The true story behind ‘Goodfellas’: what happened to Jimmy Conway and Henry Hill
Many of cinema’s greatest crime stories have been inspired by true events, with Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas hewing a lot closer to the truth than many of its contemporaries. It’s not a slavish recreation of what unfolded, but many of the names and events remain unchanged.
Using Ray Liotta’s Henry Hill as the audience’s entry point, the decades-spanning epic charts his rise up the ranks of the criminal organisation overseen by Paul Sorvino’s Paulie Cicero, where Robert De Niro’s Jimmy Conway and Joe Pesci’s Tommy DeVito become his associates. The latter three characters were all fictional but indebted to real-world figures.
As regaled by Nicholas Pileggi in his nonfiction account Wiseguy, which served as the basis for Goodfellas, Henry worked for the Lucchese family. He was very familiar with Paul Vario, Jimmy ‘The Gent’ Burke and Tommy ‘Two Gun Tommy’ DeSimeone, who acted as the foundation for Sorvino, De Niro and Pesci’s unforgettable portrayals.
Henry’s wife Karen Hill, a long-time member of the Gambino family Billy Batts, entertainer Bobby Vinton, racketeer Johnny Dio, and mobster Michael Franzese are among the surprisingly short list of genuine people who were present and accounted for amongst the Goodfellas roster. Still, while it’s very much true that the protagonist became an informant and turned on the mafia, it’s never revealed what happened to Jimmy.
What happened to Jimmy in Goodfellas?
Jimmy Burke was the main mastermind behind the Lufthansa heist that unfolded both in real life and on-screen in 1978, leading to the widespread belief that he was the one who ordered the executions of so many involved so that he wouldn’t end up taking the fall. By the end of the following year, no less than nine co-conspirators were murdered.
He was arrested for a parole violation of all things in 1980 before being convicted on charges of conspiracy and handed a 12-year sentence, thanks in large part to Hill’s testimony. While already behind bars, he was also charged with another murder. Hill testified at that trial as well, and he was given another 20 years as a result before he ultimately died of lung cancer in April 1996 at the age of 64.
What happened to Henry Hill in Goodfellas?
As for Hill, after turning on his former employers and entering witness protection, he developed a reputation for telling people exactly who he was before he was kicked out of the programme altogether when he was convicted of cocaine trafficking in 1987. He also ended up married to two women at the same time after wedding Sherry Anders in 1981 despite being betrothed to Karen since 1967. Still, there was a 12-year gap between the latter initially filing for divorce and the official dissolution of their union in 2002.
Goodfellas led to a string of career opportunities, including talk show appearances, cookbooks, and talking head documentaries. Hill couldn’t keep himself out of trouble and was arrested in 2004 and 2005 on drug-related charges before being slapped with two years of probation after copping a guilty plea to public intoxication in 2009. This was one of two occasions where he ended up handcuffed in the same year after he was also cited for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
Just one day after turning 69 years old, Hill passed away from complications tied to heart disease in June 2012, but the life he lived will always be remembered, having been enshrined in the seminal Goodfellas.
