.
Martin Krugman, the bookmaker who provided the tip to Henry Hill and Burke's Robert's Lounge crew, vanished on January 6, 1979. Henry Hill stated that Krugman was killed in "Vinnie's fence Company" 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
, Thomas DeSimone
, Henry Hill, and Angelo Sepe (a protégé 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 had been brought in for questioning by the police about the Lufthansa Heist, and the only thing he told them was "I don't know whatcha talking about". Sepe was later murdered, in 1984, shot in the head when he answered the door one morning at his Brooklyn apartment. This was in retaliation for having robbed a Mafia-connected drug dealer. Frank James Burke
was found shot to death on a Brooklyn street on May 18, 1987, over a drug deal gone bad.
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 relocated the bodies he'd buried there, such as that of Dominick "Remo" Cersani, an old friend of Burke's who was murdered after trying to sell Burke out.
Partially as a result of 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 convicted of fixing Boston College basketball games as part of a point shaving
gambling scam in 1978, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Burke protested "I gave the little bastard (Hill) some bucks to bet on games, that's all!" Authorities believed he had planned and organized the Lufthansa Heist, but they did not have enough evidence to prove it in a court of law.
Although Burke was suspected of committing more than 50 murders, he was only convicted of one: the murder of Richard Eaton, a hustler
and confidence man
. If he had disposed of Eaton the same way he disposed of most of his victims, Burke could have been out of jail before he died. Instead, he beat and strangled Eaton to death and dumped the body, hog-tied 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 Eaton, based on evidence
Henry Hill gave to authorities. At the trial, Hill took the stand and testified against his former friend. Hill testified Eaton had convinced Burke to invest $250,000 in a cocaine deal that promised immense profit. Eaton, however, kept the money for his own use. When, at one point, 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." Burke also told Hill that this would be a lesson to two other drug purchasers who had not yet paid Burke. Based on the evidence of Burke's name, 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
!" When he was leaving New York on an airplane, he looked down at JFK airport and said to an officer, "[Once upon a time] that was all mine".
There was an attempt by Henry Hill and Eastern District of New York Special Assistant US Attorney Ed McDonald to convict Burke of taking part in the 1970 murder of William 'Billy Batts' DeVino
; but Hill was the sole living witness, so the charge was dropped due to a probable inability to convict based on 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, aged 73.
. Like his father, he was a career criminal and a suspect in the Lufthansa Heist. He was a well known heroin addict in mob circles and had been arrested several times for possession of the drug. He spent time at Robert's Lounge and The Linen Suite Lounge, 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 age 16 or 17.
Frank James Burke
was found by police, shot to death, on 1043 Liberty Avenue in the Cypress Hills
section of Brooklyn, New York, at 2:30 a.m. May 18, 1987. He was 27 years old. There is no record of any remorse or grief from Jimmy Burke about the death of his son.
A second son, Jesse James Burke, is not involved in organized crime.
Daughter Catherine married Bonanno
mobster Anthony Indelicato
in 1992.
in the 1990 Martin Scorsese
film Goodfellas
as "Jimmy Conway
". It was claimed that at the time the real life gangster Jimmy Burke was so happy to have Robert De Niro play him that he phoned him from prison to give him a few pointers. Author and screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi
denies this, saying De Niro and Burke had never spoken, but admitting that there were men around the set all the time who had known all of the principal characters very well.
Burke was portrayed by Donald Sutherland
in the television film The Big Heist
.
On August 19, 2011, The Middletown Press of Connecticut announced an upcoming book about the Lufthansa Robbery by the author Daniel Simone in collaboration with Henry Hill. The title is The Lufthansa Heist.
Gangster
A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Some gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from mob and the suffix -ster....
and Lucchese crime family
Lucchese crime family
The Lucchese crime family is one of the "Five Families" that dominates organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia . The family originated in the early 1920s with Gaetano "Tommy" Reina serving as boss up until his murder...
associate who is believed to have organized the Lufthansa heist
Lufthansa heist
The Lufthansa heist was a robbery at John F. Kennedy International Airport on December 11, 1978. An estimated $5 million in cash and $875,000 in jewels were stolen, at the time making it the largest cash robbery ever committed on American soil...
in 1978 and also believed to have orchestrated the murder of (or murdered) many of those involved in the months following. He is the father of small-time mobster and Lufthansa heist suspect, Frankie Burke
Frank James Burke
Frank James Burke-Conway was a Gambino crime family mob associate and the son of mobster Jimmy Burke.-Mob relations:...
, Jesse James Burke, Catherine Burke and another unidentified daughter. Catherine married Bonanno crime family
Bonanno crime family
The Bonanno crime family is one of the "Five Families" that dominates organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia ....
member Anthony Indelicato
Anthony Indelicato
Anthony "Bruno" Indelicato , also known as "Bruno", "Whack-Whack" and "Anthony Indelligado" is a capo with the Bonanno crime family in New York City,-Biography:...
in 1992.
Early life
Jimmy Burke was born in New YorkNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. His mother, Mary Conway, was originally from Dublin. The father of James has never been identified. At age two he was placed in a foster home by his mother, where he spent most of his early years in a Roman Catholic orphanage
Orphanage
An orphanage is a residential institution devoted to the care of orphans – children whose parents are deceased or otherwise unable or unwilling to care for them...
run by nuns, never to see his birth parents again. He was shuttled around various homes and orphanages, where he suffered physical abuse
Physical abuse
Physical abuse is abuse involving contact intended to cause feelings of intimidation, injury, or other physical suffering or bodily harm.-Forms of physical abuse:*Striking*Punching*Belting*Pushing, pulling*Slapping*Whipping*Striking with an object...
and sexual abuse
Child sexual abuse
Child sexual abuse is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include asking or pressuring a child to engage in sexual activities , indecent exposure with intent to gratify their own sexual desires or to...
at the hands of various foster fathers and foster brothers. In the summer of 1944, at the age of 13 years old, 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.
He was finally adopted
Adoption
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents...
by the "Burke" family and he took the family name of Burke during this time. Jimmy lived with them in a large wooden boarding house located on Rockaway Beach Boulevard and Ocean Promenade in Rockaway, Queens
Rockaway, Queens
The Rockaway Peninsula, informally The Rockaways, is the name of a peninsula of Long Island, all of which is located within the New York City borough of Queens. A popular summer resort area since the 1830s, Rockaway has become a mixture of lower, middle, and upper-class neighborhoods...
. His time spent there during the beginning of his adolescence was a time of peace and calm. He remained close to the Burke family and visited his adoptive mother and father each Mother's Day, Christmas and on their birthdays. On a monthly basis he would send them several thousand dollars in an unmarked envelope as appreciation for their attempt at raising him. It is rumored that he buried a portion of the loot from the 1978 Lufthansa heist which he orchestrated and helped carry out, on the site of his childhood foster home. It is believed that only a quarter of the estimated millions in gold, silver, and currency taken in the heist has been recovered.
As he approached his teens, Burke began to get in trouble with the law and spent considerable time in jail
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
. In 1949, aged eighteen, he was sentenced to five years in prison for bank forgery. He passed counterfeit
Counterfeit
To counterfeit means to illegally imitate something. Counterfeit products are often produced with the intent to take advantage of the superior value of the imitated product...
checks for Dominick Cersani. Burke did not act as an informant for the authorities and that helped him gain favor amongst his Mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
contemporaries. Behind bars, he mixed with a number of Mafia
American Mafia
The American Mafia , is an Italian-American criminal society. Much like the Sicilian Mafia, the American Mafia has no formal name and is a secret criminal society. Its members usually refer to it as Cosa Nostra or by its English translation "our thing"...
members and other criminals of all nationalities in New York area.
Burke was an immense presence: burly, tall, and with large, tattooed, muscular arms as result of earlier work as a bricklayer for the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers
International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers
The International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers is a labor union in the United States and Canada which represents bricklayers, pointers/cleaners/caulkers, stone and marble masons, cement masons, plasterers, tilesetters, terrazzo and mosaic workers...
, along with a temper to match. His job as a union bricklayer during the New York City construction boom was short-lived, and he gave it up to pursue a life of crime. He was known to be very polite and charming, but was a stone-cold killer. Said Henry Hill
Henry Hill (mobster)
Henry Hill is a former American mobster, Lucchese crime family associate, and FBI informant whose life story was documented in the book Wiseguy, written by crime reporter Nicholas Pileggi, and in the 1990 Martin Scorsese film, Goodfellas, in which Hill was played by Ray Liotta.-Early life:Henry...
, "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."
In 1962, Burke and his future wife, Mickey, decided to get married, Burke discovered that Mickey was being bothered by an old boyfriend, who was calling her on the phone, yelling at her on the street, and circling her house for hours in his car. On the day Burke and Mickey were married the police found the remains of his wife's old boyfriend. The body had been carefully cut into over a dozen pieces and tossed all over the inside of his car.
"Jimmy the Gent"
It is alleged that Burke committed a number of murderMurder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
s, but no victims were ever named. During the 1950s he was involved in various illegal activity such as distributing untaxed cigarettes and liquor. He fathered two daughters, one of whom was Catherine Burke and two sons: Frank James Burke
Frank James Burke
Frank James Burke-Conway was a Gambino crime family mob associate and the son of mobster Jimmy Burke.-Mob relations:...
and Jesse James Burke (named after the famous outlaw brothers of the Old West). Jesse James suffered from a stutter speech impediment and was largely ignored by Jimmy, left to play in their home's basement filled with stolen toys. Burke is rumored to have murdered and dismembered an ex-boyfriend of his bride because he was being a nuisance. The police found his body cut up in pieces all over the inside of his car.
Burke was a mentor of Thomas DeSimone
Thomas DeSimone
Thomas "Two-Gun Tommy" Anthony DeSimone was an Italian-American gangster and associate of the Lucchese crime family in New York. Also known as "Tommy D" or "Tommy Two-Guns", he was a grandson and nephew of Los Angeles mob bosses Rosario DeSimone and Frank DeSimone...
, Henry Hill and Angelo Sepe, who were all young men in the 1960s. They carried out jobs for Burke, such as selling stolen merchandise. They eventually became part of Jimmy's crew and worked out of South Ozone Park, Queens
South Ozone Park, Queens
South Ozone Park is a neighborhood in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Queens. It was originally developed as low-cost housing in the early 1900s. Adjacently north of JFK Airport, its boundaries extend from the Aqueduct Racetrack westward to the Van Wyck Expressway.Its main...
and East New York, Brooklyn
East New York, Brooklyn
East New York is a residential neighborhood located in the Eastern section of the borough of Brooklyn in New York City, United States. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 5...
. The pair helped Burke with the hijacking
Truck hijacking
Truck hijacking is the taking of a truck: normally for the consignment being carried, by force, or the threat of force to the driver....
of delivery trucks. According to Hill, Burke would take the driver's drivers license and 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
Bribery
Bribery, a form of corruption, is an act implying money or gift giving that alters the behavior of the recipient. Bribery constitutes a crime and is defined by Black's Law Dictionary as the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official or...
by Burke, would tell him about any potential witness
Witness
A witness is someone who has firsthand knowledge about an event, or in the criminal justice systems usually a crime, through his or her senses and can help certify important considerations about the crime or event. A witness who has seen the event first hand is known as an eyewitness...
es or informant
Informant
An informant is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law enforcement world, where they are officially known as confidential or criminal informants , and can often refer pejoratively to the supply of information...
s. 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. Burke told Henry Hill, bribing cops was like feeding elephants at the zoo. "All you need is peanuts." Said 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 a bar in South Ozone Park, Queens
South Ozone Park, Queens
South Ozone Park is a neighborhood in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Queens. It was originally developed as low-cost housing in the early 1900s. Adjacently north of JFK Airport, its boundaries extend from the Aqueduct Racetrack westward to the Van Wyck Expressway.Its main...
called Robert's Lounge
Robert's Lounge
Robert's Lounge was a saloon that was owned by Lucchese crime family associate James 'Jimmy the Gent' Burke. Robert's Lounge was located at 114-45 Lefferts Boulevard in South Ozone Park, Queens, near the John F. Kennedy International Airport Air Cargo Center...
. It was a favorite hangout of Burke and his crew, and many other mobsters, bookmakers, loan sharks, and other assorted criminals. The bar was also a cemetery
Cemetery
A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term "cemetery" implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are where the final ceremonies of death are observed...
to Burke. Henry Hill claimed it was his private cemetery and over a dozen bodies were buried in and out of Robert's Lounge
Robert's Lounge
Robert's Lounge was a saloon that was owned by Lucchese crime family associate James 'Jimmy the Gent' Burke. Robert's Lounge was located at 114-45 Lefferts Boulevard in South Ozone Park, Queens, near the John F. Kennedy International Airport Air Cargo Center...
. Burke ran a loan shark
Loan shark
A loan shark is a person or body that offers unsecured loans at illegally high interest rates to individuals, often enforcing repayment by blackmail or threats of violence....
and bookmaking operation that was based at the bar, and high stakes poker games in the basement, of which he would receive a cut. Burke also owned a dress factory, also in South Ozone Park, Queens, called Moo Moo Vedda's, which kept him awash in laundered
Money laundering
Money laundering is the process of disguising illegal sources of money so that it looks like it came from legal sources. The methods by which money may be laundered are varied and can range in sophistication. Many regulatory and governmental authorities quote estimates each year for the amount...
money. While not a Mafia member, Burke had one Mob member as friend and associate, Paul Vario
Paul Vario
Paul Vario was a caporegime of a crew in the Lucchese crime family. In the 1970s Vario held the position of consigliere in the family but later resigned. In 1980, longtime associate Henry Hill became a government witness and testified against Vario and members of his crew...
.
In 1972, Jimmy Burke and Henry Hill were arrested for beating up Gaspar Ciaccio in Tampa, Florida
Tampa, Florida
Tampa is a city in the U.S. state of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709....
who allegedly owed a large gambling debt to their friend the union boss Casey Rosado. They were charged with extortion, convicted, and sentenced to ten years in federal prison.
Burke was parole
Parole
Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...
d after six years, then went straight back to crime, as did Hill, who got out around the same time. Afterwards Hill once again partnered with Jimmy Burke who introduced Hill to Greg Bucceroni who Burke mentored. Hill shortly began trafficking
Illegal drug trade
The illegal drug trade is a global black market, dedicated to cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of those substances which are subject to drug prohibition laws. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs by drug prohibition laws.A UN report said the...
in drugs; Burke was soon involved in this new enterprise, even though the Lucchese crime family — with whom they were associated — 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.
It is claimed by some that Burke was involved in at least 50 murders during his career.
He supposedly killed nine people following the Lufthansa Heist. After Jimmy Breslin
Jimmy Breslin
Jimmy Breslin is an American journalist and author. He currently writes a column for the New York Daily News' Sunday edition. He has written numerous novels, and columns of his have appeared regularly in various newspapers in his hometown of New York City...
had written a disparaging and accusative article on Paul Vario
Paul Vario
Paul Vario was a caporegime of a crew in the Lucchese crime family. In the 1970s Vario held the position of consigliere in the family but later resigned. In 1980, longtime associate Henry Hill became a government witness and testified against Vario and members of his crew...
, Burke strangled the journalist almost to death in front of a bar full of witnesses. He ordered the murder of his best friend, Dominick "Remo" Cersani, who became an informant and was going to set Burke up in a cigarette
Cigarette
A cigarette is a small roll of finely cut tobacco leaves wrapped in a cylinder of thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder; its smoke is inhaled from the other end, which is held in or to the mouth and in some cases a cigarette holder may be used as well...
hijack for Burke to get arrested. Burke got suspicious about Cersani and later found out from one of his friends from a Queens, New York DA's office that Cersani was talking to the New York City Police Department
New York City Police Department
The New York City Police Department , established in 1845, is currently the largest municipal police force in the United States, with primary responsibilities in law enforcement and investigation within the five boroughs of New York City...
(NYPD) and that they were going to arrest Burke on a truck hijacking charge. Remo was killed within a week. At the Robert's Lounge
Robert's Lounge
Robert's Lounge was a saloon that was owned by Lucchese crime family associate James 'Jimmy the Gent' Burke. Robert's Lounge was located at 114-45 Lefferts Boulevard in South Ozone Park, Queens, near the John F. Kennedy International Airport Air Cargo Center...
Burke told Remo "Lets take a ride." Tommy DeSimone strangled Remo with a piano wire
Piano wire
Piano wire, or "music wire", is a specialized type of wire made for use in piano strings, as well as many other purposes. It is made from tempered high-carbon steel, also known as spring steel.-Manufacture and use:...
, Henry Hill said "Remo put up some fight. He kicked and swung and shit all over himself before he died." Burke had Remo's body buried next to the bocce court behind Robert's Lounge
Robert's Lounge
Robert's Lounge was a saloon that was owned by Lucchese crime family associate James 'Jimmy the Gent' Burke. Robert's Lounge was located at 114-45 Lefferts Boulevard in South Ozone Park, Queens, near the John F. Kennedy International Airport Air Cargo Center...
. It was said that whenever Burke and Tommy DeSimone played bocce there with friends, they would jokingly say "Hi Remo, how ya doing?"
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 say "if you don't do whatcha supposed to, I'm gonna lock your kid inside the fuckin' refrigerator".
The Lufthansa Heist
Burke's fame was the result of the Lufthansa Heist, the theft of approximately $6 million in cash and jewels from Building 261 at the Lufthansa cargo terminal at John F. Kennedy International AirportJohn F. Kennedy International Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport is an international airport located in the borough of Queens in New York City, about southeast of Lower Manhattan. It is the busiest international air passenger gateway to the United States, handling more international traffic than any other airport in North...
. This was the largest robbery in American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
history at the time. Based on inside information from a Lufthansa Cargo Supervisor Louis Werner, who owed a large gambling debt to Burke-controlled bookmaker Martin Krugman, Burke planned and recruited a crew of criminal acquaintances that included Tommy DeSimone, Angelo Sepe, Louis Cafora, Joe Manri, Robert McMahon, and Paolo LiCastri
Paolo LiCastri
Paolo LiCastri was a made man, or "Man of Honor" who worked under Carlo Gambino and Carmine Galante.-Biography:...
. Burke's son, Frank James Burke, drove a "crash car" whose function was to ram all police cars in pursuit of the getaway vehicle. Parnell Steven "Stacks" Edwards did not directly participate in the robbery but was ordered to dispose of the van used in the robbery at a junk yard compactor in New Jersey.
The robbery took place during the early morning hours on December 11, 1978. Because JFK Airport was divided between the Gambino crime family
Gambino crime family
The Gambino crime family is one of the "Five Families" that dominates organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia . The group is named after Carlo Gambino, boss of the family at the time of the McClellan hearings in 1963...
and the Lucchese Family, permission was asked and granted by the Gambino capo who controlled the airport, John Gotti
John Gotti
John Joseph Gotti, Jr was an American mobster who became the Boss of the Gambino crime family in New York City. Gotti grew up in poverty. He and his brothers turned to a life of crime at an early age...
. John Gotti's crew expected $250,000 from the proceeds of the robbery and Paolo LiCastri
Paolo LiCastri
Paolo LiCastri was a made man, or "Man of Honor" who worked under Carlo Gambino and Carmine Galante.-Biography:...
, a soldier under John Gotti in the Gambino Family, became the sixth gunman to ensure the Gambinos' interests were looked after.
A van containing the robbers and a "crash car" arrived at the Lufthansa cargo terminal at 3:00 a.m. The crash car, driven by Frank Burke, remained in the parking lot. Three men got out of the van and entered the front door of the cargo terminal. The two men left in the van drove to the rear of the building, cut the lock on the security fence and replaced it with one of their own. The robbers, all armed, wore dark clothing and ski masks. Three men entered the building and rounded up all ten employees at gunpoint. Since 3am was 'lunch hour' for the shift, most personnel were already in the cafeteria. When the two men in the van returned to the front of the building, they encountered a security guard, who was pistol-whipped
Pistol-whipping
Pistol-whipping is the act of using a handgun as a blunt weapon, wielding it as if it were a club or blackjack. "Pistol-whipping" and "to pistol-whip" were reported as "new words" of American speech in 1955, with cited usages from 1940s...
and handcuffed
Handcuffs
Handcuffs are restraint devices designed to secure an individual's wrists close together. They comprise two parts, linked together by a chain, a hinge, or rigid bar. Each half has a rotating arm which engages with a ratchet that prevents it from being opened once closed around a person's wrist...
. One of the robbers led the security guard inside the building where he was forced to the floor.
Since the robbers had inside information, all the employees were accounted for, handcuffed, and forced down on the floor. At gunpoint the shift supervisor was forced to deactivate the general alarm system as well as all additional silent alarms within the vault and escort the robbers inside the vault. The supervisor was forced to open the cargo bay door. The robbers drove the van inside the loading bay and packed it with every bag of untraceable currency and jewelry they found in the vault.
After the van was loaded, the supervisor was taken back to the lunchroom, handcuffed, and forced to the floor next to the other employees. The robbers ordered the employees not to make a move for at least 15 minutes. To ensure compliance, the robbers confiscated the wallets of every employee and threatened the lives of their families if instructions were not followed. This 15-minute buffer was crucial because Werner's inside information made the robbers aware that the Port Authority Police could seal off the entire airport within 90 seconds, preventing any vehicle or person from coming in or going out.
At 4:21 a.m., the van containing the robbers and the stolen cash pulled out of the cargo terminal and left JFK, followed by the crash car, and drove to a garage in Canarsie, Brooklyn
Canarsie, Brooklyn
Canarsie is a neighborhood in the southeastern portion of the borough of Brooklyn, in New York City, United States. The area is part of Brooklyn Community Board 18....
, where Jimmy Burke was waiting. There, the money was switched to a third vehicle that was driven away by Jimmy Burke and his son Frank. The rest of the robbers left and drove home, except Paolo LiCastri
Paolo LiCastri
Paolo LiCastri was a made man, or "Man of Honor" who worked under Carlo Gambino and Carmine Galante.-Biography:...
, who insisted on taking the subway home. Parnell "Stacks" Edwards put stolen license plates on the van and was supposed to drive it to an auto junk yard in New Jersey where it would be compacted to scrap metal.
Burke and his son Frank drove the third car with all the stolen money to a safehouse to be counted. This is when James Burke realized the true scope of the robbery. Over the course of time, shares were distributed to the robbers and to others who played a supporting part in the robbery. Burke's take of the robbery money was believed to have been a little over $2–4 million. Another $1–$2 million went to capo
Caporegime
A caporegime or capodecina, usually shortened to just a capo, is a term used in the Mafia for a high ranking made member of a crime family who heads a "crew" of soldiers and has major social status and influence in the organization...
Paul Vario. The remainder was disbursed among people who supported the robbery, and to the six actual robbers themselves, who received the smallest share, anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 depending on their role in the robbery. Besides Paul Vario and James Burke, few participants in the robbery received more than $50,000 and few lived more than six months.
Murders that followed the Lufthansa Heist
Burke never expected the robbery to bring in more than $2 million and was shocked by the $6 million haul and became paranoid about all the publicity. He was aware 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 as well as organized crime in New York in general. There were a number of murders and disappearances following the Lufthansa robbery, as Burke became increasingly concerned that there were too many witnesses who knew his involvement who became greedy once learning the true amount of money stolen in the heist. Burke was being pressured for more money by the participants of the Lufthansa robbery, so he decided to murder everyone connected to it.Parnell "Stacks" Edwards was found shot to death in his apartment in South Ozone Park, Queens on December 18, 1978, only one week after the robbery. Henry Hill, who was not involved in the robbery, recounts that "Stacks" forgot to dispose of the van used in the robbery at a New Jersey compactor, instead getting high and passing out at a girlfriend's house, leaving the truck outside in a no parking zone. The next day the van was discovered by police with his fingerprint
Fingerprint
A fingerprint in its narrow sense is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. In a wider use of the term, fingerprints are the traces of an impression from the friction ridges of any part of a human hand. A print from the foot can also leave an impression of friction ridges...
s all over it, ski masks, a leather jacket, and a footprint from a Puma sneaker.
Louis Cafora, known as Fat Louie, and his newlywed wife Joanna were reported missing in March 1979 by her parents. They were never seen again. It was alleged that Cafora agreed to become a police informant and either Burke or Angelo Sepe murdered them and disposed of the bodies.
Robert McMahon and his close friend Joe Manri were found shot dead in a Buick Electra
Buick Electra
The Buick Electra was a full-size premium automobile built by the Buick division of General Motors. The Electra name was used by Buick between 1959 and 1990.- 1959–1960 :...
parked on a Brooklyn street on May 16, 1979.
Paolo LiCastri
Paolo LiCastri
Paolo LiCastri was a made man, or "Man of Honor" who worked under Carlo Gambino and Carmine Galante.-Biography:...
was found shot to death, his half-naked body smoldering in a garbage-strewn lot in Brooklyn on June 13, 1979.
A cosmetologist and part-time cocaine dealer named Theresa Ferrara
Theresa Ferrara
Theresa Ferrara an Italian-American born in the Five Towns area of Long Island, New York. She worked with Lucchese crime family associates, and eventually became an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation . Ferrara was a distant relative of New Orleans crime family boss Carlos Marcello...
, who often frequented Robert's Lounge and who was a sometime mistress of Tommy DeSimone and Paul Vario, was murdered on February 10, 1979, when it was discovered that she was an informant. Her dismembered torso was found floating in the waters off Barnegat Inlet
Barnegat Inlet
Barnegat Inlet is a small inlet connecting the Barnegat Bay with the Atlantic Ocean in Ocean County, New Jersey. It separates Island Beach State Park and the Barnegat Peninsula from Long Beach Island...
near Toms River, New Jersey
Toms River, New Jersey
Toms River is a census-designated place and unincorporated area located within Toms River Township and is the county seat of Ocean County, New Jersey. It is part of a larger Toms River Township...
, on May 18, 1979. She had met with the FBI, and was informed that members of the Vario Crew
The Vario Crew
The Vario Crew is a group operating within the Lucchese crime family. It was once controlled by powerful Capo Paul Vario from the early 1950s into the early 1980s, when Vario and Jimmy Burke were betrayed by Henry Hill. Hill betrayed the crew by testifying against many members and his life-story...
wanted her murdered. She listened patiently, then asked them politely if she could leave. Several months later her dismembered body was found.
Thomas Monteleone, an Italian-Canadian mobster, used $250,000 of Lufthansa Heist money to become involved in a drug deal with Burke and Richard Eaton (a noted hustler and con-man). The drug deal didn't work out as planned. Monteleone was found dead in Connecticut in March 1979. Not directly related to the Lufthansa Heist, Monteleone's murder appears to have been collateral damage.
Martin Krugman, the bookmaker who provided the tip to Henry Hill and Burke's Robert's Lounge crew, vanished on January 6, 1979. Henry Hill stated that Krugman was killed in "Vinnie's fence Company" 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
Frank James Burke
Frank James Burke-Conway was a Gambino crime family mob associate and the son of mobster Jimmy Burke.-Mob relations:...
, Thomas DeSimone
Thomas DeSimone
Thomas "Two-Gun Tommy" Anthony DeSimone was an Italian-American gangster and associate of the Lucchese crime family in New York. Also known as "Tommy D" or "Tommy Two-Guns", he was a grandson and nephew of Los Angeles mob bosses Rosario DeSimone and Frank DeSimone...
, Henry Hill, and Angelo Sepe (a protégé 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 had been brought in for questioning by the police about the Lufthansa Heist, and the only thing he told them was "I don't know whatcha talking about". Sepe was later murdered, in 1984, shot in the head when he answered the door one morning at his Brooklyn apartment. This was in retaliation for having robbed a Mafia-connected drug dealer. Frank James Burke
Frank James Burke
Frank James Burke-Conway was a Gambino crime family mob associate and the son of mobster Jimmy Burke.-Mob relations:...
was found shot to death on a Brooklyn street on May 18, 1987, over a drug deal gone bad.
Downfall and death
In 1980, Henry Hill was arrested for drug trafficking. He became an FBI informant in order to avoid a long prison sentence, and entered the witness protection program. Hill had been drawn into the cocaine business despite warnings by Burke to stay out of the drug business. Hill set up a network and soon was earning an average of $3,000 per week. Also that year, the Lufthansa supervisor Louis Werner, who supplied all of the inside information about how to rob the Lufthansa cargo terminal and the only person to have actually been prosecuted for the Lufthansa Heist, became an informant after serving just one year of a 15-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 relocated the bodies he'd buried there, such as that of Dominick "Remo" Cersani, an old friend of Burke's who was murdered after trying to sell Burke out.
Partially as a result of 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 convicted of fixing Boston College basketball games as part of a point shaving
Point shaving
In organized sports, point shaving is a type of match fixing where the perpetrators try to prevent a team from covering a published point spread. Unlike other forms of match fixing, sports betting invariably motivates point shaving. A point shaving scheme generally involves a sports gambler and one...
gambling scam in 1978, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Burke protested "I gave the little bastard (Hill) some bucks to bet on games, that's all!" Authorities believed he had planned and organized the Lufthansa Heist, but they did not have enough evidence to prove it in a court of law.
Although Burke was suspected of committing more than 50 murders, he was only convicted of one: the murder of Richard Eaton, a hustler
Hustling
Hustling is the deceptive act of disguising one's skill in a sport or game with the intent of luring someone of probably lesser skill into gambling with the hustler, as a form of confidence trick...
and confidence man
Confidence trick
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is an individual working alone or in concert with others who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility,...
. If he had disposed of Eaton the same way he disposed of most of his victims, Burke could have been out of jail before he died. Instead, he beat and strangled Eaton to death and dumped the body, hog-tied 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 Eaton, based on evidence
Evidence
Evidence in its broadest sense includes everything that is used to determine or demonstrate the truth of an assertion. Giving or procuring evidence is the process of using those things that are either presumed to be true, or were themselves proven via evidence, to demonstrate an assertion's truth...
Henry Hill gave to authorities. At the trial, Hill took the stand and testified against his former friend. Hill testified Eaton had convinced Burke to invest $250,000 in a cocaine deal that promised immense profit. Eaton, however, kept the money for his own use. When, at one point, 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." Burke also told Hill that this would be a lesson to two other drug purchasers who had not yet paid Burke. Based on the evidence of Burke's name, 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
Hypothermia
Hypothermia is a condition in which core temperature drops below the required temperature for normal metabolism and body functions which is defined as . Body temperature is usually maintained near a constant level of through biologic homeostasis or thermoregulation...
!" When he was leaving New York on an airplane, he looked down at JFK airport and said to an officer, "[Once upon a time] that was all mine".
There was an attempt by Henry Hill and Eastern District of New York Special Assistant US Attorney Ed McDonald to convict Burke of taking part in the 1970 murder of William 'Billy Batts' DeVino
William Devino
William "Billy Batts" Devino was a New York mobster with the Gambino crime family who was a longtime friend of John Gotti in the 1960s...
; but Hill was the sole living witness, so the charge was dropped due to a probable inability to convict based on a lack of evidence.
Burke was serving his time in Wende Correctional Facility
Wende Correctional Facility
Wende Correctional Facility is a maximum security prison located in Town of Alden in Erie County, New York. The prison is named for this region of Alden...
in Alden, New York
Alden, New York
Alden, New York may refer to one of the following locations in Erie County, New York:*Alden , New York*Alden , New York...
, when he developed lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
. He died from this disease on April 13, 1996, aged 64, while being treated at Roswell Park Cancer Institute
Roswell Park Cancer Institute
The Roswell Park Cancer Institute is a comprehensive cancer research and treatment center located in Buffalo, New York. Founded in 1898 by Dr. Roswell Park, it was the first dedicated medical facility for cancer treatment and research in the United States. The facility is involved in drug...
in Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
Had he lived he would have been eligible for parole
Parole
Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...
in 2004, aged 73.
Children
Frank James Burke (1960 - May 18, 1987) was one of two sons born to James and Michelle "Mickey" Burke in BrooklynBrooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
. Like his father, he was a career criminal and a suspect in the Lufthansa Heist. He was a well known heroin addict in mob circles and had been arrested several times for possession of the drug. He spent time at Robert's Lounge and The Linen Suite Lounge, 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 age 16 or 17.
Frank James Burke
Frank James Burke
Frank James Burke-Conway was a Gambino crime family mob associate and the son of mobster Jimmy Burke.-Mob relations:...
was found by police, shot to death, on 1043 Liberty Avenue in the Cypress Hills
Cypress Hills
The Cypress Hills are a region of hills in southwestern Saskatchewan and southeastern Alberta, Canada.The highest point in Saskatchewan at is located at Lookout Point in the Cypress Hills.-Name:...
section of Brooklyn, New York, at 2:30 a.m. May 18, 1987. He was 27 years old. There is no record of any remorse or grief from Jimmy Burke about the death of his son.
A second son, Jesse James Burke, is not involved in organized crime.
Daughter Catherine married Bonanno
Bonanno
-List of people with surname Bonanno:* Bonanno crime family, a Mafia family in New York City** Joseph Bonanno , founder** Salvatore Bonanno , son of Joseph* Anthony Bonanno, Maltese archeologist* Alfredo M...
mobster Anthony Indelicato
Anthony Indelicato
Anthony "Bruno" Indelicato , also known as "Bruno", "Whack-Whack" and "Anthony Indelligado" is a capo with the Bonanno crime family in New York City,-Biography:...
in 1992.
Popular culture
Jimmy Burke was depicted by Robert De NiroRobert De Niro
Robert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...
in the 1990 Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
film Goodfellas
Goodfellas
Goodfellas is a 1990 American crime film directed by Martin Scorsese. It is a film adaptation of the 1986 non-fiction book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi, who co-wrote the screenplay with Scorsese...
as "Jimmy Conway
Jimmy Conway
James Burke, also known as Jimmy the Gent, and The Big Irishman , was an Irish-American gangster and Lucchese crime family associate who is believed to have organized the Lufthansa heist in 1978 and also believed to have orchestrated the murder of many of those involved in the months following...
". It was claimed that at the time the real life gangster Jimmy Burke was so happy to have Robert De Niro play him that he phoned him from prison to give him a few pointers. Author and screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi
Nicholas Pileggi
Nicholas Pileggi is an Italian-American author and screenwriter.-Career:Pileggi is best known for writing the book Wiseguy, which he adapted into the movie Goodfellas, and for writing the book and screenplay Casino. The movie versions of both were co-written and directed by Martin Scorsese...
denies this, saying De Niro and Burke had never spoken, but admitting that there were men around the set all the time who had known all of the principal characters very well.
Burke was portrayed by Donald Sutherland
Donald Sutherland
Donald McNichol Sutherland, OC is a Canadian actor with a film career spanning nearly 50 years. Some of Sutherland's more notable movie roles included offbeat warriors in such war movies as The Dirty Dozen, , MASH , and Kelly's Heroes , as well as in such popular films as Klute, Invasion of the...
in the television film The Big Heist
The Big Heist
The Big Heist is an American television movie which aired in 2001, on the A&E Television Networks.The film portrays the events of the 1978 Lufthansa Heist. The events and characters depicted in the film were also the subject of the much more well-known 1990 film Goodfellas, directed by Martin...
.
On August 19, 2011, The Middletown Press of Connecticut announced an upcoming book about the Lufthansa Robbery by the author Daniel Simone in collaboration with Henry Hill. The title is The Lufthansa Heist.
Further reading
- 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)