55 Facts About Henry Hill

Henry Hill subsequently entered the Witness Protection Program but was removed from the program in 1987.

Henry Hill claimed in the book Wiseguy that his father had emigrated from Ireland at age 12 after the death of Henry Hill's grandfather.

From an early age, Henry Hill admired the local mobsters who socialized at a dispatch cabstand across the street from his home, a group that included Paul Vario, a caporegime in the Lucchese crime family.

In 1955, when he was eleven years old, Henry Hill wandered into the cabstand looking for a part-time after-school job.

Henry Hill would be a "no show" and put on a building contractor's construction payroll, guaranteeing him a weekly salary of $190.

The card allowed Henry Hill to facilitate the pickup of daily policy bets and loan payments to Vario from local construction sites.

Once Henry Hill had this "legitimate" job, he dropped out of high school and began working exclusively for the Varios.

Sometime after midnight, Tuddy and Henry Hill drove to the rival cabstand with a drum full of gasoline in the backseat of Tuddy's car.

Henry Hill smashed the cab windows and filled them with gasoline-soaked newspapers, then tossed in lit matchbooks.

Henry Hill was first arrested when he was aged 16; his arrest record is one of the few official documents which used his real name.

In June 1960, at age 17, Henry Hill joined the United States Army, serving with the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.

Henry Hill claimed the timing was deliberate; the FBI's investigation into the 1957 Apalachin meeting had prompted a United States Senate investigation into organized crime and its links with businesses and unions.

Henry Hill searched through a partial list but could not find Vario listed among the Lucchese family.

Henry Hill continued to hustle: in charge of kitchen detail, he sold surplus food, loan sharked pay advances to fellow soldiers and sold tax-free cigarettes.

In 1965, Henry Hill met his future wife, Karen Friedman, through Paul Vario, who insisted that Henry Hill accompany his son on a double date at Frank "Frankie the Wop" Manzo's restaurant, Villa Capra.

DeSimone and Henry Hill entered the unsecured area unchallenged and unlocked the door with a duplicate key.

Henry Hill later believed that it was the Air France robbery that endeared him to the Mafia at large.

Henry Hill used his share of the robbery proceeds to purchase a restaurant on Queens Boulevard, called The Suite, initially aiming to run it as a legitimate business and provide distance between himself and his mob associates.

Henry Hill stated that Bentvena saw DeSimone and jokingly asked him if he still shined shoes, which DeSimone perceived as an insult.

In Wiseguy, Henry Hill said the body was eventually crushed in a car crusher at a New Jersey junkyard, which was owned by Clyde Brooks.

In November 1972, Burke and Henry Hill were arrested for beating Gaspar Ciaccio in Tampa, Florida.

Henry Hill was imprisoned with Vario, who was serving a sentence for tax evasion, and several members of John Gotti's Gambino crew.

At Lewisburg, Henry Hill met a man from Pittsburgh who, for a fee, taught Henry Hill how to smuggle drugs into the prison.

On July 12,1978, Henry Hill was paroled after four years and resumed his criminal career.

Henry Hill began trafficking in drugs, which Burke eventually became involved with, even though the Lucchese family did not authorize any of its members to engage in such activity.

Henry Hill began wholesaling marijuana, cocaine, heroin and quaaludes based on connections he made in prison, making enormous amounts of money.

However, a young child who acted as a mule of Henry Hill's "ratted" him out to narcotics detectives Daniel Mann and William Broder.

Henry Hill claimed to have an NBA referee in his pocket who worked games at Madison Square Garden during the 1970s.

Henry Hill became convinced that his former associates planned to have him killed: Vario, for dealing drugs; and Burke, to prevent Hill from implicating him in the Lufthansa heist.

Henry Hill heard on a wiretap that his associates Angelo Sepe and Anthony Stabile were anxious to have him killed, and that they were telling Burke that Henry Hill "is no good" and "is a junkie".

Henry Hill was more convinced by a surveillance tape played to him by federal investigators, in which Burke tells Vario of their need to have Henry Hill "whacked".

When Henry Hill was finally released on bail, Burke told him they should meet at a bar, which Henry Hill had never heard of or seen before, owned by "Charlie the Jap".

However, Henry Hill never met Burke there; instead they met at Burke's sweatshop with Karen and asked for the address in Florida where Henry Hill was to kill Bobby Germaine's son with Anthony Stabile.

Henry Hill knew he would be murdered if he went to Florida.

Henry Hill testified against his former associates to avoid impending prosecution and being murdered by his crew.

Paul Vario received four years for helping Henry Hill obtain a no-show job to get him paroled from prison.

Henry Hill died of respiratory failure on November 22,1988, at age 73 while incarcerated in the FCI Federal Prison in Fort Worth.

In 1987, Henry Hill was convicted of cocaine trafficking in a federal court in Seattle and expelled from the witness protection program.

Henry Hill was sentenced to two years of probation on March 26,2009, after he pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of public intoxication.

On December 14,2009, he was arrested in Fairview Heights, Illinois, for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, which Henry Hill attributed to his drinking problems.

Two weeks in advance of the filming, Henry Hill was paid $480,000.

Liotta met him in an undisclosed city; Henry Hill had seen the film and told the actor that he loved it.

The 2001 TV film The Big Heist was based on the Lufthansa heist, and Henry Hill was portrayed by Nick Sandow.

In 2004, Henry Hill was interviewed by Charlie Rose for 60 Minutes.

Henry Hill celebrated the film's 20th anniversary on July 24,2010, by hosting a private screening at the Museum of the American Gangster.

On June 8,2011, a show about Henry Hill's life aired on the National Geographic Channel's Locked Up Abroad.

At Liotta's urging, Henry Hill entered alcohol rehabilitation two days after the session shoot.

In reference to his many victims, Henry Hill stated in an interview in March 2008 with the BBC's Heather Alexander: "I don't give a heck what those people think; I'm doing the right thing now," addressing the reporter's question about how his victims might think of his commercialization of his story through self-written books and advising on Goodfellas.

In 2008, Henry Hill was featured in episode three of the crime documentary series The Irish Mob.

In October 2002, Henry Hill published The Wiseguy Cookbook: My Favorite Recipes from My Life as a Goodfella to Cooking on the Run.

For example, Henry Hill claimed his last meal the day he was busted for drugs consisted of rolled veal cutlets, sauce with pork butt, veal shanks, ziti, and green beans with olive oil and garlic.

In 2012, Henry Hill collaborated with the author Daniel Simone in writing and developing a non-fiction book titled The Lufthansa Heist, a portrayal of the famous 1978 Lufthansa Airline robbery at Kennedy Airport.

Henry Hill worked for a time as a chef at an Italian restaurant in North Platte, Nebraska, and his spaghetti sauce, Sunday Gravy, was marketed over the internet.

Henry Hill opened another restaurant, Wiseguys, in West Haven, Connecticut, in October 2007, which closed the following month after a fire.

Henry Hill died of complications related to heart disease in a Los Angeles hospital, on June 12,2012, after a long battle with his illness, a day after his 69th birthday.