re: Goodfella’s Question

I've always thought that he wasn't going to kill her and that the scene was meant to illustrate the paranoia and fear of what happens in the mob when you're even suspected of ratting. Plus the effects of all that good cocaine

I always assumed he just wanted to scare her. Jimmy is an amoral psychopath and he wanted to remind Henry and Karen of what he’s capable of despite the familiarity they all had with each other

like has been said if he wanted her dead she’d be dead. Plus, it would be a pussy move to kill a man’s wife when the one who needed killing (for jimmy) was Henry

I’ve struggled with this same question and cannot figure out the answer.

If Jimmy wanted them dead it would have happened. I too feel Jimmy was testing Karen's trust in him and when she didn't, they both had to go since she knew too much.

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Ive read the funny guy scene was planned so Liotta had no idea what was going on and his reaction was genuine. None of the others around had no idea either

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It was improvised during rehearsals, based on a real life encouter with a mobster by Pesci, then added to the script.

Here's a video of Pesci and Liotta talking about it.

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The guys inside the building didn’t look like they were ready to kill anyone. They were just moving boxes around.

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I mean if you want to whack someone, looking like you are doing something else is probably the plan. Just standing there looking menacing usually doesn't attract people to come in.

I always saw as him killing or doing harm to her. He would have walked with her if it was nothing. The fact he stayed back and looked around was what made it suspicious. Of course, maybe, by her going in there, if she was followed, the cops would come out of surveillance to protect her.

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He had her alone in a dark, secluded, empty stairwell. I doubt he'd have moved her from there out into an open street in broad daylight, where someone could've seen her go into that open storage room and hear her screams.

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I doubt he would have gotten his hands dirty when he would automatically be the prime suspect. It made more sense for him to have someone else (who would later be killed) do the deed. He took part in the Batts murder but that was a crime of passion; all the other murders he ordered, he had someone else do the actual murdering.

What they don’t cover in the movie is that Karen was sleeping with Paulie as payment for Henry’s protection inside. Jimmy wouldn’t have touched her but Tommy actually did try to SA her, partly why he was whacked. That scene is to show her paranoia and how exposed she was with what was going on.