You know the movie. You’ve seen Ray Liotta’s manic laugh and Robert De Niro’s chilling, silent stares. But the real story of Jimmy Burke and Henry Hill—the men behind Jimmy Conway and the protagonist of Goodfellas—is actually way more unhinged than anything Martin Scorsese put on a screen.
Honestly, the film is a bit of a polite version.
In real life, the partnership between these two wasn't just about sharp suits and Cadillac Fleetwood Sevilles. It was a decades-long grind through the South Ozone Park underworld that ended in a pile of bodies and a betrayal that changed the American Mafia forever.
How Jimmy Burke and Henry Hill Actually Met
Henry Hill started young. He was just a kid hanging around the Vario-owned cabstand in Brooklyn, looking for a way out of his working-class Irish-Italian life. By 13, he met James "Jimmy the Gent" Burke.
Burke was already a legend by 1956.
He was a big guy, built like a heavyweight boxer with a broken nose and massive, tattooed arms. People called him "The Gent" because he’d slip a $50 bill to a truck driver he just hijacked, basically as a "thanks for not making this hard" tip. But the nickname was also a dark joke. Everyone knew he was a stone-cold psychopath.
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Because both men were of Irish descent—Henry was half, Jimmy was full—they were technically "associates" rather than "made men." They were the Lucchese family’s heavy hitters, but they could never be the boss. That ceiling created a weird, tight-knit bond between them. They were the outsiders doing the dirty work for Paul Vario.
The Lufthansa Heist: The Point of No Return
Everyone talks about the 1978 Lufthansa heist at JFK. It was the biggest cash robbery in U.S. history at the time—about $5.8 million. That’s nearly $30 million in today’s money.
But the movie skips over how messy the planning really was.
The tip actually came from a bookie named Marty Krugman (the real-life Morrie). Jimmy Burke didn't even like the guy. But the score was too big to ignore. They used an inside man named Louis Werner who had gambling debts to Krugman.
Then things got bloody.
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Paranoia didn't just "set in" like a bad mood; it was a systematic execution. Jimmy Burke realized that if he killed the crew, he didn't have to pay them. Plus, dead men don't talk to the FBI.
- Stacks Edwards was the first. He forgot to get rid of the getaway van. Jimmy sent Tommy DeSimone and Angelo Sepe to shoot him while he was eating chicken.
- Marty Krugman was next. He kept asking for his $500,000 cut. Jimmy and Angelo Sepe literally tore him apart. His body was never found.
- Louis Cafora and his wife disappeared. He bought a pink Cadillac with heist money. That was a death sentence.
The Boston College Scandal: The Secret Downfall
Here is a detail most people get wrong: The government didn't actually nail Jimmy Burke for the Lufthansa heist.
They got him on basketball.
While the feds were tearing New York apart looking for the Lufthansa millions, Henry Hill was busy fixing Boston College basketball games. It was a point-shaving scheme that Jimmy bankrolled. When Henry got pinched for drug trafficking in 1980, he realized Jimmy was going to whack him to keep him quiet.
Henry didn't just "flip" because he wanted to be a hero. He flipped because he was terrified.
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He told prosecutor Ed McDonald everything. Not just about the murders and the airport, but about the college basketball fix. That was the "banana peel" Jimmy Burke slipped on. The testimony of Henry Hill led to Jimmy getting 12 years for the sports scandal, and later, a life sentence for the murder of Richard Eaton.
Life After the Mob
Jimmy Burke died of lung cancer in prison in 1996. He never admitted to anything. He never gave up the Lufthansa money.
Henry Hill's life was a different kind of disaster.
He spent years in the Witness Protection Program as "Martin Lewis," but he couldn't stop being Henry Hill. He dealt drugs, got kicked out of the program, and eventually became a regular on the Howard Stern Show, often sounding drunk or high.
He died in a hospital in 2012 at age 69. Most mobsters don't make it that long.
What You Can Do Now
If you're fascinated by the real-life mechanics of the Lucchese family, your next move is to look into the 1978–79 Boston College point-shaving scandal transcripts. It's the most documented evidence of how Jimmy and Henry actually operated on a day-to-day level. Alternatively, check out Nicholas Pileggi’s book Wiseguy—it’s the source material for the film and contains the raw, unedited interviews where Henry Hill admits to things that were way too dark for Hollywood.
Check the FBI’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) vault for the "Lufthansa Heist" files. They’ve recently declassified more surveillance photos from that era that show the real-life Robert's Lounge where these guys planned their scores.