Goodfellas is told through the perspective of Henry Hill, which has made way for a couple of theories, among those one that suggests Henry wasn’t completely honest, which is why throughout the whole movie, he doesn’t kill anyone. Martin Scorsese has brought movies from different genres throughout his career as a filmmaker, but he’s still best known for his gangster movies – and the one often considered as his best (not only from the gangster genre but in general, too) is Goodfellas.
Released in 1990 and based on the book Wiseguy, by Nicholas Pileggi, Goodfellas chronicles the life of Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), from his days as a teenager running errands for Paul Cicero (Paul Sorvino) to becoming an associate of the Lucchese crime family and culminating with him agreeing to cooperate with the FBI. During his days working for Paulie’s crime family, Henry became close to some of the biggest names in the mob at the time, such as Jimmy “The Gent” Conway (Robert De Niro) and Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci), with whom he committed a number of crimes, yet curiously enough, Henry isn’t shown killing anyone, but Jimmy and Tommy are.
Although Goodfellas only has five on-screen deaths, there are many others known to have happened off-screen and, of course, there surely were many before the events in the movie, but Henry isn’t seen or mentioned to have killed anyone. As Goodfellas is told through Henry’s perspective, many viewers see him as an unreliable narrator and believe he could have lied to the FBI, meaning that the events of the movie didn’t happen as shown.
Henry Hill Never Kills Anyone In Goodfellas
As mentioned above, Goodfellas has only five on-screen deaths – Billy Batts, Spider, Parnell “Stacks” Edward, Morrie Kessler, and Tommy, whose death came as to a sort-of surprise to the audience – but there are many others that happened off-screen and were confirmed with the on-screen discovery of the bodies, as was the case for Johnny Roastbeef and his wife, Frenchy and Joe Buddha, and Frankie Carbone. Most of these deaths were by the hands of either Tommy or Jimmy or ordered by them (in Tommy’s case, his murder remains a mystery as it’s unknown who killed him and who ordered to have him killed), and though Henry was present when some of these happened, he never pulled the trigger nor did he stab anyone to death, which seems odd for someone so devoted to his work with the mob.
Theory: Henry Hill Is Lying To The FBI About Jimmy & Tommy
All that, along with the fact that the movie is told through his perspective, has made the audience believe Henry is actually lying. The whole voiceover narration is seen by many as Henry telling his story to the FBI, and as such, he might have not been entirely honest with them. A Reddit user suggests Henry is lying to the FBI to make himself look better than the rest and exaggerating the actions of Paulie, Jimmy, and Tommy. This is why throughout Goodfellas Henry isn’t seen killing anyone, and only limits himself to threatening and witnessing his friends’ crimes, as he did with Billy Batts’ murder. The theory is supported by how Henry was shown to be a liar since he was young, so most of the events in Goodfellas might have been embellished to his benefit.
Henry Hill Being An Associate Could Also Explain his Lack of Kills
However, there might be another reason why Henry doesn’t kill anyone in Goodfellas, and it’s all about his role within the Lucchese family. As mentioned above, Henry Hill was an associate, which means he has different privileges and jobs than people like Paulie and other “made men”. Goodfellas actually addressed the fact that not only Henry but also Jimmy can’t become “made men” within the mob as they are both half-Irish, and in order to be a made man, the associate has to be full-blooded Italian American, as was the case of Tommy (who was, unfortunately, tricked into believing he was being made when he was actually about to be murdered in retaliation for Billy Batt’s murder and possibly other crimes, too).
In the American Mafia, there’s a strict hierarchical structure similar to the Sicilian one. The modern organizational structure of the American Mafia is credited to Salvatore Maranzano, who created the Five Families – Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, and Lucchese – and each one has a boss, underboss, caporegimes/capos, and soldiers. Before becoming a soldier and then escalating through this structure, those interested in joining the mob are “associates”, which means they are not members of the mafia but still work for a crime family. Associates can include a wide range of people working for the family, including people the family does business with, like restaurant owners, or a criminal who serves as a go-between in criminal transactions or deals drugs to keep police attention away from actual members of the family. Now, associates can have a variety of duties, from being an errand boy (like Henry during his teenage years and maybe even what Spider did) to virtually having the same duties as a soldier, such as assault, murder, extortion, intimidation, etc.
Although this means that Henry could have been “allowed” to kill people like Jimmy did (who, it must be noted, was as respected as an actual mafia member even though he never became a made man), it’s also very possible that he wasn’t, and so his duties with the Lucchese family were limited to extortion, intimidation, and many others, and murder was off the table for him.
Did The Real Henry Hill Kill Anyone?
Goodfellas doesn’t show Henry Hill killing anyone, and Wiseguy has no evidence of him killing anyone either, but that might not be entirely true. Henry Hill has been pointed out by many as a liar, and many have claimed he told many, many lies about his criminal life once he got out of the mob (and completely blew his cover as he lived under the witness protection program for years), and among his many lies is whether he killed people during his time as an associate or not. During a (drunken) interview with Howard Stern in 2002, Henry admitted to killing three people as ordered by Jimmy, but there’s also no evidence of this. Some believe that committing murder isn’t always pulling the trigger or holding the knife, but taking part in the planning and assisting in it counts as it, so through that lens, Henry was definitely guilty of murder, too.
The veracity of Henry Hill’s testimonies and stories is still questioned by many, who believe he lied about his actions as a mob associate to protect himself (like his character probably did in Goodfellas), while others add that he would have never been able to be so close to people like Jimmy and Tommy if he had never killed anyone. The truth about Henry Hill’s possible murders and lies might never be known as he's already dead, so in the end, it will be up to every viewer to decide if the story told in Goodfellas was a lie or he truly never killed anyone.