NEW YORK — Investigators with jackhammers and shovels are digging under a New York City house once occupied by a famous gangster who is said to have buried victims in familiar places.

The work started Monday the Queens neighborhood that was home to James Burke, a Lucchese crime family associate known as “Jimmy the Gent.” He was the inspiration for Robert De Niro’s character in the 1990 Martin Scorsese movie “Goodfellas.”

Burke died behind bars in 1996, two decades after authorities say he masterminded a nearly $6 million robbery at New York’s Kennedy Airport — one of the largest cash thefts in American history....