This is the story of the 1978 Lufthansa Heist that modern readers and movie viewers may remember from the film Goodfellas. The book is by Henry Hill, who had some role in helping to get the plan moving along. Hill was an associate of Jimmy Burke, who is believed to be the mastermind of the heist. This was the last book that Hill worked on before he passed away in 2012. The book, to be honest, has a lot of the facts and details that Hill told before in his 1985 book Wiseguy (link to my review of the book). So if you read Wiseguy, a lot of the material in this Lufthansa book will be very familiar. Some elements from this book are also present in the film. This book, in addition to looking at the heist, looks at Hill rising in the mob with Jimmy Burke and Tommy DeSimone, starting with Hill's heist of the Air France cargo hold (a prelude to Lufthansa), and it goes through the last days of the investigation winding down after everyone else involved other than Burke and Hill are dead. The Air France heist serves to establish Hill's reputation with the mob. On a positive note, you do get some more details on certain situations not in the book, and you certainly get more depth than in the movie. Still, if you have read Hill's previous book, this may give you deja vu.
A detail that caught my attention is that the robbers that Burke led were mostly illiterate or barely literate folks, and they were not the sharpest tools in the shed either. When you keep that in mind, it is kind of impressive they managed to pull off the heist in a relatively efficient way. Well, it was efficient until they started doing stupid shit after the robbery like buying flashy stuff when they got some of the money. We also need to note that some investigative techniques and technologies we have available today were not available back then.
The book is a blend of Hill telling stories and his co-author adding details and filling gaps to complete the story. Henry adds and pays attention to small details here and there. He can also be very descriptive at times. He is a good storyteller, a trait I am sure served him well when the film makers came to pick his brains to make the film. In addition, Hill's use of slang can be amusing at times.
Still, there are differences from the film. In the film, you get the impression that everyone was in agreement to rob Lufthansa. In the book, we see how they hesitated, had concerns, Burke really needed to think about it, Marty Krugman, the bookie who got Hill the information he passed on to Burke, really had to persuaded Burke to take it on. Another example of differences between book and film. In Chapter 32, we knew Stack Edwards was an idiot in not getting rid of the van (mentioned in the film) but just how big of an idiot we get the details here. The guy really was a moron who did go to one of his girlfriends way out of the way to get laid and get high. Getting rid of the van should have been easy since an arrangement was made to use a certain auto junkyard to crush the van and leave no evidence. All Stacks had to do was show up with the van, and he could not even do that one thing. The rest of the crew were idiots as well as noted previously, so it is a bit of a serious miracle they pulled the robbery. Additionally, we do get a bigger picture of the law enforcement agencies infighting to get the glory and credit of the case. We do get as well more detail in the process of how Hill becomes a federal informant. The feds are disappointed that Hill cannot connect Burke and others to Lufthansa (because Burke had everyone else killed who was involved by that time). The feds grow impatient until they begin to discover that Hill certainly knew many other things, and while initially they got Burke on a basketball points shaving scheme, eventually they would be able to use Hill's testimony to get a bunch of other big convictions. Part of the issue, besides Burke having killed everyone related to Lufthansa, is that Hill was an alcoholic and could not function as well without it. But once the feds got him a bit comfortable and they learned a bit of patience, they did get a lot out of Hill.
I listened to this book in audio. On a semi-humorous note, if they got that guy from mobster documentaries that sounds like he smokes five packs or more a day, the narration could be improved.The narrator here can be a little dry at times, though he does perform voices for different characters, sometimes with amusing effects. For example, Tommy can sound a bit more whiny at times than he likely really was.
Overall, I liked the book. I liked it in part because I find the story interesting, and I am a fan of the film. However, if you read Wiseguy, then a lot of what you read here will be a review/revisit of those events. If you only know the story from the film though, then the book is worth a read, though I think Wiseguy is a better read. Plus the book does look at events from a different angle at times, so that may be another reason to read this book.
3 out of 5 stars.
Book qualifies for this 2020 Reading Challenge:
No comments:
Post a Comment