James Burke (gangster) Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth and Family

The Lufthansa heist was planned by Burke and carried out by several associates. The plot began when bookmaker Martin Krugman told Burke’s associate Henry Hill that Lufthansa flew in currency to its cargo terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport. The information had originally come from Louis Werner, a worker at the airport who owed Krugman $20,000 for gambling debts (equivalent to $89,000 in 2021) and from his co-worker Peter Gruenwald.

In October 2014, Burke’s involvement in the Boston College Point Shaving Scandal was discussed in the ESPN 30 for 30 episode “Playing for the Mob.” Ray Liotta, who played Henry Hill in Goodfellas, is the narrator of the documentary.

In 2013, possible human remains were unearthed by the FBI and NYPD organized crime investigators at his former home.

Burke was serving his sentence in Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, New York, when he developed cancer. He died on April 13, 1996, while being treated at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, New York. Had he lived, he would have been eligible for parole on March 11, 2004. Burke was buried at Saint Charles Cemetery in East Farmingdale, New York.

Burke was played by John Mahoney in the 1991 television film The 10 Million Dollar Getaway, which details the events of the Lufthansa Heist. Donald Sutherland also portrayed Burke for the 2001 television film The Big Heist.

Burke inspired the character Jimmy “The Gent” Conway, one of the main characters of the 1990 film Goodfellas, played by Robert De Niro.

James Burke was portrayed by Robert De Niro in the 1990 Martin Scorsese film Goodfellas, renamed Jimmy Conway.

Following the testimony of Henry Hill, Burke was convicted in 1982, of conspiracy charges related to his involvement in the 1978–79 Boston College basketball point-shaving scandal, and sentenced to 12 years in prison. While in prison, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to another 20 years. He died of cancer at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York, eight years before he would have been eligible for parole.

In 1980, Burke was arrested for a parole violation. In 1982, Burke was convicted of conspiracy and sentenced to 12 years in prison for his involvement with the 1978–79 Boston College basketball point-shaving scandal, based primarily on the testimony of former mob associate Henry Hill. Hill’s testimony in federal court resulted in a total of fifty convictions in this and other cases, including those of Burke and their boss, capo Paul Vario. While Burke was serving that sentence, he was charged with the 1979 murder of drug dealer Richard Eaton. He was convicted at a trial in which Hill testified and was sentenced in 1985 to a further 20 years in prison.

On December 11, 1978, an estimated $5.875 million (equivalent to $24.4 million in 2021) was stolen, with $5 million in cash and $875,000 in jewelry, making it the largest cash robbery committed on American soil at the time.

In November 1972, Burke and Hill were arrested for beating Gaspar Ciaccio in Tampa, Florida. Ciaccio allegedly owed a large gambling debt to their friend, union boss Casey Rosado. They were charged with extortion, convicted, and sentenced to 10 years in the United States Penitentiary in Lewisburg. Burke was paroled after six years and resumed his criminal career, as did Hill, who was released two years prior. Both Hill and Burke began trafficking illegal narcotics, despite a ban by the Lucchese family, who feared their associates becoming informants in exchange for a lesser sentence, which is exactly what Hill did in 1980.

In the book Wiseguy, Henry Hill said that after William “Billy Batts” Bentvena was released from prison in 1970, they threw a “welcome home” party for Bentvena at Robert’s Lounge, which was owned by Burke. Hill stated that Bentvena saw Tommy DeSimone and jokingly asked him if he still shined shoes and DeSimone perceived it as an insult. DeSimone leaned over to Hill and Burke and said “I’m gonna kill that fuck.” Two weeks later, on June 11, 1970, Bentvena was at The Suite, a nightclub owned by Hill in Jamaica, Queens. Late in the night, with the bar club nearly empty, DeSimone pistol-whipped Bentvena. Hill said that before DeSimone started to beat Bentvena, DeSimone yelled, “Shine these fucking shoes!”

In 1962, Burke married his girlfriend Mickey but discovered that she was being bothered by an ex-boyfriend. On their wedding day, police found the ex-boyfriend’s remains, in over a dozen pieces, strewn around the inside of his car. He is the father of Lufthansa heist aide Frank James Burke (who was murdered by drug dealer Tito Ortiz in 1987), Jesse James Burke, and Catherine Burke (who married Bonanno crime family member Anthony Indelicato).

As Burke was of Irish descent, he was ineligible to become a “made man” in the American mafia, so he was relegated to associate, under capo Paul Vario. During the 1950s, Burke was involved with various illegal activities, such as distributing untaxed cigarettes and liquor. Burke became a mentor to Thomas DeSimone, Henry Hill, and Angelo Sepe, during the 1960s. Burke owned the South Ozone Park, Queens tavern Robert’s Lounge.

James Burke (July 5, 1931 – April 13, 1996), also known as “Jimmy the Gent,” was an American gangster and Lucchese crime family associate who is believed to have organized the 1978 Lufthansa heist, the largest cash robbery in American history at the time. He was believed to be responsible for the deaths of those involved in the months after the robbery.