Joe Pesce was actually a combination of two real life gangsters.
The one he most represented in the movie was a BIG guy which is kind of ironic.
Story has it his friend’s kid was crying cause the ice cream man passed him by without stopping. He took the kid in the car, found the ice cream man and said he’d kill him if he ever drove by the kid again.
Me, I personally would have just bought the kid a cone.
Henry Hill said the real guy who was played by Pesci was way crazier and more dangerous than the character in the movie.
Maybe he was exaggerating, I don't know.