Vincent Asaro, a third-generation Mafia member, was found not guilty on Thursday of planning the 1978 Lufthansa robbery memorialized in Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas. The jury was urged by the defense to question testimonies that came from other gangsters, who collectively had 22 murders to their names, CBS reports.
Prosecutors argued that Asaro was a member of the Bonanno family, whose "turf" in the 1970s included John F. Kennedy International Airport. Before the heist, they say, James "Jimmy the Gent" Burke, portrayed by Robert De Niro in Goodfellas, had to obtain Asaro's blessing.
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