Lufthansa cargo terminal at JFK Airport.      
    

On December 11, 1978 half a dozen masked robbers raided the Lufthansa
Airlines cargo building at JFK Airport in New York, making off with more
than $5 million in cash ($21 million in today’s dollars) and almost $1
million in jewelry. To this day, the Lufthansa heist, as it is known, is
considered one of the greatest in U.S. history. The plan was dreamed
up by Peter Gruenewald, a Lufthansa cargo worker at JFK Airport. The 
heist was dramatized in the classic mafia film "Goodfellas."

A van used during Lufthansa Airlines robbery at JFK
International Airport.

Vincent Asaro, a member of the Bonanno crime family, allegedly
helped carry out the bold heist of cash and jewelry from a cargo
terminal at JFK airport.

1990

Black Bart (Charles Earl Boles)
(b. 1829; d. after February 28, 1888)

Authorities almost catch the California bandit and infamous
stagecoach robber called Black Bart; he manages to make
a quick getaway, but drops an incriminating clue that eventually
sends him to prison.

Black Bart was born probably in the state of New York around
1830. As a young man, he abandoned his family for the gold
fields of California, but he failed to strike it rich as a miner and
turned to a life of crime.

By the mid-1850s, stagecoaches and Wells Fargo wagons transported
much of the huge output of gold from California. Often traveling in
isolated areas, the Wells Fargo wagons and stagecoaches quickly
became favorite targets for bandits; over the course of about 15
years, the company lost more than $415,000 in gold to outlaw
robbers.

It is believed that Boles committed his first stagecoach robbery in
July 1875.

The Reno brothers, John and Simeon, staged the first train robbery in
American history, making off with $13,000 from an Ohio and Mississippi
railroad train in Jackson County, Indiana.

Of course, trains had been robbed before the Reno brothers’ holdup. But
these previous crimes had all been burglaries of stationary trains sitting
in depots or freight yards. The Reno brothers’ contribution to criminal
history was to stop a moving train in a sparsely populated region where
they could carry out their crime without risking interference from the law
or curious bystanders.

 
       Frank Reno (1837 – 1868)       John Reno (1839 – 1895)        

The Reno Gang

SANDY KOZEL

On this day in 1974, President Richard Nixon announced that he
would resign the following day.

The Great Train Robbery is the name given to a $45 million train
robbery committed on this day in 1963 at Bridego Railway.

Arrests soon followed the robbery. Here three men are taken to a
police van at Linslade Court House, Buckinghamshire, after being remanded in custody in late August 1963.

Gang member Bruce Reynolds, pictured here circa 1963 on 
the left with his wife Frances, Barbara Daly and brother-in-
law John Daly. Daly was arrested but released due to lack
of evidence.

It was on this day in 1942.

Actor Dustin Lee Hoffman is 81 today. He was born in 
Los Angeles, California.

Dustin Hoffman won the Academy Award for Best Actor in
1980 for Kramer vs. Kramer, and in 1989 for Rain Man. He
also played leading roles in the films Midnight Cowboy
(1969) and Tootsie (1982). Hoffman had his breakthrough
role as Benjamin Braddock in the 1967 classic film The
Graduate.

1995

    1976

In 1977, four people were arrested at Forest Hill Cemetery in Memphis 
after trying to steal Elvis’ body. As a result the remains of both Elvis
Presley and his mother were reburied in Graceland’s Meditation
Garden (below) on October 2.

Presley’s gravestone at Graceland.

   
    
    
   
    Elvis Aaron Presley  (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977)