S5 Ep27: The Real Goodfellas Job

Crimes of the Centuries

Amber Hunt and Audioboom

True Crime, Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 22 September 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It was the score of all scores: a $6 million haul in cash and jewels lifted from JFK Airport in 1978. The headlines called it the Lufthansa heist; Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas turned it into legend. But the real story was messier: dozens of suspects, no recovered loot, and a trail of bodies that grew almost as fast as the FBI’s frustration.

"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. You can get early and ad-free episodes on the Grab Bag Patreon page.

DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE CRIMES OF THE CENTURIES BOOK! Order today at www.centuriespod.com/book (https://www.centuriespod.com/book)!

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @centuriespod

Episode Sponsors:

Rula. Rula patients typically pay $15 per session when using insurance. Connect with quality therapists and mental health experts who specialize in you at https://www.rula.com/cotc #rulapod

Cornbread Hemp. Right now, COTC listeners can save 30% on their first order! Just head to cornbreadhemp.com/COTC and use code COTC at checkout.

Home Chef. For a limited time, Home Chef is offering my listeners FIFTY PERCENT OFF and free shipping for your first box PLUS free dessert for life! Go to HomeChef.com/COTC

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You just realized your business needed to hire someone yesterday. So how do you find amazing candidates fast?
0:07.8	Simple. Just use Indeed. Stop wasting time with other job sites that aren't getting your post seen.
0:14.4	With Indeed's sponsored jobs, your post jumps to the top getting in front of the right candidates fast.
0:20.6	And it works. According to Indeed
0:22.8	data, sponsor jobs get 45% more applications than non-sponsored ones. Join the 3.5 million employers
0:31.0	worldwide who are hiring great talent with Indeed. Best part? No monthly subscriptions, no long-term contracts, and you only pay for results.
0:41.1	There's no need to wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed, and listeners of the show will get a 100-pound
0:48.8	sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at Indeed.com slash show. Just go to Indeed.com slash show right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast.
1:02.4	Indeed.com slash show. Terms and conditions apply.
1:21.8	Some crimes are so heartbreaking or shocking, they change laws, change society, or even earn the label, Crime of the Century.
1:28.0	But the stories that made headlines and decades past aren't necessarily remembered today.
1:33.5	I'm Amber Hunt, a journalist and author, and in each episode of this show,
1:39.0	I'll examine a case that's maybe lesser known today, but was huge when it happened.
1:43.1	This is Crimes of the Centuries.
2:01.8	In early 1967, a guy working in cargo operations for Air France at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport,
2:05.9	tipped off a few of his friends about how they could all make a little money.
2:12.5	Seemed that every week, Air France carried linen sacks of cash from Southeast Asia back to the United States for deposit. Each sack usually contained $60,000, and if you did the math on how many
2:21.3	linen bags and how much each contained, you knew that the airline was hauling something like
2:26.8	$1 million a week through JFK, one way into Queens. The employee, Robert Frenchman, knew exactly where the money went.
2:37.7	It was stashed inside the same large warehouse where travelers came to retrieve their lost luggage.
2:44.5	The sacks of cash were not especially locked away. They were placed in a cement storage room
2:50.7	and always guarded by a single guy,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Amber Hunt and Audioboom, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Amber Hunt and Audioboom and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.