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Thomas DesimoneThomas "Tommy" DeSimone (c1950 - 1979) was a New York gangster and an associate of the Lucchese Mafia Family. He was the basis for the character "Tommy DeVito" as depicted by Joe Pesci in the 1990 movie Goodfellas. Tommy DeSimone was suspected of at least five murders. The first was a man he garotted with piano-wire for 'ratting' (informing) on him and his fellow mobsters, Jimmy Burke and Henry Hill. The following year, 1970, DeSimone killed Billy Batts, a veteran mobster who was part of the Gambino Family. Batts had apparently insulted DeSimone in a bar. Then there was a teenaged barman DeSimone allegedly shot dead. Like the murder of Batts, it was prompted by an insult. On another occasion, according to Hill, DeSimone got carried away after being asked to 'rough up' a witness to a robbery and ended up beating the victim to death. Henry Hill would later describe DeSimone as a "psychopath", and suggested that DeSimone had something to prove because his older brother had become an informant and he felt that such treachery of his sibling would rub off on him. DeSimone was alleged to have taken part in the 1978 Lufthansa Heist, the largest robbery in US history at the time, with the loot reputed to be almost $6,000,000, only a fraction of which was recovered. DeSimone is reputed to have murdered Parnell Steven Edwards (known as 'Stax', sometimes spelt 'Stacks'), who was found shot to death in his Queens apartment after bungling his task of disposing of the getaway vehicle used in the heist. On January 14, 1979, DeSimone's wife reported Tommy missing. A number of people had been murdered following the Lufthansa Heist as the mob bosses eliminated people who they were worried may become informants or simply to avoid paying them their share of the loot. For a while it was thought that DeSimone had been killed as a result of the heist, or that he may have simply been hiding out somewhere. It was not until Henry Hill became an FBI informant in 1980 that the authorities found out what had happened to DeSimone. It was related to the murder of Billy Batts back in 1970 (Billy Batts is only an alias used for the sake of the book and movie, the basis for that character was Ronald Jerrothe). "Batts" had been an associate of John Gotti, and by the end of 1978 Gotti and his crew had somehow found out that Batts had been killed and more importantly that DeSimone was responsible; the reason was supposed to have been over a woman. The Gotti Crew had lured DeSimone to a meeting with promises of 'making' him into a fully fledged member of the Mafia, but instead had executed and buried him. DeSimone was aged twenty-eight when he was killed, and - like Batts - his body has never been found. His cousin was also killed for knowing too much. A lot of DeSimone's 'fame', if it can be called that, rests on the depiction of him given by Joe Pesci in the movie Goodfellas. However, the movie did take some artistic liberties with a few facts. DeSimone was shown ramming an ice-pick into Martin Krugman's head; however, at one point Henry Hill reported that DeSimone had already been murdered by the time Krugman was killed. Although it is hardly the actor's fault, it must be said that Pesci did not physically resemble the character he portrayed; the real Tommy DeSimone was said to be tall, blonde and, furthermore, only in his twenties during the events depicted in Goodfellas. In October 2004, based on the testimony of Joseph Massino, the FBI dug out John Gotti's old graveyard "The Hole" in Queens, in search of DeSimone's, and others bodies. His was not found. Neither was the body of his cousin. DeSimone, Thomas
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