GoodFellas, A true Story

labworm said:

I believe everything you said about your Dad and don't doubt that it happened.

Believe me, I have been around that element and have seen a few that had their lights put out by people like your Dad.

No Bull.

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Thanks.

Dad took us to church every Sunday and never looked for a fight. He did step into these and several other incidents to stop a wrong. I think my apple never fell far from his tree. He would have always been the guy in the white hat in a western.

Before I always thought I was trying to do the right thing as the influence of John Wayne, it just occurred to me it was Dad's example. Geez, he loved westerns, I now wish I'd had this thought while he was alive and told him.

model70hunter said:

Thanks.

Dad took us to church every Sunday and never looked for a fight. He did step into these and several other incidents to stop a wrong. I think my apple never fell far from his tree. He would have always been the guy in the white hat in a western.

Before I always thought I was trying to do the right thing as the influence of John Wayne, it just occurred to me it was Dad's example. Geez, he loved westerns, I now wish I'd had this thought while he was alive and told him.

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Some how I think your Dad knew you loved and admired him very much and that he knew you wanted to be just like him.

model70hunter said:

Thanks, but then I do not remember seeing you there that day.

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I want to be very clear that I am not questioning that the incident happened.

I only question that fear of your father (who I assume was unarmed) caused two armed criminals to walk away.

Remember we’re talking about people for whom killing people is part of their business model.

I don’t believe for a second that your father put the fear of God into them and sent them slinking away with their tails between their legs.

Some of us were very lucky to have the parents we had. Unfortunately many more weren't that lucky and many didn't even know who their fathers were. I always thought show me who`s a persons hero`s are and I can tell and predict a lot about them. "It`s a duck"!

I have run into a number of men that I wouldn't want to slap alongside the head to see if it would make them mad. I have heard of several almost unbelievable similar experiences and experienced at least one myself. Loosely put, I honestly believe there are times when a man of God, a christian, is put in harms way, that literally a angel or two might be sent to stand behind that good man that just the foe sense`s or might even see to stop him from harming the christian in front of him! Several times I have heard testimony's of it and I am positive it happened to me at least once in my own life.
Okay, I will tell mine and I know most here will scoff at it but that's okay.
In 1970 or 1971 I was in a terrible motorcycle accident that should have killed me. While I was recuperating I also was slowly having my harley fixed. I dreamed up a idea of having sort of a scoot-boot and saddlebags all molded into a one piece box that would sort of resemble the back end of a 50`s Indy racer. Through a common friend I knew a guy that owned a fiberglass shop and made other stuff like that. I drew it out and took it to him. He liked it and volunteered to make one for me and a friend of mine and said he could market them. He needed our bikes to fit them up as a mockup. His shop was next door to the "Hessians" motorcycle club. He seemed to be in with them as they all were hanging out with each other and he introduced me to some. I knew he must have for whatever reason been telling fables to them about I and my buddy Bill who owned the other motorcycle. Due to the other mutual friend I guess he heard I and bill packed. (Bill was a ex motorcycle cop). Once I was there checking on progress and a couple Hessians were there. He goaded me into showing my s&w model 60. Soon we were in a shooting contest shooting knots out of HIS ceiling!
Things dragged on and there was no progress on our bikes. Finally Bill and I went to Mac`s house and told him we wanted our bikes. Mac said, okay lets get em. Mac had a huge van that looked a old UPS truck. The three of us went to get the motors. Not far from his old business he explained, "I had a falling out with my partner and moved your bikes to the Hessians next door!!!!" Than as we were pulling into the place he says, you guys are healed, aint you? He pulled a pistol from above his head and said I have also had a falling out with these guys too since I took your bikes over to them!!! Now we are there and there is no backing out or rethinking this! You just react and go with the flow. Believe me, I probley wanted to be anyplace else in the world than here! On top of that, the Hessians had just had a few of them go to jail for attempted murder as they had shot a member for finking on them and had stuffed his body in a manhole! The guy wasnt dead and crawled out and some went to the big house. These guys were now as hickey as could be.
There was about five of them and two under age girls came down from the loft. One had a browning HP in his belt and one coming down from the loft was armed with a AR.
Mac started telling them we came for our bikes. They spread all around us. The guy with the HP got close to bill and bill snatched it out of his belt like a magician! Bill was the best actor in the world and always was nervy.
He now had the browning in his hand and was admiring it and complimenting the guy on his gun and choice! The club president I think it was, was eyeballing me and starting to wrap a chain around his hand! This guy was about 320 pounds of muscle and could have had me for a snack! I also at that time was about 250 but still recuperating from my wreck and I think still on a cane or walking stick from a busted leg.
It was NOT me. I was like in a vacuum and reached out and snatched the chain out of his hand and said, thanks! Thats my chain! It was.
I am absolutely positive he wasnt looking at me but at two seven foot angels behind me! I didnt see anyone directly behind me but am sure he did! I thanked these guys for protecting our bikes. One took me aside after they helped us push the bikes in the van. He told me they had a plan to hit a armored car and did I want in? I had to think about it.
When we were going down the street I said Mac, I dont know what you told those guys about us and dont want to, but it must have been good!

I guess at one time in the financial arena, everyone's hero was Bernard Madoff, considered to be an outstanding member of society who later was sentenced to 150 Years in Prison.

Good and bad, they are everywhere, they disguise themselves in various types of costumes, be careful.

Las Vegas was a lot safer back in the 50's and 60's.... wonder why?

I gambled a lot in Vegas for many years. Don't or cant gamble much now.
In the old days when the mob ran it, it was much more fun. People dressed up, pit boss`s would occasionally see you won a hand by maybe picking up the dealers hole card on BJ and they would hand out meal vouchers. All that stopped when the mob left and the "Business men bought everything up. Now its all geared to family and not near as much fun as 50 years ago. It used to have class!

feralmerril said:

I gambled a lot in Vegas for many years. Don't or cant gamble much now.
In the old days when the mob ran it, it was much more fun. People dressed up, pit boss`s would occasionally see you won a hand by maybe picking up the dealers hole card on BJ and they would hand out meal vouchers. All that stopped when the mob left and the "Business men bought everything up. Now its all geared to family and not near as much fun as 50 years ago. It used to have class!

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I traveled through Vegas in 1992 as part of a military convoy. We stopped at Circus Circus and were treated like royalty

Evil Dog said:

Las Vegas was a lot safer back in the 50's and 60's.... wonder why?

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Because Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis kept everybody laughing so hard that nobody could do any crime.

Labworm:---

Thanks for the musical trip down memory lane. For those who do not understand Italian, the song is laced with double entendre.

Smoke said:

Henry Hill is the only person that was ever kicked out of the witness protection program.

He lived in Omaha and worked as a chef for a time

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I remember reading in the local news about 4 years ago a very drunk x-mobster Henry Hill was arrested in Fairview Heights, Illinois at a Drury Inn hotel and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

Talk about a fall from grace...

oneflycowboy said:

I remember reading in the local news about 4 years ago a very drunk x-mobster Henry Hill was arrested in Fairview Heights, Illinois at a Drury Inn hotel and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

Talk about a fall from grace...

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He died a few years back from a heart attack. The news asked Ray Liotta what he thought and he said " I really didn't know the guy. He never seemed to be at peace and I hope he's at peace now."

Though from St. Louis we lived in a area north of Youngstown Ohio in the 50's......Dad was a RR engineer on the Erie RR at the time..we had some interesting neighbors.....Italian of course.....reputed to be mob big wigs...even though stories in national magazines called Youngstown..(Murder town) Most of the so called mob big wigs were great neighbors and real helpful when help was needed...Of course it was all stories and conjecture......Normal folks very seldom were involved in any of the so called mob dealings...It was just a well known story that Youngstown,
Warren, and Girard were mob influenced cities.....In those days steel mills and rail roads were the main occupations......Normal people had very little dealings with the main mob crimes then..gambling and liquor...Strange as it might seem the fellows were generally very good neighbors and gave to charities and to the church..Interesting place in the 50's and early 60's...of course there were the famous Youngstown tuneups..(car bombs.....so many during the 50's and 60's Youngstown became Murder Town USA....Our northern neighbor a guy named Vincent DeNero was the recipient of one of those tune ups....One of those tune ups killed a kid of a mobster in Youngstown and that was even against the mobs rules........It was almost a local joke if you had a last name that was Italian, or Green you should probably have someone else start your car...not to many takers for that job...

I watched a documentary on Goodfellas today and it made me think of this thread.

So all of the main characters are dead or presumed dead (Tommy DeSimone's body has never been found.) and I guess people are comfortable telling the truth about what murderous thugs these people were.

According to the documentary the Lufthansa robbery was a miss calculation in the sense that they didn't expect to get 6 MILLION dollars and they certainly didn't expect the media attention.

When Jimmy Burke realized the extent of both he got paranoid and greedy and started killing everyone involved with the robbery with the exception of Henry Hill. Henry Hill speculated in the documentary that he wasn't killed because as soon as people started dying he gave up all claim to his share of the take. Also he said that Burke was still making money off of his drug sales.

Tommy DeSimone is presumed dead but no one (alive) knows for sure. It is known that DeSimone attempted to rape his friend Henry Hill's wife while Henry was in prison. It's speculated that Paul Vario is the one who told John Gotti that DeSimone is the person who killed Billy Batts. Vario was also sleeping with Henry's wife BTW.

So these were the dirtbags that the movie glorified

A "Simonize", when was the last time you heard that expression?

federali said:

I'll continue to use the fictional name of "Cicero" so as not to incur the wrath of Paulie's descendants.

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I'll do it for you. His name is VARIO....PAUL VARIO. Come and get me descendants TBH, looking at a mug of the guy...he's what we would call a "fat, middle aged slob" around my turf. Doesn't scare me, doesn't impress me either. Paul Sorvino is much cooler.

Paul Vario - Wikipedia

@federali

We must be related in a cosmic way...we two retired feds. (I never noticed this thread in the past.)

My wife grew up with the "Cicero" family in the Cypress Hills area of Brooklyn and would go to the home to hang out with one of the daughters. Paul's brother, "Tuddy" was also a close friend of the family.

One of my future brothers-in-law worked at the bar where "Spider" was shot (on Lefferts Blvd) and was a friend of his and various other folks portrayed in in the film.

The film takes a lot of liberties with the true story, but that's not that unusual.

In the early 80's I sat in on Jimmy "The Gent" Burke's trial in the federal courthouse on Tillary St. in Brooklyn. (This was the Boston College point shaving trial.) "Henry Hill" testified for the gov't at that trial.

I've got a ton of mob stories from both work and personal life, many of which are pretty hilarious...despite the fact that I personally loathe the mayhem and tragedy they have brought into the lives of many good citizens.

Back in the day I did some undercover work involving LCN in NYC and Long Island.

See ya around, paisan!

Neat! Love me a good mob story. I can’t contribute nary a one, despite having a lot of Italian blood. My mother’s father was first generation American out of the old country, but his folks and fam went straight from Ellis Island to northern Maine, for the logging industry. Go figure. Lol.

blues7 said:

I personally loathe the mayhem and tragedy they have brought into the lives of many good citizens

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This whole thread got me to thinking - could the mafia even exist today and exert so much influence on the lives of average citizens? I'm thinking not. The areas they thrived in were of another time and place - tight-knit Italian communities of poor, working class folks who had kinship ties with others all over town. I think that was fertile ground to build up the organizations and their leaders into the influential people that they were. I don't think they'd have much of an impact today. If a stereotypical mafioso pulled up next to us in a Cadillac, and got out dressed "like that" and talking like that...we'd probably laugh in their face. And if they went anywhere today and tried to threaten or intimidate anyone, that person would pull out their concealed carry weapon, or their AR. Yeah, the mafia days were another time and place.