Theresa Ferrara

Theresa Ferrara (September 5, 1951 – February 10, 1979) was an Italian-American born in the South Ozone Park, Queens area of Long Island, New York. She worked with Lucchese crime family associates and eventually became an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Ferrara was a distant relative of New Orleans crime family boss Carlos Marcello. As a young woman, Ferrara moved from Long Island to Ozone Park, Queens to pursue a career as a fashion model or actress.

With her natural blonde hair and deep suntan, Ferrara attracted the attention of Lucchese mob associate Thomas DeSimone. In 1972, Ferrara and the married DeSimone started an affair. Ferrara started frequenting mob hangouts such as Robert's Lounge in South Ozone Park, Queens, New York and later Henry Hill's The Suite in Queens. Around this time, Ferrara became a drug dealer, selling small quantities of cocaine and quaaludes to DeSimone and other Lucchese mobsters. Ferrara also opened a mob-funded beauty salon in Bellmore, Long Island and soon started dealing cocaine out of the salon itself.

In summer 1977, Ferrara was arrested after selling drugs to an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agent. Faced with a lengthy jail sentence, Ferrara became a cooperating witness for the authorities.

Ferrara also ran a crew of rip-off artists, including Stevie Weiss, Louie Galino, and two others. They would rob people who were in Ferrara's line of work, successful hair cutters who owned large money-making hair salons. The New York Police Department turned a blind eye to this, as they were told by the FBI to "leave it alone": Ferrara was feeding them information on underworld activities and was therefore untouchable.

In 1978, Ferrara and mob associate Richard Eaton allegedly conspired to swindle the Lucchese family out of $250,000 worth of cocaine from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Ferrara and Eaton were also suspected of stealing a fair portion of money taken during the famous Lufthansa heist at John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens. None of this was ever proven by the FBI. However, in early 1979, Ferrara moved out of her downscale duplex in Queens into a thousand-dollar-a-month apartment in the prestigious North Shore Towers in Great Neck.

From 1977 to 1979, Ferrara was the U.S. government's eyes and ears on Lucchese caporegime Paul Vario. Her information was responsible for exposing a major cocaine deal on November 11, 1978. The Coast Guard and DEA agents confiscated 30 tons of cocaine on the Flushing, Queens waterfront. However, they were unable to catch the smugglers, who were allegedly Vario, Jimmy Burke, and Tom Monteleone. Vario was furious at the undercover drug sting operation that cost him and Burke $250,000. At some point, Vario or someone in the Lucchese family started to become suspicious of Ferrara. It also did not help Ferrara that she knew about the Lufthansa heist at a time when Burke was systematically eliminating many of the participants in that robbery.

On February 10, 1979, Ferrara received a phone call at her salon. She told her 19-year-old niece, Maria Sanacore, that she was meeting someone at a nearby Long Island diner, and Sanacore should come looking for her if she did not return in 15 minutes. Before leaving the salon, Ferrara left behind her purse, car keys, and mink coat. Ferrara also told Sanacore, "I have a chance to make $10,000." Ferrara did not return from the meeting.

On May 18, 1979, a dismembered female torso was found floating in Barnegat Inlet, near Toms River, New Jersey. An autopsy performed at the Saint Barnabas Community Medical Center in Toms River confirmed, through recent breast augmentation surgery, that the body was Theresa Ferrara. No one was ever convicted of her murder.

• Ferrara is portrayed in the film Goodfellas (1990) as "Theresa" (by Elizabeth Whitcraft)
• In the television movie The 10 Million Dollar Getaway (1991), Ferrara is portrayed as "Theresa" (by actress Karen Young)