Robert's Lounge was a bar that was owned by gangster Jimmy Burke on 114-45 Lefferts Boulevard in South Ozone Park, Queens from 1957 to January 1978 following the murder of Martin Krugman when police surveillance sparked from the Lufthansa heist was too intense for them to conduct their criminal activities. It was next to the Van Wyck Expressway and within driving distance of JFK Airport Kennedy Air Cargo Center, Aqueduct Race Track, Paul Vario's office in a trailer on Flatlands Avenue at the "Bargain Auto Junkyard", and the Queens County, New York courts in Kew Gardens, Queens where the Vario Crew would receive their court trial postponements. It was used as the hijacking headquarters. The "front man" who managed the day-to-day operations of the bar was Richard Eaton who was murdered in 1979 by Burke. It had three card tables, a casino craps table and was populated with enough bookmakers and loan sharks to cover all the action in Queens. It employed barmaids who were known to drink Sambuca in the morning hours while working. Parnell Edwards played blues-rock at the bar regularly, every Saturday and Sunday. The basement would be so packed with boxes of stolen goods that there was hardly enough room to play cards. A bartender that regularly worked at the bar was Michael "Spider" Gianco who was later shot to death in the basement by Thomas DeSimone over an insult. Robert's Lounge would be replaced as the Vario Crew headquarters by a classier night club owned by Vincent Asaro.
Clientele
It was a hangout for transport truck drivers, freight handlers, cargo dispatchers, and backfield airport workers who were degenerate gamblers that would drop their Friday paycheck before Saturday morning. The customers coming to buy stolen goods were often legitimate retailers. The more shady clientele consisted of Mobsters such as Jimmy Burke, Frank James Burke, (who first drank at the club with his father underage), Paul Vario, Tommy DeSimone, Karen Hill (the wife of Henry), Tommy Lucchese, Martin Krugman, Stanley Diamond, Anthony Stabile and Thomas Stabile, Francesco Manzo, Fredrick DeLucia, Edward Finelli, Peter "The Killer" Abbandante, Michael Frazese, Nicholas Blanda, Raymond and Monte Montemurro, John Mazzolla, Bobby "The Dentist," Lawrence "Larry" Bilello, Clyde Brooks, Daniel Rizzo, Alex Corcione and Michael Corcione, Bruno Facciolo, an ex-carpenter union representative, sportsbook manager Milton Wikler, Parnell Edwards, Angelo John Sepe, Angelo Polisi, Ronald Jerothe, John Gotti, Joe Manri and Robert McMahon.
Murder of Burke's Best Friend Remo
Sometime in the late to early 1960's Jimmy Burke murdered his Italian friend Remo, (referred to by his Italian-based nickname). Little is known of the childhood friend of Burke's other than his grizzly murder. Remo had known Jimmy Burke since the 1930's and they had been close friends since including taking their wives together on vacation. Then Remo got arrested on a small cigarette hijacking and agreed to become an informant and help the NYPD arrest Jimmy Burke. Burke first got suspicious of his friend's actions when Remo invested only $5,000 in the $200,000 load when Remo usually would take a third to 50% of the hijacked load. Burke asked him why his friend wasn't investing so much as Remo's answer was that "he didn't need so much." Then when the transport truck was stopped by the police and the shipment was confiscated, this made Burke very suspicious of his friend. Burke asked a friend in the Queens County District Attorney's office who confirmed Remo had informed on Burke. Later that very same week Henry Hill, Jimmy Burke, Remo and Thomas DeSimone including another member of the Vario Crew, most likely Stanley Diamond or Angelo John Sepe were playing cards at Robert's when Jimmy suggested for Remo, he and Diamond or Sepe to take a drive. They went to the enclosed back parking lot and climbed into a Cadillac DeVille. Remo got in the front passenger seat and Tommy sat directly behind Remo in the backseat along with Burke with Sepe or Diamond in the driver's seat. Tommy garroted Remo with piano wire. Remo hopelessly put up a fight. He kicked and shattered the windshield and swung his fists before defecateing and urinateing himself before he died. Jimmy Burke, Tommy DeSimone, and Angelo John Sepe, or Stanley Diamond buried him in the enclosed backyard of the bar under a layer of cement next to the boccie court. Since that day, every time, Burke or DeSimone played they would jokingly say, "Hey Remo, how're you doing?" Henry Hill witnessed the murder. Nobody was ever convicted of Remo's murder. Burke had his body removed and relocated shortly before a search warrant was issued for Robert's Lounge. His remains were never found. This murder imitates the on screen depiction of Martin Krugman's murder in Martin Scorsese's 1990 film Goodfellas.
References
- Pileggi, Nicholas Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family Simon & Schuster (January 1986) ISBN 0671447343