Theresa Ferrara

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Theresa Ferrara

Theresa Ferrara (* 1952 in Five Towns , Long Island , New York ; † February 10, 1979 ) was an Italian-American who moved in the mafia environment of the Lucchese family in the 1970s and probably worked as an informant for the FBI .

Connections to the mob

Ferrara was a distant relative of the Mafia boss Carlos Marcello of New Orleans . As a young woman, she moved from Long Island to New York ( Ozone Park , Queens ) to begin a career as a model or film actress. Ferrara met the gangster Thomas DeSimone and began an affair with the married DeSimone in 1972. DeSimone was a gangster in the Lucchese family "active" and privately and "professionally" closely connected with James Burke and Henry Hill .

Ferrara was often present at Robert's Lounge in South Ozone Park, Queens, New York. Robert's Lounge was owned by James Burke and was a hangout for the New York underworld. She later regularly attended Henry Hill's The Suite in Queens. During this time Ferrara began dealing in drugs. She also opened a beauty salon in Bellmore , Long Island, and began selling cocaine there. In the summer of 1977 she was arrested while trying to sell drugs to an undercover agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration . Faced with a long prison sentence, she agreed to become a police spy.

In 1978 Ferrara and criminal Richard Eaton decided to defraud the Lucchese family and bring them in a cocaine deal in Fort Lauderdale , Florida for US $ 250,000 worth of cocaine. Ferrara and Eaton were also suspected by the Mafia of having embezzled money stolen from the Lufthansa robbery .

Informant for the government

Between 1977 and 1979, Ferrara spied on the Capo regime of the Lucchese Paul Vario family . The information she provided led to a major cocaine deal being thwarted on November 11, 1978. The Coast Guard and the DEA recovered 30 tons of cocaine in Flushing , Queens. Nevertheless, they did not succeed in arresting those behind them. "Jimmy" Burke and Tom Monteleone were believed to be behind the deal .

Vario was furious about this deal and also about the failed Florida deal and suspected Ferrara. At the same time, Burke was in the process of murdering his accomplices from the Lufthansa robbery (December 1978) in order to eliminate those who knew it. The fact that Ferrara was also in the know only increased her mortal danger.

death

On February 10, 1979, Ferrara received a phone call at her beauty salon. She told her nineteen-year-old niece, Maria Sanacore, that she was going to meet someone in Long Island and that she had a chance to "make $ 10,000." Ferrara never reappeared. On May 18, 1979, a mutilated woman's body was found in Barnegat Inlet , a strait that separates Island Beach State Park and the Barnegat Peninsula from Long Beach Island, Ocean County, New Jersey.

An autopsy led to the conclusion that it was Ferrara's body. No one has ever been charged with this murder.

Representation in art

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Editorial, "The Region: Torso is Identified as LI Woman's," The New York Times June 12, 1979, Pp. B2
  2. ^ Editorial, "The Region: Police Seek Identity of Body in Ocean," The New York Times June 5, 1979, pp. B2.
personal data
SURNAME Ferrara, Theresa
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American alleged mafia informant for the FBI
DATE OF BIRTH 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Five Towns , Long Island , New York
DATE OF DEATH February 10, 1979