James "Jimmy" Conway was an Irish-American associate of the Lucchese crime family, who was best known for his ruthless murder of several members of the Cicero Crew in 1978 after committing the Lufthansa Heist. He was testified against by fellow mobster-turned-informant Henry Hill, and was sentenced to life in prison. He died in jail in 1996.
Biography[]
Jimmy Conway was the son of two Irish immigrants, but was adopted by the Conway family. In the 1950s, he was taken under the wing of Lucchese Capo Paul Cicero and rose as high as the rank of associate, the highest non-Italian rank in the Mafia. He was known for hijacking racket trucks and delivery trucks, and usually tipped the drivers with $50, and thus gained his nickname "Jimmy the Gent", but also because he gave bartenders $100 bills just for keeping ice cubes cold. He befriended Henry Hill, as well as Tommy DeVito, and was treated as a made man, but he could not be "made", because he was not Italian. Together they formed their own crew that took part in many heists. He was the owner of Robert's Lounge in Queens, where DeVito killed bartender Spider Gianco.
In 1970, Conway and DeVito murdered William DeVino, who was a Gambino crime family soldier, leading to war with the Gambinos. Conway, DeVito, and Hill covered up the body the body and buried it upstate, and they had to later re-bury it because there were plans for condominiums laid down on that spot. Conway later committed the Lufthansa Heist with aid from Parnell Edwards and Morrie Kessler, stealing $6,000,000. He ordered the vicious purge of most of the participants in the heist, including Kessler, Edwards, and Carbone, because most of them had disobeyed his order not to buy anything, since the purchases would be expensive and traced to them by the NYPD. DeVito was killed by the Gambinos in 1979, a year after the heist, and Conway was only left with Hill and Anthony Stabile in his crew.
Conway was arrested in 1980 for drug dealership and for countless charges of murder, but his role in the Lufthansa Heist was not proven. Henry Hill testified against his former friend, because Conway arranged for him to go to Florida with Anthony, where he would be killed (because Hill was involved with drugs, an infamia) and Conway was arrested with Cicero. He died in prison, serving a life sentence.