Discussion for article #242784
That Joe Pesci, he sure knows how to work a jury!!
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Fortunately, the real Tommy DeSimone never got a trial. The mob took care of that punk, and all indications are that he was tortured big time before he was killed. Well deserved for that punk.
"Jurors heard recordings made by Valenti on which Asaro complained in a
profanity-laced rant, āWe never got our right money, what we were
supposed to get. ā¦ Jimmy kept everything.ā
He also was taped lamenting, āIām the only wise guy left in the neighborhood.ā
He kissed his attorney (4) times.
"
Bonanno hood Vincent Asaro slammed his fist on the defense table and
kissed his lawyer on the lips four times Thursday after a jury found him
not guilty of pulling off the Lufthansa heist immortalized in the movie
āGoodfellas.ā
In another stunning blow to prosecutors, the panel also acquitted the
80-year-old gangster of helping another thug strangle a suspected snitch with a dog chain back in 1969."
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Great, great movie and a real crime it did not win the academy award for best picture.
Not sure why youāre even mentioning Tommy DeSimone ā heās not referenced in the attached article, and his connection to the Lufthansa caper is irrelevant to the acquittal of Vinnie Asaro. However, just to keep the record straight, Two Gun Tommy was shot three times in the head with a silencer-equipped Colt .38 by John Gotti in the basement of an Italian restaurant on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx in January 1979, at least according to the book The Lufthansa Heist, written by Henry Hill and Daniel Simone. There are no indications DeSimone was tortured, ābig timeā or otherwise, before he died. I know youāve made this claim before, but I think maybe youāre confusing Joe Pesciās role in Goodfellas with his painful, tortured death in Casino.
According to Hill, DeSimoneās death went like this:
DeSimone was led to the basement of Don Vitoās restaurant. Several old men were seated around a card table, and candles gave the room a dim light. DeĀSimone was surprised to see Gotti, a Gambino. He thought his induction would be a Lucchese affair.
āWelcome, Tommy. Congratulations!ā Gotti said. āPull a chair up to the table and sit comfortably. This is not an ordinary day in your life, I want you to know.ā
DeSimone sat down. Within three seconds, āGotti pulled out a silencer-equipped .38 Colt Magnum from his inner breast pocket and drilled three bullets into DeSimoneās cranium. PAH . . . PAH . . . PAH.
āDeSimoneās head blasted forward, and with the thud of a Ā10-pound boulder slumped onto the card table, blood seeping and leaching onto the green felt Ātabletop.
āGotti buttoned his camel cashmere overcoat, straightened the lapels and walked out of the room with a vaunting stride."
Now, the part I really donāt get is your suggestion that Tommy DeSimone was more of a āpunkā than your average mobster lowlife. How was Tommy D more of a scumbag than, say, Jimmy the Gent? They were both selfish, sick, greedy, murderous assholes. Yes, Tommy was a sick lunatic, but in what world does that make him more deserving of torture than any other mob character?
It sounds like youāre carrying a bit of hero worship for a cinematically idealized vision of the mafia.
Because the person I replied to referenced Joe Pesci, who played DeSimone in Goodfellaās.
Henry Hill first said in 2007 that John Gotti killed DeSimone, and that the death ātook a long timeā as Billy Batts was a personal friend of Gottiās and he wanted DeSimone to suffer before he died, like DeSimone did to Batts. He later changed his story for the book. So Hill has told two stories, so no on really knows exactly what happened. The torture story makes more logical sense, but who knows.
Tommy DeSimone was the worst, he killed people for no reason. He wasted Howard Goldstein, a guy who was just walking down the street, just for fun. Iād say that makes him more worthy of it. But thatās just my opinion.