Crime Talk, 101 N Main Street, Ohio, IL (2025)

09/24/2025

Born on September 5, 1896, in Naples, Italy, was New York organized crime figure who became a supervisor for Murder, Inc., an organized crime group active from 1929 to 1941, which acted as the enforcement arm of the National Crime Syndicate, a closely connected criminal organization that included Italian-American Mafia, the Jewish Mob, & other criminal organizations in New York City & elsewhere, Louis Capone.
Capone moved to New York City with his family as a child, where he grew up in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn. As an adult, Capone moved to Brownsville, Brooklyn. Capone was described as a suave, well-groomed man, who actually projected sympathy. He had watery blue eyes & a broken nose, & no, Louis was not related to Al Capone, the boss of the Chicago Outfit.
Capone's legitimate business was a pasticceria (an Italian-style cafe serving coffee & pastries) in Brooklyn. The pasticceria became a popular hangout for teenagers, including future street gang leaders Abe “Kid Twist” Reles & “Happy” Harry Maione. Capone built up a rapport with the boys, by giving them free food. These young men soon became Capone's protégés in crime. Capone had strong connections with the Purple Gang of Detroit, & had been operating loansharking operations in both Detroit & New York. He was also involved in labor racketeering with the local Plasterers Union, & had close ties with mobster Joe Adonis.
With the end of the Castellammarese War in 1931, Reles' & Maione's gangs developed into a network of contract killers, which became known as Murder, Inc. Albert Anastasia, a patron of Capone's restaurant, persuaded the 2 gang leaders that they could make a lot of money by working together for the Cosa Nostra. Anastasia would send Cosa Nostra murder contracts to mobster Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, the boss of Murder, Inc. Capone would recruit the individual hitmen from the Reles & Maione gangs. These hitmen were mainly Jewish & Italian-American hoodlums from Brooklyn. By 1934, all the Cosa Nostra families were using Murder, Inc. As time progressed, Capone spent considerable energy mediating disputes between the 2 gang leaders.
In 1936, Capone participated in the murder of Joseph Rosen. Buchalter had previously ruined Rosen's trucking business & was now afraid that Rosen would implicate him in criminal activity. To protect himself, Buchalter ordered Rosen's murder. On September 13, 1936, Harry Strauss, Emanuel "Mendy" Weiss, & James Ferraco shot Rosen 17 times in his Brooklyn candy store, killing him instantly. Capone identified the victim & worked out a plan for the gunmen. In 1939, Capone allegedly participated in the murder of Irving Penn. Buchalter had ordered Capone to plan the murder of Philip Orlovsky, a mobster who was cooperating with the government in an investigation of Buchalter. Capone gave the job of identifying the target to mobster Jacob "Kuppy" Migden. On July 25, 1939, Migden mistakenly identified Penn, a publishing executive, to the alleged hitman Gioacchino "Jack The Dandy" Parisi, who then shot & killed Penn in front of his home in the Bronx.
In 1940, Kid Twist Reles became a government witness & helped break up Murder, Inc. In jail on a pending 1933 murder charge, Reles gave in to pleas from his wife & agreed to help prosecute Capone & the rest of the organization. In early 1941, as a result of Reles' assistance, Capone was indicted in the Penn murder. But Capone never went to trial on these charges. In late 1941, Buchalter, Weiss, & Capone stood trial by jury, in the Brooklyn courtroom of Judge Franklin Taylor, for the 1st-degree murder of Joseph Rosen. The information provided by Reles & other mob turncoats, such as Allie "Tick-Tock" Tannenbaum & Max Rubin, resulted in a guilty verdict on November 30, 1941. At that time, New York state law mandated the death penalty for this offense. Over the next 2 1/2 years, Capone & his co-defendants filed a series of legal appeals, which culminated in a case being reviewed by the United States Supreme Court. After their legal appeals were exhausted, the condemned men submitted clemency petitions to the governor of New York, which were all denied.
On Saturday night, March 4, 1944, Louis Capone went to the infamous electric chair at Sing Sing Prison, “Old Sparky”, in Ossining, New York. Capone had no final words. He was followed in the chair by Mendy Weiss, whose last words before his ex*****on were: “I’m here on a framed-up case. & Governor Dewey knows it. I want to thank Judge Lehman...He knows me because I am a Jew. Give my love to my family...& everything.” Finally the last of the 3 mob killers to be electrocuted was Lepke Buchalter, & he had no final words. Capone was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Brooklyn, while Buchalter & Weiss, the 2 Jewish guys, were buried at the Mount Hebron Cemetery in Flushing, Queens. "Old Sparky" was the colloquial name given to the electric chair used in several states, including New York, which operated its "Old Sparky" at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, where it was used for ex*****ons until the final electrocution in the early 1960s. The nickname "Old Sparky" was also used for the electric chairs in many other U.S. states, including Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Nebraska, Ohio, & Oklahoma.

09/24/2025

On August 28, 1919 Morello crime family counterfeiter Giuseppe Boscarino dies at 66 in prison from a strangulated hernia. He had refused treatment for the condition for sometime, even after being warned it may kill him. Boscarino arrived in America in 1890. Secret Service records from 1903 describe him as a pool room owner & a ‘good friend’ of Vito Cascio Ferro. Both Cascioferro & Giuseppe Morello were noted to be guests at his house on East 11th Street, & a nephew to Cascioferro helped to run Boscarino’s pool room.
During early 1903 Boscarino was helping the Morello gang to distribute counterfeit money under the alias of Giuseppe Monte. The New York Times claimed that he had gained control of $250k of spurious notes, known as Morristown Fives, & began to superintend their distribution. After the famous Barrel Murder in 1903, Boscarino was arrested along with the rest of the gang, but was never brought to trial, although in 1910 the NYT claimed: Boscarino was as closely connected with the famous Barrel Murder of several years ago as any member of the gang now alive, or at liberty since Lupo the Wolf went away.
Boscarino was later given the maximum sentence of 15 years at Atlanta Penitentiary, after a conviction for distributing money for Morello & Lupo. His prison record shows a long list of violations for fighting, theft, & general disobedience, with 2 denials of parole. His mail records show correspondence with Pietro Inzerillo’s wife & Giuseppe Palermo’s nephew, Frank Minore.
After he died while incarcerated, his wife, Maria Boscarino, instructed the prison to bury Boscarino there, as she could not afford the service. Her cable to the prison reads : ‘No funds to pay burial here. give christian burial there’. Boscarino’s pall bearers at his funeral included Giuseppe Morello, Antonio Cecala, & several other well known Italian counterfeiters.

09/24/2025

Born on September 2, 1872, was early Sicilian-born New York City mobster, who, in 1912, became the boss of the mafia gang, which later became known as the Bonanno crime family, Nicolo "Cola" Schiro. Schiro immigrated to the United States in 1897, & by 1902 had settled in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Schiro was arrested for operating a butcher shop on a Sunday contrary to New York's Blue laws in 1905. In 1912, Schiro replaced Sebastiano DiGaetano, an immigrant from the Sicilian town of Castellammare del Golfo, as the head of the local mafia centered in Williamsburg. Salvatore Clemente, a Secret Service informer in the Morello gang, claimed that DiGaetano was stepping down because he had "lost his nerve." A factor in Schiro's elevation may have been the presence in Brooklyn of his cousin, Paolo Orlando, who reportedly had been forced to leave Tunis. Orlando remained in Brooklyn until the end of World War I. At this time, another mafia boss in New York City, Salvatore D'Aquila, was bestowed the title Capo dei capi by other mafiosi.
Clemente told his Secret Service handlers in November 1913 that Schiro was aligned with the Morello gang, in a war against D'Aquila. A truce seems to have been called between the factions by the end of the year, which held until the May 23, 1914, murder of Fortunato LoMonte, under D'Aquila's orders. LoMonte had taken over the Morello gang, after Giuseppe Morello's 1910 conviction for counterfeiting. After the killing started again, Schiro maintained a neutral position, siding with neither the D'Aquila gang nor the Morello gang. Schiro ran his gang conservatively, conducting its criminal activity primarily among Sicilian immigrants, while avoiding attention from authorities & co-operating with other non-Sicilian gangs. He also developed close relationships with local business & political leaders, including being on the board of directors of the local United Italian-American Democratic Club.
Schiro became a naturalized United States citizen in 1914. On November 11, 1917, 2 Schiro gang members, Antonio Mazzara & Antonino DiBenedetto were shot to death near the intersection of North 5th & Roebling streets in Brooklyn. 1 of the 2 gunmen, Antonio Massino, was arrested near the scene but the other, Detroit mobster Giuseppe Buccellato escaped. Buccellato killed Mazzara & DiBenedetto after they refused to divulge the whereabouts of fellow Schiro gangster, Stefano Magaddino, believing Magaddino was behind the murder earlier that March of his brother & fellow Detroit gangster, Felice Buccellato, due to a feud between the mafia clans of Magaddino & Buccellato back in their hometown of Castellammare del Golfo. Failing to locate & kill Buccellato, the Schiro gang shot & killed his associate, Francesco Finazzo, at Finazzo's home located on the same corner where Mazzara & DiBenedetto had been murdered a month earlier.
On August 16, 1921, Vito Bonventre, Stefano Magaddino, Magaddino's brother-in-law Bartolo DiGregorio, Francesco Puma, & 2 other gangsters were arrested for the murder of Camillo Caiozzo, a couple of weeks earlier. This followed the confession of Bartolo Fontana, the gunman who had shot & killed Caiozzo. Fontana identified the men as members of the "Good Killers", a group of mafioso from Castellammare del Golfo, who were leading members of the Schiro gang. Fontana said they ordered him to kill Caiozzo, in retaliation for Caiozzo's involvement in the 1916 murder of Magaddino's brother, Pietro Magaddino, back in Sicily. Fontana also revealed that the "Good Killers" were responsible for a string of other murders. Some of the victims he named, were connected to the Buccellato family, whose mafia clan in Castellammere del Golfo opposed 1 run there, by the families of Bonventre & Magaddino. Some of the victims named by Fontana, were former supporters of Salvatore Loiacano, who had been backed by Salvatore D'Aquila, to take over the Morello crime family. Loiacano was murdered on December 10, 1920, not long after Giuseppe Morello was released from prison.
According to a March 1, 1921 article in the New York Evening World, 7 men had placed their hands on Loiacano's co**se during his funeral & vowed revenge. Within a few months, 3 of the vow makers, Salvatore Mauro, Angelo Patricola, & Giuseppe Granatelli had been murdered & a 4th, Angelo Lagattuta was shot & severely wounded. They were all named by Fontana, as victims of the "Good Killers," with Fontana unaware that Lagattuta had survived. Morello had made a deal with Schiro, his earlier ally against D'Aquila, to kill Loiacano's supporters with people unfamiliar to them. The government's case against the "Good Killers", for Caiozzo's murder, collapsed with only Fontana's testimony against them.
Puma was murdered, while out on bail awaiting his trial. Fontana went to prison for the murder, with the charges against Magaddino & the 4 others being dropped over time. Magaddino fled New York City after his release, ending up in the Buffalo, New York area. Schiro avoided the media & was never arrested for a crime during his time as boss. Several former members of the Schiro crime family would become the bosses of gangs in other cities: Frank Lanza in San Francisco, Stefano Magaddino in Buffalo, & Gaspare Messina in New England. Giovanni Battista Dibella, a member of Schiro's gang, was arrested (under the alias Piazza) on July 14, 1921, when over $100k worth of whiskey & numerous forged medicinal liquor permits, were seized during a raid by Prohibition agents Izzy Einstein & Moe Smith at Dibella's olive oil warehouse at 177 Boerum Avenue in Brooklyn. Schiro had been a witness at Dibella's wedding in 1912. On September 12, 1922, Dibella's brother, Salvatore, was arrested & later convicted (also under the alias Piazza) of killing 17 year-old Gutman Diamond, a messenger for Western Union, while shooting at another bootlegger.
Salvatore Maranzano, a Castellammare del Golfo-born son-in-law of a mafia boss in Trapani, joined the Schiro gang in the 1920s. Maranzano helped it create an extensive bootlegging network in Dutchess County, New York, along with a ring, providing fraudulent documents to Italians smuggled into the United States. Joseph Bonanno illegally immigrated to the U.S. during the 1920s, soon becoming a protege of Maranzano & joining the Schiro gang. In his autobiography, Bonanno describes Schiro as "a compliant fellow with little backbone" & "being extremely reluctant to ruffle anyone". Bonanno's 2nd cousin, Vito Bonventre remained a leader within Schiro's gang, following his arrest & release during the "Good Killers" affair.
During Prohibition, Bonventre developed a widespread bootlegging operation with Bonanno recalling "Next to Schiro, Bonventre was probably the most wealthy" of the gang. Salvatore D'Aquila was killed on October 10, 1928. Joe Masseria, the leader of a gang that emerged from the old Morello crime family, was selected to replace D'Aquila as the new Capo dei capi that winter. After his elevation, Masseria began applying pressure to other mafia gangs for monetary tributes. Other mobsters accused him of orchestrating the 1930 murders of Gaspar Milazzo in Detroit & Gaetano Reina in the Bronx. Schiro tried to replicate the strategy of neutrality he used to deal with D'Aquila with Masseria but he was vigorously opposed by Salvatore Maranzano & Buffalo boss Stefano Magaddino. Masseria claimed Schiro had committed a transgression, & demanded Schiro pay him $10k & step down as leader of his mafia crime family. Schiro complied. Soon after, Vito Bonventre was murdered at his home, on July 15, 1930. This led to Maranzano being elevated to boss of the gang & a conflict with Masseria & his allies referred to as the Castellammarese War. Following Schiro's ouster as boss in 1930, he returned to Italy; settling in his old hometown of Camporeale in Sicily. In 1934, a memorial was dedicated in Camporeale to its soldiers killed during World War I. It was built from donations of Camporealese immigrants in America, collected by Schiro. Schiro renounced his U.S. citizenship at the American consulate in Palermo on October 14, 1949. He died in Camporeale on April 29, 1957.

09/23/2025

On August 23, 1982, American mobster, who became the acting boss of the Lucchese crime family in New York City, Alphonse "Little Al" D'Arco is initiated as an official member, a "made guy", of the Lucchese crime family. Even allowing for the longstanding freeze on new members, dating back to 1957, D'Arco had a long wait to become a made man. But finally received his "button", just a month after his 50th birthday.
D'Arco was the 1st boss, acting or otherwise, of a New York crime family to become a government witness. At age 15, he dropped out of high school. In 1951, during the Korean War, D'Arco served 2 years as a volunteer in the U.S. Army. After an honorable discharge from the army, D'Arco returned to Brooklyn and got married. He & his wife had 5 children. 1 of his sons, Joseph D'Arco, became a member of the Lucchese family.
During the 1950s, D'Arco became an associate in the Vario Crew, a Lucchese crew led by longtime caporegime Paul Vario & based in the Canarsie neighborhood. In 1959, D'Arco met future Lucchese boss Victor Amuso. In the 1960s, D'Arco was convicted on drug-related charges & spent several years in prison. After his release, D'Arco returned to the Lucchese family, which was then run by boss Anthony "Tony Ducks" Corallo.
In the 1980s, D'Arco opened an Italian restaurant, La Donna Rosa, in Little Italy, Manhattan. It would serve as a frequent Lucchese meeting place. D'Arco became involved in bookmaking, loansharking, occasional drug deals, & other criminal activities. During his criminal career, D'Arco would be involved in 10 murders. His criminal record would include extortion, murder, murder conspiracy, robbery, arson, tax evasion, counterfeiting, narcotics trafficking, burglary, hijacking, & assault.
In 1983, D'Arco was convicted of he**in trafficking & was sentenced to 4 years in prison. He was paroled in 1986. In 1986, Victor Amuso took control of the Lucchese family. 2 years later, Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso became underboss. In 1988, Vario died, & Amuso promoted D'Arco to capo of the old Vario Crew. In 1990, Amuso selected D'Arco to organize a "Lucchese construction panel". A committee of Lucchese family members, the panel would oversee the Lucchese-controlled unions & construction companies & co-ordinate joint business ventures with the other Five Families of the New York Cosa Nostra.
By the mid-1980s, D'Arco was becoming a rich man, due to the earnings from his crew & from his own loansharking portfolio. Soon D'Arco would collect tribute from the Lucchese crews, for Amuso & Casso. On 1 Christmas, D'Arco put together a $100k holiday gift for the 2 leaders from all the capos. In August 1990, D'Arco facilitated the murder of Lucchese mobster Bruno Facciola. Amuso suspected Facciola of being an informant & ordered his death. Facciola tried to run away when he found out he was about to be set up, but he was tackled & dragged back into the garage, where he was stabbed & shot.
On Amuso's instructions, the hitmen placed a dead canary, the sign of an informant, in Facciola's mouth after they killed him. In January 1991, Amuso and Casso received an early warning about an upcoming federal indictment & went into hiding, leaving D'Arco as the acting boss. D'Arco would meet with them twice in Scranton, Pennsylvania, & several times at safe houses in Brooklyn. In the summer of 1991, D'Arco met with warring factions in the Colombo crime family to mediate a peace agreement.
But Casso sent him on this mission in hopes that the Luccheses could grab some Colombo rackets. Through their ruthlessness & brutality, Amuso & Casso generated many internal conflicts in the Lucchese family and broke down the unity & loyalty of its members. Family members felt the 2 bosses were greedy & paranoid, ordering too many murders to make themselves feel secure. In early 1991, Amuso became falsely convinced that Lucchese capo Peter "Fat Pete" Chiodo had become a government witness & ordered D'Arco to kill him.
In May 1991, Chiodo was shot 12 times, but survived the attack because his girth kept any bullets from severing critical arteries. Chiodo then became a government witness, & testified in June 1991 at a Lucchese trial. Amuso & Casso sent more hit orders to D'Arco. Amuso ordered the family's entire New Jersey faction, the Jersey Crew, killed after it refused to increase the family's share of their profits (the infamous "whack Jersey order). Casso gave D'Arco a list of 49 people he wanted killed, 1/2 of whom were Lucchese wiseguys.
Amuso then ordered D'Arco to bring in a bomb expert from Philadelphia, in order to blow up Gambino boss John Gotti. All of these actions convinced D'Arco & other Lucchese wiseguys that Amuso & Casso were no longer acting rationally. Later, D'Arco explained his role in the family: “When a job needed to be done, whenever they needed to do something unpleasant to someone, I was the prick chosen by them.” D'Arco knew that Amuso & Casso blamed him for the failed attack on Chiodo, & believed they were waiting to kill him.
In July 1991, in a Staten Island meeting, Amuso & Casso replaced D'Arco as acting boss with a 4-man panel of capos. D'Arco was named to this panel, but it was obvious that Amuso and Casso no longer trusted him. On September 18, 1991, D'Arco attended a meeting of Lucchese leaders in Manhattan's Kimberly Hotel. In the middle of the meeting, Mike DeSantis, a soldier in the crew of panel member Frank Lastorino, showed up even though he wasn't a member of the panel himself. D'Arco noticed DeSantis had a gun hidden under his shirt, in the small of his back. DeSantis was also wearing a bulletproof vest.
Later, DeSantis went to the bathroom, & when he came back, the gun was gone. D'Arco knew this was a classic setup for a hit; the next person to go into the bathroom was likely to come out shooting. Convinced his life was threatened, D'Arco rushed out of the hotel. His driver was nowhere to be found, another indication that D'Arco had been marked for death. The next day, FBI agents warned D'Arco that he was indeed in danger. Later that day, D'Arco decided to desert the Mafia. But knowing that Casso frequently boasted that he had at least 1 FBI agent on his payroll, he was too fearful to go to the FBI office in Manhattan.
D’Arco fled the city along with his wife, son, & several other close relatives. On Saturday night, D'Arco traveled to the FBI office in New Rochelle, New York & offered to become a government witness. Despite being under FBI protection, D'Arco still feared that a dirty FBI agent had ratted him out to Casso. When federal prosecutors finally met with D'Arco, they found him hiding in the bathroom of his hotel room. At the time, he was the highest-ranking member of a New York crime family to break his blood oath & testify against the mob, a standing he would maintain until Bonanno boss Joseph "the Ear" Massino turned informer in 2004.
Over the next 10 years, D'Arco testified in a dozen trials along with many grand jury hearings & other legal proceedings. His testimony helped convict Amuso, acting Colombo crime family boss Victor "Little Vic" Orena, Bonanno crime family consigliere Anthony Spero, Genovese crime family consigliere James Ida, & Genovese boss Vincent "Chin" Gigante. D'Arco also testified at the trial of Louis Eppolito & Stephen Caracappa, the 2 corrupt NYPD detectives, who provided Casso with information. His testimony, along with that of several other Lucchese defectors, nearly destroyed the Lucchese family. D'Arco joined the federal Witness Protection Program. According to government sources, D'Arco was an excellent witness & did not commit any further criminal acts. D'Arco died in March 2019 from complications related to kidney disease, at the age of 86.

09/23/2025

In September 1949, New York Colombo crime family capo , Domenick “Remo” Cersani’s soon-to-be protege, James “Jimmy The Gent” Burke, who was 18 years old at the time, was arrested for trying to pass $3k worth of fraudulent checks in a Ozone Park, Queensbank. Burke would eventually become a silent partner in several South Ozone Park, Queens garment district factories & Robert's Lounge. In the 1940s, “Remo” Cersani headed a gang of professional counterfeit check cashers in Bensonhurst. Dominick would later move from the mob-infested neighborhood of Bensonhurst & relocated with his wife to the classier neighborhood of Ozone Park, to be closer to Jimmy Burke. Because of his youth & innocent appearance Dominick had used young Jimmy as a "passer".
When Jimmy was brought to the squad room on the 2nd floor of the 75th Precinct, the detectives cuffed Burke’s hands behind his back & began punching him in the stomach in an effort to get him to implicate Dominick in the counterfeit check scheme. Jimmy took the beating & refused to talk. He was sentenced to 5 years in Auburn Correctional Facility for bank forgery. It was his 1st trip to a federal adult prison & not just a juvenile detention center as he had in the past. This turned out to be Burke’s break into the underworld of New York: his refusal to "snitch" on his accomplices gave him a reputation as a "stand up guy", meaning he would not cooperate with the police & therefore could be trusted by other criminals.
In prison Jimmy mixed with a number of Lucchese crime family & Colombo crime family mobsters & even performed many contract killings. Being of Irish descent, Burke could not become a full-fledged member of the Mafia, as only Italians were accepted into their ranks. But it is said that if Jimmy Burke was Italian, Remo & Paul Vario would have gladly vouched for him to become a made man. But they were just as happy to have associates of any ethnic background, as long as they made money & did not cooperate with the authorities. Dominick dubbed Burke "The Irish Guinea", the nickname was soon adopted by the other mobsters, including members of the Lucchese crime family.
The day Jimmy entered the prison, he was greeted by a welcoming committee, made up of a dozen of the prison's toughest prisoners. 2 of the mobsters in the committee, who were later discovered to be criminal associates of Dominick, approached Burke, & told him that if had any problems during his prison stay, that he should come see them. This was Jimmy's introduction to the mob.
Later, Dominick would vacation regularly during the holidays with Jimmy & his wife Mickey, who he married in 1962. It is through Dominick that Jimmy was introduced to Richard Eaton in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1962.
Burke became a mentor to Thomas DeSimone, Henry Hill, & Angelo Sepe, during the 1960s. Burke was a regular habitue of Robert's Lounge. While serving his 5 year sentence at the Auburn Correctional Facility, Jimmy was suspected to have murdered several suspected prison informants, on behalf of Dominick, which earned him immense respect from the Colombo crime family. Burke was described by Henry Hill as "very cheap". Hill, as an adolescent, had served sandwiches & drinks to Remo, Paul Vario, Peter "The Killer" Abbandante, & the other mobsters at the Euclid Avenue Taxi Cab Company. In the way Nicholas Pileggi wrote the biographical "Wiseguy", in free verse style, it is hard to pinpoint exactly when Burke ordered Remo’s murder & how old Burke's mentor was. The murder of Dominick was the 1st experience that Henry Hill witnessed 1st-hand of his friend Jimmy's murderous & sociopathic nature.
Remembering Remo’s murder would play a crucial part later on, when Henry Hill agreed to become an informant in 1985, after being arrested for drug trafficking. Jimmy Burke's business relationship with Richard Eaton remained intact, after he murdered Dominick. Like his old business partner, Jimmy would later murder Richard Eaton, in 1979 following the Lufthansa heist. Dominick Cersani was arrested with a small load of hijacked goods. In exchange for lightening his sentence, Remo informed the New York Police Department about a hijacked trailer truckload shipment, that his friend Jimmy Burke was putting together. Jimmy got suspicious, when his friend invested only $5k into the $200k load of merchandise. Remo usually purchased 50% or at least a 1/3 of the hijacked goods they stole together.
When Jimmy asked Dominick why he wasn't buying as much into the load as usual, Remo explained his reasoning to Burke as "not needing that much". Then, when Burke & his hijacked transport truck was stopped by the police en route to the warehouse for unloading, the fact that Remo had somehow not invested in that particular shipment, it raised Burke's paranoid suspicions. It was Dominick's betrayal & Burke’s addiction to speed & he**in that later increased his paranoia about associates informing on him. Jimmy became anxious enough to inquire with the corrupt Queens County District Attorney, as to the source of information that led to his subsequent hijacking arrest & indictment.
The District Attorney confirmed that it was his mentor, Remo, that had informed on Jimmy's load, in return for lessening his own upcoming hijacking indictments. Within a week, after Burke discovered his friend's treachery, Dominick was murdered. That same week that Burke had him murdered, Remo gave Jimmy & his wife a round-trip ticket to Florida as a wedding anniversary present. Henry Hill would later state in his autobiography "Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family", commenting about the murder of Dominick, "When you are about to get whacked, nobody tells you. It is not like in the movies, where there is a big argument & someone ends up getting killed. Your killers come as your friends. They come as your family members. They come with smiles. They come at a time when you are at your weakest point. They also have known you all your life".
The night of Remo’s murder, Henry Hill, Jimmy Burke, Tommy DeSimone & another man suspected of being Anthony Stabile or Stanley Diamond were playing poker in Robert's Lounge. Jimmy then suggested to the men that they "take a drive". As they prepared to leave the lounge, Jimmy motioned to Tommy DeSimone & another guy, suspected of being Stanley Diamond or Anthony Stabile, to come along with them. Dominick got into the front passenger seat & Tommy & Jimmy sat in the rear. The 3 drove to the parking lot of their dress factory, Moo Moo Vedda's, located next door at Linden & Lefferts Boulevard. Tommy garroted Dominick with piano wire. Dominick put up a fight, kicking & swinging in the imminent throes of death. Just before he died, Remo soiled s**t & pi**ed his pants. The smell from the excretions stunk-up the Cadillac so bad, that in made Henry Hill sick to his stomach & he threw-up.
Tommy & Jimmy buried Dominick in the enclosed backyard of Robert's Lounge, under a thick layer of cement, next to the bocce courts. Jimmy showed no remorse in murdering his mafia mentor & closest friend, other than his capo Paul Vario. From then on, every time Tommy & Jimmy played together, they would say sarcastically, down at Remo’s makeshift grave, in a joke they shared between the 2 of them, "Hi, Remo, how yeah doing?" Nobody was ever tried or convicted for the murder of Dominick Cersani, & his remains have never been found. After Remo’s murder, either Burke or DeSimone had his car compacted at Clyde Brooks's Auto Bargain Scrap Yard, in Starrett City, Brooklyn. After Dominick was murdered, Henry Hill took over his position, at distributing the stolen merchandise with James Santos & John Savino.
On December 11, 1978, an estimated $5.875 million (equivalent to $27.4 million in 2023) was stolen, with $5 million in cash & $875k in jewelry, making it the largest cash robbery committed on American soil at the time, budded the Lufthansa heist. Burke was also alleged to have either committed or ordered the murders of many of the robbers, to avoid being implicated in the heist. The 1st was Stacks Edwards (portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson in Goodfellas), on December 18, after he failed to get rid of the robbery van. Burke was never implicated or charged in the robbery, & the stolen cash & jewelry were never recovered. The mention of Dominick is excluded from the film "Goodfellas", but the manner of his death was used in the movie, to portray the grisly murder of Martin Krugman, in the aftermath of the Lufthansa heist. After Thomas DeSimone (portrayed by actor Joe Pesci) garrotes the unsuspected Martin Krugman portrayed by Chuck Low as "Morrie Kessler", he shoves an ice pick in between the 1st & 2nd vertebrae of his neck, finally killing him. He is murdered while in the company of Jimmy Burke & Frankie Carbone played by Frank Sivero, who is loosely based on Richard Eaton & Paolo LiCastri. It is thought by police, that Richard had absolutely nothing to do with the murder of Dominick & this was given as Martin Scorsese's creative film license.
In 1980, Burke was arrested for a parole violation. In 1982, Burke was convicted of conspiracy & 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 Henry Hill. Hill's testimony in federal court resulted in a total of 50 convictions in this & other cases, including those of Burke & 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, & was sentenced in 1985 to a further 20 years in prison. 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. Burke is buried at Saint Charles Cemetery in East Farmingdale, New York. Burke inspired the character Jimmy "The Gent" Conway, one of the main characters of the 1990 film Goodfellas, played by Robert DeNiro.

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