An ageing mobster lived a long life of crime highlighted by the $6 million heist in 1978 that was retold in the movie Goodfellas, a prosecutor has said.
Vincent Asaro, whose grandfather and father were members of the Bonanno organised crime family, "was born into that life and he fully embraced it", assistant US attorney Alicyn Cooley told a jury in closing arguments at a federal racketeering trial in Brooklyn, New York. "The defendant was a rare breed in the Mafia - a third-generation wise guy."
The 80-year-old defendant's devotion to the crime family "was as permanent as the 'death before dishonour' tattoo on his arm", Ms Cooley added at a trial that has given jurors a lesson in the lifestyle of gangsters from a bygone era.
The prosecutor described how Asaro rose through the ranks and developed an "unbreakable bond" with the notorious James "Jimmy the Gent" Burke, the late Lucchese crime family associate who orchestrated the armed robbery of a Lufthansa cargo terminal at Kennedy Airport.
According to evidence heard at the trial, Burke - played by Robert de Niro in the classic Mafia movie - and Asaro also teamed up to kill a suspected informant with a dog chain.
Asaro showed that "when necessary, he'd kill to enforce La Cosa Nostra's code of silence", Ms Cooley said.
Asaro has pleaded not guilty to murder, extortion and other charges.
Until his arrest in 2014, Asaro was an obscure mobster who had only been convicted of lesser crimes.
He survived a bloodbath portrayed in Goodfellas, with De Niro's character going ballistic over fellow mobsters' purchases of flashy cars and furs and, fearing they would attract law enforcement attention, having them whacked.
But that changed in 2008, when Asaro's cousin, mob associate Gaspare Valenti, became a co-operator and implicated him in the hold-up and other old crimes.
Giving evidence last month, Mr Valenti said Asaro ordered him to join the robbery crew, telling him: "Jimmy Burke has a big score at the airport coming up, and you're invited to go."
Asaro was "very happy, really euphoric" when he learned about the mountain of 100 dollar bills and jewels scored in the heist, Mr Valenti said.
"We thought there was going to be $2 million in cash and there was $6 million," the witness said.
Prosecutors say Asaro ended up with a $750,000 cut that he gambled away at the racetrack.