Dan’s Docs

I was featured on the Online for Author's podcast earlier this week. Check out my interview.

6 days ago | [YT] | 1

Dan’s Docs

Louis Werner was the Inside Man for the Lufthansa Heist and the Only Person to go to Prison for it.

By all accounts Louis Werner was a hopeless degenerate gambler. He had a three hundred dollar a day habit with a salary of only $15k in 1976 which was then average. He worked at the Lufthansa cargo terminal and left a container full of foreign currency unattended while he used the bathroom. When he returned a box containing about $22,000 went missing. His friend and coworker Peter Gruneweld stole it.

Lufthansa was unable to prove that Werner actually stole the money and he got to keep his job.

Werner paid off his debts and was able to restart his life. But he continued to gamble and two years later, he was owing his bookie, Marty Krugman, more than he did in 1976.

Werner and Grunweld planned to steal from their employer again. Lufthansa always had cash coming through the terminal and most of the time it was in US dollars. This was money that American tourists took abroad and exchanged with the airline for local currency. It was all in small denominations and untraceable. But they couldn't do the same scam again, instead, they needed to do a heist.

After weeks of planning, the two men realized they couldn't do it on their own, so they took the idea to the criminally connected Marty Krugman who then passed it on to Jimmy "the Gent" Burke.

The aftermath of this heist was made famous in the movie 'Goodfellas' but Werner was omitted completely from the film. What happened was that after the robbery occurred, the investigators quickly realized that there had to be an inside man who gave the information to the gun men. And given the suspicions against Werner for the missing money in 1976, they correctly zeroed in on him.

In May of 1979, he was found guilty of his role but he kept his mouth shut. Shortly after the verdict was read, Burke had killed off two more members of the heist, one of which was the only person Werner had contact with to plan the robbery.

Knowing that Burke was the man behind the crew and that he was cutting off all loose ends, combined with losing his trial, Werner declared that he wanted to cooperate. But he had little to offer since the guys he was in contact with were dead and he never actually met Jimmy Burke.

His lawyer made his intentions to cooperate public and the government's hand was forced to take him in. He was later released from prison and lived in Oklahoma under the witness protection program. He died in 2007.

Skip the Carousel

1 2 3

1 week ago | [YT] | 34

Dan’s Docs

I'm going to host a live stream this Sunday at 6pm eastern time to talk about some of my favorite mob books and what I learned from them.

We had a great discussion on the previous community post where over 100 people voted and a lot of you commented. Join me on Sunday to talk more and share what you think.

Best,
Dan

1 month ago | [YT] | 14

Dan’s Docs

In your opinion, what's the best book about the mafia out there. If these four are not one of your choices then leave a comment below.

1 month ago | [YT] | 11

Dan’s Docs

This week's video is a step away from the mafia and is instead a more recent story about a man who murdered his wife through an elaborate set up so he could be with his au pair.

Let me know what you think. This was in the news earlier this year when the trial was taking place.

1 month ago | [YT] | 7

Dan’s Docs

What are some other true crime topics you would like to see in addition to the mafia?

1 month ago | [YT] | 6

Dan’s Docs

Dan's Docs is Now Expanding onto Facebook

This channel will now be expanding onto Facebook so please give it a follow on there. While YouTube is the home for my full documentaries, I’ll be using Facebook to share the raw archival photos, FBI case files, and 'mini-deep dives' that don’t make it into the final edit.

If you want to see the documents behind the stories (and some behind-the-scenes of the writing process for my next book), join the community here: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61552634415082

1 month ago | [YT] | 8

Dan’s Docs

I'm going to do a live stream this Sunday at 6pm Eastern Standard Time. If you have any questions that you would like me to answer just leave it in the comments or tune in and join the chat.

Best,
Dan

2 months ago | [YT] | 9

Dan’s Docs

Which Family Boss would be the most dangerous to work for?

One of these men will be the topic of Friday's video. Guess which one in the comments or comment on who you would like me to make a video about in the near future.

2 months ago | [YT] | 13

Dan’s Docs

I've been rewatching 'The Sopranos' recently and I always go back and forth about if Tony died in the end or not. The strongest evidence is that conversation he had with Bobby earlier in the season about how you never see it coming, it just turns black.

The weakest evidence is that while Tony was the show's main character, we do see scenes from other people's point of views and sometimes we even see their dreams. So the show is not exclusively from his point of view.

At the same time, Butch from New York seemed to hate him and we see him shake hands with Paulie behind Tony's back as they're leaving their sit down. Butch probably was pretty angry about how Phil died too.

What do you think? Was the abrupt blackness live going on and us leaving his story or was it him getting shot in the back of the head without seeing it coming?

2 months ago | [YT] | 38