More than 35 years after the infamous Lufthansa heist at JFK Airport, the feds have finally busted a “Goodfella.”
An aging mob captain from Queens was charged Thursday with scheming to steal nearly $6 million in cash and jewelry in the fabled, 1978 rip-off depicted in the classic Martin Scorsese movie “Goodfellas.”
Court papers say Vincent Asaro, 78, of Howard Beach, took part in “several planning meetings” with the caper’s mastermind, James “Jimmy the Gent” Burke, portrayed by Robert De Niro as Jimmy Conway in the 1990 film.
Although Burke was an associate of the Luchese crime family, he was a close crony of Asaro, who the feds say is a longtime Bonanno captain and member of its ruling “administration.”
The Bonannos controlled part of JFK at the time of the robbery, and Burke “had to give up a share” to Asaro “to maintain the peace,” author Nick Pileggi wrote in “Wiseguy,” on which “Goodfellas” was based.
The Lufthansa plot was hatched when bookie and wig-shop owner Marty Krugman (the Morrie Kessler character in the movie) told Luchese associate Henry Hill about a huge stash of cash and jewels that routinely passed through the airport — a tip he got from airport worker Louis Werner, who owed the bookie $20,000.
Burke’s crew struck just after 3 a.m. Dec. 11, 1978, pistol-whipping a cargo agent and tying up 10 workers before forcing a security guard to open the double-door that protected the loot.
As recounted in the film, most of the crew later got rubbed out by Burke or under his orders, and papers filed in Brooklyn federal court say that while everyone involved was supposed to pocket $750,000, “most did not live to receive their share,” either because they were killed first or it was never given to them.
“We never got our right money, what we were supposed to get, we got f–ked all around. Got f–ked around. That f–king Jimmy [Burke] kept everything,” Asaro griped in 2011, according to a recording made by a mob rat that is part of the evidence against Asaro.
The cooperator, who is identified in court papers as Asaro’s cousin, was also present during the Lufthansa planning sessions with Burke, Asaro and others, the court documents say.
Asaro is notable for having been in Robert’s Lounge when bartender Michael “Spider” Gianco was shot in the foot — a scene memorably recreated in “Goodfellas” as Joe Pesci’s character shoots “Spider,” played by future “Sopranos” star Michael Imperioli.
“He’s the one who brought Spider to the hospital,” a law-enforcement source said of Asaro.
Asaro allegedly admitted his involvement in the Lufthansa job to ex-Bonanno boss Joseph Massino, who later became America’s highest-ranking Mafia turncoat and is a witness against Asaro, sources said.
Warning: Videos contain explicit language
Outside court Thursday, Asaro’s attorney, veteran mob lawyer Gerry McMahon, said his client — who was ordered jailed pending a bail hearing — “categorically” denied the charges.
“This is the sequel to ‘Goodfellas,’” McMahon quipped. “Marty Scorsese needs a new script, and the US Attorney’s Office is giving it to them.”
But FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge George Venizelos said after Thursday’s arrests, “It may be decades later, but the FBI’s determination to investigate and bring wiseguys to justice will never waver.”
In addition to the Lufthansa heist, Asaro was charged in the murder of suspected stool pigeon Paul Katz, who was revealed Thursday as the victim whose remains were found last year during the FBI’s highly publicized excavation at an Ozone Park house owned by Burke’s daughter.
Katz disappeared in 1969 after Asaro and others were busted at a warehouse where Katz let thieves stash stolen merchandise, court papers say. Asaro and Burke allegedly strangled Katz with a dog chain then buried his body under a house being built at the time.
In the mid-1980s, Asaro ordered the corpse dug up and moved after Burke, who had a network of corrupt cops on his payroll, learned that an NYPD detective was looking into Katz’s disappearance, according to papers filed in Brooklyn federal court.
But the job was botched, and FBI agents pulled out “multiple human bones, including an entire right hand and wrist, hair, teeth, possible soft-tissue fragments and clothing” after digging up the basement in July. DNA tied the remains to Katz, court papers say.
On the day the feds started digging, Asaro’s turncoat cousin gave him a heads-up as they rode in a car together, the papers say. Asaro then headed to a Bonanno associate’s towing business, got into another car and was driven to the dig site.
After passing by twice to eyeball the scene, Asaro drove to his son’s business in Manhattan, then returned to the towing business and was spotted talking to Bonanno soldier and co-defendant John Ragano.
Asaro was apparently so rattled that when he tried to leave, court papers say, “agents observed him drive into a metal pillar.”
His other alleged crimes include ordering the early-1980s firebombing of a mobbed-up bar on Rockaway Boulevard in Ozone Park, Afters, which the feds say “was named for ‘after Lufthansa.’ ”
In “Wiseguy,” Asaro is described as the owner of a bar on Rockaway Boulevard that “everyone moved to” after “the Lufthansa heat got to be too much” at former hangout Robert’s Lounge, where the Lufthansa plot was hatched.
When Afters was sold to new owners who planned to open a social club catering to a black clientele, the bigoted owner of a nearbv business complained and Asaro had his cousin and son burn it down “so that the new business could not open,” court papers say.
Asaro was among five reputed Bonannos busted Thursday on a sweeping racketeering indictment, including his son Jerome — who allegedly helped move Katz’s body — and Thomas “Tommy D” Di Fiore, identified in court papers as the current “boss” of the now-depleted crime family.
Prosecutors say they have “overwhelming” evidence against the defendants, including secret recordings in which Asaro was caught bad-mouthing his own son, a reputed Bonanno captain to whom Asaro had to report while temporarily demoted.
“F–k Jerry. F–k him in his ass . . . I lost my son when I made him a skipper,” he was recorded saying.
Asaro also called Di Fiore a “cheap scumbag . . . from Long Island” after the mobster was put in charge of the Bonannos in 2012.
Also charged was reputed acting captain Jack Bonventre.
Additional reporting by Bob Fredericks, Lorena Mongelli and Erin Calabrese