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| Probably one of the most unphotographed mobsters |
Portrayed by Joe Pesci, in the well known gangster flick "The Godfellas", Tommy DeSimone ( Two-Gun Tommy or Tommy-D) was part of the Lucchese crime family and worked under a capo Paul Vario in the Lucchese family. Just like in the movie he was close friends with Henry Hill and Jimmy Burke, and between the three of them they joined together to lead criminal activities in New York for most of their life.
From the words of Henry Hill, who the movie "The Goodfellas" was documented after, the FBI, ex-wife of Henry Hill and many other crime family associates all had the same thing to say about DeSimone, "Tommy was a nut job sociopath." Although he was always dressed in the most expensive clothes and drove flashy cars his family and himself lived in what most mobsters portrayed as a slum. Like a lot of low level mobsters he had more muscle than brains.
Tommy grew up as a gangster, his whole family was involved in the underworld one way or another. His sister was Dolores and his two brothers were
Gambino crime family associate Robert DeSimone and Gambino associate Anthony DeSimone, murdered by mobster Thomas Agro
in 1979. He was the brother-in-law of mobster Joseph "The Barber"
Spione, who was slain for refusing to help kill DeSimone in the late
1970s. His sister Phyllis was Jimmy Burke's mistress since she was sixteen years old. He is the ex-father-in-law of
Gambino crime family associate Salvatore DeVita.
His father owned and lost a printing shop due to a compulsive
gambling addiction. Both DeSimone's grandfather, Rosario DeSimone, and uncle, Frank DeSimone, were bosses of the Los Angeles crime family. DeSimone's paternal grandfather Rosario DeSimone was the boss of the Los Angeles crime family after Vito Di Giorgio was killed in Chicago in 1922. DeSimone's paternal uncle, Frank DeSimone, was a criminal attorney-turned-mobster; "Uncle Frank" (as he was known) replaced Jack Dragna in 1956 after the latter's death, becoming the second DeSimone family member to become Los Angeles crime family boss.
DeSimone was alleged to have taken part in the December 1978
Lufthansa heist from JFK International Airport,
the largest robbery in U.S. history at the time. The loot is reputed to
have amounted to almost $6,000,000, of which only a fraction was
recovered. DeSimone was spotted because he had very well-polished shoes,
too well polished for an airport employee. He was the one who suggested
recruiting his ex-cell mate Angelo Sepe for the heist.
DeSimone then murdered Parnell "Stacks" Edwards. DeSimone was a good
friend of Stacks and was disappointed to hear that he had failed to get
rid of the truck used in the
Lufthansa Heist in New Jersey, where the evidence would be destroyed. When DeSimone was told by a ranking mafioso that he could become a made man
because of this hit, he agreed. Once he found out where Stacks was
hiding, he visited Stacks and shot him six times in the chest and head
with a silenced pistol.
The sad truth is about Tommy is that if he was not such a nut job, with as many family ties in he had in the underworld, he probably could have eventually took the rank of a capo after he was made. But in the end the famous John Gotti order someone from his crew to set up Tommy and had him whacked. As crazy as Tommy was he stepped over the line when he helped kill a made man in the Gambino family that was part of John Gotti's crew. With the approval of capo Paul Vario, Tommy was set-up to think he was going to earn the honor of being a made men in the mafia, but instead was shot once in the back of the head and in the face for the murder of a made man with no permission, the murder of another man part of Gotti's crew and being for identifiable in the Lufthansa heist.
Although Burke and Henry, were both also involved in the Killing of William "Billy Batts" Bentvena, the made member that was killed from Gotti's crew that got Tommy killed, there life's were spared because they were making a lot of money for the mob.
Tommy's body has has yet to be recovered, there is two different theories to what happened to him, both of which have yet to be confirmed. One thing is for sure, everyone seems to have the same opinion of him. He was a bad egg. A sociopath with no conscience. He was a foul mouth, unpredictable, dangerous individual with the shortest of tempers. If anything, the mob did themselves a favor by getting rid of the hot head and if they would have got to Henry before the FBI did then Jimmy Burke and Paul Vario probably would have died on the outside and not in prison.
