Bumping off Billy Batts
- Time stamp: June 11, 1970. Queens, New York.
- At The Suite Lounge, Billy Batts sends Henry and Jimmy drinks. Tommy shows up with a date, explaining that his homeboy Henry owns the joint.
- Billy calls Tommy over to say hello. Billy has been in the big house, and he can't believe Tommy is all grown up. Tommy is uncomfortable.
- Billy tells his pals about Tommy's past as a shoeshine boy. Tommy gets ticked; he doesn't shine shoes anymore. Billy tells him to calm down, and he does.
- Then, Billy, knowing exactly what he's doing, tells Tommy to go home and get his shine box. Oh, no, he didn't.
- Tommy goes berserk. Henry has to yank him out of the bar.
- Fast-forward to the end of the night. Billy is drunk and talking to Jimmy at the bar. Tommy sneaks in behind him. Then, he and Jimmy kill Billy.
- Henry says this is bad. Like, really bad. Billy's whole crew is going to be looking for him.
- Jimmy says they know a place where they can hide the body, and they load Billy's corpse into the trunk. So that's who was in the trunk at the beginning of the movie.
- They stop at Tommy's mom's house in the middle of the night to get a shovel. She's stoked to see her baby boy and his friends but is worried about what has happened to them. You know, 'cause there's blood on their clothes and all of that. Oh, moms.
- Tommy's mom makes them a huge meal. Tommy tells her they hit a deer and borrows her butcher knife. He says the deer's hoof got caught on the car, and he needs to hack it off. Eat up, fellas.
- While Tommy's mom gives Tommy a hard time about not settling down with a nice girl—and shows off her lovely painting of two dogs—we hear Billy beating on the trunk from inside. This isn't good.
- Then, we jump back to the scene that started the movie: Henry, Tommy, and Jimmy driving—and hearing a mysterious sound coming from the car.
- While Henry digs a grave for Billy, he explains that killings were part of the game. But whacking Billy? Bad move. Billy was a made guy. Part of the Gambino crew. Considered untouchable.
- In short, if you want to kill a made guy, you better have a super-good reason and get the official OK. Otherwise, you're getting whacked next.