The $500 Million Heist: Where Did the Lufthansa Loot Go?

0:08
December 11th, 1978.
0:11
3:15 in the morning. JFK International
0:15
Airport, Queens, New York. A black Ford
0:18
van pulled up to the Lufthansa cargo
0:20
building, building 261. The men inside
0:24
wore dark clothing. Some had ski masks,
0:28
others had badges of fake ones, but
0:30
convincing enough at 3:00 in the
0:32
morning. They moved fast, knew the
0:35
layout, knew which doors, knew which
0:37
guards worked, which posts, knew the
0:40
vault schedule down to the minute.
0:42
Within 63 minutes, they were gone. And
0:45
with them went approximately [music]
0:47
$5 million in unmarked American currency
0:51
and $875,000
0:53
in jewelry. At the time, it was the
0:57
largest cash robbery in American
0:59
history. Adjusted to today's value, that
1:02
Hall sits somewhere north of $500
1:05
million,
1:06
half a billion in one night. This
1:09
documentary is based on court records,
1:12
FBI case files, witness testimony, and
1:16
decades of investigative reporting. Some
1:20
conversations have been recreated based
1:22
on documented accounts where the record
1:25
goes silent. We've used informed
1:28
interpretation.
1:30
The events, however, are real. Here's
1:33
what makes the Lthansa heist different
1:35
from every other major robbery in
1:37
American history. The money was never
1:40
found. Not a single traceable bill
1:43
recovered. Not one diamond identified in
1:46
a porn shop or [music] a safety deposit
1:49
box. Not one numbered bearer bond
1:52
flagged at a bank. $500 million
1:56
vanished. Over the next several years,
1:59
the FBI would build cases, turn
2:01
witnesses, flip informants. They would
2:04
eventually identify the crew. They would
2:07
eventually understand how the job was
2:09
planned and executed. But the money
2:12
itself remained a ghost. It entered the
2:15
underworld on that December morning and
2:17
never resurfaced. The question isn't
2:20
really who did it. We know that now.
2:23
Henry Hill told us. The courts confirmed
2:26
parts of it. The bodies confirmed the
2:29
rest. The real question, the one that
2:32
investigators and journalists and
2:34
amateur detectives have chewed on for
2:37
over four decades, is simpler and harder
2:40
at the same time. Where did the money
2:43
go? There are three major theories. Each
2:46
one has evidence. Each one has problems.
2:49
And each one tells you something
2:51
different about how organized crime
2:53
actually works when the stakes are this
2:56
high. But before we get to the theories,
2:59
you need to understand the job itself
3:02
because the way the heist was planned
3:04
[music] contains the first clues about
3:06
where the money ended up. The inside man
3:09
was Louis Wernern Wransa
3:14
cargo agent. He'd worked at the terminal
3:17
for years, knew the vault, knew the
3:19
routines, knew the security gaps. He
3:23
also had a gambling problem that had put
3:25
him roughly $20,000 in debt to
3:29
bookmakers connected to the Luis LE
3:32
crime family. That's how it started. Not
3:36
with a criminal mastermind plotting in
3:38
some back room with a cargo worker who
3:41
couldn't cover his bets. Wernern fed the
3:44
information to a book maker named Martin
3:47
Kugman. [music] Krugman brought it to
3:50
the man who could actually put a crew
3:52
together, James Burke. Jimmy Burke,
3:55
sometimes called Jimmy the Gent, though
3:58
there was nothing gentle about him.
4:00
Burke was a Luis associate, not a made
4:03
man. His Irish heritage prevented that,
4:06
but deeply embedded in the family's
4:08
operations. He ran a crew out of
4:10
Robert's Lounge, a bar in Ozone Park,
4:14
Queens. [music] The bar was
4:15
unremarkable. wood paneling, pool table,
4:19
cold beer, the kind of place you'd walk
4:22
past without a second look. Behind it,
4:25
Burke orchestrated hijackings, lone
4:28
sharking, and cargo theft across the
4:31
airport corridor. He was, according to
4:34
investigators at the time, one of the
4:36
most prolific thieves operating out of
4:39
JFK. Burke assembled the team. The
4:42
number varies depending on who's telling
4:45
the story. [music] Henry Hill later said
4:47
it was roughly 11 men. The FBI estimated
4:51
between 6 and 10 [music] actually
4:54
entered the building. What's agreed upon
4:56
is that the crew was a mix. Luke's
5:00
associates, independent thieves Burke
5:03
trusted and a few muscle guys brought in
5:06
specifically for the job. Tommy de
5:08
Simone was among them. Angelo Seep,
5:12
Louie Cafora, Parnell Edwards, Paulo
5:16
Liecastry, an alleged Sicilian scent,
5:19
according to some accounts, to observe
5:22
on behalf of interests overseas. The
5:25
presence of Lie Castry is one of the
5:27
earliest hints that the money's
5:29
destination might not have been entirely
5:31
domestic. The job itself went almost
5:35
perfectly. Almost. The crew [music]
5:38
entered the cargo building using
5:40
Wernern's information. They subdued the
5:42
guards. There were reports of pistol
5:45
whipping threats. A guard forced at
5:48
gunpoint to disable an alarm system.
5:51
[music] They reached the vault. They
5:53
loaded the cash and jewelry into the
5:55
van. One error. The plan called for them
5:58
to also take a shipment of gold. They
6:01
couldn't move it. Too heavy. The
6:04
logistics hadn't been worked out. Some
6:06
accounts say the gold was in a separate
6:08
section they couldn't access in time.
6:11
Others say they simply underestimated
6:14
[music] the weight. Either way, they
6:16
left precious metals behind and drove
6:18
into the Queen's night with bags of cash
6:21
and jewels. Burke had given the crew
6:24
strict instructions beforehand.
6:26
According to Henry Hill's later
6:28
testimony, the rules were clear. No big
6:31
purchases, no new cars, no flashy
6:34
jewelry, no attention, lay low, wait for
6:38
the heat to die down. The money would be
6:41
distributed in stages. [music]
6:44
Within weeks, those rules were broken.
6:47
One crew member's wife showed up at a
6:49
Christmas party wearing a new fur coat
6:52
and a diamond necklace. Another bought a
6:54
Cadillac in cash. A third started
6:58
picking up restaurant tabs that were
7:00
triple his known income. Burke noticed.
7:04
Everybody noticed. The FBI noticed, too.
7:07
And this is where the story splits from
7:10
heist into something darker. Because
7:12
what followed wasn't a distribution of
7:15
wealth. It was an elimination campaign.
7:18
Between January 1979 and the spring of
7:21
1980, the men connected to the Lufthansa
7:25
heist began dying one by one, sometimes
7:29
two at a time. Martin Krugman, the book
7:32
maker who' brought the tip to Burke,
7:35
disappeared in January 79. His body was
7:38
never found. Parnell Edwards shot. His
7:42
body found in a trailer in Flatlands,
7:45
Brooklyn. Richard Eaton, a money mover
7:48
connected to Burke, found frozen in a
7:51
refrigerated truck, stabbed multiple
7:53
times. Louie and Joanna Khora, both
7:57
shot, found in the trunk of Louis Buick
8:00
in a parking lot near the Brooklyn
8:02
waterfront. Theresa Ferrara, an
8:05
associate who'd handled some of the
8:06
jewels, found dismembered on a beach.
8:09
Angelo Seep, shot in his apartment.
8:12
Tommy de Simone, disappeared. never
8:16
found. His death was likely sanctioned
8:19
by the Gambino family for unrelated
8:22
reasons, [music]
8:23
the murder of Billy Bats, but the timing
8:26
aligned with the Lu Thansa [music]
8:29
cleanup. In total, estimates range from
8:32
8 to 12 people connected to the heist
8:34
who were killed in the months and years
8:36
that followed. some directly by Burke or
8:40
on his orders, others through related
8:42
but distinct mob [music] politics. The
8:45
official interpretation, the one the FBI
8:49
built its case around, [music] the one
8:51
Henry Hill confirmed, was that Burke was
8:54
eliminating anyone who could tie him to
8:56
the robbery. Loose ends. People who
8:59
talked too much, spent too visibly, or
9:02
simply knew too much. But there's a
9:04
secondary interpretation that feeds
9:07
directly into the question of the money.
9:10
What if the murders weren't just about
9:12
silence? What if they were also about
9:15
consolidation?
9:16
Every person killed was a person who was
9:19
owed a share of the take. And every
9:22
share that didn't get paid [music]
9:24
was a share that stayed with whoever
9:26
controlled the main pool. That thought
9:29
leads us to the theories. Theory one,
9:32
the Luki's vault theory. This is the
9:35
most straightforward explanation, and
9:37
for [music] a long time, it was the one
9:39
most investigators leaned toward. The
9:42
idea is simple. Burke, working under the
9:46
authority of Paul Vario, his Luki's
9:49
captain, delivered the bulk of the money
9:51
up the chain. The Luis family absorbed
9:54
it into their existing financial
9:57
infrastructure.
9:58
From there, it was distributed to family
10:01
leadership, invested in legitimate
10:04
businesses, used to fund lone sharking
10:07
operations, or simply stored. The
10:10
evidence supporting this theory is
10:12
largely circumstantial [music]
10:14
but substantial. Burke was a Luis
10:17
earner. Everything he did required a
10:20
kickback to Vario. A score this size,
10:23
the biggest in American history, would
10:26
have demanded immediate tribute to the
10:28
family boss. According to the customs of
10:31
the organization, the families cut on a
10:34
score like this could range anywhere
10:36
from 40 to 60%. [music] Henry Hill
10:40
testified that Vario was informed of the
10:43
heist in advance and had given his
10:46
blessing. That blessing came with
10:48
expectations.
10:50
Hill also stated that Burke was under
10:53
enormous pressure from the family to
10:55
deliver the tribute quickly and
10:58
completely. Some investigators [music]
11:00
believed the cash was moved to locations
11:03
in New Jersey and Long Island controlled
11:06
by Luis's operations,
11:08
safe houses, construction company
11:11
offices, even a funeral home that had
11:14
long served as a front for family
11:16
business. The theory is that the money
11:19
was broken up into manageable sums, tens
11:22
of thousands, not millions, and filtered
11:26
into the economy through dozens of small
11:29
channels over a period of years. Court
11:32
documents from later prosecutions
11:35
reference unexplained cash flows in the
11:38
late 70s and early 80s that some
11:41
analysts have attempted to link to the
11:43
Lufthansera proceeds. None of those
11:46
links were ever proven conclusively in
11:48
court. The problems with this theory are
11:51
notable. If the Luki's family absorbed
11:54
the money through normal channels, some
11:57
trace should have surfaced. The FBI had
12:01
informants inside the family. They had
12:04
wire taps. They were actively monitoring
12:06
Lui's finances through the early8s as
12:10
part of the broader commission case. And
12:12
yet nothing definitively tied any
12:14
recovered funds to the Lufthansa
12:17
shipment. The cash was unmarked, yes,
12:20
[music]
12:20
but 875,000
12:22
in jewelry is harder to hide. Diamonds
12:26
have characteristics.
12:28
Stones can be identified, graded,
12:31
matched to shipping manifests. Lanca and
12:34
its insurers provided detailed
12:37
descriptions of the jewelry to law
12:40
enforcement. Not one piece was ever
12:43
identified in circulation. Supporters of
12:46
this theory [music] argue that the Luis
12:48
family simply had the discipline and
12:51
infrastructure to absorb the hall
12:53
without leaving fingerprints. That the
12:56
absence of evidence is itself evidence
12:58
of competence. Critics call that
13:01
convenient and they point to the second
13:03
theory. Theory two, the offshore
13:07
laundering theory. This theory gained
13:09
traction in the late 80s and '9s as
13:13
investigators developed a better
13:15
understanding of how organized crime
13:18
moved money internationally during that
13:21
>> [music]
13:21
>> era. The premise is that the bulk of the
13:24
Luansa cash was moved offshore
13:27
relatively quickly within weeks or
13:30
months of the heist through a network of
13:33
intermediaries
13:34
connected to both American organized
13:37
crime and international [music]
13:39
financial operators. In the late 1970s,
13:43
the infrastructure for this kind of
13:45
movement existed but was less regulated
13:49
than it would later become. The Bank
13:51
Secrecy Act of 1970 required [music]
13:54
reporting of transactions over $10,000,
13:58
but enforcement was inconsistent.
14:01
Structuring, breaking large amounts into
14:04
smaller deposits to avoid reporting
14:07
thresholds, was not yet a federal crime.
14:10
That wouldn't happen until 1986.
14:13
The theory suggests several possible
14:16
routes. cash couriers to the Bahamas or
14:19
the Cayman Islands where banking secrecy
14:22
laws were robust. Transfers through
14:26
Canadian financial institutions that had
14:29
looser oversight or movement through
14:31
European banks possibly in Switzerland
14:35
or Luxembourg facilitated by contacts in
14:38
the Sicilian mafia who maintained
14:41
established channels for heroine money.
14:44
This is where Paulo Lcastri becomes
14:47
significant again. [music] Liecastri's
14:50
presence on the heist crew has never
14:52
been fully explained. He was not a
14:55
regular Burke associate. He was
14:57
Sicilian. According to some accounts, he
15:01
was connected to the Bontate Bone Tah
15:04
family in Palamo, which at that time was
15:07
deeply involved in the transatlantic
15:09
heroine trade and had wellestablished
15:12
money laundering roots between the
15:15
United States [music] and Europe. Some
15:17
investigators have theorized that Lie
15:20
Castre's role was not as a thief but as
15:23
a representative there to ensure that a
15:26
portion of the proceeds was earmarked
15:28
for Sicilian interests. [music]
15:30
If accurate, this would mean the money
15:33
didn't stay in Queens, it crossed
15:35
oceans. The supporting evidence is thin
15:39
but intriguing. In the early 80s,
15:42
Italian authorities investigating the
15:45
pizza connection, a massive heroine
15:48
trafficking network that linked Sicilian
15:50
mafia families to American distribution
15:53
points, many of them pizza parlors,
15:57
identified financial flows between New
16:00
[music] York and Palamo that predated
16:02
the known heroine transactions.
16:06
Some investigators informally speculated
16:09
that Luansa money might have been among
16:12
the earliest funds moved through those
16:15
channels. No formal connection was ever
16:18
established. The pizza connection trial,
16:21
which concluded in 1987,
16:24
produced thousands of pages of [music]
16:27
financial records, but none that
16:30
definitively linked back to the JFK
16:33
heist. The jewelry question is partially
16:36
addressed by this theory. Uncut diamonds
16:39
and high value stones could be moved
16:42
internationally with relative ease. A
16:45
courier with stones sewn into a coat
16:47
lining could pass through customs
16:50
without triggering any alarm. Once in
16:53
Antworp or Tel Aviv, the world's two
16:56
dominant diamond markets. stones could
16:59
be recut, regraded, and sold with no
17:02
trace to their origin. According to
17:05
certain accounts from investigators who
17:08
worked the case in the 1980s,
17:11
there were unconfirmed reports of
17:13
Lufthanser profile stones appearing in
17:17
the Antworp market in late 1979.
17:21
Unconfirmed is the key word. The
17:24
descriptions matched, but matching is
17:27
not identification. And by the time
17:30
anyone thought to look seriously, the
17:32
stones, if they were the stones, had
17:35
been recut and resold multiple times.
17:38
The offshore theory has appealed because
17:41
it explains the total absence of
17:43
recovery. If the money left the country,
17:46
then domestic surveillance, informance,
17:48
[music]
17:49
and financial monitoring would all come
17:52
up empty, which is exactly what
17:55
happened. The weakness of this theory is
17:58
its complexity. Burke was a street level
18:01
operator, brilliant at what he did, but
18:04
what he did was hijackings and cargo
18:07
theft. The kind of international
18:10
financial maneuvering described in this
18:12
theory [music] requires a level of
18:14
sophistication and trust network that
18:17
Burke may not have possessed unless he
18:20
didn't need to possess it. Unless the
18:22
Luis family or their Sicilian
18:25
connections handled that part, in which
18:28
case theories one and two start to
18:31
overlap, which brings us to theory
18:34
three. Theory three, the dispersal
18:37
theory. Some people call it the chaos
18:39
theory. This is the least dramatic
18:42
explanation and in some ways the most
18:44
believable. The idea is that there was
18:47
no master plan for the money, no vault,
18:50
no offshore account, no Sicilian
18:53
pipeline. The heist was planned
18:55
meticulously, but the aftermath was not.
18:59
The money was divided quickly and
19:01
chaotically among the crew, their
19:03
associates, and their families. Some was
19:06
spent immediately. Some was hidden in
19:08
walls, buried in yards, stuffed in
19:12
safety deposit boxes under false names.
19:15
Some was gambled away. Some was used to
19:18
pay debts. Some was simply lost. And
19:22
then the killings started and whatever
19:24
organizational structure existed for the
19:27
money collapsed entirely. Think about it
19:30
from a practical standpoint. 11 men,
19:34
give or take, pulled the job. Each
19:36
expected a share. Burke owed a cut to
19:39
Vario. Vario owed a cut up the chain.
19:42
There were expenses, vehicles, weapons,
19:45
the safe house where they divided the
19:47
take. There were debts. Wernern's
19:49
gambling debts had started the whole
19:51
thing and others in the crew had their
19:53
own obligations.
19:55
If you start [music] subtracting from 5
19:57
million, it goes faster than you'd
19:59
think. Burke's cut, Vario's cut, the
20:03
boss's cut. Expenses, debts. Now divide
20:07
what's left among six to 10 crew
20:10
members. Each man's share might have
20:12
been between $1 and $250,000.
20:16
Significant money. Absolutely
20:19
lifechanging in 1978, [music]
20:22
but not the kind of sum that requires an
20:25
offshore banking network to hide.
20:28
$100,000 in cash fits in a shoe box. You
20:32
can bury a shoe box. You can put it
20:34
behind a wall. You can give it to your
20:36
mother. And if you die before you tell
20:39
anyone where it is, it stays there,
20:42
maybe forever. The dispersal [music]
20:44
theory suggests that much of the Lthansa
20:47
money suffered exactly this fate. Small
20:51
sums hidden by individuals who were then
20:53
murdered before they could retrieve or
20:56
spend them. cash that degraded in damp
20:59
basement. Jewelry that was sold
21:01
peacemeal to local fences [music] for
21:03
pennies on the dollar, then resold and
21:06
resold until prudence was untraceable.
21:10
Henry Hill himself supports a version of
21:13
this theory. In his various accounts,
21:16
and Hill told this story many times with
21:19
varying details over many years, he
21:22
described a chaotic aftermath. Money
21:25
distributed in paper bags at Robert's
21:28
Lounge. Arguments over shares.
21:31
Suspicion. Paranoia. Hill has said that
21:34
Burke held back a large portion, the
21:37
family tax plus his own cut, and
21:40
distributed the rest unevenly based on
21:43
role and trust. Some guys got 50,000.
21:47
Some got more. Some got promises that
21:50
were never honored. And then the
21:52
spending started. And then the killing
21:54
started and whatever wasn't spent or
21:57
killed over was simply scattered to the
22:00
wind. There's a melancholy to this
22:02
theory. $500 million in today's money.
22:06
And the idea is that it just dissipated.
22:10
No grand conspiracy, no hidden vault,
22:14
just human greed and human stupidity and
22:17
human mortality doing what they always
22:19
do. The evidence for dispersal [music]
22:22
is mostly negative evidence. The absence
22:25
of any large recovery, the absence of
22:29
any organized financial trail, [music]
22:32
the absence of any single person who
22:34
seemed to benefit disproportionately
22:36
over time. If someone had received and
22:39
kept a major portion, their [music]
22:41
lifestyle would eventually reflect it.
22:44
Nobody's did. Not in a way that was ever
22:47
identified. There is one exception that
22:50
complicates every theory and it's worth
22:53
addressing. In 2013,
22:57
decades after the heist, federal
22:59
investigators executed a search on a
23:02
property in Queens connected to Vincent
23:05
Assaro ISA,
23:08
a Banano family captain who had been
23:10
linked to the Luansa robbery through
23:13
informant testimony. Assaro was
23:16
eventually tried in 2015 on charges
23:20
related to the heist and other crimes.
23:23
During the investigation, authorities
23:26
recovered no luans money from Asarrow's
23:29
property. However, Assaro's involvement,
23:33
a Banano family member participating in
23:37
what was understood to be a Luis
23:39
operation, raises questions about how
23:42
widely the heists proceeds were shared
23:45
among New York's crime families, if
23:48
Banano members were involved. Were
23:51
Gambino interests represented, too? Were
23:54
their obligations paid to the commission
23:56
itself? [music] If the money was
23:59
distributed across multiple families,
24:02
the dispersal theory gains strength. The
24:05
total is diluted across a much larger
24:07
pool of recipients and the individual
24:10
amounts become small enough to hide
24:13
easily. Assaro was acquitted in 2015.
24:18
His defense argued that the government's
24:21
case relied heavily on the testimony of
24:24
cooperating witnesses whose credibility
24:27
was questionable. The acquitt means we
24:30
need to be careful about treating his
24:32
involvement as established fact. The
24:35
jury was not convinced. So three
24:38
theories, Lucy's vaults, offshore
24:41
laundering, chaotic dispersal. Each has
24:45
logic. Each has gaps. There are
24:48
investigators, retired FBI agents who
24:51
worked the [music] case who believe the
24:53
answer is some combination of all three.
24:57
That Vario and the Luis leadership took
25:00
a significant cut and absorbed it
25:02
domestically. That a portion was moved
25:05
overseas through Sicilian channels and
25:09
that the remainder was scattered among
25:11
crew members who spent it, hid it or
25:14
died with it. This composite theory is
25:17
less satisfying [music]
25:19
than any single explanation. It doesn't
25:21
have the neatness of a hidden vault or
25:24
the intrigue of international [music]
25:26
laundering or even the dark poetry of
25:29
money lost to murder and time. But real
25:32
life rarely offers neat answers,
25:35
especially in this world. One retired
25:39
agent, his name was Steve Carbone, who
25:42
supervised the Lufthanser investigation
25:45
for years, said something in an
25:48
interview that stayed with investigators
25:51
long after. He said the money was
25:53
probably in 50 different places by the
25:55
end of 1979.
25:58
Some of those places are known, some
26:00
aren't, some of those places don't exist
26:03
anymore. Buildings torn down. Lots paved
26:07
over. People dead who were the only ones
26:09
who knew. $500 million in the ground, in
26:13
the walls, in bank [music] accounts
26:16
under names nobody remembers. Scattered
26:19
across two continents. Spent on fur
26:21
coats and Cadillacs that rusted out 30
26:24
years ago. paid to men who used it to
26:27
fund other crimes that funded other
26:30
crimes in a [music] chain that
26:32
eventually becomes untraceable. The
26:35
Lufthansera heist is remembered as the
26:38
greatest cash robbery in American
26:40
history. Good fellas immortalized it.
26:43
[music] Henry Hill made it famous. Jimmy
26:46
Burke became a legend because of it. But
26:49
the money itself has no legend. It has
26:52
no story. It was there and then it was
26:54
gone. And the men who took it were dead
26:57
or imprisoned or both. And nobody was
27:00
left to say where it went. Louis Wernern
27:03
was the only person ever convicted for
27:05
the Luansa heist. The inside man, the
27:09
cargo worker with the gambling debts. He
27:12
received a 15-year sentence. He served
27:15
his time and was released. His share of
27:18
the money, if he received one, was never
27:21
identified. Burke died in prison in
27:24
1996.
27:26
Cancer. He was never convicted of the
27:28
Lufthansa robbery itself, though he was
27:31
serving time for the murder of Richard
27:34
Eaton, one of the men killed in the
27:37
aftermath. He never told anyone where
27:39
the money was, or if he did, that person
27:43
never talked [music] either. Henry Hill
27:45
died in 2012. He'd spent 30 years in
27:49
witness protection, giving interviews,
27:52
writing books, making the rounds on
27:54
television. He claimed he received a
27:57
relatively small share, somewhere around
28:00
[music]
28:00
$50,000,
28:02
and that Burke kept the lion's share.
28:05
Whether that's true or simply what Hill
28:07
wanted people to believe is impossible
28:10
to verify now. Paul Vario died in prison
28:14
in 1988.
28:16
heart failure. He took whatever he knew
28:18
with him. The cargo terminal at JFK
28:22
still operates. Building 261 was
28:25
eventually renovated. The vault was
28:28
upgraded. New security protocols were
28:31
implemented. None of that matters to
28:34
this story. What matters is what left
28:37
that building in a black Ford van in the
28:40
early hours of a December morning and
28:43
where it went after it disappeared into
28:45
the streets of Queens. Some money gets
28:48
recovered. Some money gets traced. Some
28:51
money gets taxed, laundered, seized,
28:54
returned, reinvested. That's what
28:56
happens to money in the system. This
28:59
money left the system and the system
29:01
never got it back. The file on the Lansa
29:05
heist remains technically open. The FBI
29:08
has never formally closed it. There is
29:11
no statute of limitations on the
29:13
underlying charges, [music] but every
29:16
significant figure connected to the case
29:18
is now dead. Every lead has been run
29:21
down, documented, and filed. $500
29:25
million somewhere. Nowhere. Subscribe if
29:29
you want to hear what happened next. The
29:31
Lthansa heist didn't end at JFK. Its
29:35
consequences rippled through the Luis
29:37
family, accelerated the fall of Paul
29:40
Vario, [music] and helped trigger the
29:42
biggest wave of mob informants in
29:44
American history. That story is coming.
29:48
Don't miss it. The file remains open.
29:51
The questions remain unanswered.

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