Few film scenes look more authoritative than Jimmy Conway in *Goodfellas*, standing in his kitchen at a Christmas party and berating his crew after the Lufthansa heist. The message is unmistakable: he runs the operation, he controls the money, and he disciplines the men. But the real man behind that character, James Burke, could not discipline anyone, did not run the operation, and was not even permitted to be a full member of the Mafia. Burke was an Irish-American associate who required permission from his boss, Paul Vario, before planning any major robbery.
He also paid a cut of the Lufthansa heist earnings to the Gambino crime family simply to operate at JFK airport. His influence came from his ability to earn money and his willingness to kill, not from formal authority. Hollywood, in creating a charismatic near-boss to anchor the film, crafted a myth about how organized crime actually functioned. James Burke was born in New York City in 1931 to an Irish immigrant mother.
He spent his childhood in foster homes, where he was physically and sexually abused. When a foster family named Burke eventually adopted him, he kept their name and maintained a relationship with them for decades, sometimes leaving envelopes of cash at their home. At 18, he was imprisoned for passing counterfeit checks for a Colombo crime family associate named Dominic Cersani. He refused to inform on Cersani and served five years.
That silence earned him respect, but it could not change his bloodline. Because he was not Italian, Burke could not become a made man in the Italian Mafia. Contemporary accounts describe him as a skilled hijacker who mentored younger criminals like Henry Hill and Thomas DeSimone in the 1960s. His crew operated out of South Ozone Park and specialized in stealing cargo from trucks around JFK airport.
Drivers said he always tipped them $50 after robbing them, which earned him the nickname “Jimmy the Gent. ”
In *Goodfellas*, Henry Hill’s voiceover tells viewers that billions of dollars moved through Idlewild Airport, and that Jimmy was in charge of it all. The film shows Conway walking through Robert’s Lounge like he owns the place, orchestrating hijackings and approving scores. He appears to control the entire operation.
Hollywood made this choice because they needed a clear focal point for the story. Robert De Niro needed a role with authority and menace. Scattering Burke’s actual power across multiple bosses and families would have slowed the film down, so they elevated him from earner to near-boss, and audiences believed it. Burke actually worked for Paul Vario, a captain in the Lucchese crime family.
Vario ran a crew out of the Bamboo Lounge in Brooklyn and controlled criminal rackets in South Ozone Park and parts of Queens. Burke answered to him. Every major decision needed Vario’s approval, and for every dollar Burke earned, Vario took a cut. JFK airport was divided between two families at the time.
The Lucchese family controlled certain cargo operations while the Gambino family controlled others. If Burke wanted to rob a Lufthansa cargo terminal, he needed permission from both families and had to pay both a share. When Burke planned the Lufthansa heist in 1978, he used inside information from a cargo supervisor named Louis Werner and a bookmaker named Martin Krugman. But before he could move forward, he needed Paul Vario’s authorization.
After the robbery netted roughly $6 million in cash and jewels, Burke had to pay a percentage to Vario and another cut to Gambino captain Paul Licastri, who controlled that section of the airport. The film never shows this. In *Goodfellas*, viewers watch Jimmy listen as Henry and others discuss a robbery, and he casually approves it like the sole decision-maker. Scorsese and co-writer Nicholas Pileggi compressed the hierarchy because they had 145 minutes to tell a 25-year story.
Explaining how the Lucchese and Gambino families divided JFK, how Vario authorized the heist, and how cuts were distributed would have required new characters and slowed the pace. Instead, they centralized authority in Jimmy Conway, which worked for the film but rewrote how power actually functioned. Burke’s reputation came from two things: his ability to bring in money and his willingness to kill. Court documents and crime histories describe him as a valuable earner who knew how to bribe cops, gather inside information, and execute hijackings without getting caught.
He owned a dress factory called Mu-Mu’s in South Ozone Park to launder money and ran a high-stakes poker game and loansharking operation out of Robert’s Lounge. Made men respected him because he was useful and dangerous, but he was never one of them. His Irish heritage meant he could not be formally inducted, could not attend sit-downs as an equal, and could not vote on family business. He was an associate, and associates follow orders.
The film also omits the hierarchy when depicting violence. When Billy Batts insults Tommy DeVito in the Bamboo Lounge, Jimmy helps Tommy beat him and later returns with a gun to finish him off. The scene shows Jimmy killing a made man, which in real Mafia protocol would be a death sentence without approval from the bosses. Historically, it was DeSimone who killed Billy Batts, and Burke’s exact involvement is disputed.
Killing a made man without permission would have gotten Burke killed. In reality, he needed Paul Vario’s protection to survive that incident. After the Lufthansa heist, Burke began killing conspirators to protect himself. A crew member who failed to get rid of the getaway van was murdered.
Martin Krugman, the bookmaker who provided inside information, disappeared. Paul Licastri, the Gambino captain who demanded a cut, was killed. The film shows some of these murders and attributes them to Jimmy’s paranoia and ruthlessness. *Goodfellas* ends with a courtroom scene where Jimmy Conway and Paulie Cicero sit side by side as defendants receiving guilty verdicts, implying Jimmy was convicted for the Lufthansa robbery and the murders that followed.
That is not what happened. Burke was never tried for the Lufthansa robbery. In 1982, he was convicted of conspiracy for his role in the Boston College basketball point-shaving scheme and sentenced to 12 years in federal prison. In 1985, he received an additional 20 years after being convicted of murder under RICO statutes.
He died of lung cancer in prison in April 1996. The filmmakers changed his conviction because they needed a clean ending. Scorsese wanted the audience to see the mob bosses punished, and showing Burke convicted for sports bribery would have required explaining an entirely separate criminal enterprise. So they let viewers assume Jimmy paid for the Lufthansa robbery, and most people still believe that today.
Scorsese said he wanted *Goodfellas* to be as close to the truth as possible, an antidote to *The Godfather*, which romanticized Mafia honor. He wanted to show gangsters as amoral people obsessed with money, not loyalty. There were also constraints. Catherine Burke, James Burke’s daughter, reportedly demanded a five-figure or six-figure payment for the use of her father’s name.
Rather than pay, the filmmakers changed his surname to Conway, which gave them legal protection to fictionalize details without risking a lawsuit. Most people who watch *Goodfellas* believe Jimmy Conway ran the Lufthansa heist and controlled the crew at Robert’s Lounge. They think he was a near-boss with the authority to discipline earners, decide who lived and who died, and operate independently of the Mafia’s formal structure. That belief erases the reality of how organized crime worked.
James Burke was subordinate to Paul Vario, who was subordinate to Lucchese family bosses. Burke could not plan a major robbery without approval, could not keep all the money from a heist, and could not kill a made man without consequences. His power was conditional, depending entirely on his ability to earn and his willingness to kill when told. The film’s pacing, De Niro’s performance, and Scorsese’s direction made Jimmy Conway unforgettable.
But the cost is that we misunderstand who James Burke actually was. He was not a boss. He was a talented and violent earner who made a fortune for other people. And when he became a liability, the system he served sent him to prison.
By elevating Burke into a near-boss, Hollywood gave him more respect in death than the Mafia ever gave him in life.