Jimmy Burke was an Irish-American hijacker who worked under Luchese capo Paul Vario (or Paul Cicero in Goodfellas). He teamed up with Henry Hill and Tommy DeSimmone in the mid 50s and began showing them the secrets of the trade, and the finer arts of thievery. Paul gave them protection and made sure to pay off the right people to keep them out of prison for the best part of their partnership. After the Air France heist in 1967, Hill was in prison on charges of assault stemming from a failed bust-up in Florida. In prison, he began selling drugs and noticed how profitable a business it was. Although sternly warned by Paulie to stay out of the "junk" business, he secretly began to branch out his narcotics operation and included Jimmy and Tommy in the dealings. Pretty soon, they were making big money and the amount of suits Henry has in his wardrobe in Goodfellas is no exaggeration - the 70s were a good time for him and his friends. Vario had been known to be very careful, always using public phones and avoid too-public locations. Later on though, many officials and judges and policemen were seen leaving an entering a trailer he was operating in, and contrary to what the film says, he was involved in narcotics, a large shipment he had masterminded was seized on the docks thanks to the information given by a girlfriend of a wiseguy from the time. Ms. Ferrera was later found chopped up in pieces in a dumpster. In 1978, after the daring Lufthansa heist (another benchmark of American security breeches in airports) the feds began to follow Hill's drug ring and soon started doing the whole 9 yards - tapping phones and taking telephoto's of him as he moved around. In 1980 he was arrested and charged with drug conspiracy, only to be released on bail and then to seek sanctuary in the hands of the federal authorities. His testimony at the racketeering trial of Burke & Vario (DeSimmone was murdered earlier that year) sent them both to prison for extended terms. Burke was convicted of a prison murder and given 20-life -- to run concurrently with his 8-year sentence from the 1980 trial -- and Vario died of respiratory failure in a Fort Worth, Texas prison. Conway died in prison, in 1996, at the age of 64. He had stomach cancer, and his last months were reportedly agonizing - he would cough up blood all over his hospital jumpsuit and then fall over, completely in shock, until nurses would give him morphine injections to calm him down. Henry Hill moved to an undisclosed location and re-emerges from the WPP every now and then to get himself in all sorts of trouble, ranging from domestic assault to petty theft, though generally it is agreed that he has changed his ways since the time of being one of the wiseguys.

[ September 14, 2001: Message edited by: Joey Montana ]