At The Sinatra Club (2012), (Sal Polisi) pp. 347-8:

"I was shocked by John's timing. After four years of expecting him to whack Tommy, he decides to do it when I least expect it, after a heist so big all the Families including the Gambinos were sure to get a taste.

"There was a lot I wanted to say to John, but you didn't explain yourself in the Mob. I had to give him a yes or no on the spot. I told him no. He didn't say another word. He just got in his car and drove away.

"I would have liked to tell John that I loved Fox as much as he did and that I hated Tommy for what he did, but a lot had changed since then. I wasn't interested in becoming a made guy anymore. But more than that, I no longer really held Tommy responsible. A lot of time had passed, and I felt like it was the life that killed Fox. If it hadn't been Tommy, it would have been some cop or an armed guard on a truck or a hothead Colombian drug dealer whose girlfriend Fox was f-----g. I always more or less liked Tommy. So did Fox, up until Tommy messed with his sister. Killing Tommy now seemed to me like another f-----g waste, just like him killing Fox was a waste.

1979

"In January, a month after Johnny paid me that visit and offered me a chance to avenge Fox's death and get in on a hit that would have earned me my button, Tommy "Two Guns" DeSimone disappeared.

"For a long time I didn't know how it went down for Tommy. There were a lot of conflicting stories at the time, and the Goodfellas movie fudged the details and didn't make it clear what exactly happened or who did it.

"The full story comes from Henry Hill, who was good friends with Tommy, and he made it a point to find out what happened as best he could.

"The way Henry tells the story: Tommy was whacked by Gotti's crew for killing Billy Batts, a made Gambino guy, back in 1970, and for Fox, who wasn't made but was with John and the crew at the Bergin. Henry says that it was Paul Vario-who always hated Tommy himself but protected him because he was with Jimmy Burke, and Jimmy was his biggest earner-who gave Tommy to the Gambinos.

"Henry's explanation of why Paulie gave Tommy up has to be believed. He says Paulie was having an affair with Henry's wife Karen while Henry was in prison. At the same time, Tommy got wasted on coke and put the moves on Karen too. She told him to f--- off and he beat the s--- out of her. That enraged Paulie, who not only gave Tommy up to Gotti, he also drove Tommy to the fake induction ceremony himself.

"The part in the movie where Jimmy bangs down the phone and cries when he finds out what happened was true, Henry says. Only he and Burke were in Florida when they made the call, not outside a diner in New York.

"When Tommy got to the house where he thought he was going to be made, there really was a ceremony planned-only it wasn't the one he hoped for. John was there. And instead of me, so was Tommy Argo, the Gambino guy who owned Sebastian's. Argo also whacked one of Tommy's brothers, the one who was the rat and who was the reason Gotti always hated Tommy.

"One thing Henry says makes me glad I turned down John's offer to lend a hand in avenging Fox's death: Gotti and Argo didn't just whack Tommy. They tortured him and killed him slowly. Henry says that John made sure Tommy's death 'took a long time.'

"That was just one of the sickening things that happened back then. And there was more yet to come."