How a crime-fighting Brooklyn prosecutor landed a key role in…
It was the role of his lifetime.
In the late Eighties, New York prosecutor Edward McDonald was an off-the-cuff advisor on “Goodfellas.” He told director Martin Scorsese’s team about his work, in real life, with mobster Henry Hill — the protagonist in the movie who’s performed by Ray Liotta — and helped them get all the particulars just proper.
McDonald was even set to be a character in the movie, and trade rumors advised Brian Dennehy may play him. But McDonald quipped to Scorsese’s assistant, “What about me? I would be great!”
Per week later, he discovered himself having a display take a look at in the Warner Bros. workplaces on 51st Street in Manhattan, in entrance of Scorsese himself.
The pair acquired on famously and McDonald left in a daze.
Film director Martin Scorcese and Edward McDonald are seen on the “Goodfellas” film set in July 1989.
When he acquired again to his workplace an hour later, there was a telephone name from the film’s screenwriter, Nick Pileggi. “Marty loved it,” he told McDonald. “You got the part!”
Within weeks, McDonald met with Liotta and Robert De Niro.
McDonald, now 79, recounts his unlikely casting and his work prosecuting crime, in his new ebook “Chasing Goodfellas: Lufthansa, Henry Hill, Point Shaving, and Making Movies” (Post Hill Press, Oct. 13).
As the head of the Justice Department’s Organized Crime Strike Force in Brooklyn during the Seventies and ’80s, McDonald led advanced federal investigations into the Mafia, corruption and racketeering. He secured the convictions of 5 corrupt US congressmen and over 70 corrupt labor officers and efficiently prosecuted over 60 La Cosa Nostra members and the leaders of a number of Mafia households in New York. He also met Henry Hill.
In his new memoir, McDonald writes of how he was solid in ‘Goodfellas,’ after he consulted on the movie.
A felony since he was a child, Hill’s rap sheet was lengthy, including jail sentences for petit larceny, bookmaking, loan-sharking, assault and extortion. Then there have been the other crimes for which he had yet to prosecuted, including theft, bribery, truck hijackings, firearms possession and sales, burying a physique and trafficking in heroin, cocaine and capsules.
With so many costs hanging over him, Hill had nowhere left to show, however fairly than prosecute him, McDonald satisfied him to be a cooperating witness, finally molding him into a key authorities informant across a vary of instances.
“Because of his affable nature and the extensive contacts he made, there were always people who would clue Henry in to promising opportunities,” writes McDonald.
McDonald performed himself in ‘Goodfellas’ and appeared in scenes with stars Lorraine Braco and Ray Liotta, who portrayed Karen and Henry Hill.
Hill’s testimony proved invaluable, particularly in securing convictions on the Lufthansa heist. On Dec. 11,1978, six armed males raided a Lufthansa Airlines cargo facility at John F. Kennedy airport and stole $5 million in money and round $875,000 in jewellery (round $30 million in complete today), making it the largest theft in US historical past at the time.
The heist was masterminded by Jimmy “The Gent” Burke, an affiliate of the Lucchese crime household — who occurred to have been a mentor to Hill — together with an insider, Lufthansa worker Louis Werner.
Working with Hill, McDonald not only secured a conviction for the Lufthansa heist however also unearthed more criminality, including Burke and Hill’s 1978 scheme to deprave Boston College basketball gamers by paying them to rig games.
In real life, McDonald labored intently with Hill (pictured with spouse Karen), a mobster who turned a precious informant.
Burke and Hill had co-opted a number of gamers in the BC team, paying them to not throw games however to control the margin by which their team gained or misplaced games, with large underground bets being made accordingly. “[Hill] explained that it was point-shaving. The kids did not have to lose,” McDonald writes. “They would get paid for games in which BC was favored, if they succeeded in keeping that margin of victory below what the oddsmakers had set as their ‘betting line’ or ‘point spread’ by which BC was favored to win.”
Ultimately, Hill’s testimony helped McDonald safe some 50 convictions across a number of instances. In flip, McDonald ensured that Hill, his spouse and his two kids entered the Witness Protection Program. As for himself, the lawyer was never that apprehensive about his personal security.
“I was never seriously concerned about violence or threats from the mob,” he said. “I believed that the bosses had despatched out the message that any hurt or threats to prosecutors would result in far an excessive amount of warmth and nobody ought to ever be so silly.
Robert De Niro and Ray Liotta in a scene from ‘Goodfellas.’ ©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection
“Perhaps we were naïve or wishfully thinking.”
When “Goodfellas” was launched in September 1990, it met with crucial and business acclaim, receiving six Oscar nominations and successful one, Best Supporting Actor, for Joe Pesci’s portrayal of psychotic mobster Tommy DeVito.
McDonald’s performance was also singled out. “People are going to remember you for this movie!” screenwriter Pileggi told him. “Plus, you’re the only actor who doesn’t curse — a lot.”
In the ebook, McDonald writes of how working with Hill not only resulted in a film role however also gave option to a decades-long friendship.
Hill and McDonald grew shut. Hill died at age 69 in Los Angeles in 2012. Corbis by way of Getty Images
“There was something about Henry that made him likeable. He was charming, self-deprecating, and funny,” he writes. “We could never forget how despicable and sometimes infuriating he could be, but he was often fun to be around.”
Hill died from smoking-related coronary heart points at West Hills Hospital in West Hills, Los Angeles, on June 11, 2012, the day after his 69th birthday.
“It was amazing he lived so long,” McDonald said. But, “as Henry said in ‘Goodfellas,’ ‘it was a glorious time.’ ”
We offer you the latest trending matters on C-lebrity. Get the best latest Entertainment news and content on our web site daily.