re: How ballsy was Spider in Goodfellas?

DeSimone was as close to a true psychopath as you will find. The dude loved killing and it did not mater if you were involved with the mob or not. You could just be doing nothing and if DeSimone was agitated, he might mess you up or kill you.

The only thing that kept DeSimone from being liquidated before 1979 was the fact that he was "Mafia Royalty" . His uncle ran the Los Angeles Mob. By 1978 Vario had enough of him but did not have the go ahead to whack him. He was an extreme liability and the Lucchese family made a deal with the Gambinos to keep the peace. No one on the Lucchese side was upset about the deal