Goodfellas: Why Jimmy Conway Changed His Mind About Killing Morrie (Twice)

Goodfellas showed that you can’t trust anyone in the mob, and Morrie’s case is a good example. Morrie was killed under Jimmy Conway’s orders, even though he told Henry Hill he wasn’t going to do it – so why did he change his mind? Although Martin Scorsese has explored different genres, he’s best known for his gangster movies – and the one considered by many as his masterpiece is Goodfellas.

Based on the book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi, Goodfellas chronicles the life of mobster Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), from his days as a teenager fascinated by the criminal life and mafia presence in his Italian-American neighborhood in Brooklyn, to his involvement with the family of Paul Cicero (Paul Sorvino) and serving as an FBI informant. While working for the mafia, Henry became close to Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci) and Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro), two very dangerous gangsters who didn’t hesitate in killing those who stood on their way. Among those was Morrie Kessler (Chuck Low), whose death has raised a few questions among viewers.

Morrie was the owner of a wig shop and had some unfinished business with Jimmy Conway, as he owed him money. However, what got him killed was his insistence on getting part of the money from the Lufthansa heist and telling his wife about it, after Jimmy had told everyone involved not to say a word so they wouldn’t get caught. Jimmy was planning on killing Morrie, and Henry was aware, so he tried to buy some time to convince Jimmy not to do it. Jimmy told Henry to forget about it, lifting that weight off Henry’s shoulders, but he killed Morrie anyway a few hours later. This has confused viewers as they are not sure why Jimmy changed his mind about killing Morrie or if he ever did, as there are some important details to take into account and which point at Jimmy’s plan never really changing.

First off, and as many viewers have pointed out, Goodfellas is told through the eyes of Henry Hill and some parts through his wife’s perspective. Both are unreliable narrators, so it’s possible that the part where Jimmy appears to change his mind about his plans of killing Morrie is just Henry’s way to make the audience (and later the FBI) think he wasn’t involved in it. Now, what seems to confuse some viewers is that Morrie owed a lot of money to Jimmy, but as the latter never gave him his part from the Lufthansa heist, it’s assumed that he took what he was owed from that, so there wouldn’t really be a reason to kill him – except that he kept pushing Jimmy’s buttons and made the big mistake of telling his wife everything.

On the other hand, it could be possible that Jimmy changed his mind for a while and wasn’t lying to Henry, but once Morrie started asking about the money again on their way to the car, he changed his mind one last time and proceeded with the plan of killing him. However, when looking at Jimmy’s behavior through the whole movie and especially after the Lufthansa heist, as he killed almost everyone involved out of fear that they could talk too much, it’s more likely that he had planned to kill Morrie and never changed his mind, and instead lied to Henry as he knew he wasn’t fully on board with the plan. Jimmy’s reason for killing Morrie, then, wouldn’t have been exactly to save him from paying him his part but to stop him from quite possibly telling more people about the heist and thus getting caught. Whether Jimmy changed his mind or not is slightly open to interpretation as there are a couple of details in Goodfellas to take into account, so in a way, it’s up to every viewer if Henry was lying about it, Jimmy’s plans changed all of a sudden (twice), or he just saved Henry from being involved in another murder.

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Adrienne Tyler
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Adrienne Tyler is a features writer for Screen Rant. She is an Audiovisual Communication graduate who wanted to be a filmmaker, but life had other plans (and it turned out great). Prior to Screen Rant, she wrote for Pop Wrapped, 4 Your Excitement (4YE), and D20Crit, where she was also a regular guest at Netfreaks podcast. She was also a contributor for FanSided’s BamSmackPow and 1428 Elm. Adrienne is very into films and she enjoys a bit of everything: from superhero films to heartbreaking dramas, to low-budget horror films. Every time she manages to commit to a TV show without getting bored, an angel gets its wings.

When she’s not writing, you can find her trying to learn a new language, watching hockey (go Avs!), or wondering what life would have been like had Pushing Daisies, Firefly, and Limitless not been cancelled. Breakfast food is life and coffee is what makes the world go round.

Guillermo del Toro said “hi” to her once. It was great.

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