Goodfellas: The REAL HENRY HILL

in the history of the mafia few names are as well known as Henry Hill from his humble beginnings in Brooklyn to his rise as a prominent associate of the lucasi crime family his life story has served as the basis for best-selling novels as well as one of the greatest films ever made this is in spite of the fact that hill was never an official member of the mob and he also never actually killed anyone but he witnessed and even participated in some of the most legendary Deeds ever committed by organized crime and that was because he counted notorious gangsters Jimmy Burke Paul vario and Tommy DeSimone amongst his closest friends and in the end he betrayed them all Henry Hill was born on June 11th 1943 in New York City his father Henry Hill Senior was an Irish American electrician while his Mother Carmela Costa was a homemaker and Italian immigrant from Sicily Hill had seven siblings and the family lived in Brownsville a working-class neighborhood in Brooklyn Hill Senior was able to support the entire family with his union job but at times they struggled to make ends meet which is why Hill Senior was static when an 11-year-old Henry announced to the family that he had secured a part-time job at the cabstand across the street from the family home from a young age Hill was enthralled by the cabstand and that was because the people who mingled there were unlike anyone else from the neighborhood they wore expensive suits drove high-end cars and flashed rolls of cash like it meant nothing the cabstand acted as The Unofficial headquarters for Paul vario aapo in the liesi crime family and the man who ran all of the local rackets Hill's job at the cabstand was essentially to run var's errands and complete menial tasks for him hill got var's coffee cleaned his house got his dry cleaning and served drinks and sandwiches during card games hill spent all of his time at the cab stand and he even dropped out of school so he could spend even more time serving the local gangsters this was because Hill dreamed of becoming one of them as he said in the book Wise Guy quote at the age of 12 my ambition was to be a gangster to be a wise guy to me being a wise guy was better than being president of the United States it meant power among people who had no power it meant perks in a workingclass neighborhood that had no privileges to be a wise guy was to own the world one day while he was serving drinks a 13-year-old Hill first met Jimmy Burke an Irish associate of the lucases and one of the most feared men in the city Hill was mesmerized by Burke in his generous manner compared to vario and the rest of the Mobsters at the cab who were quite stingy with their money Burke loved spreading the wealth and would give out hundreds of dollars in tips to everyone from the bartender to the waiters to even Hill himself on his 14th birthday vario gifted Hill a membership card for the local Brick Layers Union this entitled him to a weekly salary as well as healthc care benefits with this vario began to give the young Hill more serious jobs which included ordering him to burn down a rival cabstand when he was 16 Hill and var's Son Lenny went to a local automobile deal shop to purchase winter tires for var's car Hill paid for the tires but unbeknownst to him the credit card that vario had given him had been reported stolen when Hill and Lenny went back to pick up the car the police were there waiting for them Lenny escaped but Hill wasn't so lucky and he was arrested for the first time while in custody Hill remembered the advice vario had given him on what to do in this situation only tell the police your name and nothing else the cops didn't believe that a kid with the last name H would be hanging around Italian gangsters and so one of them punched Hill in the face but despite the abuse he kept his mouth shut and in less than an hour a mob Affiliated lawyer showed up hill was taken to court for arraignment and his bail was set at $500 the money was paid instantly and as Hill exited the courthouse he was met by all of the Mobsters who hung out at the cabstand cheering for him they were proud of him for keeping his mouth shut and took him to a local restaurant to celebrate while Hill was earning the mobster ECT his home life was quickly deteriorating while his father was initially enthusiastic at the news that Hill had gotten a part-time job that happiness had quickly turned to anger as he found out who his son was actually working for Hill was regularly beaten by his father which only increased as he continued to spend more and more of his time at the cabstand to escape his father's abuse Hill enlisted in the United States Army at the age of 17 he joined the paratroopers and was stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina while in the Army Hill was put in charge of the kitchen detail and quickly realized that he could make a great deal of money in this position the Army regularly overbought food and the kitchen staff would throw away the excess ever The Hustler Hill took the leftovers and sold them at reduced prices to hotels and bars in the area sometimes these establishments would be so grateful they'd even let him and his friends drink for free all night long hill also organized poker games with his fellow soldiers where they would have to pay him an entrance fee as well as a portion of their winnings he also noticed that cigarettes in North Carolina were substantially cheaper than in New York due to the differences in State Texas as he frequently returned home to Brooklyn to visit his family and mafioso friends Hill always made sure to fill his car to the brim with cheap cigarettes so vario could sell them for a handsome profet back in New York Hill greatly enjoyed his time in the Army but 6 months before his discharge he got into a chaotic bar fight with a marine when the local sheriff arrived he somehow didn't notice an intoxicated Hill stagger out of the bar and into his police cruiser Hill drunkenly drove the car around before he crashed and stumbled out he was arrested and spent the last six months of his time in the Army in the Fort Bragg stade Hill was discharged in 1963 and returned to New York where he went right back to work for vario at this point Paulie was serving a six-month prison sentence but he still managed to get Hill and his son Lenny jobs with the local Brick Layers Union in regards to his employment Hill would later say quote we thumbed our noses at the job and at the union president [ __ ] him we were with Paulie we didn't do any work we didn't even show up regularly enough to pick up our paychecks we had guys we knew who were really working on the job bring our money to the cab stand we'd cash the checks and by Monday we'd blow the money partying or gambling we didn't even pay our union dues why should we Hill and Lenny weren't bricklayers for very long as Paulie got them a much better job at the azors an upscale hotel in the Rockway that was owned by none other than Tommy three finger Brown lucazi the boss of the entire family Paulie hoped that Lenny would make a good impression on the big boss and on the days when he was at the hotel everyone on the staff made sure to be on their best behavior and treated him like royalty but lucazi wasn't there very often which meant that hill and Lenny spent most of their time goofing off and stealing from the hotel they would also regularly invite their friends from Brooklyn to come party at the hotel after hours where they ate and drank as much of the hotel's supplies as they pleased any mess they made that night would be left for the cleaning staff to deal with this understandably upset a great portion of the hotel's actual employees especially the head chef who had to deal with the two delinquents stealing his merchandise one day Hill and Lenny showed up late to work which led to an explosive argument the chef screamed at the two in the dining room in full view of customers miffed at the perceived disrespect Hill and Lenny grabbed the chef and dragged him into the kitchen where they then tried to throw him into the oven as it was turned on and set at 450° the chef fought back ferociously and managed to wiggle out of their grasp and run away still seething at how they had been treated by the chef Hill and Lenny walked off the job never to return Paulie was so upset at Hill and Lenny that he made Hill personally set Lenny's convertible on fire now with no job Hill went back to hanging out at the cab stand and ran some small-time credit card scams with other mob Associates such as Stax Edwards one day Jimmy Burke pulled up to the cab stand with a car filled to the brim with smuggled cigarette cartons from North Carolina he gave Hill 100 cartons and told him to see how many he could sell Hill drove to a nearby construction site and sold all 100 cartons in a little under 10 minutes seeing how lucrative the cigarette business was Hill went to work for Burke full-time selling cartons at construction sites all over New York after a couple weeks Burke introduced Hill to a 15-year-old kid named Tommy DeSimone because he was a family friend Burke asked Hill to take the young DeSimone under his wing and introduce him to the cigarette business together the two sold so many cigarette cartons that they were generating over $400 every day Hill also entered into the lucrative auto theft business thanks to a crooked import export agent he met with his cigarette money Hill paid local kids to steal cars and deliver them to a shipping container where they'd then be shipped to Haiti earning $750 a car Hill would fly to Haiti at the end of every month and pick up his cash which was usually in the thousands Hill was making a considerable amount of money which he spent almost as soon as he got after a score paid off Hill would hit the underground casinos and gamble it all away then he'd ask his mob friends for a loan so he could keep gambling knowing that he'd be able to pay them back with the money he'd earn from the next job for a while that was life for Hill DeSimone and the rest of the luchesi associates they were always on the lookout for the next big score and they regularly had at least a dozen other scams in the works since Hill didn't have any codependence and he never paid any taxes rent or insurance premiums he would blow all of his illicitly gained cash as soon as he got it on his numerous vices but his life would change in a big way in 1965 when Paulie Jr one of vario sons asked if he would accompany him on a double date Paulie Jr had been talking to a Jewish girl and she said she'd only feel comfortable going on a date with him if she brought along a friend Hill agreed and that was when he first met Karen fredman their first date was a disaster as during the double date Hill made it clear that he had no interest in being there as he kept rushing everyone to eat quicker and he ordered the check as fast as he could Karen took an initially strong dislike to him and thought he was obnoxious but still agreed to go on another double date with her friend Hill and Paulie Jr the next weekend this time however Hill never showed up furious at being stood up Karen made Paulie Jr drive her around the streets of Brooklyn looking for Hill until they eventually found him hanging out at the cabstand Karen jumped out of the car and started screaming at Hill he claimed that the only only reason he didn't show up was because he thought she was going to stand him up hill managed to calm her down and invited her out on another date for the next weekend this time he showed up and the two had a great time together eating at an expensive restaurant and dancing at a local nightclub Karen was impressed at how everyone in the club seemed to know Hill and wanted to make a good impression on him hill told Karen that he was a humble brick layer and even showed her his Union card to prove it but it was clear to her from the beginning that he was hiding something and he always took her to high-end restaurants while wearing pricey clothes and driving an expensive car far beyond what a simple brick layer would be able to afford one day after coming home from work Karen was approached by Steven a neighbor who lived across the street Karen had known Steven most of her life as he was the same age as her and the two had been friends growing up Steven asked if she'd help him run some errands which she agreed to as the two were driving Steven pulled over and started groping her Karen responded by slapping him across the face twice Steven then opened the car door and kicked Karen out and drove away abandoning her on the side of the road when Hill learned of what had happened he was incensed and immediately went over to Steven's house when he found Steven sitting outside Hill smashed him in the face with his revolver several times just like in the movie Hill then had Karen hide the gun and so by the time the cops came they couldn't find any physical evidence that Hill had committed the assault and so he was let go without any charges not long after the two would marry hill now had a wife and would soon have kids to support he also had several girlfriends whom he enjoyed showering with expensive gifts Hill needed to find a way to increase his cash flow and fortunately for him Jimmy Burke had the answer Burke was in charge of a gambling operation located in Ozone Park many of the people who ran up gambling debts with him were also employees of the nearby JFK International Airport Burke sensed an opportunity and so he would offer his debtors a deal in return for wiping the Slate clean the employee would alert him whenever a cargo truck carrying valuable Goods was leaving the airport Burke and his crew which included Hill as well as DeSimone would then hijack the shipment this scheme proved to be highly lucrative as in just 10 months Burke and his crew stole over $2 million worth of goods from the airport this helped Hill's short-term cash crunch but an even more profitable plot would fall right into his lap in January 1967 Hill was at the Air France cargo terminal selling smuggled cigarettes to the Airline workers when the foreman Bobby McMahon told Hill about what could potentially be the robbery of a lifetime he told him that Air France routinely flew in American cash that had been exchanged for French money overseas and that it usually came in several white canvas bags each containing $60,000 as at the moment they were constructing a new cement storage room the bags of money were for now being stored in the cargo office without any protection the money was in $50 and $100 denominations and would be completely untraceable it was the Perfect Score Hill immediately told Burke who assembled a team for the robbery that Saturday night Hill DeSimone and two more of burk's goons drove to the Air France terminal in stolen cars with fake license plates the plan was to quickly burst in steal the money and leave but as soon as the group arrived they realized that there were far too many employees in and around the cargo office for this to work they could see the money exactly where McMahon said it' be but there were too many people and so the group left empty-handed they needed a plan over the next several weeks as Hill traveled to the Air France terminal to sell cigarettes and strategize with McMahon he saw the cement storage room gradually be constructed until one day it was finished the new safe room had only one key and it was held at all times by a security guard from a private agency if McMahon or any of the other Air France employees needed to access the storage room he'd go there with them to unlock the door never letting the key out of his possession Burke wanted to just stick the guy up and steal the key but Hill pointed out that they had no way of knowing if the money was in the safe room or not as it was regularly transported to Banks eventually the conspirators agreed that the only solution was to somehow get the key from the guard make a copy of it and then return it before he ever noticed it was missing they had McMahan befriend the guard and take him out for drinks at a local bar while he was gone Hill and DeSimone broke into his apartment they tore the place apart but couldn't find the key anywhere which led them to the Grim realization that the guard took his job so seriously that he kept the key in his possession at all times even on his days off Burke was becoming increasingly impatient he knew he had a massive payday coming and all that stood in his way was one overzealous security guard he brought up the idea that next time McMahon told them the money was in the storage room they kidnapped the security guard steal the money and then Whack Him afterwards but he'll notice something when he was inside the guard's apartment and that was all of the nudie mags that were all over the floor with this Hill came up with a plan a couple of days later McMahon met with the security guard and told him that he had a surprise for him the two went to the Jade East motel near the airport and there waiting in one of the rooms was a Natalie Wood lookalike prostitute McMahon then made an excuse that he had to return to work and then left the two alone following Hill's instructions the girl suggested that the two go downstairs to the private hot tub so they could get better acquainted she also made sure the door would be left unlocked the security guard eagerly undressed and the two then put on Bath robes and left a couple minutes later Hill went into the room and started shifting through the security guard's pants he grabbed his key ring and then ran out of the motel and into Burke's waiting car the two then raced to a local locksmith because the guard had an entire key ring consisting of 18 keys and they weren't sure which key was the one they wanted they had the locksmith make duplicates of all 18 when it was done Hill then hurried back to the motel and put the key ring back exactly where he found it the guard never suspected a thing a couple of days later McMahon called and said that the money was in the safe room and the coast was clear with the storage room key in hand the hard part of the heist was over Hill and DeSimone then walked into the Air France cargo terminal used the key to enter the room and then simply walked out with $480,000 in cash and over $300,000 in jewelry Hill was eager to begin spending and so to justify his Newfound wealth to his family he and Burke made a trip to Vegas and claimed that they won big at the poker table with his share Hill purchased a new car and also bought some expensive gifts for his wife he also invested some of his money into a local bookmaking operation on var's advice but his most consequential purchase would be the suite a restaurant in Forest Hills the previous owner had massive gambling debts and so Hill promised to take on his debts as well as pay him a bit of money Hill knew that the loan sharks were small time and thus he simply refused to pay and since he was a member of Paul vario crew there was nothing they could do about it Hill had envisioned the suite as a legitimate business and hoped that his criminal friends would stay far away vario agreed and liked the idea of a clean establishment but within a couple of months he DeSimone Burke and the rest had started hanging out there turning the suite into just another mob hangout spot it was here where one of the most infamous moments of Hill's life would take place in July 1970 William bentvena nicknamed Billy bats was released from prison after serving 6 years years for selling drugs to an undercover cup while bats was gone Burke had taken over his lucrative loan sharking business bats signaled that he now wanted it back which Burke had no intention of letting happen to celebrate his release from prison bats had a party at Robert's Lounge a restaurant owned by Burke during the party an inebriated bats noticed desimon sitting at the bar with Hill and Burke he began making fun of DeSimone by telling him to go home and get his shine box a reference to the fact that when he was younger DeSimone had been the shoe shine boy for all of the older Mobsters like bats I looked over at Tommy and I could see he was fuming at the way Billy was talking Tommy was going nuts but he couldn't do or say anything Billy was a maid man if Tommy so much as took a slap at Billy Tommy was dead still I knew he was pissed we kept drinking and laughing and just when I thought maybe it was all forgotten Tommy leaned over to Jimmy and me and said I'm going to kill that [ __ ] over the next several weeks he'll try tried to dissuade DeSimone knowing the kind of trouble killing a maid man would bring down but Burke who wanted to protect his lone shark business took the opposite approach and fed desimone's anger by reminding him of bat's comments at every available opportunity on June 11th bats was in the sweet alone drinking just after midnight DeSimone walked in and noticed bats he told his girlfriend to leave and walked up to Hill and said quote keep him here I'm going for a bag which meant a body bag on Q Burke then sat beside bats and kept him drinking as the two shared laughs 20 minutes later DeSimone returned with a plastic mattress cover in one hand and a pistol in the other he then snuck up on bats and hit him over the head with the pistol and started kicking him Burke joined in and the two savagely beat bats so badly that they all thought he was dead this was a major problem as bats was a maid man with the gambinos and so if anyone found out what happened then Burke DeSimone and Hill would all be killed even VAR wouldn't be able to protect them and so they had to make the body disappear Burke had a friend in Upstate New York who owned a dog kennel and said that it would be the best place to bury bats the three then loaded the body in the trunk of Hill's car and began the long drive along the way they heard a loud thumping sound coming from the trunk desimon angrily slammed the brakes and the three got out to investigate bats was somehow still alive and so DeSimone opened the trunk and smashed bats in the face with his shovel while Burke hit him sever times with a tire iron confident that bats was now finally dead the three then got back into the car and resumed their mission by the time the trio arrived at the dog kennel the sun was coming up and it took almost an hour for them to dig a big enough hole they then covered bats with lime filled the hole and drove back to New York but they weren't done with bats yet as just 3 months later Burke learned that his friend who owned the dog kennel had sold the land to housing developers he then ordered DeSimone and Hill to travel back to the scene and dig up bat's body in order to bury it somewhere else the two dug bats back up and then drove back to New York City with bats in the trunk of Hill's new Pontiac Catalina Convertible and buried him in the basement of Robert's lounge and then a couple of months later they dug bats up again for the final time and put him in a trash compactor in a New Jersey junkyard at this point Hill was living large he lived in a nice house had a Wardrobe full of expensive suits and jewelry and he and his wife both drove new Buick rivieras he even had a girlfriend whom he kept hidden in an apartment building a couple of blocks away from The Suite Life was good but things took a turn when in November 1972 he and Burke got into a bar fight with another man in Florida unfortunately for them the man they beat up had a sister who worked as a typist for the FBI the two were arrested as soon as they got back to New York and would eventually be sentenced to 10 years in federal prison Hill served his time at lenworth prison in Kansas while he was initially anxious that quickly disappeared as he saw how wise guys were treated inside as depicted in Good Fellas the Mobsters were allowed to keep stoves in their cells slept on fine mattresses ate expensive stakes and washed it all down with wine thanks to the help of corrupt guards while Hill was serving his sentence his wife and vario began an extramarital affair seeing this desimon made advances on Karen as well and when she rejected him he tried to rape her but she managed to fight him off Hill would only learn about all of this decades later while in prison Hill met a man named Paul ma a gangster from Pittsburgh who introduced him to the drug business and the two began smuggling marijuana into the prison because of the long prison sentences that narcotics charges brought it was outlawed in the LC's family for anyone associated with them to deal drugs and so Hill had to keep his operation Under Wraps he was released from prison on parole after serving only 4 years mazay had been released first and on his first day out Hill flew to Pittsburgh and met with him the two formed a partnership and began smuggling large quantities of Narcotics to New York where Hill would then secretly sell them for a hefty profit right under var's nose Hill also teamed up with Burke on a sports betting scheme where the two would Place Large bets on the games of the Boston College men's basketball team three players on the team were bribed to ensure that they wouldn't cover the spread to help with this hill enlisted a bookie friend of his named Marty Krugman it was Krugman who would later tell Hill about the heist of a lifetime in December 1978 a shipping supervisor at JFK International Airport named Louie Werner had run up a $20,000 gambling debt with Krugman in exchange for wiping the Slate clean the employee told Krugman that the German airline Lanza regularly flew in large amounts of untraceable American currency that had been exchanged overseas similar to Air France the money was kept in a vault but verer claimed that at 3:00 a.m. a.m. every night the entire night shift went on break and all ate their lunch together in the employee lounge he claimed it' be easy for a small group of armed men to subdue all of the employees and break into the Vault to steal the money Hill brought the tip to Burke who immediately began planning the robbery if you want to know the more intricate details about the Luft hanza Heist then please watch my video on Jimmy Burke as since Hill wasn't involved in the robbery itself we won't go over it in detail here but suffice it to say the was a massive success and the robbers made out with over 5 million in cash and another $800,000 in jewelry but poor discipline amongst Burke's crew would lead to its eventual downfall Parnell Stax Edwards was supposed to drive the getaway van to a mob-owned junkyard in New Jersey but instead he got high and left it parked in front of a fire hydrant outside his girlfriend's apartment the FBI found the van and discovered Edward's fingerprints all over it as he was a known associate of Burks it didn't take long before the FBI knew Burke was The Mastermind behind the robbery it also didn't help that many of Burke's crew eagerly spent their portion of the heist money on flashy cars and expensive clothes all but confirming the FBI's hypothesis with the police closing in Burke began eliminating Loose Ends 7 days after the robbery Edwards was found dead in his apartment with a single gunshot wound to the back of the head 3 weeks later Marty Krugman disappeared never to be seen again but the paranoid bir Burke wasn't done there and over the next couple months seven individuals who had been involved in the robbery were all found dead while Burke was on his Killing Spree Hill was arrested and charged with drug trafficking after one of his dealers ratted him out with the possibility of a long sentence looming over him investigators desperately tried to convince Hill to flip and become an informant they played him a wiretap of two laesi Associates talking to Burke about how anxious they were to have Hill murdered over fears that he'd become an informant Burke told them not to worry about it they then played another wire tap in which Burke was trying to convince vario that they needed to whack Hill but Hill remained unconvinced and so when he was released on bail he met with Burke in a busy restaurant Burke appeared to be in good spirits and told Hill about a lucrative business opportunity he wanted help in he slid Hill a matchbook with a Florida address at this moment Hill had a change of heart and became convinced that Burke was setting him up and that he would be killed if he went to that address facing 20 years to life hill finally agreed to become an informant and also agreed to testify in court against his former friends the evidence he gave in combination with his testimony would eventually result in over 50 convictions which included Burke and vario who would both die in prison thanks to Hill in 1980 Hill and his family were placed into the witness protection program by the FBI the story should have ended there but Hill continued his criminal ways and lived a chaotic life while living under a new identity which which we will explore in part two and that was the video thanks and I'll see you next time

Channel: Crime Time Stories

Views: 35,706

Keywords: goodfellas, godfellas, henry hill, tommy desimmone, Tommy devito, Jimmy Burke, Jimmy Conway, mob, mafia, gang, gangsters, crime, criminal activity, mob movies, mob films, gangster movies

Id: aersFQfzzC0

Length: 27min 3sec (1623 seconds)

Published: Thu May 09 2024