Henry Hill (Mafioso)
Henry Hill (born June 11, 1943 in Brooklyn , New York City , † June 12, 2012 in Los Angeles ) was an American mobster , whose life was filmed in the 1990 film Good Fellas - Three Decades in the Mafia . As a key witness , he was a member of the US witness protection program . He was a participant in the Air France heist (1967) at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City.
Life
Early years
Henry Hill grew up in an Irish-Italian working-class family with seven siblings in Brownsville , New York City . His Irish father, Henry Hill Sr., worked as an electrician; his mother, Carmella, originally immigrated from Sicily . Henry Hill was impressed by the lifestyle of the local mafia giants; especially by Paul Vario , a capo of the Lucchese family . He worked next to the school for the mobsters as an errand boy, shoe shine or temporary worker in a pizzeria , or was allowed to park their cars.
His first arrest came after he tried to pay for a car tire at a gas station with a stolen credit card . Since he didn't betray anyone, he won the respect of the gangsters, especially that of "Jimmy" Burke . Hill dropped out of high school and began working exclusively for the Mafia.
Because of their Irish descent, however, neither Burke nor Hill could become full members of the US La Cosa Nostra . As associates, however, they were tolerated as long as they did not interfere in internal affairs and make money.
In 1960 Hill went to the US Army in Fort Bragg (North Carolina) and became a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division . However, he kept in touch with New York. He sold untaxed cigarettes , collected arrears from members of the army and sold the extra food rations he had acquired. In 1963, he was served two months' arrest before being released from the army for stealing the sheriff's car. Hill then returned to New York.
From thief to dealer
In New York he began working with Burke, Thomas DeSimone and their men as a professional thief and burglar on a large scale. In particular, they ambushed and hijacked trucks in order to get at their cargo. But they were also involved in criminals at airports . In 1967, she robbed the Air France ; In 1978, Deutsche Lufthansa was robbed in the so-called Lufthansa Heist . The perpetrators all came from the Hills area, but he was not involved in the robbery himself.
In the 1970s, Hill was sentenced to ten years in prison for kidnapping and threatening a debtor. Hill got in touch with drug dealer Paul Mazzei in prison and helped him distribute the drugs in prison. Once again at liberty, Hill was banned from further drug trafficking by Capo Paul Vario. Hill did not obey this instruction.
As a result of the Lufthansa robbery there were murders of those involved, for which Burke was responsible, who wanted to get rid of annoying confidants. Hill's friend Thomas DeSimone disappeared without a trace for killing two members of the Gambino family without permission . People from John Gotti's crew were believed to be behind his murder .
Key witness
In late April 1980, Hill was arrested for drug trafficking . Hardly released, he was arrested again because of the Lufthansa incident. He now became convinced that both Burke and Vario were trying to murder him after he was played an FBI tape on which Burke and Vario were talking. In this way, the authorities were able to persuade him to cooperate: At the end of May 1980 Hill agreed to testify against Burke and Vario, which subsequently led to around fifty charges. Burke was sentenced to twenty years, Vario to ten years.
Hill was accepted into the witness protection program with his family and lived under a new name in a different town. However, Hill got into the drug trade again in Seattle in 1987 and was convicted for it.
Late life
Hill later lived in Topanga Canyon, near Malibu , California. He died on June 12, 2012 in a Los Angeles hospital.
Adaptations
- 1990: Good Fellas - Three decades in the Mafia ; essentially biographically correct film about Henry Hill by Martin Scorsese . The role of Hills is played by Ray Liotta . The film is based on the novel " Wiseguy " by Nicholas Pileggi . Pileggi had written this novel with Henry Hill.
literature
- Ernest Volkman, John Cummings: The Heist: How a Gang Stole $ 8,000,000 at Kennedy Airport and Lived to Regret It . Franklin Watts, 1986, ISBN 0531150240 .
- Nicholas Pileggi: Wiseguy : Life in a Mafia Family . Simon & Schuster, 1986, ISBN 0671447343 .
- David Porter: Fixed: How Goodfellas Bought Boston College Basketball . Taylor Trade Publishing, 2000, ISBN 0878331921 .
- Gregg Hill, Gina Hill: On the Run: A Mafia Childhood . Warner Books, 2004, ISBN 044652770X .
- Henry Hill, Gus Russo: Gangsters and Goodfellas: Wiseguys, Witness Protection, and Life on the Run . M. Evans and Company, Inc., 2004, ISBN 156731757X .
- TJ English: Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish-American Gangster . William Morrow, 2005, ISBN 0060590025 .
Web links
- Henry Hill at www.goodfellahenry.com (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Margalit Fox: Henry Hill, Mobster and Movie Inspiration, Dies at 69 . In: The New York Times . , June 13, 2012.
- ↑ Pileggi, Nicholas (1986). Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family. Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0671447343 , pages 333-350.
- ↑ "Goodfella Henry Hill In Drug Bust" on www.thesmokinggun.com with mugshot (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hill, Henry |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American mobster |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 11, 1943 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Brooklyn , New York City |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 12, 2012 |
| Place of death | los Angeles |