Parnell Steven 'Stacks' Edwards, a 31-year-old Black male, met a violent end in his Queens, New York, apartment on December 18, 1978. A musician with connections to the criminal underworld, his death was a direct consequence of his involvement in the notorious Lufthansa heist just a week prior. This robbery, which took place at John F. Kennedy International Airport on December 11, 1978, was the largest cash theft in U.S. history at the time, netting approximately $5.875 million in cash and jewelry. Edwards' role in the elaborate scheme was simple but crucial: to dispose of the van used in the robbery and eliminate a key piece of evidence.
However, in a fateful decision, Edwards failed to immediately take the vehicle to a junkyard as instructed. Instead, he drove to his girlfriend's apartment, and the van was discovered by police two days later. This mistake quickly made him a liability to the heist's mastermind, James 'Jimmy the Gent' Burke, and the rest of the crew. Fearing that Edwards could lead investigators to them, the decision was made to silence him permanently. His murder marked the beginning of a bloody aftermath to the heist, as Burke systematically eliminated anyone who could potentially implicate him.
On that December morning, associates of Burke, identified as Thomas DeSimone and Angelo Sepe, arrived at Edwards' apartment in South Ozone Park. Edwards let them in, and they shot him to death. It was a brutal and efficient killing designed to sever a dangerous loose end. The investigation into Edwards' murder became intertwined with the larger probe into the Lufthansa heist, a case that would remain one of the longest-investigated crimes in American history.
While James Burke was widely believed to have orchestrated the murder of Edwards and several other participants in the heist, he was never officially charged for his role in the robbery or the subsequent killings. The only individual convicted in connection with the Lufthansa heist was Louis Werner, an airport employee who provided the inside information. The vast majority of the stolen money and jewelry was never recovered. The murders of Parnell 'Stacks' Edwards and other collaborators served as a chilling testament to the ruthlessness of the criminal organization behind the infamous robbery, ensuring that many of its secrets would be buried with them.
