James Burke (Mafioso)

Jimmy Conway, or Jimmy Burke (July 5, 1931–April 13, 1996), was an Irish-American gangster who is believed to have organized the Lufthansa heist in 1978. Nicknamed Jimmy The Gent, Burke is familiar to most people via Robert De Niro's depiction of him in the movie Goodfellas.

He was born James Conway in New York City in 1931 and, for reasons unknown, was placed in a foster home when he was two, never to see his natural parents again. He was shuttled around various homes and orphanages, suffering physical and sexual abuse at the hands of various foster fathers and foster brothers. He eventually adopted the name of Burke after one foster family.

"Jimmy The Gent"

It is suspected that Burke committed a number of murders for the Mafia during the 1950s, in addition to plenty of other crimes such as importing cheap cigarettes and buying even cheaper liquor. He got married in 1962 and is rumored to have murdered and dismembered an ex-boyfriend of his bride because he was being a nuisance. He fathered a daughter and two sons, Frank James Burke and Jesse James Burke, (named after the famous outlaw).

Burke was a mentor of Thomas DeSimone and Henry Hill, who were both teenagers in the 1960s. They carried out errands for Burke, such as selling stolen merchandise. When they were older, the pair helped Burke with the hijacking of delivery trucks. According to Hill, Burke would usually give $50 to the drivers of the trucks they stole, as if he were tipping them for the inconvenience, which lead to his nickname Jimmy The Gent.

Roberts Lounge bar, which was located in Ozone Park, Queens, was a favorite hangout of Burke and Fortuna (before his marriage to Lisa), along with many other mobsters and criminals. Burke eventually began a loan shark and bookmaking operation that was based at the bar.

In 1972, Jimmy Burke and Henry Hill were arrested for beating up a man who owed them a large gambling debt. They were charged with extortion, convicted and sentenced to ten years in prison. Burke was paroled after six years and went straight back to crime, as did Hill, who got out around the same time. Hill shortly began dealing in cocaine, and Burke was soon in on this new enterprise, even though the Lucchese Family, to whom they were loosely attached, did not authorize anyone dealing in drugs. This ban was made because the prison sentences imposed on people convicted of drug trafficking were so lengthy that those facing such charges would often become informants to avoid jail time—which is exactly what was to happen with Henry Hill.

He was born James Conway in New York City in 1931 and, for reasons unknown, was placed in a foster home when he was two, never to see his natural parents again. He was shuttled around various homes and orphanages, suffering physical and sexual abuse at the hands of various foster fathers and foster brothers. He eventually adopted the name of Burke after one foster family.

Downfall

In February 1979, a few months after the Heist, Burke strangled to death a mobster named Richard Eaton who had swindled him out of $250,000 in a cocaine deal. Eaton's body was found bound and gagged on February 18 in Brooklyn.

The following year, 1980, saw Henry Hill being arrested for drug trafficking. He became an FBI informant in order to avoid prison. Also that year, one of the few criminals to have actually been prosecuted for the Lufthansa Heist became an informant after serving just twelve months of a fifteen-year prison sentence in the hope of getting an early release.

Partly thanks to the testimony of these informants, Jimmy Burke was taken into custody on April 1, 1980, on suspicion of a number of crimes. He was subsequently convicted at a trial in 1982 of fixing basketball games as part of a gambling scam in 1978 and was sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment. Authorities knew he had organized the Lufthansa Heist, but they did not have enough evidence to prove it.

Burke was later charged with the murder of Robert Eaton based on evidence Henry Hill gave to authorities. At the trial, Hill took the stand and testified against his former friend. Burke was convicted and on February 19, 1985; he was given a life sentence.

Burke was serving his time in Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, New York, when he developed lung cancer. He died from this disease on April 13, 1996, aged 64, while being treated at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York. Had he lived he would have been eligible for parole in 2004.

Movie Depictions

Burke has been portrayed in two movies. In Goodfellas, a 1990 movie based on a book cowritten with Henry Hill, Burke was portrayed by Robert De Niro and the character went under his birth name of Conway. He was also portrayed in the television movie The Big Heist, in which he was played by Donald Sutherland.

In Goodfellas, Burke was portrayed as a powerful, arrogant, and shrewd gangster but not as violent as he truly was. He was also a classic psychopath. In The Big Heist, Burke was portrayed as an aging immigrant gangster whose actions were primarily motivated to keep in the Mafia's good graces and to keep his son from being killed.