Jimmy Conway

I've always wanted to know what Jimmy Conway actually looks like. Anyone have a picture of him they can post or a link to a page with a pic?

Josh -

Its not a very clear picture, but here's one of Jimmy Conway from 1970.

The guy at the left is "Tommy" (head just visible behind the woman - played by Joe Pesci in "Goodfellas")...Jimmy Conway (played by Robert DeNiro) is next to him, and the one on the right is Henry Hill (portrayed by Ray Liotta).

The real life Jimmy Conway
(second guy from the left)


[ September 14, 2001: Message edited by: SC ]

Thankyou SC.

His real name was Jimmy Burke. Conway was his mother's maiden name. Tommy's real name was not DeVito, but DeSimone.

Jimmy Burke was an Irish-American hijacker who worked under Luchese capo Paul Vario (or Paul Cicero in Goodfellas). He teamed up with Henry Hill and Tommy DeSimmone in the mid 50s and began showing them the secrets of the trade, and the finer arts of thievery. Paul gave them protection and made sure to pay off the right people to keep them out of prison for the best part of their partnership. After the Air France heist in 1967, Hill was in prison on charges of assault stemming from a failed bust-up in Florida. In prison, he began selling drugs and noticed how profitable a business it was. Although sternly warned by Paulie to stay out of the "junk" business, he secretly began to branch out his narcotics operation and included Jimmy and Tommy in the dealings. Pretty soon, they were making big money and the amount of suits Henry has in his wardrobe in Goodfellas is no exaggeration - the 70s were a good time for him and his friends. Vario had been known to be very careful, always using public phones and avoid too-public locations. Later on though, many officials and judges and policemen were seen leaving an entering a trailer he was operating in, and contrary to what the film says, he was involved in narcotics, a large shipment he had masterminded was seized on the docks thanks to the information given by a girlfriend of a wiseguy from the time. Ms. Ferrera was later found chopped up in pieces in a dumpster. In 1978, after the daring Lufthansa heist (another benchmark of American security breeches in airports) the feds began to follow Hill's drug ring and soon started doing the whole 9 yards - tapping phones and taking telephoto's of him as he moved around. In 1980 he was arrested and charged with drug conspiracy, only to be released on bail and then to seek sanctuary in the hands of the federal authorities. His testimony at the racketeering trial of Burke & Vario (DeSimmone was murdered earlier that year) sent them both to prison for extended terms. Burke was convicted of a prison murder and given 20-life -- to run concurrently with his 8-year sentence from the 1980 trial -- and Vario died of respiratory failure in a Fort Worth, Texas prison. Conway died in prison, in 1996, at the age of 64. He had stomach cancer, and his last months were reportedly agonizing - he would cough up blood all over his hospital jumpsuit and then fall over, completely in shock, until nurses would give him morphine injections to calm him down. Henry Hill moved to an undisclosed location and re-emerges from the WPP every now and then to get himself in all sorts of trouble, ranging from domestic assault to petty theft, though generally it is agreed that he has changed his ways since the time of being one of the wiseguys.

[ September 14, 2001: Message edited by: Joey Montana ]

Very informative post, Joey. Thank you very much.

Btw Josh, you asked what he looked like. Well it is unlikely there are any images of him from after his 1980 conviction (couldn't find a mugshot anywhere) but I found this image, no doubt from the same 1970 party SC put there





Robert Deniro as Jimmy Conway




[ September 14, 2001: Message edited by: Joey Montana ]

Thanx Joe. Surely, the second image looks like Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean), don't you think?

Thank you Joey and SC for posting the pics.

yo i have to up this....them pictures posted earlier...there all red X's on my screen now....could anyone post the pics up?

Good post Joey.

I recently read a very detailed article about the whole Lufthansa heist from Crimelibrary.com. A real good read and that Jimmy Burke loved his killing. Also I read that Conway was used for Goodfellas instead of Burke because he was still alive in prison and probably couldn't get the permission to use his real name. The same applied to Vario. I don't know why Desimmone wasn't used instead of DeVito though.

Also if you wanna check out Henry Hill nowadays, his own site is actually quite funny.... Henry Hills own Site

You packin'?...

Theres some good ideas for Xmas presents aswell in there.......

the reason they did not use tommys real name is that they do not know what happened to him,after
the jfk job the fbi bugged his vehicle so they could track his steps through the city,he was not
whacked at a sit down or a(members only)meeting,the cops found out he had taken his mask off in front of a guard so they figured they would
use him as a tool to re-gain the 8 million they stole,then one day he and his car just vanished they put a warrent out on him but he just never popped up again,2 stories i heard was that GOTTI
WHACKED him out for big paul,tommy killed a made
gambino without commision approval.no.2 was that
vario had tommy and his car compacted at varios junkyard crushing the bug on the vehicle at the
same time.i have also heard stories that he flipped and is still alive but that one seems far
fetched.