Is Martin Scorsese’s ‘Goodfellas’ based on a true story?
Martin Scorsese’s GoodFellas is one of the most beloved movies in the gangster genre. The defining feature of the picture that helps the project hold its head above its many competitors is the groundbreaking realism that is showcased throughout.
The main reason, of course, is that the screenplay is supposedly based on a true story. Scorsese adapted his film from Nicholas Pileggi’s 1985 non-fiction book Wiseguy. The text explains the life of Henry Hill, a known associate of the Lucchese crime family, as well as his accomplices Hames Burke and Thomas DeSimone.
Hill and his colleagues had been involved in the (at the time) most significant robbery to have taken place in the United States in 1978. Hill and 11 other organised criminals stole $5.9 million from a storage unit at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City.
As for the real-life Henry Hill (played by Ray Liotta in GoodFellas), he was born in a Brooklyn neighbourhood primarily populated by Italian-American mobsters. When Hill was 14, he dropped out of school and began working for Paul Vario of the Lucchese crime family.
Hill then worked his way up the ranks; he went from petty crimes and informing to more important roles, including arson and fraud. As Hill had an Irish-American father, he could never become a fully-fledged ‘made man’, although he became a very close associate of the mob.
Eventually, Hill met James Burke (played by Robert De Niro in the film), and the two became close friends and subsequently played a heavy hand in the Lufthansa airport heist in 1978. Hill then got involved in several other shady dealings, including drug trafficking and sports fixing.
James Burke, like Hill, had an Irish upbringing, so he could not be considered a ‘made man’ either. He spent much time in his childhood in orphanages and foster homes, where he suffered from sexual and physical abuse. By the time the 1950s rolled around, Burke was considered a key player and close associate of the mob. Like Hill, his character in GoodFellas (Jimmy Conway) is very much based on a real person and his true story.
In 1980, Hill was arrested on drug trafficking charges. To get out of trouble, Hill testified against those involved in the Lufthansa heist and was subsequently placed in the Witness Protection Program. Hill’s testimony became the subject and inspiration for Pileggi’s book, Wiseguy.
When does GoodFellas take place?
GoodFellas begins in 1955 with Henry Hill becoming interested in the evident criminal activities surrounding his Brooklyn neighbour. This means that the film accurately portrays Hill as being around 11 years old around that time (he was born in 1943), which would leave him a few years until he dropped out of school.
After taking us through Hill’s rise up the ranks in the mob throughout the 1960s, we arrive at the year 1970, when Hill, Jimmy and Tommy (Joe Pesci) fatally stab Billy Batts, a made man in the Gambino crime family. Then 1974 sees Hill witnessing Jimmy needlessly beat an errand boy to death, which begins to put doubts in his mind about his future.
The portrayal of the Lufthansa heist is also chronologically accurate, placing it in the year 1978. Two years later, Hill’s drug habit has caught up with him; the paranoia surrounding his criminal associates is well and truly at the tipping point when he becomes an informant and joins the Witness Protection Program.
The end title card of the film claims that as of 1990 (when the film was released), Hill was still a member of the WPP but had been arrested in 1987 for involvement in narcotics and subsequently separated from his wife Karen in 1989.
