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Paul "Paulie" Vario was a high ranking capo under then boss Gaetono "Tommy Brown" Lucchese. Vario would operate out of the small section ofBrooklyn, NYC known as Brownsville. Vario owned a string of junkyards, a pizzeria and cab stand. In fact, for obvious reasons, Vario's cab stand was the only to exist in the Brownsville area.Vario, a very low key capo, controlled almost all illegal activities within his domain. Everything from numbers rackets to loan sharking fell under his wing. In fact, in a 1986 Fortune magazine article listed Vario as 1 of the 50 richest mobsters in America.With the rise of Carmine "Gribs" Trumanti in 1967, Vario within a few years became the Lucchese LCN Family number 2 man or underboss. Trumanti, who would be sent to prison in 1974, was under the constant watch of law enforcement. Trumanti would eventually die in prison. Vario, on the other hand, was rarely photographed by law enforcement agents. In fact not until the end of his reign would he be actually caught on camera.Vario would continue on as underboss under Anthony "Tony Ducks" Corolla. The low key Corolla became head of the Lucchese LCN Family in 1974. In 1978 Vario with close friend Irish gangster James "Jimmy the Gent, the Irish guinea" Burke would mastermind the one of the greatest heist ever.Burke a master at truck hijacking, murderer, loanshark, was dubbed knickname "the Irish guinea" for his closeness to the Italian American crime syndicate. It is believed that Burke, who in 1978 was spending time at a NYC halfway house, scaled down a wall via a rope made of bed sheets, had fellow gang member and Lucchese LCN Family associate Thomas "Tommy" DeSimone pick him up. The duo then went to the Lufthansa International Airport where fellow Burke followers had already held employees of the air cargo division captive. The gang made away with over $6 million in jewelry, cash,money orders, and travelers checks. Burke then simply scaled back into hishalfway house and went to asleep. Nobody would ever be charged for the crime and very little of the stolen goods were ever found. Undoubtedly Vario and the Lucchese LCN Family were paid a huge sum in "tribute". After the heist, things began to go bad for Burke and Vario. They actualy became greedy and began killing off members who had particpated in the heist. Within a year, over a dozen murders could be link to the heist,even DeSimone would not be spared, this is when low-ranking Burke and Vario associate Henry Hill came into play.Hill, who had grown up in Brownsville area, was a childhood friend of Vario's son Paul, Jr. During his childhood, Hill had been employed as a messenger, guard,numbers runner for Burke and Vario. Hill, although not an active particpant in the Lufthansa heist, would begin to fear for his life. After a drug arrest, Hill decided to testify against Vario and Hill. Afterwards Hill was placed in the U.S. Federal Marshall's Witness Protection Program.Burke would be sentenced to life in 1981 for the murder of gang member and Lufthansa heist participant Michael Eaton. He would die in 1996 at an upstate NY minnimun security prison from lung cancer. Vario would be sentenced in 1981 for contempt and obstruction of justice convictions.In 1984 Vario, who was by then in poor health, would be sentenced again on similar charges. He would die in 1988 at the Fort Worth Federal Prisonin Fort Worth, TX. His life would be immortalize in the film Goodfellas,the story of Henry Hill, he was portrayed by the actor Paul Sorvino underthe character name "Paul Cicero".