Joe Pesci’s character in Goodfellaswas based on real-life mobster Tommy DeSimone. DeSimone was later killed on the orders of John Gotti. Edward McDonald, the federal prosecutor who helped turn Henry Hill into a government informant — and later played himself in Goodfellas— recalls the real Tommy DeSimone and explains why Gotti wanted him dead: “He was killed. John Gotti had him killed because he had killed Billy Batts, who was a Gambino soldier, and also a guy by the name of Foxy Jerothe, who was a good friend of Gotti’s. So Gotti had gone to the Lucchese family and said: “Look, I know you’re going to make this guy Tommy DeSimone, but the Gambino family cannot tolerate this because he’s responsible for killing, without permission, a Gambino family soldier, and also a guy who was probably going to become a Gambino soldier, Foxy Jerothe.” And so the Lucchese family had no choice but to kill Tommy. And so Tommy was killed early on. People suspected for a week or so that Jimmy was responsible for killing Tommy because of his complicity in the Lufthansa robbery. But it wasn’t at all. I mean, that was confirmed by Henry when he cooperated…. But he was a madman. He was really a violent, violent madman. We had stories about him and about Jimmy killing people. It was just insane, the things that they would do. And so it wasn’t overstated. I saw pictures of Tommy DeSimone, and he was a particularly handsome guy, big. He was probably over six-foot-two. And they called him Two Guns sometimes - because he carried two guns, but because his arms were like guns. He was a weightlifter. He was in great shape. And when I heard that Joe Pesci, who I knew from some of his other movies where he played accountant types and sort of almost comic characters, I said, “This guy’s totally miscast. I mean, how could you have this guy playing Tommy DeSimone?” Till five minutes into it, I said: “Oh my God. They got the perfect guy. This guy’s incredible.” Edward McDonald’s quote comes from Part 5 of his interview with DJ Vlad.