A reputed mobster cleared of planning an airport heist that inspired the Mafia movie Goodfellas joked as he left court: “Don’t let them see the body in the trunk”.
Vincent Asaro was found not guilty of extortion and involvement in the £4 million cash and jewels raid on a Lufthansa cargo building at New York’s John F Kennedy Airport in 1978 — then the biggest robbery ever carried out.
After the verdict was announced yesterday, he walked out of the Brooklyn court, threw his hands into the air and shouted: “Free.”
Then, as he got into a waiting car, he joked to one of his lawyers: “Sam, don’t let them see the body in the trunk.”
Mr Asaro, 80, was also cleared of the 1969 murder of reputed mob associate Paul Katz, who was suspected of being a police informant.
His arrest last year over the heist had raised hopes that one of America’s most infamous unsolved crimes would be closed. The jury was told he waited in a decoy car a mile away with gangster Jimmy Burke, who inspired the character played by Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese’s film. Prosecutor Alicyn Cooley claimed Mr Asaro, whose father and grandfather were members of the Bonanno crime family, “was born into that life and fully embraced it”.
It was alleged that he rose through the ranks and developed an “unbreakable bond” with Burke.
His cousin Gaspare Valenti testified that Asaro and Burke ordered him to help bury Katz after the pair had killed him. Defence lawyers tried to discredit the evidence of Mr Valenti and other witnesses, describing them as “accomplished liars”.
After his acquittal, Mr Asaro said as he was driven away that he was looking forward to dinner with his family.
He added that all he had been eating while he was in custody were bologna sausage sandwiches.
