William Devino

William 'Billy Batts' Devino (January 19, 1921 – June 11, 1970) was a New York mobster with the Gambino crime family who was a longtime friend of Gambino boss John Gotti in the 1960s. After spending six years in prison, Devino was murdered by mobster Tommy DeSimone, with the help of his associates Jimmy Burke and Henry Hill after the fact.

Early life and prison

Born in Brooklyn, little is known about Devino's early life other than that he grew up with DeSimone and Hill. In 1959, Devino became an associate with the Gambino crime family and in 1961 became a full member, or made man. Devino was a protegé street soldier for Carmine Fatico and later John Gotti. In 1964, Devino went to Bridgeport, Connecticut to complete a drug deal for Joseph "Joe The Crow" DelVecchio and Oreste "Ernie Boy" Abbamonte. When he arrived in Bridgeport, undercover police arrested Devino and charged him with possession and exchange of narcotics. Devino was later convicted and sentenced to 6 years in the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut. Devino was released from prison on June 9, 1970.

Confrontation with DeSimone and Burke

On June 11, 1970, Devino went to a bar called The Suite in Jamaica, Queens to celebrate his release. While at The Suite, Devino ran into DeSimone. Devino had not seen DeSimone since both men were teenagers. Devino remarked that DeSimone used to shine shoes. Hill later said that Devino provoked DeSimone because he wanted to impress some mobsters from another crime family. DeSimone took the shoe shine jab as an insult, but held his anger in check.

The common belief, perpetuated by the movie "Goodfellas", is that DeSimone murdered Devino for insulting him at the Suite. However, the real reason for the Devino murder was that Burke had taken over Devino's loanshark business while Devino was in prison. According to Hill, Devino had been complaining to Joe Gallo about getting back this racket. Not wanting to give the business back to Devino, Burke decided to kill him instead. When he was attacked Devino was too drunk to defend himself.

Disposing Devino

After Devino was attacked and presumably killed, DeSimone, Burke, and Hill loaded the corpse in the trunk of Hill's car and drove away from the bar. While they were driving, the car had a minor collision with a van on the Van Wyck Expressway in Queens. Soon after the collision, the men started hearing thudding sounds from the trunk and realized that Devino was still alive. They then stopped at DeSimone's mother's house to collect a knife, some lime, and a shovel. She made them drink coffee, chat and have some breakfast while the critically wounded Devino was still in the trunk. Upon arriving at an isolated piece of land in Connecticut owned by a friend of Burke's, the three mobsters opened the trunk of the car and murdered Devino. Once Devino had died, the men buried him under a dog kennel.

Hill has told various versions of the Devino murder, including burials in Pennsylvania, Upstate New York, and Connecticut. In the book "The Real GoodFella", Hill said that they "didn't actually shoot him, they just stabbed him, thirty or forty fucking times, fucking horrible." However, in "Wiseguy", Hill does not mention a knife.

Aftermath

Six months after Devino's murder, Burke found out that the Connecticut property was going to be developed. Burke ordered Hill and DeSimone to dig up Devino's half-decomposed corpse and dispose of it elsewhere. In "Wiseguy", Hill said the body was eventually crushed in a mechanical compactor at a New Jersey junkyard.

On January 14, 1979, DeSimone was murdered. It was widely speculated that the Gambino family ordered the death of DeSimone, a mob associate with the Lucchese crime family, for killing Devino. Since Devino was a made man, he could not be killed without permission from the Gambino's. Unlike Devino, DeSimone was not a made man and was vulnerable. Paul Vario told the Gambinos who murdered the two men. This was done out of revenge for DeSimone attempting to rape Karen Hill, who was having an affair with Vario while her husband was in jail. An alternative theory is that the Gambino family did not know about the Devino murder and that Gotti may have just wanted revenge for DeSimone's murder of Ronald Jerothe, another Gambino mobster.

In popular culture

The book "Gangsters and Wiseguy", written by Hill, states that Devino's birth name was William Paul DeVino. However, FBI Agent Edward McDonald informed an aide to Hill that Devino's name was really Billy Batts and nothing else.

Devino is portrayed by Frank Vincent in the film "Goodfellas".

References

*Pileggi, Nicholas. "Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family". New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985. ISBN 0671723227
*Russo, Gus and Henry Hill. "Gangsters and GoodFellas: Wiseguys and Life on the Run". Mainstream Publishing, 2004. ISBN 1840188812
*"Goodfellas". Dir. Martin Scorsese. Perf. Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, and Joe Pesci. 1990. DVD. Warner Bros.
*"The Real Goodfella". Dir. George Simon. Narr. Richard Dillane. 2006. Channel 4 Television Corporation.