Lufthansa heist
E723184
The Lufthansa heist was a notorious 1978 robbery at New York’s JFK Airport in which millions of dollars in cash and jewelry were stolen, later famously dramatized in the film "Goodfellas."
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Lufthansa heist canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T8278782 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Lufthansa heist Context triple: [Goodfellas, subject, Lufthansa heist]
-
A.
Lufthansa
Lufthansa is Germany’s largest airline and a major global carrier known for its extensive international network and role in shaping modern airline alliances.
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B.
S7 Airlines
S7 Airlines is a major Russian airline based in Novosibirsk that operates extensive domestic and international routes, particularly across Russia, Europe, and Asia.
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C.
Lufthansa Cargo
Lufthansa Cargo is the air freight and logistics division of the Lufthansa Group, operating a global network for transporting cargo by air.
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D.
Lufthansa CityLine
Lufthansa CityLine is a German regional airline and Lufthansa subsidiary that operates short- and medium-haul routes across Europe, primarily feeding traffic into Lufthansa’s main hubs.
-
E.
Interflug
Interflug was the state-owned national airline of East Germany, operating international and domestic flights primarily within the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Lufthansa heist Target entity description: The Lufthansa heist was a notorious 1978 robbery at New York’s JFK Airport in which millions of dollars in cash and jewelry were stolen, later famously dramatized in the film "Goodfellas."
-
A.
Lufthansa
Lufthansa is Germany’s largest airline and a major global carrier known for its extensive international network and role in shaping modern airline alliances.
-
B.
S7 Airlines
S7 Airlines is a major Russian airline based in Novosibirsk that operates extensive domestic and international routes, particularly across Russia, Europe, and Asia.
-
C.
Lufthansa Cargo
Lufthansa Cargo is the air freight and logistics division of the Lufthansa Group, operating a global network for transporting cargo by air.
-
D.
Lufthansa CityLine
Lufthansa CityLine is a German regional airline and Lufthansa subsidiary that operates short- and medium-haul routes across Europe, primarily feeding traffic into Lufthansa’s main hubs.
-
E.
Interflug
Interflug was the state-owned national airline of East Germany, operating international and domestic flights primarily within the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
crime
ⓘ
historical event ⓘ robbery ⓘ |
| aftermath |
few successful prosecutions directly for the robbery
ⓘ
long-running FBI investigation ⓘ multiple murders of participants and associates ⓘ |
| airportEmployeeInvolved | Louis Werner NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| approximateValueJewelryUSD | 875000 ⓘ |
| approximateValueUSD |
5000000
ⓘ
6000000 ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
Henry Hill
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
James Burke NERFINISHED ⓘ Lucchese crime family NERFINISHED ⓘ New York Mafia NERFINISHED ⓘ Paul Vario NERFINISHED ⓘ Tommy DeSimone NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| category |
1978 crimes in the United States
ⓘ
Organized crime in New York City ⓘ Robberies in the United States ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| date | 1978-12-11 ⓘ |
| inspiredWork |
book "Wiseguy" by Nicholas Pileggi
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
film "Goodfellas" NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| involvedGang | Lucchese crime family crew based in Queens NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| keyInformant |
Henry Hill
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Louis Werner NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| lawEnforcementAgency |
Federal Bureau of Investigation
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Port Authority Police of New York and New Jersey NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| legacy | symbol of organized crime activity at US airports in the 1970s ⓘ |
| location |
John F. Kennedy International Airport
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
New York City ⓘ Queens NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| mediaCoverage | extensive national and international press coverage ⓘ |
| method |
armed robbery
ⓘ
inside information from airport employee ⓘ |
| motive | financial gain ⓘ |
| notability | one of the largest cash robberies in American history at the time ⓘ |
| plannedBy | James Burke NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| portrayedAs | major plot element in "Goodfellas" ⓘ |
| portrayedIn | film "Goodfellas" NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| result | large-scale theft of untraceable currency ⓘ |
| stolenCurrency | US dollars ⓘ |
| stolenFrom |
Air France cargo building safe-deposit facility (cash storage) at JFK
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Lufthansa NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| stolenItems |
cash
ⓘ
jewelry ⓘ |
| target | Lufthansa cargo terminal at JFK Airport NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| timeOfDay | early morning ⓘ |
| year | 1978 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Lufthansa heist Description of subject: The Lufthansa heist was a notorious 1978 robbery at New York’s JFK Airport in which millions of dollars in cash and jewelry were stolen, later famously dramatized in the film "Goodfellas."
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.