Billy Batts

I cant remember reading anything in the book, but did they ever find Billy Batts body. You'd think w/ Henry being a rat and all, that he'd lead them right to it. Ive been thinking about it ever since they've started digging up that lot, but I keep forgetting to ask.

They tried finding it but by time they looked there was nothing left I recall.

"Goodfellas" is based on the Nicholas Pileggi book "Wiseguy," but not everything in the movie is the same as in the book. And since Pileggi's source was Henry Hill, you have to take everything Hill told him with a ton of salt. So, the Billy Batts story as portrayed in the film may not have happened that way.
I tried another source: "Mob Star: The Story of John Gotti," by Gene Mustain and Jerry Capeci. The closest I came to "Billy Batts" was William Battista, known as "Billy." In the film, Batts was with the Gambinos and had just gotten out of prison after a six-year stretch when he had his fateful encounter in Henry's bar. In "Mob Star," Billy Battista was recruited into the same Gambino crew at the same time as Gotti. He was a hijacker at first: in a job that got him noticed, he waited until a truck driver went on his coffee break, then hot-wired the truck and drove off with $75k of new clothes--somewhat like the scene in the beginning of the film that shows Henry and Tommy taking off with a truck when the driver went for coffee in a diner. Later, according to Mustain and Capeci, Billy Battista was into gambling, and handled some of Gotti's action. They imply that he finally turned government informant. They imply, but they don't flat-out state, that he was "Source BQ," an informant that prosecutor Diane Giacalone exposed in one of Gotti's trials. They conclude that, "William Battista, age 53, the old Brownsville-East New York hijacker-bookmaker who never appreciated Gotti's bully ways, hasn't been seen since." I infer that "Billy Batts" was a fictional character loosely based on Battista. You can draw your own conclusions.

I didn't go by the movie, they don't mention the Feds finding anything in it. I can't remember exactly but I think it was "Gangsters and Goodfellas" that mentioned it. I'm not surprised they didn't find his body, but I am surprised that they don't know for sure Batts existed.

yeah im surprised they never found batts body

You can buy a t-shirt with Billy Batts on the back

that t-shirt is brilliant where can you by that from

FRANK VINCENT\'S WEBSITE

Click on "Merchandise"

Thanks for that site, Plaw!! There are some great pictures on there. Especially the pictures from the old days... He certainly IS getting better with age, isn't he?

Batts existed. He's in Wiseguy, nonfiction. The story goes pretty close to what happened in the movie.

How did the rival crews suss out that Tommy was responsible for Billy Batts' death? In real life they didn't even have the squabble they had in the film, Batt's just asked Tommy if he still shined shoes. Regardless, when Batts was killed, no one else was around but an Italian couple...aside from guesswork, the couple informing seems to be the only way I can think of...anyone else know how they found out?

Dramatic license, more than likely. Made for two great scenes. But the movie didn't follow the book exactly. And, though Pileggi did a fine job with the book, he relied almost totally on Henry Hill's say-so. Does Hill strike anyone as a reliable, truthful guy?

Here's an excerpt from crimelibrary.com's article on Tommy DeSimone (the Joe Pesci character):

Hill describes three murders that DeSimone was involved in. The first was a best friend and hijacking partner of Burke who ratted out a hijacking scheme to the police. From the back seat of a car DeSimone strangled the man with a piano wire. The second murder was that of “Billy Batts.” Although different from the movie portrayal where DeNiro and Pesci nearly stomp and kick Batts (played by popular movie mobster Frank Vincent) to death before finishing him off on a lonely country road, the actual murder was just as brutal.

One night a party was held at Robert’s Lounge for “Billy Batts,” described as a long time friend of John Gotti and a made member of the Gambino Family, after he had been released from prison after a six-year stretch. DeSimone was 20 at the time, according to Hill, and “Batts” had not seen him since he was in his early teens. “Batts” remembered that Tommy had once shined shoes and he made a comment to that effect, which DeSimone took as an insult.

DeSimone held his anger in check. When Hill thought the furor had died down, he was shocked to hear DeSimone tell him and Burke, “I’m going to kill that fuck.” Two weeks later DeSimone got his chance when he arrived at a bar owned by Hill. DeSimone sent his girlfriend home and told Burke to keep “Batts” there. Burke got “Batts” at the end of the bar and began exchanging stories with him and buying him drinks. When DeSimone returned, he had a .38 revolver and a body bag. He walked behind “Batts” and yelled out, “Shine these fuckin’ shoes” and began to beat the man about the head with the revolver as Burke clutched “Batts” around the neck. Later, on their way to a makeshift grave in a dog kennel in upstate New York, they realized “Batts” was still alive, thrashing around in the trunk of Hill’s car. They stopped and finished him off with a shovel and a tire iron.

The other brutal murder, also portrayed in the Goodfellas film, was that of the teenager named “Spider.” DeSimone once shot the young man in the foot while ordering him to dance. One night while Spider was recovering, DeSimone started in on him again. This time Spider stood up for himself and told DeSimone to “go fuck himself.” After being goaded by the others in the room, DeSimone pulled a gun and shot the teenager three times in the chest, killing him instantly.

Hill claims that during the week after Christmas 1978, DeSimone was going to become a made member of the Lucchese Family. Burke and Hill were down in Florida at the time where Jimmy was trying to straighten out a cocaine deal after a professional scam artist had ripped him off to the tune of $250,000. Burke called DeSimone’s mother to check on the blessed event. Burke disguised his inquiry by asking if Tommy “had seen his godmother yet?” DeSimone’s mother replied that due to a heavy snowfall, it had been called off.

The following day Burke called again. Hill never revealed, and possibly never knew, who Burke spoke to this time, however, he knew something was terribly wrong when he saw Jimmy slam down the receiver so hard the entire telephone booth shook. Hill relates what happened next:

He came out of the booth and I saw he had tears in his eyes. I don’t know what’s going on, and he says that they just whacked Tommy. Jimmy’s crying. The Gotti crew. They whacked Tommy. It was over Tommy having killed Billy Batts and a guy named Foxy. They were made guys with the Gambinos, and Tommy had killed them without an okay.

On January 14, 1979, Cookie DeSimone notified police that her husband had disappeared. Although his body was never found, Tommy DeSimone was immortalized, undeservedly, by Joe Pesci’s fictionalized portrayal of him.

It (obviously) doesn't answer the question of how the Mob leaders found out who killed Batts, but they gave the contract to John Gotti's crew anyway. These guys aren't known for playing by the rules.

This reminds me, in the movie it appears in the scene where they all go to Tommy's mother's house that she's not aware of what he does. In the scene where Tommy's on his way to get made she seems to congratulate him. What exactly did she think he was doing that day?

She knew what he did, he didn't go to great lengths to disguise his career. But no son would want to come out straight to his mother that he had just killed a man, which was why he gave her the story about hitting the deer. She probably knew deep down that he was more than just a gangster, that he was a murderer too, but they both probably kept such farces going to suspend such a grim reality.