Compiled and written by Derek Soviak from Nicholas Pileggi's WiseGuy.
Henry Hill first met Bobby McMahon while selling cigarettes at the Kennedy Airport. As it was one of his more frequent stops, it wasn't long before they made good business between each other. A cargo foreman for Air France, McMahon had worked there so long, he earned the nickname "Frenchy."
In late January of 1967, Frenchy came to Henry with an idea for a score. He had recently noticed canvas bags being shipped to the cargo area at night, which were from oversea planes that were returning money exchanged by American tourists. In the morning, the money would be picked up by an armored car.
During this time, a strong-room was being constructed where the bags would later be stored. Frenchy got one key, and the other went to a guard from a private agency.
Knowing they would have to get the key, Frenchy got to know the guard better, and began to take him drinking at the Jade East Motel nearby. Frenchy told him all sorts of dirty stories that drove the guard nuts. Finally, Frenchy decided to capitalize on this weakness.
The very next day, he and Henry hired a high priced call-girl who worked for $50 a night (nearly $750 today). They met that evening at the Jade East, where Frenchy made an excuse that he had to leave, and she took the guard to a room.
The next week a dry-run was made to see if it was possible to get the key. Tommy DeSimone, Frenchy, and the girl returned to the Jade East where they got a private steam room. The hour and a half they spent in there was plenty of time for Henry to make duplicate keys. Later that evening, Frenchy called Henry to tell him some good news. That Friday, four to seven hundred thousand dollars was on its way.
When it came time to do it for real, Frenchy had a difficult time getting the guard to go to the steam room. It wasn't until 6:30 when they finally went inside. The locksmith, however, closed at 7:00. Henry snatched the key ring of 17 keys and met Jimmy Burke in the car.
They made it to the locksmith on Rockaway Boulevard near Jamaica Avenue. The locksmith ran out of duplicates, and they only got 15 of the 17 keys.
That Saturday morning, Henry met Frenchy to test out the keys. The right key was in there. They decided the best time to do the job was before midnight when the new guards came on shift. As a bonus, there was a Jewish holiday on Monday.
Henry purchased the largest suitcase he could find. At 11:40 PM, he and Tommy drove into the cargo area in a rented car with fake plates.
While the shift changed, Henry entered the cargo room and put the sacks into his suitcase. It was quite heavy, but later Frenchy thought he left empty handed, because he practically floated out.
Air France was quite a score, but the $480,000 dollars wasn't all for them to keep. $60,000 dollars went to Paulie, while another $60,000 dollars went to Sebastian "Buster" Aloi. Aloi happened to run the airport for the Colombo family. But with Air France under his belt, Henry was well on his way to advancing his criminal career.
