Jimmy the Gent:The Life and Heists of Criminal Mastermind Jimmy Burke

Jimmy Burke was a key player in Nicholas Pileggi’s Wiseguy and brilliantly portrayed by Robert De Niro in Goodfellas, but the explosive life story of the underworld architect of the greatest heist in American history has never been told—until now in the first-ever, fully comprehensive biography of the notorious Jimmy the Gent.

James “Jimmy the Gent” Burke wasn’t blood to the Lucchese crime family of the Italian Mafia, but the brazen Irishman’s moneymaking criminal enterprises, fearlessness, and loyalty earned him respect among the crime bosses he served. Coldhearted, calculating, and vicious, Jimmy the Gent would eventually carve his own sensational path through the underworld.

Jimmy’s crowning achievement—the legendary 1978 multimillion-dollar Lufthansa heist at JFK Airport—is an untold story that Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative Mob journalist Anthony M. DeStefano, author of The Big Heist, uncovers for the first time. From Jimmy’s unsettled youth, having been abandoned by his brutal father and long-suffering mother and shuffled through several foster homes, to his delinquent teen years of crimes and street-smart survival, Jimmy eventually found a family who warmed to him: the Luccheses, the dominant force in New York and New Jersey’s organized crime.

From protégé to mentor, Jimmy would soon rub shoulders with the likes of eventual informant Henry Hill, Tommy DeSimone, Paul Vario, and William “Billy Batts” Bentvena. And though Burke would spend nearly one-third of his life behind bars, in the end, he managed to outlast the treacheries of his lifetime.

Featuring new insights and revelations involving the violent decades-long aftermath of the legendary heist, Jimmy the Gent is the riveting full story behind the man who would become firmly ensconced in Mob folklore as one of the most notorious Irish gangsters and grand larcenists of the 20th century. | Praise for Anthony M. DeStefano

JIMMY THE GENT

“At last! Anthony M. DeStefano’s Jimmy the Gent explains the mystery behind Jimmy Burke being the only Irishman at the Mob’s Italian table.” —Nicholas Pileggi, bestselling author of Wiseguy and Casino

BROADWAY BUTTERFLY: VIVIAN GORDON

“Mob expert Tony DeStefano tells the little-known story of Vivian Gordon, one of Prohibition’s most notorious racketeers, who, along with the corrupt cops and politicians of her day, set New York on a crooked path that is often followed today.” —Nicholas Pileggi, bestselling author of Wiseguy and Casino

“DeStefano wrangles the sprawling implications of Gordon’s still unsolved murder into an entertaining package. DeStefano paints an alluring portrait of Prohibition-era New York and the mobsters and millionaires who ran it.” —Publishers Weekly

GOTTI’S BOYS

“In this solid true crime account, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist DeStefano explores the inner machinations of the New York Mob and John Gotti’s rise to the head of the Gambino family . . . DeStefano does a fine job capturing the essence of New York . . . Aficionados are sure to relish the finer, exhaustively researched details.” —Publishers Weekly

TOP HOODLUM

“DeStefano vividly recalls the crime boss whose wounding by an assassin in 1957 got a bigger headline in the Daily News than the death of Senator Joseph McCarthy.” —The New York Times

“Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist DeStefano draws from recently released FBI documents, family testimony, and court records to construct an engrossing chronicle of the life of notorious Mafia boss Frank Costello, a ‘reluctant prince of the Mafia’ . . . The book provides ample historical background, including a fascinating historical twist in which Costello’s quest for legitimacy plays out during WWII when Costello and cohort Charles ‘Lucky’ Luciano supplied the military with vital information on Sicilian geography just before the Allied invasion in 1943. DeStefano’s canny insight into the don’s mind and motivations set this biography apart from others on Costello.” —Publishers Weekly

“Biography of a low-profile ‘original gangster’ who connected the Prohibition era and the Five Families. Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist DeStefano creates another readable, well-researched take on organized crime . . . Will appeal to readers of criminal histories and tales of New York’s political underworld.” —Kirkus Reviews

THE BIG HEIST

“Terrific. DeStefano finally gives us a fitting end to the murderous and fabled story of the 1978 Lufthansa heist.” —Nicholas Pileggi, author of Wiseguy and Casino

“A comprehensive account of the legendary 1978 heist . . . impressive.” —Publishers Weekly

“A longtime journalist, DeStefano writes clearly about the case . . . Readers also know when they are in capable hands. DeStefano knows gangsters and Mob history.” —The Star-Ledger

VINNY GORGEOUS

“A dark, informed, and effective bio, and DeStefano is a master at cutting through the secrecy of the Mafia hierarchy.” —Publishers Weekly

“Dramatic . . . thrilling . . . tantalizing.” —Kirkus Reviews

KING OF THE GODFATHERS

“No one breathes life into his subjects like Anthony M. DeStefano does. The reissue of this seminal Joe Massino biography, replete with a new foreword by the legendary undercover agent Joe Pistone, unearths decades of Mafia history—and the scores of bodies—with aplomb.” —Louis Ferrante, internationally bestselling author of the Borgata Trilogy

“Much of my work served as the underpinnings of extensive FBI investigations that are fully recounted in King of the Godfathers: Joseph Massino and the Fall of the Bonanno Crime Family . . . In a way, Massino followed my example and decided to become a secret cooperating witness against the Bonanno family, a shocking development that no one expected.” —Joe Pistone, aka Donnie Brasco, former undercover FBI agent and author of Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia and The Bonannos: A Century of Murder

“Riveting.” —Nicholas Pileggi, bestselling author of Wiseguy and Casino

“The best and last word on the subject . . . DeStefano brings the story to life.” —Jerry Capeci, bestselling co-author of Murder Machine and creator of GangLandNews.com

“Thrilling American crime writing.” —Jimmy Breslin, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Good Rat

“Tracks the downfall not only of Massino himself but all of the old organized crime families . . . DeStefano gives us unique insights.” —New York Law Journal | Anthony M. DeStefano is a Pulitzer Prize and Emmy Award-winning journalist, author, and preeminent Mob historian. He has covered criminal justice and organized crime for more than three decades as a reporter for Newsday and appeared as an expert source on HISTORY’s documentary series American Godfathers: The Five Families. His books on the subject include Jimmy the Gent, The Big Heist, King of the Godfathers, The Deadly Don, Top Hoodlum, and Gotti’s Boys, among others. He can be found online at TonyDeStefano.com.