The Lufthansa Heist

August 10, 2015
Readers who place a premium on truth in their true crime may be disappointed by this account of a legendary 1978 theft from JFK Airport; a preface states that the book's narrative is based in part on "informed judgment," and that the authors recreated scenes and dialogue "with literary technique combined or imagined." Coauthor and former mobster-turned FBI informant Hill, who partook in the heist provides a first-person account of his involvement; the problem is he was absent for the actual execution of the robbery, and thus any contribution he makes to the account of that episode must be second-hand. The authors go too far with including implausible details that suggest fabrication and add nothing to the inherent drama of the story. Purple prose ("due to her overcharged sexual urges, moments of hot flashes often emblazoned the voluptuous Lina") and sloppiness (sharks are described as "man-eating mammals") don't help matters. It's also unsettling to read in the afterword that the identification of the man responsible for murdering one of the Lufthansa robbers in the text was only theoretical. Given Hill's colorful life, much better conveyed in the book Wiseguy (1985), written in collaboration with Nicholas Pileggi, the decision to gild the lily here again and again is baffling and disappointing.

September 1, 2015
For about a fourth of this remarkable true-crime story, readers will feel these low-level mobsters are the cutest little psychopaths ever. Boozing, gambling, wenching, stealingjust guys having fun. Their charm fades, though, as we move into the meat of the story, the 1978 heist of $6 million from the Lufthansa safe at Kennedy Airport. The late Henry HillRay Liotta played him in Goodfellaswas on the fringe of the action. With coauthor Simone's help, he narrates much of the storyup to the end, when he turns snitch. Simone tells the rest of this engrossing tale directly, and he is one helluva writer. One man's temper ignited as easily as gasoline vapor. A woman's running mascara made her look like a spider. Simone spends much time on officialdom's attempts to jail these reprobates, and maybe it's unintentional that he makes the cops out as no brighter than the perps they chase. Like many of the most compelling true-crime tales, the distinction between cops and robbers is blurry at best. Fine reading.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)