I realize the movie “Goodfellas” was based on true events. However, I never thought this scene was realistic: Why would Billy Batts’ crew leave Billy at the bar alone with Henry and Jimmy, when Tommy had threatened him earlier?

You’re right. The scene is not realistic, for the simple reason this is not the way events occurred in real-life.

William “Billy Batts” Bentvena…

A) Was not murdered the night of his welcome home party from prison at Jimmy Burke’s (Jimmy Conway in the film) bar, Robert’s Lounge, and;

B) Was not murdered for insulting Tommy DeSimone (Tommy DeVito in the film).

(The “shinebox incident” at Bentvena’s welcome home party from prison, depicted in Goodfellas. This incident occurred in late-May 1970, two weeks before the murder, in a different bar and even a different Borough from where the murder was committed.)

Instead, he was murdered two weeks later, on the night of June 11, 1970, at Henry Hill’s bar, The Suite. The reason for his murder was that while Bentvena was in prison, the Gambino crime family entrusted Jimmy Burke with running Bentvena’s very lucrative loan sharking racket in his absence. That racket had brought Burke a small fortune and Burke had no interest in returning it to a newly freed Bentvena.

So Burke enlisted DeSimone and Hill in a plan to murder Bentvena. The plan was for Hill to propose The Suite as neutral ground for Bentvena and Burke to hammer out a deal for the return of the loan sharking racket to Bentvena, for Burke and Hill to get Bentvena black-out drunk, and then Burke, DeSimone and Hill would murder Bentvena and drive his body upstate for burial.

Burke chose DeSimone, in particular, for the murder because DeSimone was still holding a grudge after Bentvena insulted him two weeks before at Bentvena’s welcome home party. Basically, Burke chose DeSimone for the hit simply because DeSimone was enthusiastic to kill Bentvena. But the insult wasn’t the reason for the murder, it was just a recruiting tool to get DeSimone involved.

The plan also called for beating Bentvena to death and digging a grave. DeSimone represented the necessary muscle for such a difficult pair of jobs, as neither Burke nor Hill were physically strong enough for either task. Unlike in the film where he was portrayed by a 47 year old, 5’4” Joe Pesci, the real-life DeSimone was 24 at the time, stood 6’2” tall and weighed 225 pounds – all muscle. Burke and Hill, both of whom were his bosses and major earners and planners in their own crew, were also associates of the Paul Vario crew in the Luccheses. DeSimone, though, was just a low-level enforcer in the Burke crew who was at best a hanger-on to the Vario crew, and was used to being treated by Burke as nothing more than a strong back who had to do all the hard work.

Hill was chosen not just because he owned a popular mob hangout where Bentvena would feel safe, but because he was a stone cold killer, too, with a con-man’s gift for putting a mark at ease. Despite his many bs denials, Hill was every bit as lethal and dangerous as anyone else in the Burke crew, and even admitted to being involved in at least two murders – those of Bentvena and Martin Krugman (called Morrie Kessler in the film). And Hill was almost certainly involved in many more.