Good friends: a strange way of working helped criminals

Between the elegance of the staging, the excellent soundtrack, as always with Scorsese; His iconic and even (partially) improvised dialogues that offer one of the craziest scenes in the history of cinema; Joe Pesci’s Phenomenal Killing, rightfully awarded the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor; Casting as fitting as it gets, including Ray Liotta, who has arguably never been as good as he was under Martin Scorsese… there aren’t enough reasons to elevate Goodfellas to cult status.

But speaking of Goodfellas, this time it’s a novel written by Nicholas Pileggi, Nice boy In VO, adapted by Scorsese. A literary work that strangely helped put criminals behind bars in the US…

Laws of the Son of Shem

In the summer of 1977, New York was terrorized by a serial killer nicknamed “Son of Sam.” The case involved a man named David Berkowitz who was beaten in the Italian-American neighborhood of the South Bronx.

In parallel with the arrest of this serial killer, in 1977, New York State passed the “Son of Sam Laws”, which aimed to prevent criminals from profiting from their crimes. Almost 30 states followed New York’s footsteps.

These laws most often give the state the right to take any profits that come from that advertising, whether it’s movie or book contracts, or even interviews. In these situations, the amount confiscated by the state is returned to the victims and/or their families in the form of compensation.

In 1986, the publisher Simon & Schuster published Pileg’s book, Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Familywhich tells the authentic story of repentant former mobster Henry Hill.

A free person deprived of freedom of expression

The following year, when it was discovered that the publisher had signed a contract with Pileggi, who in August 1981 hired Henry Hill, a recognized figure of organized crime, to create a book about Hill’s life, New York authorities, York found that the publisher violated the son. Sam’s Law and ordered him to return the money he had paid to Hill.

After that, the publisher took the case to court. Moreover, it is a long-running case as it has reached the Supreme Court. In 1991, a year after the release of Scorsese’s Son, He passed the verdict : Unanimously, it declared that Son of Sam had violated the first amendment to the US Constitution, which guarantees freedom of expression.

In other words, even criminals with the most heinous crimes have the right to freedom of expression, and therefore the right to talk about their cases and especially to trade in them, in book form or otherwise, without any theft. Funds received.

The victim can still sue for a share of the book’s profits; Then the courts decide the case. But any law that restricts free speech should be as narrow as possible.

And here’s how a Nice boy It gave a serious incentive to keep criminals behind bars as well as the temptation to trade their respective stories…