On this day‬ in 1970 a longtime friend of John Gotti, William Bentvena, was murdered in true mob style. Perhaps a lot of you are more familiar with his nickname Billy Batts and the famous scene that was partially reenacted in Goodfellas. The true story of his murder goes something like this; Bentvena went to a bar owned by Henry Hill called The Suite in Jamaica, Queens. While in the bar he ran into Tommy DeSimone and remarked that DeSimone used to shine shoes when he was a little boy. DeSimone took the remark about how he shined shoes in his youth as an insult, but held his anger in check, despite being in the presence of other high ranking mobsters. The real reason for the murder was that Burke had taken over Bentvena’s loanshark business while he was in prison. Not wanting to return the business to Bentvena, Burke decided to eliminate him instead. When he was attacked, Bats was so inebriated he failed to defend himself.

On this day in 1970, William "Billy Batts" Bentvena met a brutal end that would later become one of the most memorable episodes in mob folklore, immortalised — with a degree of dramatic licence — in Martin Scorsese's 1990 masterpiece Goodfellas. A made member of the Gambino crime family and a longtime associate of John Gotti, Bentvena was 49 years old when his violent death set in motion a chain of events that exposed the treacherous undercurrents running through the streets of New York's underworld.

The events of that fateful night unfolded at The Suite, a bar in Jamaica, Queens, operated by the notorious Henry Hill. Bentvena, freshly released from a six-year stretch in federal prison, was in a celebratory mood and perhaps less guarded than a man of his experience should have been. When he encountered Tommy DeSimone — known to history as Tommy DeVito in the film — he made the fatal mistake of openly mocking the younger man, loudly recalling how DeSimone had shined shoes as a boy. For a man as violently prideful as DeSimone, the public humiliation was an unforgivable slight, particularly delivered in front of senior figures. Though he maintained his composure in the moment, DeSimone was seething.

However, the insult alone did not seal Bentvena's fate. The more calculating hand belonged to Jimmy Burke, the Lucchese associate whose criminal instincts rarely allowed sentiment to interfere with opportunity. During Bentvena's years behind bars, Burke had effectively absorbed his lucrative loanshark operation, and the prospect of handing it back to its rightful owner held no appeal whatsoever. Burke recognised that DeSimone's wounded pride provided a convenient cover for a murder that served his own financial interests far more than any question of honour. The two men's motivations converged, and Bentvena's fate was sealed.

When the attack came, Bentvena was so heavily intoxicated that he was unable to mount any meaningful resistance. He was beaten savagely inside the bar before being bundled into the boot of a car and driven to a makeshift grave in upstate New York, where Burke later returned to move the body after the location was inadvertently compromised. The killing of a made Gambino man without the Commission's approval was a serious violation of mob protocol, one that would ultimately contribute to DeSimone's own murder.

The story of Billy Batts endures as a stark illustration of how ego, greed, and betrayal could prove lethal even for those who had earned their stripes within the most powerful criminal organisation in America. His death remains one of the most instructive cautionary tales in the annals of organised crime.