Goodfellas is a 1990 American biographical gangster film directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Nicholas Pileggi and Scorsese, and produced by Irwin Winkler. It is a film adaptation of Pileggi's 1985 nonfiction book Wiseguy. Starring Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco, and Paul Sorvino, the film narrates the rise and fall of mob associate Henry Hill and his friends and family from 1955 to 1980.
John Gotti was an American mafioso and boss of the Gambino crime family in New York City. He ordered and helped to orchestrate the murder of Gambino boss Paul Castellano in December 1985 and took over the family shortly thereafter, leading what was described as America's most powerful crime syndicate.
James Burke, also known as "Jimmy the Gent", was an American gangster and Lucchese crime family associate who is believed to have organized the 1978 Lufthansa heist, the largest cash robbery in American history at the time. He was believed to be responsible for the deaths of those involved in the months after the robbery.
Thomas DeSimone was an American criminal associated with New York City's Lucchese crime family who is alleged to have participated in both the Air France robbery and the Lufthansa heist. He also committed numerous murders, including killing William "Billy Batts" Bentvena in 1970. DeSimone went missing in 1979 and is believed to have been murdered.
Paul Vario was an American mobster and made man in the Lucchese crime family. Vario was a caporegime and had his own crew of mobsters in Brooklyn, New York. Following the testimony of Henry Hill, Vario was convicted in 1984, of fraud, and sentenced to four years in prison, followed by a conviction for extortion in 1985, and an additional sentence of 10 years in prison. He died on May 3, 1988, of respiratory failure in prison.
The Lufthansa heist was a robbery which took place at New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport on December 11, 1978. An estimated US$5.875 million was stolen, with $5 million in cash and $875,000 in jewelry, making it the largest cash robbery committed on American soil at the time.
Henry Hill Jr. was an American mobster who was associated with the Lucchese crime family of New York City from 1955 until 1980, when he was arrested on narcotics charges and became an FBI informant. Hill testified against his former Mafia associates, resulting in fifty convictions, including those of caporegime (captain) Paul Vario and fellow associate James Burke on multiple charges. Hill subsequently entered the Witness Protection Program but was removed from the program in 1987.
William "Billy Batts" Bentvena, also known as William Devino, was an Italian-American mobster with the Gambino crime family who was a longtime friend of John Gotti in the 1960s. After spending six years in prison for narcotics trafficking, Bentvena was murdered by Lucchese crime family associate Tommy DeSimone, with the help of fellow Lucchese associates James Burke and Henry Hill.
Alphonse "Little Al" D'Arco was an American mobster who became the acting boss of the Lucchese crime family in New York City. He was the first boss, acting or otherwise, of a New York crime family to become a government witness.
The Air France robbery was a major robbery that took place in April 1967, when associates of the Lucchese crime family stole $420,000 from the Air France cargo terminal at New York City's JFK International Airport. While there were many cargo thefts at JFK airport in 1967, this was the largest cash robbery that had taken place at the time. It was carried out by Henry Hill, Robert McMahon, Tommy DeSimone and Montague Montemurro, on a tip-off from McMahon. Hill believed it was the Air France robbery that endeared him to the Mafia.
The Lucchese crime family's Brooklyn faction is a group of Italian-American mobsters within the Lucchese crime family that control organized crime activities in the New York metropolitan area but are predominantly based out of Brooklyn and Staten Island. The Brooklyn faction was created after two separate crews in the Lucchese family were merged together. The merger occurred during the early 2000s, when the Lucchese family administration decided that Vario Crew Caporegime Domenico "Danny" Cutaia would also take control of the 19th Hole Crew. The Lucchese family administration saw the 19th Hole crew without leadership because it had been crippled by numerous indictments and informants during 1990s, leaving many members imprisoned. After the merger of the two crews, the Lucchese Borgata referred to this crew as the Brooklyn faction.
Robert's Lounge was a saloon located at 114-45 Lefferts Boulevard, in South Ozone Park, Queens, New York City.
The 1978–79 Boston College basketball point-shaving scandal involved a scheme in which members of the American Mafia recruited and bribed several Boston College Eagles men's basketball players to ensure the team would not win by the required margin or win by the required margin, allowing gamblers in the know to place wagers against that team and win.
Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family is a 1985 non-fiction book by crime reporter Nicholas Pileggi that chronicles the life of Henry Hill, a Mafia associate turned informant. The book is the basis for the 1990 Oscar–winning film Goodfellas directed by Martin Scorsese.
The Lucchese crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia. Members refer to the organization as the Lucchese borgata; borgata is Mafia slang for criminal gang, which itself was derived from a Sicilian word meaning close-knit community. The members of other crime families sometimes refer to Lucchese family members as "Lukes".
Vincent Asaro was an American mobster who served as a caporegime in the Bonanno crime family. Born in Queens, a borough of New York City, he was arrested by the FBI on January 23, 2014 and indicted on charges related to the 1978 Lufthansa heist at John F. Kennedy International Airport. He was found not guilty in November 2015 of the charges, and was also acquitted of all charges in the 1969 murder of Paul Katz, who owned a warehouse in which Asaro and another suspect housed stolen goods. He was also indicted in March 2017 and was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Goodfellas Music from the Motion Picture is the soundtrack for the 1990 film Goodfellas, directed by Martin Scorsese, notable for its use of popular music from the various periods it portrayed. In a similar manner to American Graffiti and Scorsese's earlier Mean Streets, the songs served roughly the same purpose as a composed musical score. While an official soundtrack was released at the same time as the film, it only featured a small fraction of the songs used.
Daniel Simone is an American author, who specialized in writing about sensational crimes in collaboration with one of the perpetrators or investigators of the actual event.
The Lufthansa Heist: Behind the Six-Million-Dollar Cash Haul That Shook the World is a non-fiction book written by Daniel Simone in collaboration with Henry Hill. It was published by Lyons Press, an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield, on August 1, 2015.
