EXCERPT FROM:

The New York Times, June 15, 1980, Sunday, Late City Final Edition
Headline: Progress Cited In Prosecuting Lufthansa Case

"Federal Investigators seeking the largest cash robbery in the nation's history - the 5.8 million theft from an air cargo building at Kennedy International Airport 18 months ago - have begun receiving significant new evidence. Although still unable to bring charges against any of the people they have long suspected of being among the six r seven armed men who took part in the predawn robbery, they say they may be getting the corroboration they need to prosecute the suspects - corroboration that has thus eluded them. In recent days, a 37 year-old former convict from Nassau County, Henry Hill - a former associate of a man the authorities believe organized the airport robbery team - has become a government informant and has begun providing "significant" information about the case, according to the investigators. Because of fears for Mr. Hill's life, he has been placed in the Federal Government's Witness Protection Program. Since the robbery, on December 11th, 1978, at the cargo terminal of Lufthansa, the German airline two persons of having participated in the plot have disappeared and may have been murdered. One, Thomas DeSimone, is believed by authorities to have been among the robbers.

In addition, at least six murder victims whose bodies have been found at various times and places since the robbery are believed to have been connected with the crime or those who planned or carried it out. One of the victims linked to those involved was Theresa Ferrara, a 27 year-old part owner of a Long Island beauty shop. Mr. Hill is not suspected of having been one of the ski-masked robbers who invaded the Lufthansa facility and -armed with shotguns, automatic pistols, and inside information - made off with 5 million in cash and nearly 1 million worth of jewels. But he was "involved in certain aspects" of the crime and he has extensive knowledge about cargo thefts committed over the years at Kennedy, one Federal agent said. Investigators decline, however, to detail the information that Mr. Hill has been providing. Whatever it is, it is apparently not enough by itself to lead to prosecutions. Mr. Hills own criminal record is "so bad" as one law enforcement official put it, that investigators feel the jurors would be skeptical of his testimony. As a result, trying to prosecute anyone on the basis of his accounts alone would be tactically unsound, said the official who, like others working on the case, declined to be identified."