Joe Pesci has proved to be a sensational big-screen presence time and time again with his outstanding performances, unmatched by anyone else to date. Having best performed in the skin of gangsters, the 80-year-old actor is most famous for his Goodfellas role of Tommy DeVito; the same role that earned him his first and only Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
Yet, there was a time when his real life seemed like it was mirroring his Goodfellas role when his former wife Claudia Haro hired a hitman to take out her ex-husband. In fact, had it not been for the lack of credible pieces of evidence, Pesci would have most likely been pulled into the matter and charged with respective charges!
Joe Pesci’s Ex-Wife Made His Life Mirror With His Goodfellas Role
Goodfellas starred Joe Pesci in the role of Tommy DeVito aka ‘Spitshine Tommy’, who was initially employed as a shoe-shine boy for the neighborhood gangsters, but who later became an associate of his fellow mobster, Jimmy Conway and their crime boss Paul ‘Paulie’ Cicero. And that’s exactly the role he ended up playing in real life because of his former wife Claudia Haro.
As reported by The Daily Beast, Haro was involved in a legal lawsuit for attempting to murder her ex-husband Garrett Warren through a hitman hired by her. This came a little after their divorce when Warren gained partial custody of their baby girl together, which did not appease Haro.
While this didn’t directly involve Pesci, who was married to Haro years before Warren, the Goodfellas star’s name did come up during the lawsuit when Haro’s brother Manuel Haro, who was also involved in abetting the attempted murder, told investigators that he once took money from his sister in front of Pesci’s house.
Furthermore, it was also reported that Pesci’s ex-wife lived on and off in his guest house for subsequent years even after their divorce in 1991. Thus, Lovell Campbell, a friend of Manuel Haro also involved in the case, was asked if he knew anything about Pesci’s involvement in the case.
However, Campbell’s response was: “It had more to do with the finances, where the money might be coming from,” all the while adding that Manuel Haro indicated that the money Claudia Haro got was coming “from the direction or from Joe Pesci.” Moreover, Campbell is also reported to have testified that:
“[Manuel Haro] wouldn’t come out and say that himself because he had a lot of respect and admiration for Joe Pesci and didn’t want to implicate him in anything. He would never say his name. He would say ‘that person’ or ‘him’ or ‘them.’”
Thus, since no concrete evidence was found of Pesci being involved in the shooting with the witness claiming he was only involved in the paying while Manuel Haro denied even that claim, Joe Pesci wasn’t charged with anything and was let loose. More or less, it was a bullet dodged by the Goodfellas actor.
Joe Pesci Got Into Another Legal Trouble Because Of His Ex-Wife
Attached with this case was another lawsuit against Joe Pesci where private investigator John Perry accused him of owing him $103,000 for services performed. It is worth noting that this came in the wake of Claudia Haro being accused of hiring a hitman to eliminate her ex-husband Warren.
As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, these charges claimed that Pesci hired the investigator “to perform private investigative, bodyguard, security, and property surveillance services” after Haro was accused of her hitman case. Furthermore, this lawsuit also claimed that:
“[Joe] Pesci regularly maintained both the innocence of his ex-wife [Claudia Haro] as well as his own noninvolvement in the alleged attempted murder.”
Added names to this lawsuit were those of Pesci’s attorney and two of his friends, namely Joseph diGenova, Mark Giuardino, and Jerry Page, respectively, with diGenova promising to pay the money to Perry in case the Goodfellas star didn’t.
However, this lawsuit, too, was soon dropped by private investigator John Perry, and Joe Pesci was allowed to walk free.
