Police dig at Goodfellas home

Police dig at Goodfellas home, Investigators swarmed around the New York house of James “Jimmy the Gent” Burke on Monday to dig for a body believed to be related to a crime case that’s been dormant for almost three decades.

Federal Bureau of Investigations agents joined with New York Police Department officials, bringing trowels, a pickaxe, sledgehammers and other excavation tools to the Queens home, The New York Post reported. They were focusing on the driveway, back yard and basement, the Post said.

The mobster, who died from cancer in jail in 1996, was made famous by Robert De Niro in the movie “Goodfellas.” The home has been rented to a couple for the past 40 years, The Post reported. The Associated Press said the house belonged to Burke’s wife.

“[The dig is part of] an ongoing organized crime investigation,” one source told The Post. And another said: “They’re looking for a body.”

One other source said the dig is related to a “very old” case that stretches back three decades, The Post reported.
The AP said Burke masterminded the $5.8 million heist of a Lufthansa Airlines vault at Kennedy Airport in 1978.