11 December 1978: Lufthansa heist nets $6m

The Mafia carried out the Lufthansa heist at New York's JFK airport, on this day in 1978, later inspiring the Martin Scorsese film “Goodfellas”.

The Mafia has been active in America since the 19th century. It reached the peak of its power in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, with particular influence in construction, sanitation and transport – all tough manual jobs where the ability of workers to disrupt production was high. At the same time, booming global trade and tourism saw large amounts of money and valuables start to flow through airports, making them tempting targets.

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Dr Matthew Partridge
Shares editor, MoneyWeek

Matthew graduated from the University of Durham in 2004; he then gained an MSc, followed by a PhD at the London School of Economics.

He has previously written for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian and the Economist, and also helped to run a newsletter on terrorism. He has spent time at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and the consultancy Lombard Street Research.

Matthew is the author of Superinvestors: Lessons from the greatest investors in history, published by Harriman House, which has been translated into several languages. His second book, Investing Explained: The Accessible Guide to Building an Investment Portfolio, is published by Kogan Page.

As senior writer, he writes the shares and politics & economics pages, as well as weekly Blowing It and Great Frauds in History columns He also writes a fortnightly reviews page and trading tips, as well as regular cover stories and multi-page investment focus features.

Follow Matthew on Twitter: @DrMatthewPartri