James Santos

James Santos (June 7, 1950 Bensonhurst, Brooklyn - May 1, 2003 Bronx, New York)a.k.a. ""Jimmy" was a corrupt Italian-American NYPD police officer from Jamaica, Queens who was assigned to the 103rd Brooklyn, New York Precinct's "Patrol Services Bureau" who later became a mob associate of the Lucchese crime family under Paul Vario. He is portrayed in "Goodfellas" in an uncredited role as "Liquor Cop 1" by actor Edward D. Murphy as said on www.imdb.com, but in the actual film Jimmy Burke's character calls him "Richie".

Biography

James Santos had been a NYPD police officer in the 1950s and 1960s. As a uniformed foot patrol officer of the 103rd NYPD Precinct in Jamaica, Queens, he was assigned the patrol the John F. Kennedy Airport's Air Cargo Center for security. James gave off a raw physical power even when he was relaxed. He had large knuckly hands with well developed arm, shoulder and back muscles in a purposeful, functional way unlike a bodybuilder featured in a weight lifting magazine. As an officer in the police force, his association with the unruly characters in organized crime like Henry Hill, Thomas DeSimone, Jimmy Burke and Paul Vario put him under scrutiny from Internal Affairs but he managed to rescue his job and maintain on active assignment successfully for twenty-some odd years. It is unknown if while he was a NYPD officer that he was associated or partnered with Lucchese crime family associate Lawrence "Larry" Bilello, an ex-NYPD officer who was also arrested and convicted for murdering an informant on behalf of the Lucchese crime family or fellow mob associate John Manca.

As a Patrolman

While stationed with the 103rd Precinct and assigned to the specialized airport security detail, he became friends with Robert McMahon and Joe Manri. Joe and Robert became involved with robberies and hijackings at the airport, using Santos as look out detail, or as an extra "stick up man". He soon became acquainted with mobsters Jimmy Burke, Henry Hill, and the Vario Crew through his extracurricular hijacking and robbery activities at the airport. James would be a "stick up man" with Joseph Allegro, Thomas DeSimone or Stanley Diamond. Jimmy would shove a gun in the unfortunate truck driver's face and force him out of the truck and drive the truck away to be unloaded at a predetermined location. For his services Santos received a flat fee of several thousand dollars, no matter what the contents of the transport truck's haul happened to be. Jimmy could never become a made man in the Lucchese crime family because of his employment with the NYPD. At John F. Kennedy Airport's Air Cargo Terminal each of the then, twenty-eight airlines kept their own valuables in specially guarded security rooms, some of them enclosed by steel, cinder blocks or wire cages. The first accounting of thefts from the Air Cargo Center revealed in 1967, during Santos's employment in the NYPD showed that $2,245,868 in cargo had been stolen during the preceding ten months. This amount though did not include the hundreds of hijackings of airport cargo stolen outside the vicinity of the airport, from transport trucks nor did it include thefts in the airport valued less that a $1,000. During the ten-month period in the 1967 survey forty-five major robberies were committed at the Air Cargo Center, including thefts of clothing, palladium ingots, pearls, watches, musical instruments, hydraulic pumps, cigarettes, phonograph records, over the counter pharmaceuticals, wigs and diamonds. All these robberies were suspected to have been orchestrated with information or through actual assistance from Santos. James also gave information to Jimmy Burke telling him about the independently hired airline security personnel, the individual airport security airline guards, the Port Authority, customs inspectors, FBI field agents and other uniformed police officers who were not on the "take" from the 103rd Precinct Jamaica, Queens Patrol Services Bureau that toured the facility on a fairly regular basis. James was a regular habituate of The Bamboo Lounge when he bought and sold stolen property obtained by hijackings and robberies at the airport, and Robert's Lounge.

As A Plainsclothes Detective

After nearly twenty years as a police officer in the NYPD James was promoted to the rank of a plainclothes police detective, but remained stationed with the 103rd Precinct, most likely from the advice of Jimmy Burke or Paul Vario. James would tip Jimmy Burke off about potential informants and potential witnesses to their hijackings, robbery, bookmaking and loanshark activities at the airport. The bodies, sometimes as many as a dozen a year, would be left strangled, trussed and shot in the trunks of stolen cars abandoned in the long-term parking lots that surrounded John F. Kennedy Airport. He also arranged to have criminal investigations stopped and have case trials that were off to be processed to court thrown out by the judge. In the late 1960 or 1970s James was arrested after being caught during a transport truck hijacking that was in progress by fellow 103rd Precinct officers. James was ultimately indicted, convicted and fired from the NYPD, although he still was able to keep his department's pension for having spent the mandatory twenty years on the police force.

A Career In Crime

After his release from prison for armed robbery James dealt in the selling of the stolen airport goods for Paul Vario and Jimmy Burke with Lucchese crime family mobsters Henry Hill and ex-NYPD policeman John Savino knowing many connections from his days as a police officer.

References

*"Wiseguy: Life In A Mafia Family", by Nicholas Pileggi