Market data provided by Factset. His fears for his life waned as many former associates died off, and he led a more public life in later years, appearing in documentaries and becoming a popular call-in guest on Howard Stern's radio show. ©2021 FOX News Network, LLC. Henry was an associate of the most notorious crime family in New York as a young man and his life was immortalized by the Academy Award® winning movie, in which Hill eventually entered the witness protection program and testified against the mob – sending more than 50 mobsters to prison. He has subsequently been involved in the writing of several other books, including a cookbook and A Goodfella's Guide to New York . She said she could not give their names because they are in witness protection. Karen Friedman Hill is an American woman known for her involvement in the American Mafia through her husband Henry Hill, who was an associate of the Lucchese crime family. It was a neighborhood filled with Mafiosos and Hill admired them all from a young age. Marcin-Martin Krugman was a Passaic, New Jersey native and son of orthodox Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, resided in Valley Stream, New York with his Long Island-born Polish-American housewife, Franciska, who he called Frances. Meet The Man Who Singlehandedly Prevented Nuclear Armageddon, Into The Abyss: 20 Vintage Deep Sea Diving Photos, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. Henry Hill. Goodfellas (stylized GoodFellas) is a 1990 American biographical crime film directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Nicholas Pileggi and Scorsese, and produced by Irwin Winkler. Henry is the real-life gangster whose story is at the center of the film. He knew who oiled the machinery. Goodfellas (1990) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox. Henry Hill, the central character in Goodfellas (played by Ray Liotta), was born in 1943 to an Irish-American father and a Sicilian-American mother in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, New York. But once Henry Hill enters the witness protection program, he … Do you have enough life insurance coverage? He tells us that even as a child all he ever wanted to be was a gangster, and we see him work hard to make this dream a reality, ascending the ranks of the Lucchese family and making a lot of money along the way. Henry Hill is the mobster featured in GoodfellasFor more check out @allthingsfilms After years of earning money through nefarious deeds, … His general appearance, combined with the goggle-like glasses he wore, gave the impressio… In the 1990 classic crime film Goodfellas, Henry Hill's life is presented as the quintessential American rags-to-riches story, told from the perspective of a former Lucchese crime associate turned FBI informant. After years of truck hijacking, arson, and other crimes (including extortion, for which he served time in the 1970s), Hill and Burke played major roles in orchestrating the Lufthansa heist in 1978. But the crew involved in the heist would soon turn on each other, and several would end up dead, leaving Hill extremely paranoid he could be next, he later told Pileggi. Here are the true stories of the people who carried out this heist as well as countless other crimes that helped make Goodfellas the crime classic it is today. Henry Hill (GoodFellas),"Autographed" (JSA) 3x5 Card. Neither do we. "For us to live any other way was nuts.". Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. At the same time, Hill was involved in a point-shaving racket with the 1978-79 Boston College basketball team and ran a major narcotics operation in which he sold marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and quaaludes wholesale. Henry Hill was a member of the Lucchese crime family who became a federal informant, inspiring the Martin Scorsese movie 'Goodfellas.' He knew, literally, where the bodies were buried. "To us, it was better than Citibank.". Legal Statement. He was a hustler. In the book and the film he talks about how hard it was to lead an ordinary life after years steeped in gangster glamour. Your curiosity knows no bounds. Spider: You said "I'm alright, Spider." It is a film adaptation of the 1985 nonfiction book Wiseguy by Pileggi. Hill, who went from small-time gangster to big-time celebrity when his life as a mobster-turned-FBI informant became the basis for the Martin Scorsese film "Goodfellas," died Tuesday at age 69, longtime girlfriend Lisa Caserta told The Associated Press on Wednesday. Released in 1990, Goodfellas is based on the book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi, which chronicles the life of mafia mobster turned informant, Henry Hill. He was also selling drugs behind the back of his boss, Vario, and in 1980 was arrested on a narcotics-trafficking charge. As depicted in the famous movie Goodfellas, Hill was part of a crew of gangsters run by James “Jimmy the Gent” Burke. Caserta said that Hill, who also had a home in Connecticut, is survived by three sisters, a brother, three children and four grandchildren. Why Karen Hill Was Just Being Paranoid About Jimmy The Gent. www.allthingsfilm.co.uk presents The Real Henry Hill documentary. The story of Henry Hill and his life in the mob, covering his relationship with his wife Karen Hill and his mob partners Jimmy Conway and Tommy DeVito in the Italian-American crime syndicate. Henry was an associate of the notorious Lucchese crime family in New York as a young man and 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 actor Ray Liotta. Far bigger crimes awaited, including the 1967 theft of $420,000 in cash from the Air France cargo terminal at JFK airport in New York, among the biggest cash heists in history at the time. Henry Hill: Then there was Moe Black's brother, Fat Andy. Anti-Villainous Gangster Henry Hill is the main protagonist of the 1990 Martin Scorsese film GoodFellas. Anything I wanted was a phone call away," Hill says in the film. His death was first reported by the celebrity website TMZ. Right after I got here I ordered some spaghetti with marinara sauce, and I got egg noodles and ketchup. In fact, it was Hill’s testimony about the Lufthansa heist that brought the arrests of many of the other men involved — and became the basis for Wiseguy, and thus Goodfellas. "I had paper bags filled with jewelry stashed in the kitchen. Hill started out just picking up money from local rackets and bringing them to the boss, but his responsibilities quickly escalated. It was the drugs that brought Hill’s downfall when he was arrested on trafficking charges in April 1980. The events of their lives were chronicled in the 1990 film Goodfellas and several books. Hill summered in Southern California at an extremely modest one-story house in the Topanga Canyon area of the Santa Monica Mountains, with an expansive backyard view of the San Fernando Valley. He soon knew the life of these silk-suited soldiers was for him. Their dad was Henry Hill - immortalised in the book Wiseguy and the Martin Scorsese film Goodfellas where he was played by Ray Liotta - and he had just turned police informant to … In 2008 he pleaded guilty in San Bernardino, Calif., to two counts of public intoxication. One of the most memorable scenes in Goodfellas ended up foreshadowing Henry Hill’s fate, all thanks to Tommy DeVito – here’s which one and how. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, If he talked, police knew that Henry Hill could give them the key to dozens of indictments and convictions.". If anyone complained twice they got hit so bad, believe me, … Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. More afraid of his associates than prison, Hill decided he had no choice but to become an informant, and signed an agreement with a Department of Justice task force that would prove more fruitful than anyone imagined. ", "Whenever we needed money, we'd rob the airport," Liotta says in the movie. In the end he died at a hospital after a long illness, going out like all the average nobodies he once pitied. Hill, who went from small-time gangster to big-time celebrity when his life as a mobster-turned-FBI informant became the basis for the Martin Scorsese film "Goodfellas," died Tuesday at … LOS ANGELES – Henry Hill spent much of his life as a "goodfella," believing his last moment would come with a bullet to the back of his head. Eleven mobsters, mainly associates of the Lucchese crime family, stole $5.875 million (more than $20 million today) in cash and jewels from a vault at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. She said Hill was not impressed by wealth or celebrity. In 1990 the book, adapted for the screen by Pileggi and Scorsese, became the instant classic "Goodfellas," starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Ray Liotta as Hill, a young hoodlum on the make who thrives in the Mafia but is eventually forced by drugs to turn on his criminal friends and lead the life of a sad suburbanite. Born in Brooklyn to an Irish father and an Italian mother, Hill's life with the mob began at age 11 when he wandered into a cabstand across the street in 1955 looking for work. Sitting on the back porch, Caserta, 52, and her son, Nate, 24, described the contemporary Hill as a man who maintained a mobster's air of self-assurance and confidence but regretted his gangster past. "I'll go two, two and a half years, and I don't know what triggers me.". I get to live the rest of my life like a schnook.". In the early 1990s, after more drug arrests, Hill was booted from the witness protection program. An avid painter who contributed his artwork to auctions, he gave money to causes ranging from local police cadets to the homeless, and every Thanksgiving for five years he would dish out food to the poor, said Caserta and her son. Henry Hill was born in Brooklyn, … Can't even get decent food. ©2021 FOX News Network, LLC. Starring Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco and Paul Sorvino, the film narrates the rise and fall of mob associate Henry Hill and his friends and family from 1955 to 1980. Hill's testimony sent dozens of men to prison, many for the Lufthansa heist, and he and his wife Karen, played by Lorraine Bracco in the movie, went into hiding together, spending years fearing retribution by a gun to the back of his head from his old colleagues. After returning from a short military stint in the early 1960s, Hill returned to a life of crime. The operators and killers in… He began running errands for the men at the stand that soon led to small-time crimes. Market data provided by Factset. "He was a good soul towards the end ... he started feeling remorseful," she said.