http://www.answers.com/topic/thomas-desimone It was not until Henry Hill became an FBI informant in 1980 that the authorities found out what had happened to DeSimone. It was related to the murder of Billy Batts back in 1970 (Billy Batts is only an alias used for the sake of the book and movie, the basis for that character was Ronald Jerrothe). "Batts" had been an associate of John Gotti, and by the end of 1978 Gotti and his crew had somehow found out that Batts had been killed and more importantly that DeSimone was responsible; the reason was supposed to have been over a woman. The Gotti Crew had lured DeSimone to a meeting with promises of 'making' him into a fully fledged member of the Mafia, but instead had executed and buried him. DeSimone was aged twenty-eight when he was killed, and - like Batts - his body has yet to be found by authorities. After Tommy was killed, Gotti went after his cousin, who had known too much about the Batts murder to stay alive.
