James Burke was an Irish American gangster and Lucchese crime family associate. He is believed to have organized the 1978 Lufthansa heist, at the time the largest cash robbery in American history. He was convicted of conspiracy charges related to his involvement in the 1978–79 Boston College basketball point shaving scandal. In 1982, Burke was also convicted of murder while in prison, and was sentenced to a further 20 years. He died of cancer at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York.
About James Burke (gangster) in brief
James Burke was an Irish American gangster and Lucchese crime family associate. He is believed to have organized the 1978 Lufthansa heist, at the time the largest cash robbery in American history. Burke inspired the character Jimmy \”The Gent\” Conway, one of the main characters of the 1990 film Goodfellas, played by Robert De Niro. He was convicted of conspiracy charges related to his involvement in the 1978–79 Boston College basketball point shaving scandal, and sentenced to 12 years in prison. In 1982, Burke was also convicted of murder while in prison, and was sentenced to a further 20 years. He died of cancer at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York, eight years before he would have become eligible for parole. Burke was of Irish descent and, because he was not Italian, he was ineligible to become a made man. Burke owned the South Ozone Park, Queens tavern Robert’s Lounge. In November 1972, Burke and Hill were arrested for beating Gaspar Ciaccio in Tampa, Florida.
They were charged with extortion, convicted, and sentence to 10 years in the United States Penitentiary in Lewisburg. Burke’s son Jesse James Burke, who was murdered by drug dealer Tito Ortiz in 1987, is also a gangster. Burke is the father of LufhansaHeist aide Frank James Burke. He had a friend who owned a dog kennel in Upstate New York. In the 1950s he was involved with various illegal activities, such as distributing untaxed cigarettes and liquor. In 1962, Burke married Mickey, but discovered that she was being bothered by an ex-boyfriend. On Burke and Mickey’s wedding day, police found the ex- Boyfriend’s remains and tossed all over the inside of his car. In 1970, on June 11, 1970, Burke, Henry Hill, and Angelo Sepe, killed William Bentvena at The Suite, a nightclub owned by Hill in Jamaica, Queens.
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