Montague Montemurro
Montague E. Montemurro (February 1, 1959 Oceanside, New York – January 1991) a.k.a. "Monte" is a Lucchese crime family "street soldier" from Brooklyn, New York who assisted in the 1967 Air France Robbery and a member of the Vario Crew who served under Paul Vario.
Biography
Montague Montemurro a.k.a "Monte" was born in Oceanside, New York, the younger brother of Lucchese crime family street soldier Raimondo Montemurro (October 24, 1941 - November 15, 1992 . Montague is the Italian form of the name "Montgomery" which signifies "mountain". There are several different abbreviated pronunciations and spellings of his name which include "Montae", "Montay", and "Montes". Montague and his brother were born in Oceanside, New York to immigrants from Montemurro where there last name comes from. Montemurro is a town and comune in the province of Potenza, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata. His most notable criminal involvement was the 1967 Air France Robbery. The money was stored in a "strong room", which at the time was being upgraded to cement cinder block construction. There was only one key to the strong room, which was kept by a guard who would never let the key out of his sight and could not be bribed. Another break-in by Monte and Henry Hill to the guard's apartment on Rockaway Boulevard in Jamaica, Queens he and Henry turned up a potential weaknesses beyond money, women. Robert McMahon introduced the guard to an expensive escort at The Jade East Motel located at 501 East 4th Avenue in Wildwood, New Jersey. In time, the guard and the escort who was said by Henry Hill to have resembled Natalie Wood worked for bookmaker Ralph Atlas became intimate. After a number of dry runs involving the theft, search, and replacement of the guard's security uniform, they discovered the guard did in fact keep the key, one of many, with him at all times. On the day of the robbery, Hill and Tommy DeSimone drove to the Air France cargo terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport. At 11.40 p.m, Henry Hill and Thomas DeSimone entered the Air France cargo terminal. McMahon said that they should just walk in, as people often came to the terminal to pick up lost baggage. DeSimone and Hill entered the unsecured area unchallenged and stole the money. No alarm was raised, no shots fired, no one injured. They were never prosecuted for the theft. Montague Montemurro got little recognition for his small part in contributing to the success of the robbery. Montague was a close friend of Henry Hill and involved in hijacking and robbery. He unfortunately lived a very short life in organized crime and would die at the age of thirty-two of unknown causes.
Attack at Don Pepe's
Monte was ordered along with Henry Hill, Jimmy Burke, Thomas DeSimone and two carloads of Lucchese crime family side-walk soldiers to beat up the waiters and kitchen staff at Don Pepe's Vesuvio Restaurant located at 135-58 Lefferts Boulevard in South Ozone Park, Queens, just a few blocks south of the Lucchese crime family hijacking headquarters, Robert's Lounge. He assisted in beating the employees with lead pipes and baseball bats as they left the restaurant at 11 P.M. Some of the employees fled the scene and scrambled into the cars, so Monte and others had to chase them all around the neighborhood late into the night. Monte and the others had been ordered to beat the staff after a certain waiter spilled a drink all over Paul Vario's wife, Phyllis and then sloppily tried to blot up the spilled drink on the front of her dress. He died in New York City, New York.
References
- Wiseguy: My Life In A Mafia Family written by Henry Hill and Nicholas Pileggi
- The Real Goodfella. Dir. George Simon. Narr. Richard Dillane. 2006. Channel 4 Television Corporation
- US Social Security Death Index