Goodfellas: Was Michael Imperioli's Spider Real? True Story Explained
Goodfellas is based on a true story, and as such, it features many characters based on real-life gangsters, while others were a combination of them – so, was Michael Imperioli’s character, Spider, also a real person? Throughout his career as a filmmaker, Martin Scorsese has explored a variety of genres, such as black comedy (After Hours) and psychological thriller (Taxi Driver), but continues to be best-known for his gangster movies – and the one that is still regarded as his best is the 1990 movie Goodfellas.
Based on the book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi, Goodfellas chronicles the life of Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), from his days as a teenager fascinated by the mafia presence in his Italian-American neighborhood in Brooklyn to running errands for Paul Cicero (Paul Sorvino) and his crew and later his full involvement with them, culminating with him becoming an FBI informant. During his time working with the Lucchese crime family, Henry became acquainted with some big names in the mafia, as were Jimmy “The Gent” Conway (Robert De Niro) and Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci), this last one a very violent and impulsive man, and it was because of him that Henry (and the audience) was witness to many deaths.
Among those characters who died in Goodfellas and by the hand of Tommy was “Spider” (Michael Imperioli), a young man who made a brief but unforgettable appearance in the movie. Spider only appeared twice in Goodfellas and in the same scenario: a card game, attended by Henry, Jimmy, Tommy, and other associates. Spider was bartending, but he forgot Tommy’s drink, which didn’t sit well with him, and so he started to argue with the young man. The argument was amusing to the rest as they started laughing, but that only made Tommy angrier, who continued yelling as Spider left to get his drink. Tommy ended up shooting him on the foot, but Spider was back a week later, serving them drinks during another card game and wearing a cast on his foot. Tommy started teasing him about it, but Spider had enough and told him to “go f*** himself”. Jimmy praised Spider, which angered Tommy, who shot Spider multiple times, killing him.
Like many other characters in Goodfellas, Spider is based on a real-life person, and according to the real Henry Hill, his death in the movie happened just as it did in real-life. Spider’s real name was Michael Gianco, and he became associated with the Lucchese family sometime in the 1960s. He mostly served the crew drinks during their card games, and one bad night, he was shot on the thigh when Tommy (whose real last name was DeSimone) ordered him to dance. After a break to heal, Gianco returned wearing a leg cast, and DeSimone didn’t miss the opportunity to tease him again and ordered him to dance. This led Spider to tell him the same words as in Goodfellas, and Jimmy (real last name: Burke) started pushing DeSimone’s buttons by praising Gianco’s courage. Tommy then shot Gianco in the chest, killing him, and Henry described that moment as the one when he realized DeSimone was “a total psychopath”.
As for what happened to Gianco’s body, Burke was so pissed at DeSimone for killing him that he ordered him to dig a hole in the cellar of the bar (Robert’s Lounge, owned by Burke) and bury him there, but his remains were never found. According to Henry Hill, Burke buried “over a dozen bodies” at the bar, and in 1980, a human leg bone and part of a human shoulder bone were excavated from the basement, and they were thought to be those of Martin Krugman and the one and only Tommy DeSimone, though that remains unclear. Spider had a short life and a brutal death by one of the most dangerous and impulsive gangsters of the Lucchese crew, and his death was as shocking as Imperioli’s in Goodfellas.
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