Robert’s Lounge was a bar lounge owned by James ‘Jimmy the Gent’ Burke, an associate of the Lucchese Mafia Family. It served as a penal headquarters from 1957 to early 1979.

This room was used as a supermarket for those goods that James Burke and his group used to steal. Robert’s Lounge was also a center for criminals where they used to plan different criminal activities. The Lufthansa heist was planned here.

This lounge was located near the John F. Kennedy International Airport Air Cargo Center and also had other nearby meeting places, including the Bargain Auto Junkyard, Don Pepe’s Vesuvio Restaurant, Moo Moo Vedda’s Dress Factory, and the Aqueduct Race Track.

This lounge was first an ordinary bar where blue-collar workers used to come. But later, all these people were chased away when James Burke and other members of the Lucchese Family began to come frequently to this place. Now it became a hangout for criminals.

Robert’s Lounge was also known for its “graveyard”. James Burke killed Dominick Cersani in revenge because Cersani had cooperated with the Queens district attorney and helped them capture the load of cigarettes that Burke had hijacked. Burke buried it in the backyard of his saloon. Another person was also killed and later buried in Robert’s Lounge; he was Michael ‘Spider’ Gianco. He was a bartender and also worked as a night manager. Thomas DeSimone murdered him over a minor matter; James Burke had him bury the body in the basement of Robert’s Lounge. In addition to these two people, there were many other victims who were buried in the basement. However, none of these bodies were found when the FBI conducted a search; the reason is that Burke had found out about the search warrant before the search was carried out, so he moved the bodies to another location.

The great Lufthansa Heist was also planned at Robert’s Lounge.