Henry Hill

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Henry Hill bigraphy, stories - Mobster

Henry Hill : biography

June 11, 1943 – June 12, 2012

Henry Hill, Jr. (June 11, 1943 – June 12, 2012) was a New York City mobster. Between 1955 and 1980, Hill was associated with the Lucchese crime family. After he turned FBI informant in 1980, Hill testified against Lucchese captain Paul Vario and James Burke, both of whom were convicted on multiple charges. Hill’s life story was documented in the true crime book Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family by Nicholas Pileggi. In Martin Scorsese’s 1990 film adaptation, Goodfellas, Hill is the protagonist and is played by Ray Liotta and Christopher Serrone.

Fallout among Hill, Vario, and Burke

Vacation in Florida

Karen and Hill split up for a while; Hill had been cheating with a woman named Linda. Hill then went with Casey Rosado and Jimmy Burke on a vacation to Tampa, Florida. They went to Casey’s parents’, and met with Casey’s cousin to collect a debt from a man named John Ciaccio.

The cousins walked in first, followed by Hill and Burke. The cousins were yelling at Ciaccio in Spanish while Hill and Burke sat four tables away. Burke subsequently got up, grabbed Ciaccio and said, "Shut your mouth and walk out the door." Hill later reported: "There must have been 25 people in the place, but nobody did anything. Later they were all witnesses at the trial."

A retired New York police officer at the scene took their license plate number. With the four men beating and pistol-whipping him, Ciaccio finally said he’d pay up, but only half, since the rest was owed to a doctor who beat him on a bet. Casey’s cousin believed him because he knew the doctor from whom they later got the money. The four men spent the rest of the weekend drinking.

A month later, Hill, on his way to Robert’s Lounge, found 12 cars blocking the street. He turned on his radio and heard that the FBI were "arresting union officials," with "Jimmy Burke and others being sought." It turned out that Ciaccio’s sister worked for the FBI. They were later arrested and put on trial for kidnapping and assault. On the stand, Rosado convinced the jury that Ciaccio was a liar, and they were able to beat the rap. However, the police went after them for an extortion charge. Just before the three were to go to trial, Casey Rosado dropped dead from a heart attack while bending over to tie his shoe laces. He was 46. Since Rosado could no longer testify, Hill and Burke lost their chance to beat the charge.

On November 3, 1972, Hill and Burke were found guilty of extortion.

Imprisonment

Hill served four years and six months of his 10-year sentence, while Burke served a bit longer, in different prisons. The first real prison in which Hill was ever incarcerated was the United States Penitentiary, Lewisburg. At the time, Lewisburg had a large population of organized-crime members, including Paul Vario, doing two and a half years for income tax evasion, and Johnny Dio, serving a long stretch for the acid blinding of newspaper columnist Victor Riesel. Hill later lived with Vario, Dio, and Joe Pine, the boss of Connecticut. There were two-dozen cells on each floor, all of them housing men affiliated with the mob: the whole John Gotti crew, Jimmy Doyle and his crew and some of the shooters from the East Harlem Purple Gang. By bribing guards, they got away with sleeping on comfortable beds, drinking wine, and cooking with stoves crafted by Vario. Hill befriended a man from Pittsburgh, who taught Hill how to smuggle drugs into prison. Hill then used his Pittsburgh connection for drug smuggling in order to support his family on the outside.

Within months, Hill started booking. Hugh Joseph Addonizio, the former mayor of Newark, was one of Hill’s best customers. Hill recalled him as "…a sweetheart of a guy but a degenerate gambler." Two years later, Hill was transferred to Federal Correctional Complex, Allenwood, where, with Karen’s help, he continued to smuggle drugs and food. On July 12, 1978, Hill was granted early parole for being a model prisoner. He walked out of prison wearing a five-year-old Brioni suit, seventy-eight dollars in his pocket, and drove home in a six-year-old Buick sedan.