Vincent Asaro
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Vincent Asaro (July 10, 1935 – October 22, 2023) was an American mobster who served as a
caporegime A ''caporegime'' or ''capodecina'', usually shortened to ''capo'' or informally referred to as "captain", "skipper" or "lieutenant", is a leadership position in the Mafia (both the Sicilian Mafia and Italian-American Mafia). A ''capo'' is a "made m ...
in the
Bonanno crime family The Bonanno crime family (pronounced ) is an Italian American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City. The family was known as the Maranzano crime family until its founder Sal ...
. Born in
Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...
, a borough of New York City, he was arrested by the
FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
on January 23, 2014 and indicted on charges related to the 1978
Lufthansa heist The Lufthansa heist was a robbery which took place at New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport on December 11, 1978. An estimated US$5.875 million (equivalent to US$28.32 million in 2024) was stolen, with $5 million i ...
at
John F. Kennedy International Airport John F. Kennedy International Airport is a major international airport serving New York City and its metropolitan area. JFK Airport is located on the southwestern shore of Long Island, in Queens, New York City, bordering Jamaica Bay. It is ...
. He was found not guilty in November 2015 of the charges, and was also acquitted of all charges in the 1969 murder of Paul Katz, who owned a warehouse in which Asaro and another suspect housed stolen goods. He was also indicted in March 2017 and was sentenced to eight years in prison.


Mob career

Vincent Asaro was born in
Ozone Park, Queens Ozone Park is a neighborhood in the southwestern section of the New York City boroughs of New York City, borough of Queens, New York (state), New York, United States. It is next to the Aqueduct Racetrack in South Ozone Park, Queens, South Ozone ...
on July 10, 1935, his father was Girolamo Asaro (1913-1977, Who his son is named after) and his mother was Josephine Valenti. His father was the brother-in-law to Michael Zaffarano. In 1979, after the murder of Bonanno boss
Carmine Galante Carmine Galante (; February 21, 1910 – July 12, 1979) was an American Mafioso who was ''de facto'' boss of the Bonanno crime family of New York City. Galante was rarely seen without a cigar hanging from his mouth, leading to the nickname "T ...
, Asaro became a capo of a Queens crew in the Bonanno family. In February 1980, his uncle Michael Zaffarano died. Asaro's grandfather Vincenzo was born in 1892 in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily. He is a distant cousin of Joe Bonanno and family. Vincenzo’s sister Brigida Asaro married Vito Bonventre (born 1891), the brother of his close business associate and fellow mobster Giovanni Bonventre. Vincenzo (grandfather of Vincent) was the main suspect in the 1930 murder of Catello Coppola. It is rumored that Asaro's great grandfather Girolamo Asaro (born 1859) was a mentor to fellow Castellammarese Stefano Magaddino. According to
Lucchese crime family The Lucchese crime family (pronounced ) is an Italian Americans, Italian American American Mafia, Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City and New Jersey, within the nationwide c ...
associate turned informant
Henry Hill Henry Hill Jr. (June 11, 1943 – June 12, 2012) was an American mobster who was associated with the Lucchese crime family of New York City from 1955 until 1980, when he was arrested on narcotics charges and became an FBI informant. Hill testi ...
, Asaro was a
caporegime A ''caporegime'' or ''capodecina'', usually shortened to ''capo'' or informally referred to as "captain", "skipper" or "lieutenant", is a leadership position in the Mafia (both the Sicilian Mafia and Italian-American Mafia). A ''capo'' is a "made m ...
in the Bonanno crime family, who oversaw the family's interests in
JFK airport John F. Kennedy International Airport is a major international airport serving New York City and its metropolitan area. JFK Airport is located on the southwestern shore of Long Island, in Queens, New York City, bordering Jamaica Bay. It is t ...
. Asaro would help his son Jerome Asaro become a member of the Bonanno family and in the taking over of his crew. However, Asaro and his son had a falling out in later years and did not speak with each other.


Lufthansa heist accusations

On January 23, 2014, Asaro was arrested by the
FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
and indicted on federal
racketeering Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercion, coercive, fraud, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. ...
charges stemming from the 1978
Lufthansa heist The Lufthansa heist was a robbery which took place at New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport on December 11, 1978. An estimated US$5.875 million (equivalent to US$28.32 million in 2024) was stolen, with $5 million i ...
. The charges also included the theft of $1.25 million of
gold salt Gold-containing drugs are pharmaceuticals that contain gold. Sometimes these species are referred to as "gold salts". "Chrysotherapy" and "aurotherapy" are the applications of gold compounds to medicine. Research on the medicinal effects of g ...
s, involvement in the
pornography Pornography (colloquially called porn or porno) is Sexual suggestiveness, sexually suggestive material, such as a picture, video, text, or audio, intended for sexual arousal. Made for consumption by adults, pornographic depictions have evolv ...
industry, and for the ordering of the murder of a cousin who testified in court. Arrested along with Asaro were his son Jerome, acting boss Thomas DiFiore, acting capo Giacomo Bonventre, and soldier John Ragano. Controversially, author
Daniel Simone Daniel Simone (born in New York City) is an American author, who specialized in writing about sensational crimes in collaboration with one of the perpetrators or investigators of the actual event. ''The Lufthansa Heist'' Daniel Simone co-wrote ...
,
Henry Hill Henry Hill Jr. (June 11, 1943 – June 12, 2012) was an American mobster who was associated with the Lucchese crime family of New York City from 1955 until 1980, when he was arrested on narcotics charges and became an FBI informant. Hill testi ...
's co-writer of their book, ''
The Lufthansa Heist ''The Lufthansa Heist: Behind the Six-Million-Dollar Cash Haul That Shook the World'' is a non-fiction book written by Daniel Simone in collaboration with Henry Hill. It was published by Lyons Press, an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield, on Augus ...
'', published on August 1, 2015 by Lyons Press, claims that Hill asserted to him that "Asaro had no involvement in the famous robbery." In fact, Asaro does not appear nor is he mentioned in Simone's book. Furthermore, in the Author's Notes and Sources page of ''The Lufthansa Heist'', Simone lists numerous law enforcement agents who collaborated with him in the development of the book and, he attests, none of these subjects ever mentioned Asaro in connection with the Lufthansa robbery. More strangely, those investigators had not known about a Gaspar Valenti, the informant who testified against Asaro, his cousin. In November 2015, Asaro was found not guilty of all charges related to the Lufthansa heist. Upon leaving the courthouse after his acquittal he was infamously heard joking to his lawyer "Don't let them see the body in the trunk".


Paul Katz murder suspect

Asaro was also a suspect in the 1969 death of Paul Katz. Katz owned a warehouse that Asaro and James Burke used to store stolen goods. When law enforcement raided the warehouse, Asaro and Burke immediately suspected Katz of being a government informant. The two men allegedly killed Katz with a dog chain and buried his remains under a vacant house. When the
NYPD The City of New York Police Department, also referred to as New York City Police Department (NYPD), is the primary law enforcement agency within New York City. Established on May 23, 1845, the NYPD is the largest, and one of the oldest, munic ...
reopened the Katz case, Asaro and Burke allegedly moved the remains to the house of Burke's daughter and reburied them there. In 2013, a police search uncovered the remains. Asaro was arrested and tried for the murder of Paul Katz, but was acquitted of all charges on November 12, 2015.


Arson order

In March 2017, Asaro was indicted and charged in an arson case. In June 2017, Asaro pleaded guilty in a case of ordering car arson against a motorist who had cut him off in
Howard Beach, Queens Howard Beach is a neighborhood in the southwestern portion of the New York City Borough (New York City), borough of Queens. It is bordered to the north by the Belt Parkway and Conduit Avenue in Ozone Park, Queens, Ozone Park, to the south by J ...
in April 2012. Prosecutors allege that Asaro enlisted a Bonanno crime family associate to execute the crime; however, the associate then engaged the grandson of former
Gambino crime family The Gambino crime family (pronounced ) is an Italian American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia. ...
boss
John Gotti John Joseph Gotti Jr.Capeci, Mustain (1996), pp. 25–26 ( , ; October 27, 1940 – June 10, 2002) was an American '' mafioso'' and boss of the Gambino crime family in New York City. He ordered and helped to orchestrate the murder of Gambin ...
, John J. Gotti (who also pleaded guilty in the case), and he carried out the order in his stead. The day after the incident, Asaro apparently contacted a Gambino crime family associate who had access to a local police department database. The database linked the car plate to the home address of the driver. Prosecutors also alleged that Gotti was the getaway driver during a $6,000 bank robbery in 2012; he and another man pleaded guilty. Asaro was incarcerated at the
Metropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn The Metropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn (MDC Brooklyn) is a List of United States federal prisons#Administrative facilities, United States federal administrative detention facility in the Sunset Park, Brooklyn, Sunset Park neighborhood of ...
while awaiting sentencing. He faced the possibility of up to 20 years in prison, meanwhile prosecutors were seeking 15 years in prison. The Brooklyn prosecutors said that although Asaro had "participated in racketeering, murder, robbery, extortion, loansharking, gambling and other illegal conduct, he has served less than eight years in jail." In late December 2017, Asaro was sentenced to eight years in prison. Initially scheduled to be released from the
United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners The United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners (MCFP Springfield) is a United States federal prison in Springfield, Missouri for male offenders. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department o ...
in 2022, he was granted a
compassionate release Compassionate release is a process by which inmates in criminal justice systems may be eligible for immediate early release on grounds of "particularly extraordinary or compelling circumstances which could not reasonably have been foreseen by t ...
on April 14, 2020, and released six days later, due to his age and health vulnerability (he had a stroke the year prior) because of the risk of
COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...
amid the
COVID-19 pandemic in the United States On December 31, 2019, China announced the discovery of a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan. The first American case was reported on January 20, and United States Department of Health and Human Services, Health and Human Services Secreta ...
.


Death

Vincent Asaro died in Queens, New York on October 22, 2023, at the age of 88.


References


Further reading

* DeStefano, Anthony M., ''The Big Heist,'' Pinnacle Books, 2017. {{DEFAULTSORT:Asaro, Vincent 1935 births 2023 deaths American gangsters of Italian descent Bonanno crime family People from Ozone Park, Queens Criminals from Queens, New York Gangsters from New York City