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"The Godfather, Casino, they show them as sort of folk heroes. GoodFellas pins them down to exactly what they are - street thugs."

Ex-squeeze me Henry, Casino, 'folk heroes'. Must be a different 'Casino' than I saw or Henry ...

Missed the part where 'Nicky Santoro' ₍₁₎ [Joe Pesci] put that guy's head in a vice and crushed his skull till his eyes popped out ₍₂₎.
Or missed near the ending where 'Nicky' & his brother get beat to death with baseball bats and buried in a Corn Field ₍₃₎ ₍₅₎.
Or the part where one of Nicky's crew, 'Bernie Blue', gets shot to death in his driveway by the Cops when holding a tin foil covered sandwich (cough) mistaken as a gun ₍₄₎.

Obviously there was some friction between NY's Families and the Chicago Outfit but c'mon Henry dissing The Outfit like that ain't nice. But since all (most) the old head Outfit guys are dead or in Club Fed for life, Henry's safe.

And I really like Goodfellas but Casino didn't make anyone a 'Folk Hero'. It was as true as you can almost get without using real names. Like the 'crooked' Gaming Commission Chairman who at the time in real life was ... Harry Reid. Now, 'The Godfather' that work of fiction did glorify Wiseguys.

(1) In real life 'Nicky Santoro' was Tony 'The Ant' Spilotro of the Chicago Outfit.
(2) That really happened though not in Vegas, a Chicago suburb.
(3) Tony Spilotro & his brother Michael WERE beat to death and buried in an Indiana Corn Field. But the beating occurred in the basement of a Chicago suburban house.
(4) That shooting occurred actually as shown. (I can't, wont, say any more about it)
(5) 'People' weren't pleased when Tony & Michael's bodies were found so soon after getting whacked. The botched burial cost those guy's their lives.