Michael Franzese on Knowing Mafia Snitch Henry Hill, Played by Ray Liotta in 'Goodfellas' (Part 3)

well uh you were actually portrayed in the movie goodfellas uh one of the iconic films uh of our lifetime ray leona just passed who played uh henry hill did you ever know ray leonardo uh i met him once briefly so no i don't know him but i know people that knew him fairly well and always had nice things to say about him and you know my first uh introduction to rayleigh oda was in the movie goodfellas and first when i saw it i said no he doesn't fit the part because i knew henry hill really well and he did not portray henry as henry really was he made him look a lot better i mean henry never looked so good as ray liotta made him look but then as i got into the movie started to forget henry and just concentrate on ray he was terrific he played a great part so henry hill what what crew was he with he was uh with paulie vario lucas lucasy yeah lucasy mafia and he eventually ended up working with the feds yes were you around when that when he ended up turning yeah oh yeah you know i met henry early on um when he was doing the boston scandal you know with the uh uh i forget the guy's name the boss uh the college boston college but he was giving me uh some inside information so i made some money with him um because he was used to hang out in long island also and uh and then yeah when that whole thing happened we happen to have the same prosecutor ed mcdonald who flipped um henry was my prosecutor the eastern district so you know but yeah i mean i knew henry i knew jimmy burke very well um paulie vario i knew well so i knew all those guys that's why they put me in goodfellas it wasn't my crew i had nothing really to do with them business-wise but i asked uh pelegi later on i says why did you put me in there he said well mike you had name value you knew people so he just threw your name in there okay i mean when he flipped and started working with the feds uh how much damage does that create well a lot i mean you know i i don't know if everything henry said was you know on point i don't know how involved he really was i'll be honest with you val i don't i'm glad i don't think he could have been that involved because henry he was an alcoholic he had a drug problem from early on you know i'll tell you one incident i was in a club out in long island i walked into the restroom and i saw four feet in one of the stalls now you didn't see that back then right it's what's going on here so i kicked open the door and it was henry hill and my brother my brother had a drug problem they were doing coke so i pulled him out and you know and got upset with my brother but i told henry the word was out he said henry the word is out on you if paulie knows this is going on you're going to get killed now i'm not going to tell him but i don't want to see you in this place ever again and i want to see you next to my brother and that was an encounter i had when he left and that was it so he had a drug problem i don't think he was as involved as they claim he was well yeah i mean he testified against everyone and they put him in the witness protection program but then he got kicked out of the program essentially yeah another incident i've mentioned this before i was in terminal island when i was doing my time and henry was obviously on separation he was in jail at that time and you know they separate him from other people but they put him in terminal island by mistake and i noticed him coming out of the cafeteria and he pc'ed up at that point because the lieutenant called me in he must have seen me and got nervous because you know he should have and uh and then they shipped him out but uh it was a mistake by the bureau of prisons i mean how often do do people who cooperate end up getting killed by the mafia i mean it happened uh with whitey bulger of course you know about that and that's very high profile yes but as a whole how often does it actually happen well i don't know of anybody i never heard of anybody that went into the program that ever got killed afterwards with this protection witness protection program yeah i don't know i mean not everyone goes to witness for me no well listen vlad if you're suspected of being an informant on the street you're going to go i mean there's no question so if you don't get to the point where you're already cooperating and already protected by the government and we find out about it you're going to go no doubt how many people do you know outside of whitey bulger who actually got killed after they took the stand and basically told on a bunch of people after they took the stand i can't think of anybody you know one guy that we found out was an informant and got killed before was willy boy johnson he was in gotti's crew somebody that i worked with uh i was shy lack of money with him but i don't know if anybody that took the stand and then got killed afterwards at least it doesn't come to you know my mind right away is it because it's more high profile and they feel like the feds are watching them because i mean i don't think the feds are you know if you're not witness protection i don't care the fed doesn't seem like the feds really give a what happens to you after that do they no they don't care but but normally if you take the stand you're in whitsett they're protecting you so nothing's gonna happen at that point yeah well but then a lot of people leave witness protection they do but they don't come back to new york and they don't they don't hang out here you know i mean hang out where they shouldn't hang out but you know i'm going to be honest with you too you know now there's some guys on the street that i know are in the witness protection program that are living in new york and i'm kind of scratching my head but i'll tell you this back in the 70s and 80s during my time they wouldn't be walking around no doubt so there's been some changes in that life for sure

Channel: djvlad

Views: 380,175

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Id: OV7Up2KU67c

Length: 5min 47sec (347 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 26 2022