Vincent Papa
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Vincent Papa (ca. 1920 New York City - July 1977 Atlanta, Georgia) was an American criminal who became notorious as "the man who stole the French Connection heroin" from the office of the New York Police Department's Property Clerk.
"Vinnie Papa" was born and bred in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, New York. A longtime partner of Long Island fellow drug kingpin Anthony Loria Sr. and associate of the Lucchese crime family, Papa became a respected underworld figure and major narcotics distributor for many years until his conviction and incarceration at the Atlanta Federal Prison in 1972. He plotted the famous French Connection heroin thefts: six times between 1969 and 1972 some unknown persons stole an approximate $70,000,000 worth of confiscated drugs, a total of more than 400 pounds of heroin and cocaine, from the Office of the New York City Police Property Clerk in 400, Broome Street, Lower Manhattan. This became the biggest corruption scandal in the NYPD and is still considered by many to be one of the most spectacular crimes in New York City's history. The drugs were later sold by dealers and partly reconfiscated. In 1977, he was murdered in Atlanta Federal Prison by being stabbed repeatedly by fellow prisoners. The motive for his murder is still unclear, but during the investigation of the theft and subsequent prosecutions of people connected with it and Papa, the federal prosecutors spread the impression that Papa had squealed, a thing his fellow inmates would not tolerate. He is buried in St. John's Cemetery in Queens, NY - ironically the same cemetery where many of his past underworld associates are laid to rest as well: Lucky Luciano, Joe Profaci, Vito Genovese, Joe Colombo and Carlo Gambino.) This has become know to many as the "Mafia's Boot Hill". He took the final "piece of the puzzle", the name of the infamous Mr. X - the man who signed the register to check out the drugs from the Property Clerk's office -, to the grave. The theft remains officially unsolved.
[edit] Source
- Gregory Wallance: Papa's Game (Ballantine Books, New York, and Random House of Canada, Toronto, in arrangement with Rawson, Wade Publishers, 1981, ISBN 0-345-30168-4)
