Jimmy Burke Behind The Gangster - Reformed Gangsters Podcast

hi everyone I'm Anthony rugiano and I want to welcome everybody to reform gangsters and I and I want to thank Scarlett's Alibi for the music intro um I hope everybody enjoys it [Music] thank you hi everyone my name is Anthony rugiano and in 1988 I was struggling with addiction and I went into a treatment center I set up a helpline number which is 855-963-2113 that's 855-963-2113 that number phones will be manned 24 hours a day seven days a week so if you're struggling with addiction or you know someone that is struggling with addiction please call that number and let me help I will be hands on I will be personally involved in the person's recovery they will meet me they will spend time with me and I will help them live their life beyond their wildest dreams [Music] thank you hi everybody I'm Anthony Luciano and I want to welcome everybody to reformed gangsters and I also want to welcome my friend Hollywood way to the show good to see you again my friend well one of the last times we were here we've done a little segment called behind the gangster where we kind of compare movies to real life and I think it come off real well the video done real well on your channel uh mine as well so I thought we would hit up another one Jimmy Burke what do you say yeah for sure definitely it did well I think I I enjoyed it because you know I I have personal relationships with these people that they made movies about so it's kind of weird sometimes for me to but it's fun right well see you know you meet Jimmy Conway in the movie they call him Jimmy Conway obviously that's not his his real name but you meet him like he's already grown and had done a lot but from what I understand you may be able to shed some light on this he was orphaned at a young age and had a very rough childhood you know anything about that yeah sure yeah he was often he was a foster child he was abused as a young boy actually his foster parents he caused them to crash in the car when he was a young child I heard you heard that story right that's all true story he was a foster child his mother was a prostitute so he really never knew who his father was and how I know all this is because I was friends with him and his children his daughter Kathy his sons Frankie and Jesse he named his two kids after Frank and Jesse James who stay with his idols um yeah but that's all true he was a foster child he was abused physically you know sexually unfortunately I had a terrible childhood and you know and and you know and I guess it made him who he was you know um right I really I mean I ran across the room unfortunately last time I saw him was at his funeral I mean he passed away in prison and I went to his funeral uh because I knew the family but yeah that's all true that's all definitely true and I think the reason why dinero didn't use Brooke um I know before they started filming the movie Robert De Niro had reached out to Jimmy who was up and I think he was in dannemora at the time he was in New York state prison and um they reached out to him if he would allow De Niro to go there and visit him and he said no and De Niro actually met with his family I think in a diner on Crosby Boulevard or somewhere and they asked all they asked of dinero was that they left Frankie the murder of the Sean Frankie out of the movie and they did that cost Casey and De Niro left anything about Frankie out of the movie because as we know his son Frankie was murdered by Tito the barber who later also got married so it was um and they did they respected that and they left it out of the movie now and I know he kind of became you know got his his start people noticed him he took I think a pinch for writing bad checks and he got a little stretching he didn't rattle anybody he didn't say anything and that obviously gets you noticed by some of the higher ups Paulie vario took a liking to him and that's kind of how he started to to rise up the ranks but one question before we get into true false and Goodfellas is a story that I heard that was pretty brutal the night before he got married they said that he went over to his fixing to be wife's house to her ex-boyfriend's house and paid him a visit with a chainsaw do you know anything about that yeah that you know that that's always that was always talked about in my neighborhood it was always rumored um do I know if he did it or not knowing him he probably did do it you know I mean he did do it with the rumor you know potential but uh I went and put it past him I mean he was he was a vicious killer I mean you know um you know people that are around my father had an incident with him where he went into a bar and two kids that were my father Rodney one on who later became a captain in the Gambino family and they saw the kid Frankie geese were in the spine he walked into Bob and he took a guy in the kitchen and he killed the guy and then he helped made them help them put the guy's body in the trunk of his car when he left and later on about a week or two later my father sent for him and told him make sure he left them two kids alone because they were afraid he was going to kill them so he was vicious and would he have done that definitely did I hear that rumor yeah I did now in the movie they do a lot of hijacking it seems like JFK was a cash register for you guys was that like solidified for one family or that every family had a piece how was that divided up because it seemed like that was what Jimmy you know was a lot of there was hijack no as far as the hijacking everybody my father had a crew that hijacked trucks uh Jimmy that Paul Valerie had a crew the only thing that was controlled in the airport was the union was the Teamsters Union was controlled by Paul evario this guy Frank the he was a he was a wise guy with poly value they ran the union all that they ran the union out of the out of Kennedy Airport and later on they were going to diet it for that but as far as High jacket trucks that was a free-for-all okay I mean I I had a lot of stuff back then that came out of the airport a lot of stuff yeah a lot yeah well and we touched on this when we covered the Tommy DeSimone in his episode but the Billy bats killing has been linked to why Tommy was taken out and one of the reasons I know there was a lot more that may have just been the icing on the cake but in the movie it portrays De Niro being just as much a part of it as Tommy if that was true and I'm not saying it was because obviously I wasn't there but if that was true why wasn't Jimmy you know entangled in that because as we both know when you kill a made man that is a No-No in this business was he able to skate on that how was that I think Tommy perpetrated the whole incident I think so that that sort of gave Jimmy a pass okay but like you said there's more to it like not only did Tommy participate in killing Billy Bachelor was the main guy there was also this guy named Foxy from my neighbor that was very close with the he was with the goddess he was a hijack a big time hijacker and they were friends Tommy and Foxy were friends and unfortunately when Tommy was in prison foxy had an affair with Tommy's wife okay so when Tommy got out of prison Tommy killed foxy so I think between Billy bats and Foxy and whatever else he was doing I know the goddies and the Gambino's forced that issue to kill Tommy because what happened was after Tommy got killed my father was in who was very close with Paul evario they were in Springfield Missouri in the federal prison out in Springfield it was a hospital prison where actually John Gotti died and I remember in the visiting room Paulie told my father that they wanted Tommy handed over to them and Paulie told them that he cleans his own dirty laundry and they they did Tommy themselves to fire your crew so it was a number of things and I think Jimmy got a pass because he was Jimmy he was you know poorly protected him and and Tommy was the sacrificial lamb and another interesting thing that Jimmy was involved in that a lot of well some people know about it but the Boston College Point Scandal there wasn't in the movie but those guys made a ton of money with that I mean it wound up I think they did take a case on it later on but they made a lot of money with that Boston oh yeah with that Henry gave that up Henry Hill Gabriel yeah but I knew about that when it was going on I mean Paulie virus crew was very involved in gambling they had a lot of they with biggies they were like on competition with uh we used to go to race tracks and bang out big big they used to call it the super perfector we had a system it was two races and you had to pick four horses that uh or or four or dogs for that came in and then take that ticket and exchange it for next race and we used to buy up to tickets and sometimes we would hit the whole pool so they were into all that and yeah they were fixing races in Boston I mean basketball games in Boston and Henry gave that up there matter of fact they got convicted for that yeah they went to prison for it yeah so that's all that's all real that all really took place I guess how much could they put in a movie I mean how much you got to leave something out yeah um Lufthansa was a huge point in that movie because that's kind of when everything started to go south even though the robbery went off perfect but then one by one in the movie you see Stax Edwards go and then you know it just starts clipping them one by one was that kind of how it really started I know Stacks did leave the the truck which was going to start so I can kind of see Jimmy's thought process of taking out Stacks to try to you know cut the trail cold but then after that do you think it was more of a situation to where greed maybe did play a part is in why give These Guys these shares if I can just kill them or was it trying to make sure nobody connected them to the robbery which one was more prevalent you know what I think it had a lot to do with both I mean it was he didn't trust nobody I mean the rumor was that it was because he didn't want to give nobody their end which I want to put past them because that's that's the life and uh it was a little bit of both I mean the wig guy I mean I he kept asking for his money they didn't trust him they killed him stocks slowly got killed because of what he did with the van I mean I knew stocks I had a beef with Saks years before that in an after-hour Club in South Ozone Park but we became friends after that so yeah he got killed because of the van and everybody else got killed because Jimmy had the money I mean Jimmy had the money he didn't want to probably give nobody's end he didn't trust none of them and he got paranoid you got to understand too which is not spoke about it's always kept on the wraps which I don't know why these guys were all blown Coke free base and Coke I don't know I mean they were all drinking and doing drugs I mean you know it plays on you you know what I mean so Jimmy was probably catching delusions and being greedy and and and they all went yeah and Paulie had to give the okay you know that's another thing nobody talks about Jimmy couldn't just kill these people on his own he had to get permission these guys were all with Paul evario Jimmy was not a wise guy yeah Jimmy was uh Irish right right so he had to go he couldn't just randomly kill people because in the mob even though you know you're murdering people there's protocol you know my father used to tell me there's a right way and a long way to do it you know you have to get permission you got to put it on record you can't just randomly kill people because you're going to get killed so he had to go to Paulie and say listen I want these guys got to go and Paulie had to give him the permission and why would Paulie the only way Paulie would give him the commission the permission is if Jimmy went there would shoe box full of 100 bills and went poorly listen this is for you and these guys got to go so I think it was reported there's been varying reports but somewhere around 15 8 million which was one of the highest at the time I'll tell you a quick story some guys where I lived out in South Carolina like four or five guys come up with this not so bright idea to rob an armored Carr uh one of the guys that worked for the armored car company was in it and they did it was 9.8 million and when I heard that number I knew some of the guys that was involved in I didn't know they were doing it but I knew him and when I heard I said geez I said you guys beat the Lufthansa number and that's pretty impressive and they had to leave a lot they didn't even realize how much was going to be on the truck they had to leave a lot in the truck but uh so towards the end of the film after Lufthansa after everybody starts to go as it starts to wind down everybody starts dealing drugs Henry Hill starts dealing drugs Polly vario is telling them not to but Jimmy's also doing it it seems like as we've mentioned Earl it seems like Jimmy gets a pass again or did they know that he was dealing drugs or was he dealing drugs well Henry Daphne was dealing drugs and I definitely Jimmy was getting a piece because Henry wouldn't do nothing without Jimmy that's like the unwritten law you know everybody was dealing drugs and everybody was paying no mind to it would did Jimmy get a piss of course he got a pass but they were all dealing drugs I mean they were Partners they were all whacking it up I mean I know Henry was deaf Henry became an addict You Know The Enemy was you know even after Henry cooperated when he used to he would go on talk shows drunken you know so he had a definitely had an issue and they were all everybody was dealing with drugs everybody was getting high I mean I got high with them I mean I used to Tommy these Simone used to pick me up by my father's Bar And he as soon as I got in his car he he hand me a package I mean you know they were all using they were all dealing they were all stealing you know it was just crazy and even the Lufthansa you know people getting back to that for a second my father fenced all the jewelry for Lufthansa so that was another million dollars in jewelry they had my father and his partner Tony Lee they fenced all the jewelry for a little tons of about a year after the robbery and they were all using I mean it's a funny story because they wanted me to Once Tommy D Simone and Anthony stabile it was another Psychopathic killer wanted to get high with me one day and I told them no and my brother to this day still teases me he tells me that's the only time you ever refused getting high when I said yeah I'm going to go with them so they could catch a delusion oh God forbid his father finds out we better kill this kid so fat Andy don't find out about it I said I'm gonna go just go with them I told them my brother to this day he still teases me so they were all dealing they were all you know poorly loved Jimmy and he loved Henry and even in Springfield Missouri my father hated Henry Hill for some reason my father never liked Henry um and Henry knew it so Henry would stay away from my father my father was around even with me when I would run into Henry he would like hello and goodbye me he would never like really converse with me or anything he would just like you know acknowledge me but um and in Springfield Missouri my father used to tell Paulie I told you about this guy and Paul used to go please Andy don't break my balls over this enemy I know you never liked them I could send me put Paulie in jail so that's crazy before we hopped on camera you told me a little story about one of your first girlfriends oh yeah when I was a kid I dated Kathy Burke she was a waitress and so you know I got to say one thing about Jimmy Burke and his kids I mean you know they were we were all dear friends and I have all the respect in the world for his children you know uh they all you know the business people lawyers I mean they always worked no matter how much money Jimmy made or who Jimmy was his kids always worked Jesse and Kathy always worked Kathy now has a jewelry business in Manhattan for years um I think Jesse might have even became an attorney now I'm not sure but they always worked Kathy worked from a young age so uh that was I guess that was good I mean I wish I wish my father did that with me made me go to work you know unfortunately for me you know when I was 16 I went to work for my father in a blackjack game you know the other one that got me the other one did it he followed in the business because he used to drive yeah unfortunately Frankie did follow his father into life and and he was killed by a this guy Tito to Barber he was a barber in this barbershop father and son that we all that John Gotti used to go to we all went to it it was like one of the first salons men's salons in our neighborhood so it was like uh so we all the Wise Guys went um yeah and um you know he was in an F down joint one night and um Frankie was a little abusive I mean I like Frankie we got along good but you know unfortunately you know he would drink a little bit he would get a little abusive and he abused the sky Tito you know my father always told me don't underestimate anybody anybody could kill you and that's pretty much what happened you know he was a barber Frankie was Jimmy's son he started abusing this guy Tito and uh Tito was lit up you know on coke and he was a big cofiend and alcohol and he left he went got a gun and Frankie left that night and uh when Frankie walked out of the after hour joint Tito shot him and murdered him and Tito's brother-in-law was a wise guy with the Columbo's name Dominic Cataldo a lot of people don't notice and Tito ran away when after he killed Frankie Burke Tito ran away and Dominic Cataldo who was a wise guy went to Columbus who was Tito's brother-in-law allegedly straightened it out because what happened was three weeks later I'm in this bar because me and Tito were tight I'm in this bar called um it was on 100 the flight 116. it was on 116th Street and and 101st Avenue and I'm in there one night it was in the summer and uh the door opened and Tito walked in and he walked in I don't forget he walked in and he sees me hugs me and I tell him what are you doing here he goes oh my brother goes straight I said I said you killed Jimmy Burke's son what are you crazy what are you doing here he goes no my brother-in-law Dominic straightened it all out I said your brother straightened it all out I said all right so we had a drink and then he wanted to go to an after-hour Club in Jamaica that JoJo carraza um who was the council area of the Gambino family he owned the the cathology so she don't want you to go there with me so we walked we walked out of the flight and Tito says come on driving me I said that's all right I'll meet you there because I wasn't getting in the car with him so we went to the after hour club which and we hung out there and then two days later Tito was in his barber shop and two guys walked in with a newsie and they they blessed him with a newsie so his brother-in-law at the end of the day Dominic set him up uh yeah you know Dominic sent him up so you know that's a little story that you know I haven't really talked about much but and that's why you know when I see these movies and we talk about these movies it's kind of weird because you know I know these people and I know you know I know I I how they died and when they died and it's just a it's a it's sometimes it's like an out of body experience for me to close it out it's a good question here we covered it he wasn't a maid guy he wasn't Italian he was an Irishman but I would say probably from all the research I've done probably one of the most respected Irishmen ever in the Covenant definitely without a doubt you know to speak they because what happens is they put like poorly puts the word out and the head of the family puts the word like they're going to get respect they're allowed to sit down they're getting respected as captains and what like like Joe watts is the same way I don't know you know people are familiar with the name Joe Watts he was one of John Gotti's Hitmen he was English and he was he got his word went out that he was to be respected at like a captain so even though they're not officially made don't have the ceremony they're getting the respect of a made member because of who they are and what they did so they you know yeah but Jimmy was definitely the most well-respected Irish guy uh in the mob that in my lifetime anyway yeah all right well I think that about wraps this one up man for another episode of behind the gangster on Jimmy Burke I think it went well my friend oh yeah it definitely went well and I want to thank everybody for tuning in to reformed gangsters and I'll see you soon

Channel: Anthony Ruggiano

Views: 58,851

Keywords: goodfellas, jimmy burke, james burke, John Gotti, Sammy the bull, Sammy Gravano, Sammy The Bull Gravano, Fat Andy Ruggiano, john alite, gambino crime family, mafia, italian mafia, Anthony ruggiano, Anthony ruggiano Junior, Sammy the bull gravano, SAMMY THE BULL PODCAST, John Gotti Jr, MICHAEL FRANZESE, GAMBINO CRIME FAMILY, GAMBINO FAMILY, ITALIAN MAFIA, jimmy calandra, bonnono, Paul Castellano, fat andy riuggiano, tommy desimone, paul vario, goodfellas movie, Henry hill

Id: hhSb3EHUnLY

Length: 20min 37sec (1237 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 31 2023