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Trial for NY mobster in ‘Goodfellas’ heist begins
Alleged member of New York crime familt Vincent Asaro goes to trial for involvment in robbery immortalisted in Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas
Vincent Asaro is accused of a cash and jewellery robbery in 1978. The robbery was immortalised in Martin Scorcese's seminal movie Goodfellas.
According to international reports, the trial of Vincent Asaro, an 80-year-old alleged member of a New York crime family, has started.
Asaro, is accused of the theft of $6million in cash and jewels from a cargo hold at JFK airport in 1978, a robbery made famous in the 1990 Martin Scorsese film Goodfellas. The goods stolen would now be worth close to $20 million.
The alleged gangster is pleading not guilty and his lawyer insists that the case relies too heavily on witnesses testifying to avoid long jail sentences of their own.
Reports show that the prosecution alleges that Asaro worked as part of the Bonnano crime family alongside the late James "Jimmy the Gent" Burke, who was played by Robert de Niro in Goodfellas.
"He knew Burke was someone he could make money with," the New York Post reports Assistant US Attorney Lindsay Gerdes saying in court.
"For him, the Mafia was literally the family business. The defendant is a gangster through and through."
Although Asaro is not accused of directly taking part in the robbery, he is alleged to have delivered gold chains from the heist to a mob leader and of killing a suspected informant who was strangled to death with a dog chain.
