Originally posted by Turi Giuliano:
If I remember correctly though, Hill does admit that his evidence on Tommy's hit by Gotti came from another informer, Sal Polici, a Gambino guy after Goodfellas was filmed. So yes definately take the story, like Turnbull says, with a ton of salt.
And it still begs the question of what really happened to Tommy DiSimone.
I'm thinking that
if the Tommy/Batts thing really happened the way it was portrayed in "Goodfellas," it showed that Paulie had a pretty good head on his shoulders:
Tommy and Batts had their shouting match in front of witnesses. As Henry said, "His [Batts's] crew's gonna be looking for him." Probably some of his crew were among the witnesses, but even if they weren't, they'd have heard about it soon enough. And they'd know that Tommy was responsible for Batts's disappearance. In the Mob, suspicion is as good as conviction--they ain't never heard of no due process or rules of evidence.
Since Tommy wasn't a made man, they could have whacked him without further ado. But since Tommy was with Paulie, they probably made their beef to him--they didn't
ask him what happened to Batts, they
told him, and no doubt demanded that Paulie take care of it (and absorb the risks and expenses, too). So, I'm guessing, when Paulie had his
tet-a-tet with Henry, he already knew Batts was dead and Tommy had killed him. He was simply feeling out Henry to see if he had any additional info that might be useful before he acted.
Paulie could have told the Gambinos to go fly a kite: "Hey, Tommy ain't one o'my made guys, an' he hangs out with youse guys too--you whack him." But Paulie, clever fellow, would have found it prudent to take care of Tommy. By "doing the right thing," he could pose as "a man of honor, honoring Mafia tradition." The Gambinos might owe him a favor in the future. And he was good and ready to get rid of Tommy: as he told Henry, "Tommy's a cowboy...he's got too much to prove." By getting into a public shouting match with a made guy, and later whacking him, Tommy proved himself a serious liability to Paulie. Finally, if Paulie had let the Gambinos take care of it, they might have whacked Henry and Jimmy, too--and they were good earners whom Paulie wanted to retain. So, by whacking Tommy, Paulie killed several birds with one stone. Smart guy.
