Thomas DeSimone

Thomas DeSimone
Thomas DeSimone
Born	Template:Birth date; South Ozone Park, Queens, New York City, U.S.
Died	disappeared January 14, 1979
Occupation	Mobster
Known for	Member of the Lucchese crime family; involvement in Air France robbery and Lufthansa heist; murder of William "Billy Batts" Bentvena

Thomas James DeSimone (June 6, 1946 – disappeared January 14, 1979) was an American mobster associated with the Lucchese crime family in New York City. He was involved in the infamous Air France robbery and the Lufthansa heist, and was responsible for several homicides, including the killing of William "Billy Batts" Bentvena in 1970. DeSimone vanished in 1979 and is believed to have been murdered.

His involvement with the Lucchese organization is chronicled in Wiseguy, authored by Nicholas Pileggi. This account served as the basis for the character Tommy DeVito, portrayed by Joe Pesci in the 1990 motion picture Goodfellas.

Early life

DeSimone was born on June 6, 1946, in South Ozone Park, Queens, as the youngest child among eight siblings to Robert Anthony DeSimone and Camilla Passerelli. Two of his brothers were connected to the Gambino crime family; notably, Anthony was murdered by mobster Thomas Agro in 1979. His sister Phyllis maintained a long-term relationship with gangster James Burke. Furthermore, DeSimone was related by marriage to Joseph "The Barber" Spione, a mob figure who was killed after declining to cooperate in schemes targeting DeSimone.

At nineteen years old, DeSimone encountered Paul Vario, a Lucchese caporegime. Henry Hill, an associate of Vario’s crew, described DeSimone as a "skinny kid" who adopted the wiseguy style. Under the leadership of Vario, Burke, and Hill, DeSimone participated in criminal activities such as hijacking trucks, fencing stolen merchandise, extortion, fraud, and murder. During these hijackings, he often hid his firearm inside a brown paper bag to avoid suspicion.

Air France robbery

In the 1960s, Air France transported American currency exchanged in Southeast Asia back to the United States for deposit into American banks. Weekly shipments could reach up to $1 million, packaged in linen bags containing $60,000 each and secured within a cement-block vault at Air France's cargo terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport. This vault was guarded around the clock by private security personnel. In 1967, employee Robert McMahon alerted Burke, Hill, and DeSimone about an upcoming delivery estimated between $400,000 and $700,000 and indicated that the optimal time for theft was shortly before midnight during the security guard’s dinner break.

On April 7th at 11:40 pm, Hill and DeSimone entered the terminal carrying an empty suitcase and used a duplicate key to access an unsecured section. They located seven bags containing cash and stole $420,000 without triggering alarms or causing harm. The theft went unnoticed until Monday when a Wells Fargo armored truck arrived to collect funds destined for the French American Banking Corporation.

Murder of William Bentvena

Following his release from prison in 1970, Henry Hill recounted in Wiseguy that a "welcome home" gathering for William Bentvena took place at Robert’s Lounge, a venue owned by Jimmy Burke. During this event, Bentvena mocked DeSimone by making jokes about shoe shining, which provoked DeSimone to issue threats against him. Approximately two weeks later at Hill’s nightclub The Suite in Queens, DeSimone violently assaulted Bentvena. Assuming Bentvena was dead after the attack, DeSimone along with Burke and Hill placed him inside Hill’s car trunk. Upon hearing noises from inside the trunk indicating Bentvena was still alive, they proceeded to kill him using a shovel and tire iron before burying his body at a dog kennel owned by one of Burke’s acquaintances in Upstate New York.

When this kennel was sold three months later, Burke instructed Hill and DeSimone to dig up Bentvena’s remains and move them elsewhere. According to Wiseguy, the body was ultimately destroyed in a junkyard compactor owned by Clyde Brooks in New Jersey; however, during commentary on Goodfellas, Hill mentioned that Bentvena’s remains were first interred in Robert’s Lounge basement prior to being transferred to the compactor.

Murders of Gianco, Cersani, and Jerothe

The third homicide committed by DeSimone, as detailed by Hill, involved Michael "Spider" Gianco, a bartender at a card game gathering. Following a dispute about a neglected drink order, DeSimone shot Gianco in the thigh. About a week later, while Gianco was still recovering from his injury, DeSimone provoked him once more, prompting Gianco to respond with "go fuck [himself]". Burke admired Gianco’s boldness, rewarded him with money, and mocked DeSimone for "going soft". Fueled by rage, DeSimone then shot Gianco three times in the chest, killing him, and sought Burke’s approval. Burke compelled DeSimone to bury Gianco’s corpse alone in the cellar. Hill later described DeSimone as a psychopath. Reports indicate that Gianco’s remains were later relocated and interred near Robert's Lounge alongside other victims.

DeSimone’s fourth killing took place after he and Stanley Diamond were assigned to intimidate a foreman who refused to unload stolen goods due to lacking union credentials. Instead of mere intimidation, they brutally beat the foreman to death at his rural residence in New Jersey.

The fifth victim was Dominick "Remo" Cersani, a close friend of Burke. Suspecting Cersani of cooperating with NYPD authorities regarding an upcoming truck hijacking arrest involving Burke, DeSimone lured him away from Robert's Lounge and strangled him using piano wire. Cersani’s body was buried behind the lounge near the bocce court.

On December 18, 1974, DeSimone murdered Ronald Jerothe, who was a protégé of Gambino associate John Gotti. After an altercation involving Jerothe’s sister during a personal dispute and receiving threats from Jerothe himself, DeSimone retaliated by killing him in his apartment.

Lufthansa heist and Edwards murder

On December 11, 1978, a theft totaling approximately $5.875 million—comprising $5 million in cash and $875,000 worth of jewelry—occurred at the Lufthansa cargo terminal at Kennedy Airport. This heist was the largest cash robbery recorded on U.S. soil at that time. Burke handpicked DeSimone, McMahon, Angelo Sepe, Louis Cafora, Joe Manri, and Paolo LiCastri to execute the robbery. Burke’s son Frank served as the driver for a backup vehicle while Parnell "Stacks" Edwards was assigned to dispose of the getaway van.

Edwards was ordered to destroy the van at a junkyard owned by Gotti in New Jersey; however, he instead left it near his girlfriend’s apartment. The police discovered the vehicle two days later with stolen license plates and linked Edwards to the robbery through fingerprint evidence. Vario then commanded DeSimone to eliminate Edwards. Upon locating him, DeSimone and Sepe executed Edwards with five gunshots to the head.

Disappearance

On January 14, 1979, Angela DeSimone reported her husband missing after last seeing him several weeks earlier when he borrowed $60 from her. It is widely believed that DeSimone was killed in retaliation for unauthorized murders of John Gotti’s associates Bentvena and Jerothe. Another theory suggests that Jimmy Burke had him killed due to suspicions of being an informant.

When Hill became an FBI informant in 1980, he asserted that DeSimone had been murdered by members of the Gambino family. Although January 14, 1979 is frequently cited as the date of death, the precise timing remains unclear. Hill recounted that after Christmas 1978, DeSimone stayed in New York awaiting induction but was taken by Peter Vario's son along with Bruno Facciolo to an undisclosed location where he was killed. Hill also noted that DeSimone was already deceased when Martin Krugman disappeared on January 6, 1979. In his 1994 book Gangsters and Goodfellas, Hill elaborated further on this narrative linking DeSimone’s death partially to an attempted assault on Hill’s wife.

Two insider accounts exist regarding who murdered DeSimone. Mob informant Joseph "Joe Dogs" Iannuzzi reported that Thomas Agro claimed responsibility for killing both DeSimone and his brother Anthony after Anthony became an informant; Agro allegedly joked about targeting their last brother next. Another version from Hill states John Gotti himself killed DeSimone in Agro's presence. Hill reiterated this claim on The Howard Stern Show in 2007, explaining that Gotti made DeSimone suffer because of Bentvena’s close relationship with him. The 2015 publication The Lufthansa Heist also attributes the killing to Gotti but describes it as an immediate gunshot execution. Sal Polisi contends that Agro tortured DeSimone to death while Gotti looked on.

It is theorized that DeSimone is interred in The Hole—a suspected Mafia burial site near Kennedy Airport—where remains of other organized crime victims have been discovered.

Depiction in Cinema

In the 1990 motion picture Goodfellas, DeSimone was represented by Joe Pesci, who portrayed a character renamed Tommy DeVito. Pesci received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in this role.

Additional Reading

Hill, Gina & Gregg. On the Run: A Mafia Childhood. Warner Books, 2004.
Hill, Henry. Gangsters and Goodfellas: The Mob, Witness Protection, and Life on the Run. M. Evans and Company, 2007.
Ianuzzi, Joseph. Joe Dogs: The Life and Crimes of a Mobster. Simon & Schuster, 1993.
Pileggi, Nicholas. Wiseguy: Life In a Mafia Family. Simon & Schuster, 1986.