William Bentvena

William Joseph Bentvena (February 22, 1933 – June 11, 1970), also known as “Billy Batts”, was an American mobster with the Gambino crime family who was a longtime friend of John Gotti in the 1960s. After spending six years in prison for narcotics trafficking, Bentvena was murdered by Lucchese crime family associate Tommy DeSimone, with the help of fellow Lucchese associates James Burke and Henry Hill.

Life Bentvena was born in Manhattan as the second of four children of a first generation Sicilian Italian-American father and an Irish immigrant mother. Little is known about his early life other than that he grew up in the same area in Brooklyn as DeSimone and Hill. By 1940, Bentvena and his family had moved to the Arverne, Queens.

In September 1958, Bentvena married Queens-born Patricia McGovern in Union City, New Jersey, and would have four children together.

In May 1958, Bentvena became a member of what would become known as the Ormento Group, a heroin smuggling ring (named after John Ormento, a capo in the Lucchese crime family, the "CEO" of the group); "Managing Directors" were Carmine Galante and Anthony Mirra. On February 14, 1959, Bentvena 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 Bentvena and charged him with possession and exchange of narcotics. Bentvena was later convicted of heroin smuggling in June 1962 alongside co-defendant Galante and sentenced to 15 years in the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut.

Murder After his release in 1970, according to the mafia memoir Wiseguy, Henry Hill describes the "welcome home" party for Bentvena at Robert's Lounge, a nightclub owned by James Burke. Bentvena jokingly asked Tommy DeSimone "if he still shined shoes", which DeSimone perceived as an insult, leaning over to Hill and Burke to say, "I'm gonna kill that fuck."

In 1980, facing a lengthy sentence for cocaine trafficking, Hill turned state's evidence and testified at the trials of both James Burke and Paul Vario. Charges were also being prepared against Burke for the murder of Bentvena. However, they did not stand legal scrutiny, as Hill claimed to be both the sole living witness as well as an accomplice.

The events of the 1970 murder of Batts (Bentvena) are featured in the 1990 Martin Scorsese film Goodfellas. In a scene, which has been described as "iconic", Batts (portrayed by Frank Vincent) has a frank exchange with Tommy DeVito (played by Joe Pesci, based on Tommy DeSimone) at his welcome home party. The insult by Batts to DeVito—"Now go home and get your fucking shine box!"—has become one of the most memorable lines in cinema history.

Bentvena's widow, Patricia (who had then remarried), died on September 5, 2009.