Beyond Goodfellas: The Life and Times of Jimmy "The Gent" Burke
Immortalized by Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese's iconic film Goodfellas, Notorious Irish gangster James "Jimmy the Gent" Burke was one of New York City's most feared and respected criminals
Martin Scorsese’s 1990 gangster film Goodfellas is considered by most to be a classic in the genre. Many place it alongside The Godfather as a masterpiece in American film.
The characters are brought to life through the brilliant acting of a very talented ensemble cast.
Though the film stars Ray Liotta, the performances of Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci are arguably even more memorable and iconic, with Pesci winning that year’s Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
The film was nominated for a total of six Academy Awards.
Source Material
Goodfellas is based on Nicholas Pileggi's book Wiseguy. It tells the story of former Lucchese family associate Henry Hill’s journey from growing up in Brownsville, Brooklyn, under the shadow of the mafia to his introduction to neighborhood wiseguys who groomed him into a life of crime.
The book, written in 1985, recounts Henry’s decades spent as an associate of one of the most violent crews in the Lucchese family and concludes with Henry’s then-present-day life in the Federal Witness Protection Program.
As far as films that are based on books, it is extremely accurate and does not stray very far from the original source material. Of course, as with any film based on a book, there were incidents and scenes that must inevitably be cut in order for the film to maintain a reasonable run time.
In Goodfellas, the material that was cut out included the backstories behind some of the film’s well-known characters.
Since Henry is the story’s lead character and protagonist, the audience gets to see his journey from a young child all the way up until he is arrested and ends up cooperating with the government.
Jimmy Burke
In the film, Robert De Niro gives an outstanding performance in the role of “Jimmy the Gent” who became one of Hill’s mentors in the criminal underworld.
In Goodfellas, his character is named Jimmy Conway and is based on real-life Irish gangster James Burke.
In both the book and movie it is explained that even though Jimmy could never be officially inducted into a mafia family because of his ethnicity, he was nevertheless given the same deference and respect normally shown to made guys.
When the audience is first introduced to Jimmy in the film, Hill’s character narrates that Jimmy was about 27 or 28 when Henry met him, but he was already a legend.
During this scene, we get one of the film’s classic lines; “The bartender got a hundred dollars just to keep the ice cubes cold.”
This illustrates one way that Burke maintained his criminal dominance. He would tip people large amounts of money for essentially doing their jobs. Additionally, he always had lots of swag (stolen merchandise) for sale at great prices.
Rather than applying pressure or extorting people, Jimmy could usually entice them into working with him out of their own greed. In the book Wiseguy, Henry recalls that “Jimmy could corrupt a saint.”
Henry was first introduced to Jimmy by Tuddy Vario, the brother of powerful Lucchese captain Paul Vario. Vario and his brothers ran Henry’s Brownsville neighborhood at the time and were extremely influential in shaping the direction of Henry’s life.
Henry’s first foray into criminal activity with Burke was around 1964 when he helped Jimmy transport and sell untaxed cigarettes. This scheme brought in profits and created goodwill in the community, as many people were willing to look the other way to save a few dollars.
Hill mentions that things like that helped to ingratiate regular citizens to the neighborhood wiseguys. They were willing to do favors (for a price of course) and dole out jobs to those who were down on their luck.
Paul Vario, for instance, had so much influence in different labor unions that he could demand that someone be hired, and they would be. If anyone refused, there would be a work stoppage…or worse.
This is how the mob maintained support in the community and why the police never received much cooperation from those in the neighborhood.
Jimmy’s Backstory
Through Hill’s narration, the audience learns that Jimmy was one of the most feared gangsters in New York City and had committed his first murder in jail while still a teenager at the behest of mafia higher-ups.
As good as this scene is, it is impossible to condense Jimmy’s backstory into 2 minutes.
James Burke had an extremely harsh upbringing which likely contributed to the way he turned out.
Born in 1931, Jimmy’s mother was an Irish immigrant and prostitute. Burke never knew his father, or really his mother, for that matter. By the time he was two, Jimmy’s mother had abandoned him, and he became a ward of the state.
Burke was placed in the Roman Catholic Church’s foster care system. Over the following decade-plus, Jimmy was moved around to dozens of foster homes. In some of these homes, Jimmy experienced severe physical, mental, and sexual abuse. In other homes, he experienced love, generosity, and compassion.
He would often run away and be picked up for minor crimes and released. Hill recounts Burke’s childhood:
“As a kid, he stole his food. He rolled drunks. All those years he was really living on the streets until he’d get picked up and turned over to the foundling home. Then he’d go to another foster home or reform school until he ran away again. He used to sleep in parked cars. He was a little kid.”
Eventually, in his early teens, Jimmy was adopted by a loving couple who treated him well. To show his appreciation, he adopted the couple’s last name, Burke. During his adult years, Jimmy occasionally sent anonymous unmarked envelopes of cash to the Burke’s home.
These experiences seemed to create a dual nature in Burke. Hill sums this up succinctly in Wiseguy: “He (Jimmy) seemed to possess a bizarre combination of generosity and an enthusiasm for homicide.”
“Murders never bothered Jimmy. He started doing them as a kid in jail for old Mafioso. In prison, you don’t have nice little fights you have to kill the guy you fight. That’s where Jimmy learned. Over the years, he had killed strangers, and he had killed his closest friends. It didn’t matter. Business was business, and if he got it into his head that you were dangerous to him, or that you were going to cost him money, or that you were getting cute, he’d kill you. It was that simple.” (Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi)
Hill recounts that Burke was more violent than Paul Vario. But he also had a compassionate side. On holidays, he would visit the wives of wiseguys who were in prison and deliver flowers and cash-stuffed envelopes. He was also known to cover the hospital bills of children in the neighborhood.
Jimmy “The Gent”
As deadly and ruthless as Burke was, the thing that he enjoyed most was stealing. Even when he had established himself and had a crew of killers and thieves under him, Jimmy still went on many truck hijackings himself.
Hill recalled that Burke used to love to rummage through the hijacked contents himself until he worked up a good sweat. He was like a kid on Christmas.
What separated Jimmy from many of the other hijackers in the city was how he treated the drivers. It was common practice for hijackers to demand the truckers' driver’s licenses to emphasize that they now knew where the driver lived and that it would be in their best interest not to cooperate with the police.
While Burke employed this practice also, he differentiated himself from the others because when the driver handed him their wallet, Jimmy would take the license and replace it with a fifty- or hundred-dollar bill.
This earned Jimmy the nickname “The Gent” because he didn’t abuse the drivers, instead he left them with cash.
As his reputation spread, he would often be tipped off by the drivers themselves, who would then get either a flat fee or a percentage of the profits from the stolen merchandise.
Jimmy’s generosity led to even more criminal opportunities for the enterprising gangster. His base of operation in Ozone Park, Queens, put him in direct proximity to New York’s Kennedy Airport which at the time was called Idlewild Airport.
Hill recounts in the book Wiseguy that the airport was Jimmy’s playground. Because he had made so many contacts in the underworld as well as the legit world, people were constantly bringing him tips about valuable cargo coming in and out of the airport.
He routinely had people feeding him information about potential scores. From gamblers who were into him for a lot of money trying to wipe away the debt with a tip about a big score to those who simply saw an opportunity to make some easy money.
Whenever Jimmy or his crew needed cash, they would simply wait and hijack the trucks as they departed the airport. He often knew what was in the trucks and likely had buyers already lined up.
They would often sell the stolen property to legitimate businesses, who were happy to buy the heavily discounted goods and then mark them up for resale. They sold to bars, restaurants, and discount stores.
Henry Hill mentions that although Jimmy was a very successful thief, he was not just in it for the money. “Guys like Paulie and Jimmy did it all for the respect. The power. The ego. For some guys like me, it was all about the money.”
“Jimmy could plant you just as fast as shake your hand. It didn’t matter to him. At dinner, he could be the nicest guy in the world, but then he could blow you away for dessert. He was very scary, and he scared some very scary fellows. Nobody really knew where they stood with him.”
Jimmy’s Downfall
A good portion of the latter part of Goodfellas deals with the planning, execution, and fallout from the infamous Lufthansa robbery in December 1978. Burke with the permission of Vario and members of the Bonanno family who shared control of the airport, planned and executed a daring heist at JFK Airport, which netted Jimmy and his crew about $5 million cash and over $800,000 in jewels.
It was the largest heist in American history at the time, and to this day, most of the money has never been recovered. The film depicts Jimmy’s growing paranoia and frustration after the robbery.
After becoming incensed that members of the robbery crew were making large purchases and flaunting their newly acquired cash, Jimmy kills several of them in an attempt to rid himself of anyone who could finger him for the robbery.
Eventually, Hill was the only one left alive other than Jimmy’s son Frank who could link Burke to the robbery. He was worried that Jimmy was going to kill him rather than take the chance that Henry might cooperate.
While it is briefly alluded to during a scene in Goodfellas, the film does not delve too much into Hill and Burke’s involvement in a point-shaving scheme using members of the Boston College basketball team.
In 1982, Hill, who by then was cooperating with the government, testified against Burke about his involvement in the scheme. Burke was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Three years later, in 1985, Hill testified against Burke about Jimmy’s involvement in the murder of a drug dealer named Richard Eaton. Burke received an additional 20 years in prison.
In 1996, James “Jimmy The Gent” Burke died in prison from cancer. He was 64 years old.
Sources:
Pileggi, Nicholas. “Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family.” Pocket Books, 1987, (pp. 23, 92-97, 114) https://www.amazon.com/Wiseguy-Nicholas-Pileggi/dp/1439184216
Hill, Henry. Russo, Gus. “Gangsters and Goodfellas: The Mob, Witness Protection, and Life on the Run.” Evans Publishing, 2004, https://www.amazon.com/Gangsters-Goodfellas-Witness-Protection-Life
Jenkins, Gary. “Jimmy Burke aka Jimmy the Gent.” Gangland Wire, 30 August 2021, https://ganglandwire.com/jimmy-burke-aka-jimmy-the-gent/
“Goodfellas : Henry Hill Meets James Conway aka Jimmy HD (Remastered)” Youtube, Uploaded by Tesla LIVE, 28 July 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb9o2y6eY6E