By Randall Radic

On December 11, 1978, a group of men pulled off what came to be known as the Lufthansa Heist.  They stole 5 million dollars in cash and jewels worth $875,000 from the John F. Kennedy International Airport.  At the time, it was the largest cash robbery ever perpetrated on American soil. 

The man who planned the job was Jimmy Burke.  He was part of the Lucchese mob – the Mafia.  Jimmy had a girlfriend.  Her name was Theresa Ferrara. 

On the afternoon of February 10, 1979, almost two months to the day after the Lufthansa Heist, Theresa Ferrara was on the phone at the hair boutique she owned on Long Island.  When she hung up, she left the boutique, telling her niece she had to meet someone at a nearby diner.  She’d be back in fifteen minutes.  If she wasn’t, she asked her niece to come looking for her.

Theresa never came back.

For the last 30 years her niece – just as her aunt requested – has been looking for her.  The result of that search is related in Looking For Closure.  It’s the story of a woman – Theresa Ferrara – who, in the beginning, wanted to be a fashion model or an actress.  Instead, she ended up hanging out with mobsters.  Soon she was selling drugs – cocaine and Quaaludes.  Arrested by the DEA, she had two choices:  go to prison for a long, long time or become an informant.

She chose the latter, figuring she could work both sides against the middle. 

Theresa provided the DEA with information about the mob’s activities, which resulted in the confiscation of 30 tons of cocaine by the DEA.  At the same time, Theresa was swindling money from the mob.  And she knew about the Lufthansa Heist.  Eventually, the mob got suspicious.  They decided to tie up any loose ends.  So they made the phone call to Theresa at her hair salon on February 10, 1979.

Three months later a torso with no arms, no legs and no head was found in a New Jersey river.  It was Theresa.

Or was it? 

The answer to that question is what Looking For Closure is all about.  Maria Stewart – Theresa’s niece – wanted to know the truth, because uncertainty hurts more than ignorance.  And Maria was not ignorant.  Or so she thought.  She knew something wasn’t right.  Maria thought her aunt was a kind, loving, beautiful woman, who had a mysterious side.  As Maria searched, she discovered that her Aunt Theresa was a lot more than mysterious.  She had a dark side, which included mobsters, guns, drugs, bombs, and piles of money.    

If you want to know what Maria discovered and if she found closure, you’ll have to read the book, which is told in a clean, crisp style of writing.  But here’s a teaser:  sometimes when you go looking for something, you don’t find it.  What you do find is more than you bargained for.

It should be added that Theresa Ferrara’s story inspired the role of “Rosie” in the movie Goodfellas and the role of “Theresa” in the television movie The Ten Million Dollar Getaway.  That’s how baffling she really was.

On the Read-O-Meter, which ranges from one star (weak) to 5 stars (scintillating), Looking For Closure (Outskirts Press/ Jul 2009) unearths a solid 4 stars (excellent).   

Randall Radic is a former Old Catholic priest. After a midlife crisis, he spent time behind bars. Today, he has emerged a changed man.  As the author of  Gone To Hell: True Crimes of America’s Clergy (ECW Press/ Oct 2009), Radic aims to warn the public of the sins committed behind the walls of churches every day.  Randall Radic is also author of A Priest in Hell: Gangs, Murderers and Snitching in a California Jail.

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