About the "whacking" scenes in Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas

Question

This whole sequence in Goodfellas baffled me. Why was DeNiro's character Jimmy allowed to betray and slaughter every member of his crew, including one of their wives (which I thought was taboo) without repercussions? Obviously two of them disobeyed Jimmy by purchasing expensive things but the others did not. I know from the line "he kicked some money upstairs to Paulie" that Paulie was his boss and naturally the boss of all the guys Jimmy whacked. How could Paulie not care? Like Henry casually said "It made him sick to turn the money over to the guys that robbed it, he'd rather whack em". This was straight up betrayal and mass murder of loyal and capable associates that included civilian family members. How did Jimmy not get any blow back from this?

Answer 1

The restrictions on killing are only for "made" men, i.e. recognized core members of a mob family. That's why the murder of Billy Batts was such a big deal. Batts was a made man, and untouchable unless you get permission from the higher ups, and why the Goodfellas were so happy at the prospect of Tommy getting made. None of Jimmy Conway's men had that privilege, so their murders go mostly unhindered by the powers to be.

Answer 2

Jimmy was in charge of his own crew on that heist. Hell, the driver (Parnell Edwards) was black. When's the last time you heard of a black guy in the mob? Jimmy had them all whacked when he feared they were going to start implicating him.