Vincent “Vinny” Asaro, one of the alleged mafiosos at one point thought to be responsible for the 1978 heist of a Lufthansa cargo building at JFK, has died, sources close to the matter told the New York Post on Sunday. Asaro was 86. The exact cause of his death, which comes three years after his compassionate release from prison, was not immediately clear, according to the Post. A judge’s ruling on the “extraordinary and compelling” reasons for his release noted that Asaro had had a stroke in 2019, leaving him partially paralyzed and suffering from aphasia. The alleged mob capo had been serving an eight-year sentence after pleading guilty in 2017 to making “arrangements” to set aflame the car of another driver who’d cut him off in traffic. An alleged associate of the Bonanno crime family, Asaro was acquitted of involvement in the notorious Lufthansa heist—in which robbers snatched $5 million in cash and $1 million in jewels—by a jury in 2015.
