Henry Hill

This article is about the former mobster and FBI informant. For the artist, see Henry Hill (artist).

Henry Hill (born June 11, 1943) is a former mobster and American ex-FBI informant whose life was immortalized in the book Wiseguy, written by crime reporter Nicholas Pileggi, and the 1990 Martin Scorsese movie Goodfellas, in which Hill was played by Ray Liotta. Hill was never a mafioso himself, but merely an associate of the mafia. Hill is Italian on his mother's side, but Irish on his father's.

Early life

Hill grew up poor in the East New York section of Brooklyn. His father was an electrician, and there were 6 other siblings in the small apartment including a brother who was born with a deformed spine. From an early age he admired the local mafiosi, who included Paul Vario, a capo in the Lucchese crime family. In his early teens, he began running errands at Vario's cabstand and pizzeria, his first jobs included moving the mobster's Cadillacs, something that drew the envy of his classmates. The two went on to become trusting business associates. Hill's first arrest came when he attempted to use a stolen credit card to buy tires at a gas station . He was quickly released after the arrest and a trial, which earned him the respect of many fellow mobsters and big-shot carjacker Jimmy Burke, who saw great potential in young Henry. He dropped out of high school to become a gangster-in-training, because Hill said he saw school as useless. For a month, he hid this from his parents, before his abusive father learned that he had been playing truancy and mercilessly beat him with a belt. In order to ensure they would not lose Henry, Vario and his friends threatened the post office not to send any more letters to his home. Hill later admitted that he actually thought of asking Vario to kill his abusive father at some points, but never did, partly for his mother's and siblings' sake.

In 1960, Hill joined the army and was stationed at Fort Bragg for three years. He was a member of the 82nd Airborne paratrooper unit there, but he maintained contact with Vario and his other friends in New York the entire time. Hill continued to hustle while in the service, selling extra food, loan sharking salary advances to his fellow soldiers, and selling tax free cigarettes. Before being discharged Hill spent two months in a military stockade for brawling and stealing a sheriff's car. In 1963, he returned to New York and began a life of crime. Hill, Burke, and Tommy DeSimone were entrusted by Vario to steal trucks, plan airport heists (carrying out the Air France Robbery in 1967 and the huge Lufthansa heist in 1978), and carry out mob killings.

In 1965 Hill went on a double date with Vario's son (the movie "Goodfellas" shows it was DeSimone), where he was set up with his future wife Karen, a young Jewish girl. The two eventually fell in love, and Karen admits she became infatuated with Henry's gangster lifestyle. Karen's mother did not approve of Henry because he was not Jewish, and she was suspicious of his lifestyle and occupation. Karen got a firsthand view of Henry's violent tendencies when he pistol whipped a neighbor after the man attacked Karen in his car. The two first eloped to North Carolina, and later had a large Jewish wedding, to which most of Hill's gangster friends were invited.

Hill started seeing other women, and when Karen Hill found out, she was furious and nearly left him. In order to restore peace in the Hill family, Vario sent Hill and Burke to Tampa, Florida, to recover money from a gambler who owed Vario, while Vario would talk to Karen and convince her to take Hill back. Tommy DeSimone, a fellow mobster who had a substantial presence in the mob at this point, had originally been scheduled to fly to Florida instead of Hill, but Vario decided to send Hill instead, at the last moment. DeSimone thus had only a small part in the meeting with the gambler.) As it turned out, the gambler's sister worked as a typist for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who were then able to arrest Hill, Burke, and the others on the strength of her testimony. Found guilty, they were given 10-year sentences, but Hill was paroled after serving only four and a half years. Burke served his jail time in a federal prison in Atlanta, Georgia, as to prevent any connection between the two. Paul Vario, already released before Hill left jail, set up a dummy job for Hill so that he could be paroled.

The Gotti Crew Incident

Whilst serving his time in Lewisburg prison, Hill was confronted by several members of the Gambino crime family. They were going to murder him over the Manny Gambino murder. Hill was corraled in a cell by them and he said, "Hey listen I left early that night, I don't remember....". The problem for the Gambinos was that they didn't know whom Henry had told about the secret murder of Gambino Capo, Billy Batts (aka William Devino). The reason that they didn't kill him was the 'Vatican Bank Scandal', the Gambinos and others were involved in a $600 million money-laundering scam with the Vatican and if Hill had told Paul Vario, a high-ranking Mafioso, that he'd whacked Billy Batts then the Gambinos had murdered Henry it would have upset this massive money laundering scheme and as such they reluctantly spared Hill. As it so happened the Gambinos could have murdered Hill and since he hadn't told Vario no one would have been the wiser, at least no one who cared about Hill, and the Gambinos could have carried on laundering and avenged Billy Batts.

Fallout between Hill and Vario

Hill had made contacts with drug dealers while in jail. Vario strongly opposed the trade of drugs in his "crew," fearing the extra police attention that would result if anyone associated with him was found trafficking drugs. Originally, he had smuggled drugs in and out on the joint to the sympathetic guards and local prisoners, so he could support his family while doing time in jail. After his parole, Vario revealed he knew about the dealings, but Hill was warned not to deal behind the family's back. The possibility that DeSimone, a man notorious for his short fuse, had murdered William Devino, a "made" mafioso, without Vario's consent, did not help either. Vario began to be blamed by other mafia bosses for the killing, so he began to investigate within his "crew."

Hill, meanwhile, had become a cocaine addict, using the same product he was supposed to make profits from. He had contacts with dealers in Pennsylvania and some other states. His wife Karen also fell into drug use, and family life for Hill — who took care of a disabled brother as well — was total chaos. Hill was dealing in marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and quaaludes. He was also involved in selling stolen military weapons and operating a major point shaving scheme in concert with the Boston College basketball team. By this point, his mindset had split in two, due to lack of sleep, his cocaine addiction and leading several jobs at a time.

Eventually, Vario discovered that DeSimone had murdered Devino. Vario set up DeSimone to believe he was going to be "made," and on what he thought was his initiation day, he was killed. Later information suggested that John Gotti conducted the hit on DeSimone, since Devino was from the Gambino family. Tommy DeSimone's corpse wasn't exhumed until 2004, after J. Gotti's death, at a burial place in NYC called The Hole. Hill and his family attempted to go on the run in 1980, but Hill was quickly arrested after attempting to flee to Florida.

As informant

Hill chose to become an informant, and he, Karen and their two children (portrayed in the film as two daughters; Hill actually had a daughter and a son) moved to an undisclosed location. They changed their names, and were protected under the U.S. Marshals' Witness Protection Program. Hill and his family were moved to Omaha, Nebraska during his period as an informant, he chose to have his phony occupation as an 'insurance adjuster' and justified the trips to New York by telling people that he was investigating arsons. He confessed to a friend in Nebraska that it was a 'culture shock. A U.S. Marshall revealed that Burke allegedly had information as to Hill's location and that there was a multi-million dollar contract on Hill's life, put out by Burke, Hill and his family were speedily moved out when the U.S. Marshall service heard about Burke's alleged information. Hill's testimony was important in the convictions of Burke, Vario and the rest of his "crew." Vario died in 1988, while Burke, who would have been paroled in 2004, died of stomach cancer in 1996.

Witness protection program and beyond

File:0321051henryhill1.jpeg

Mugshot of Henry Hill from his 2004 arrest for cocaine and meth trafficking.

In 1989, Hill and his wife were divorced after 25 years of marriage, Karen receiving custody of their children.

Hill was arrested in 1987 on narcotics-related charges. He claimed to have been clean since; however, he was arrested for felony cocaine possession in March 2005, and later pleaded guilty. Hill had left bags at Lee Bird Field Airport in North Platte, Nebraska, which later turned out to contain drug paraphernalia, including glass tubes with cocaine and methamphetamine residue. However the FBI, who had helped him obtain Witness Protection, had the judge remove the custodial sentence and replace it with probation. He also was charged with two other felony counts of possession, but he was allowed to plead no contest to a lesser charge of attempted possession. Hill said, during the Channel 4 documentary 'The Real GoodFella', that he didn't believe Vario would murder him but that when he died Burke probably made a request that they find and kill Hill. In September 2005, he was sentenced to 180 days in jail. Hill currently works as a chef at an Italian restaurant in the Midwest, his boss says that he will lie if alcohol is concerned, but is generally quite honest.

One of the great follies of Witness Protection was when they took Hill and his family from Omaha, where Burke had allegedly traced Hill to, to Lexington, Kentucky, where a massive prison housing members of the East Coast mafia were serving out life sentences. Hill got into an altercation with a Sheriff because he was worried that he may run into a family member of one of the criminals.

Hill was not in Witness Protection for very long before having shady dealings again: he entered business with a man named Jack Vance, whom he later argued with and his son's favourite horse, Flash, disappeared. Probably killed or captured by Vance as revenge.

On January 18, 2006, Hill reluctantly admitted (on the Howard Stern Show) that he had been raped and beaten by two unidentified males while he was living in Nebraska. Hill further admitted that the incident was videotaped and that his attorney (who was also not identified) had a copy of the videotape.

On January 26, 2006, Hill came into the Howard Stern Show with a copy of his rape on tape. Howard Stern recapped the account, mentioning that Henry claimed two acquaintances drugged him at a Nebraska bar and later filmed themselves raping him with a sex toy in the woods. Although Henry denied that he actually set up the event in order to sell the tape, his soon-to-be ex-wife, Kelly, called in and claimed that Henry was the one who was trying to market the video. Kelly has since rescinded her slander in a videotaped confession and also admitted she was coerced by one of the perpetrators.

Homeless Henry

Howard 100 News recently did a story that Henry Hill was homeless and living on the streets of California. "Dudehere," a member of the Stern Fan Network, spotted Henry looking disheveled, begging for money and stealing food off restaurant patron’s plates in Marina Del Ray. 1

Books

Hill has authored or co-authored three books:

• (2002) The Wiseguy Cookbook
• (2003) A Goodfella's Guide to New York
• (2004) Gangsters and Goodfellas : Wiseguys, Witness Protection, and Life on the Run

Trivia

• Although Hill had always known himself as Hill, at his father's funeral in 1976 he realised his father's name should have been O'Rourke

• Despite having put Paul Vario in prison and as such Vario died in jail Hill says in Gangsters and GoodFellas that if the Vario family saw him in Brooklyn then they would probably still say hello

• Hill acquired a forearm tattoo in prison

• Hill reportedly does not like to be called "Sir."

• On June 20, 2006 Hill was bounced from a pub quiz in Santa Monica for making inappropriate remarks.

External links

• Official Website
• Biography and Pictures
• Henry Hill's Mail Order Marinara Sauce
• The Real GoodFella