The Heist: How a Gang Stole $8,000,000 at Kennedy Airport and Lived to Regret It

The December 11, 1978, robbery of the Lufthansa cargo terminal at New York's Kennedy Airport was the most lucrative heist in U.S. history up to that time. Volkman, a former Newsday correspondent, and Cummings, a reporter for that Long Island newspaper, spent seven years searching out details of the complicated case. The principals included James Burke, a sinister bar owner with direct ties to the Mafia, many of his hangers-on and two Lufthansa employees who had conceived a plan for the crime but lacked the underworld contacts to carry it out. The robbery went off almost without a hitch, although the two airline workers were suspected from the start. As the skein unraveled, more gang members were identified, but Burke could not be arrested because he had all the underlingshis potential accuserskilled, the death toll finally reaching 13. The story is well told, although the authors sometimes employ a light tone that seems inappropriate tothe bloody story they tell. (October 24)