Tommy is killed for killing a made guy, Billy Bats. Jimmy, who helped him - he held Billy for Tommy to stab him and shot
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Goodfellas
allenrogerj — 9 years ago(January 27, 2017 03:18 PM)
Tommy is killed for killing a made guy, Billy Bats. Jimmy, who helped him - he held Billy for Tommy to stab him and shot Billy when he turned out to be still alive, remember - and Henry, who was at the killing at least, both are untouched. They aren't even worried about being killed when they hear of Tommy's death.
Why aren't they killed too? -
BiffGG — 9 years ago(January 27, 2017 03:59 PM)
Jimmy was an earner and his abilities were somewhat less than common. Henry did not have a reputation of being wild and reckless therefore dependable. Also, the way the movie lays out the dynamic Henry was somewhat close to Jimmy and Paulie whereas Tommy was not close to Paulie which was the only thing that mattered. You hear about a code of honor in the movies but the real world mafia does not operate that way and it is pragmatic which is to say the high profile earner and his trusted associate gets to stay while the dime per dozen hothead gets whacked.
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allenrogerj — 9 years ago(February 02, 2017 09:48 AM)
Thanks. It's a good answer for why Jimmy and Henry weren't killed. All the same, I'd have expected a little concern about their own lives from them.
Of course, perhaps Scorsese just couldn't resist the irony of showing a pair of murderous s.o.b.s breaking up over the death of an even more murderous s.o.b.. -
RobofNJ — 3 years ago(March 30, 2023 02:34 AM)
I'm gonna deviate from what is popular said about the real-life incident, that Karen got raped. Henry isn't exactly credible. Tommy was a wildcard who bought Paulie lots of problems. It's very likely, this was getting Paulie unwanted attention. He must have finally had it, and just gave into pressure from the Gambinos and Gottis. Tommy was killing people openly and bringing lots of attention. As the movie says, "It was revenge for Billy Batts… and a lot of other things." Henry and Jimmy were smart to lay low. And they weren't bringing attention. Paulie probably knew but because Tommy was a good earner, he overlooked it. But Tommy's antics were becoming too much and he couldn't overlook it later.
There is also claims that Jimmy killed Tommy, and I don't find that hard to believe cause the real Jimmy wasn't the friendly father figure to Henry that the movie made it out to be. He was a truly nasty man who had no respect for either one.