Robert's Lounge was a saloon that was owned by 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 James 'Jimmy the Gent' Burke. Robert's Lounge was located at 114-45 Lefferts Boulevard 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...

, near the John F. Kennedy International Airport

John 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...

 Air Cargo Center. The saloon was long used as an informal headquarters by 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...

, whom the New York Times described as "a capo

Capo

A capo is a device used on the neck of a stringed instrument to shorten the playable length of the strings, hence raising the pitch. It is frequently used on guitars, mandolins, and banjos. G.B...

in the Antonio 'Tony Ducks' Corallo crime family." The robbery of Lufthansa's secure freight storage

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...

 at the Air Cargo Center on December 11, 1978, had its genesis in the lounge when Lufthansa freight supervisor Louis Werner described for the assembled mob-connected customers how a fortune in valuable freight could be stolen despite Lufthansa's security, described as "impregnable". An estimated $5 million in currency and $875,000 in jewels were stolen in that robbery, at the time described as the "largest cash robbery ever committed on American soil."

According to Lucchese crime family associate Henry Hill, the bar was the burying location for multiple mob victims and Hill said It's Jimmy Burke's private cemetery. In his book A Goodfella's Guide to New York: Your Personal Tour Through the Mob's, Hill wrote of the bar, A human leg bone and a portion of a human shoulder bone were excavated from the basement of the lounge on June 6, 1980. The bones were thought to have been those of two of James Burke's associates, 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...

and Martin Krugman, who went missing a short time after the Lufthansa robbery.