Spending and feuding break up a pack of thieves
They had pulled off the biggest holdup in U.S. history with professional perfection, but the $5,850,000 in cash and jewelry turned them giddy, as well it might. The gang that seized the loot from a Lufthansa Airlines cargo facility at New York City's Kennedy International Airport last December quickly committed blunders unworthy of a teenage shoplifting ring. As a result, two of the gang were under arrest last week, one was murdered, another was presumed dead and the identity of the others was known to the FBI and New York police.
As it usually does, the FBI credited its "intensive investigation" and "confidential informants" with breaking the case. In fact, FBI agents, New York undercover cops and even such gangwise newsmen as Jimmy Breslin, who first detailed the robbers' troubles, knew where to begin looking right after the sensational heist. They all searched their files and memories for the names of former habitues of Roberts Lounge, a bar near the airport where known cargo thieves, airline cargo handlers and plainclothes cops mingled, drank and bet on horses. The bar changed hands two years ago, but its current customers buzzed with gossip about the huge theft. Both federal and local investigators promptly began tailing the most likely suspects. Their problem was not so much whodunit, but how to prove it.
The biggest blunder was made by Angelo Sepe, 37, a mob-connected hood who was on parole from an armed-robbery conviction. Unable to resist enjoying his new wealth, he ordered a sporty 1979 Thunderbird —and paid for the car with $9,000 in cash. He also bought a new Cadillac for his girlfriend. Before he picked up the T-bird, however, FBI agents fitted it with an eavesdropping bug and a small radio transmitter that constantly signaled its whereabouts. Sepe's next mistake was to boast about the Lufthansa caper to passengers in his car —taped conversations that the FBI found most interesting, especially those with Peter Gruenewald, who worked as a Lufthansa cargo agent.
Gruenewald apparently is blessed, or cursed, with a sympathetic ear. Authorities believe he was also told by Louis Werner, 46, a longtime fellow Lufthansa employee, how Werner had helped set up the robbery. Werner had left his post for more than 90 minutes so that a Brink's crew could not find anyone to sign for the pickup of the cash. That key move kept the money at the airport over a weekend, just as the gang had planned. Werner was promised $300,000 for his role. When Gruenewald seemed nervous about keeping his secret, Werner gave him $ 10,000 to buy his silence. Then Werner too began to flash his cash in public. He paid $10,000 for a GM Sportvan. And he paid in bills, a fact that became known to the FBI.
When agents began to question Gruenewald, he decided it would be prudent not to answer. Instead, he booked airline flights to Bogota, Manila, Tokyo, Taiwan, anywhere far from Queens. Learning of this, FBI agents decided they could wait no longer. They seized Sepe, whose beeping radio made his T-bird easy to follow, and they also grabbed Gruenewald and Werner. The good listener was charged as a material witness. The FBI hopes that his detention will lead gang members to feel that someone who knows a lot is telling all, thus causing even more falling out among the thieves.