Word: lufthansa
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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They had pulled off the biggest holdup in U.S. history with professional perfection, but the $5,850,000 in cash and jewelry turned them giddy, as well it might. The gang that seized the loot from a Lufthansa Airlines cargo facility at New York City's Kennedy International Airport last December quickly committed blunders unworthy of a teenage shoplifting ring. As a result, two of the gang were under arrest last week, one was murdered, another was presumed dead and the identity of the others was known to the FBI and New York police...
...cash. He also bought a new Cadillac for his girlfriend. Before he picked up the T-bird, however, FBI agents fitted it with an eavesdropping bug and a small radio transmitter that constantly signaled its whereabouts. Sepe's next mistake was to boast about the Lufthansa caper to passengers in his car -taped conversations that the FBI found most interesting, especially those with Peter Gruenewald, who worked as a Lufthansa cargo agent...
Gruenewald apparently is blessed, or cursed, with a sympathetic ear. Authorities believe he was also told by Louis Werner, 46, a longtime fellow Lufthansa employee, how Werner had helped set up the robbery. Werner had left his post for more than 90 minutes so that a Brink's crew could not find anyone to sign for the pickup of the cash. That key move kept the money at the airport over a weekend, just as the gang had planned. Werner was promised $300,000 for his role. When Gruenewald seemed nervous about keeping his secret, Werner gave...
...going on, a third suspect in the theft, Thomas DeSimone, 32, was reported missing by his wife. DeSimone has a record of cargo thefts and had just served time for a truck hijacking. The FBI believes he was murdered in a dispute among the thieves over distribution of the Lufthansa loot. New York police are not so sure he is dead. Also thought to be a victim of the gang's dissension was Steven Edwards, 31, an ex-convict whose bullet-riddled body was found in his New York apartment...
...believed to have planned the crime and to be holding most of the loot. The FBI theory is that Joseph DiPalermo, a capo in the Lucchese group, supervised the plot and the disposition of the money and jewels. The authorities believe that the mob got the cooperation of Lufthansa employees on the inside by the time-honored method of inducing them to gamble, pressuring them to pay up, loaning them money at exorbitant rates and, finally, pointing out that they could cancel their debts by helping out with the heist...