Billy Batts' Real-Life Murder Was Too Brutal For 'Goodfellas' To Show
The Real Story Of Billy Batts That ‘Goodfellas’ Didn’t Tell
By Gina Dimuro | Edited By Jaclyn Anglis<br>Published April 13, 2024<br>Updated August 29, 2024
Although Goodfellas famously depicted the murder of Gambino mobster William "Billy Batts" Bentvena, the real story was far too bloody for the movie to portray.<br>It was May 1970, and Gambino family mobster William Bentvena, better known as Billy Batts, was at Robert’s Lounge, a bar in Queens, New York owned by Lucchese family associate Jimmy Burke. Batts had just gotten out of prison after doing time for a drug-related charge.
Wikimedia CommonsA photo widely said to depict William Bentvena, better known as Billy Batts, though its authenticity is disputed.
According to Burke’s partner in crime, Henry Hill — who later told his life story to author Nicholas Pileggi in the book Wiseguy, which would then inspire Martin Scorsese’s 1990 film Goodfellas — Mafia families would throw a "welcome back" party any time one of their own got released from prison.
As Hill tells it, at Billy Batts’ welcome back party, Batts made a snide comment to fellow wiseguy Tommy DeSimone, asking him to shine his shoes. DeSimone was notoriously hypersensitive, quick to violence, and a complete loose cannon.
Warner Bros.Frank Vincent as Billy Batts in Goodfellas, the 1990 film that famously dramatized his grisly 1970 murder.
DeSimone fumed about the comment all night, but since Billy Batts was a "made man" in the Gambino family, he was untouchable. As Hill said, "if Tommy so much as took a slap at Billy, Tommy was dead."
DeSimone had to swallow his anger and bide his time, but a few weeks later, on June 10, 1970, he got his opportunity for vengeance. This time Batts was at The Suite, a club owned by Hill, when DeSimone came in and brutally murdered him — but that was just the beginning of this grim tale.
This is the grisly story behind the murder of Billy Batts and the parts that Goodfellas left out.
The Early Life And Crimes Of William Bentvena, The Real Billy Batts
While much of William Bentvena’s early life is something of a mystery, there are a few concrete details about his younger years that can be gleaned.
William Bentvena was born on January 19, 1921, in New York City, growing up in roughly the same area as DeSimone and Hill. For some time, Bentvena disappears from the record. Details about his education, family life, and upbringing, among other things, are effectively nonexistent, but what is clear is that by the late 1950s, he had gotten involved with New York City’s mobsters.
In 1958, for example, when Bentvena was 37 years old, he became a member of a heroin smuggling ring known as the Ormento Group. The group was put together by Lucchese crime family member John Ormento, with the help of Carmine Galante and Anthony Mirra, according to U.S. court documents.
In 1959, William Bentvena became an associate of the Gambino crime family and also took on a job for "Joe the Crow" DelVecchio and Oreste "Ernie Boy" Abbamonte to conduct a drug deal in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Unfortunately for Billy Batts, this deal would lead to his arrest by undercover police, landing him charges of possession and exchange of narcotics.
Bentvena managed to avoid extensive jail time, however, and in 1961 he became a full member of the Gambino crime family. The cops would come for him again a year later, though, when he and Galante were busted in 1962, Bentvena received a 15-year jail sentence.
Billy Batts was released in 1970, but his newfound freedom was, of course, relatively short-lived.
The True Story Behind The Brutal Death Of Billy Batts
Warner Bros.The murder of Billy Batts at the hands of Tommy DeSimone and Jimmy Burke as depicted in Goodfellas.
What should have been a celebratory night for Billy Batts ultimately proved to be the night that doomed him. He had been locked away for quite a while, and the last time he saw Tommy DeSimone, the latter was a young man, shining shoes and working his way up from the bottom.
But DeSimone wasn’t a rookie anymore. He had made a name for himself — and he was prone to violence.
During Billy Batts’ welcome-home party in May 1970, it’s likely that he didn’t mean to insult DeSimone when he asked him "if he still shined shoes," as Henry Hill put it, but his intention didn’t matter. DeSimone was livid, and he told Hill and Jimmy Burke, "I’m gonna kill that f***."
Two weeks later, on June 11, DeSimone followed through on that promise.
At The Suite, Hill wrote that Burke held Billy Batts down while DeSimone shouted "Shine these f***ing shoes!" before proceeding to beat Batts in the head with his gun.
Public DomainThe inspiration for the character famously portrayed by Joe Pesci in Goodfellas, Lucchese family mobster Tommy DeSimone was just as quick to violence as his onscreen counterpart.
The other wiseguys present at the scene panicked, knowing that the...