The Lufthansa Heist: Behind the Six-Million-Dollar Cash Haul That Shook the World

by Daniel Simone (Author), Henry Hill (Author)

New
Hardcover
2015
$23.06

The inside story-from the organizer himself--of the largest unrecovered cash haul in history. This full account that brings the reader behind the heist memorialized in Goodfellas that has baffled law enforcement for decades. From Henry Hill himself, in the last book he worked on before his 2012 death. On December 11, 1978, a daring armed robbery rocked Kennedy Airport, resulting in the largest unrecovered cash haul in world history--totaling six million dollars. The perpetrators were never apprehended and thirteen people connected to the crime were murdered in homicides that, like the crime itself, remain unsolved to this day. The burglary has fascinated the public for years, dominating headlines around the globe due to the story's unending ravel of mysteries that baffled the authorities, it being the subject of two different TV movies and a centerpiece of Martin Scorsese's iconic gangster film Goodfellas. One of the organizers of the sensational burglary, Henry Hill, who passed away in 2012, in collaboration with Daniel Simone, has penned an unprecedented tell-all about the robbery with never-before-unveiled details, particulars only known to an insider. Last month, this infamous criminal act again flared up in the national news when five reputed gangsters were charged in connection to the robbery. This latest twist lends the project an extraordinary sense of timing, and the legal proceedings of the newly arrested suspects will unfold over the next eighteen months, continuing to keep the Lufthansa topic in the news.

Synopsis

The inside story-from the organizer himself--of the largest unrecovered cash haul in history. This full account that brings the reader behind the heist memorialized in Goodfellas that has baffled law enforcement for decades. From Henry Hill himself, in the last book he worked on before his 2012 death. On December 11, 1978, a daring armed robbery rocked Kennedy Airport, resulting in the largest unrecovered cash haul in world history--totaling six million dollars. The perpetrators were never apprehended and thirteen people connected to the crime were murdered in homicides that, like the crime itself, remain unsolved to this day. The burglary has fascinated the public for years, dominating headlines around the globe due to the story's unending ravel of mysteries that baffled the authorities, it being the subject of two different TV movies and a centerpiece of Martin Scorsese's iconic gangster film Goodfellas. One of the organizers of the sensational burglary, Henry Hill, who passed away in 2012, in collaboration with Daniel Simone, has penned an unprecedented tell-all about the robbery with never-before-unveiled details, particulars only known to an insider. Last month, this infamous criminal act again flared up in the national news when five reputed gangsters were charged in connection to the robbery. This latest twist lends the project an extraordinary sense of timing, and the legal proceedings of the newly arrested suspects will unfold over the next eighteen months, continuing to keep the Lufthansa topic in the news.

$23.06

Quantity

1 in stock

More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 384
Publisher: Lyons Press
Published: 01 Aug 2015
ISBN 10: 1493008498
ISBN 13: 9781493008490

Media Reviews

For about a fourth of this remarkable true-crime story, readers will feel these low-level mobsters are the cutest little psychopaths ever. Boozing, gambling, wrenching, stealing- just guys having fun. Their charm fades, though, as we move into the meat of the story, the 1978 heist of $6 million from the Lufthansa safe at Kennedy Airport. The late Henry Hill- Ray Liotta played him in Goodfellas - was on the fringe of the action. With coauthor Simone's help, he narrates much of the story- up to the end, when he turns snitch. Simone tells the rest of this engrossing tale directly, and he is one helluva writer. One man's temper ignited as easily as gasoline vapor. A woman's running mascara made her look like a spider. Simone spends much time on officialdom's attempts to jail these reprobates, and maybe it's unintentional that he makes the cops out as no brighter than the perps they chase. Like many of the most compelling true-crime tales, the distinction between cops and robbers is blurry at best. Fine reading. - Don Crinklaw * Booklist *
Cinematic in style, this enthralling read is one you won't want to miss.
The Lufthansa Heist is an amazing, in-depth look at one of the most notorious heists in American and Queens history. * The Queens Gazette *

Author Bio

The late Henry Hill entered the Federal Witness Protection Program in 1980 and assisted the government in building cases against forty-six top Mafia associates, severely wounding the major five gangland organizations. He collaborated with author Nick Pileggi on the book Wiseguy, which became a New York Times #1 Best Seller. In 1990, Nick Pileggi and Martin Scorsese adapted Wiseguy to a screenplay, and with Henry Hill's guidance, Mr. Scorsese directed the film. Until he died in 2012, Henry Hill toured the country on speaking engagements lecturing high school students not to emulate his past life and career. Daniel Simone is a writer who has co-written autobiographies and published numerous shorter pieces on prominent figures in film, theater, and fiction. He created and wrote a monthly feature for Long Island Pulse magazine called Between the Lines where he interviewed and profiled renowned novelists. In September of 2012, he appeared in the one-hour Biography Channel documentary Mobsters: Jimmy the Gent Burke, which centered on the life and career of Jimmy Burke.