Henry Hill, whose life of crime became the basis for the 1990 film *Goodfellas*, was one of the most significant informants in Mafia history. His testimony helped secure 50 convictions against his former associates, dismantling key operations within the Lucchese crime family, yet his own life remained chaotic and troubled until his death in 2012 at age 69. Born in Manhattan on June 11, 1943, Hill grew up in a working-class family in Brooklyn. His father was an Irish-American electrician and his mother an Italian immigrant, and together they struggled to provide for Henry and his seven siblings.
Hill struggled in school due to dyslexia, and he was soon drawn to the local mobsters who gathered at a nearby cabstand—men who treated him kindly and gave him money, in stark contrast to the discipline he received at home and at school. By age 11, Hill was running errands for the mob’s front businesses. At 13, he met James “Jimmy the Gent” Burke, a notorious figure in the Lucchese family, serving drinks and sandwiches during card games. A year later, through Paul Vario’s brother and son, Hill was given a no-show union job that paid $190 a week—over $2,000 in today’s money—though most of it went back to the Vario crew.
His first serious crime came when he participated in the arson of a rival cabstand. At 16, he was arrested for the first time after trying to use a stolen credit card, but his silence during interrogation earned him respect. Burke, who like Hill was of Irish descent and therefore ineligible to become a made man in the Mafia, saw potential in him. In 1960, at 17, Hill enlisted in the US Army, later claiming he did so to avoid FBI scrutiny.
While serving with the 82nd Airborne Division, he continued criminal activities, loan-sharking and selling goods to fellow soldiers. His military career ended with a stint in the stockade after stealing a car and getting into a bar fight. Returning to New York in 1963, Hill dove deeper into crime, involving himself in arson, intimidation, truck hijacking, and a stolen car operation. In 1965, he met Karen Friedman, who would become his wife; they married in a large mob-filled wedding in North Carolina.
In the late hours of April 6, 1967, Hill and Lucchese associate Tommy DeSimone executed one of the most brazen heists in New York City history. Armed with nothing more than a large empty suitcase, they walked into the Air France cargo terminal at Kennedy International Airport without facing a single security check. Using a duplicate key they had acquired in advance, they packed seven bags holding $420,000—roughly $3. 8 million today—into the suitcase and left undisturbed.
The theft was not discovered until the following Monday when a Wells Fargo truck arrived to collect the cash. Flush with money, Hill invested in a restaurant on Queens Boulevard, hoping to establish a legitimate business. Within months, however, it became a magnet for Lucchese and Gambino crime family members, and the restaurant turned into another mob hangout. The heist had cemented his reputation in the underworld.
In 1970, mobster William “Billy Bats” Bentvena made a fatal mistake. At a welcome-home party at Burke’s bar, Robert’s Lounge, Bentvena jokingly asked DeSimone if he still shined shoes—a reference to a menial job from DeSimone’s youth. Enraged, DeSimone told Burke and Hill, “I’m going to kill him. ”
Two weeks later, on June 11, 1970, DeSimone ambushed Bentvena at a nightclub, pistol-whipping him while shouting “Shine these shoes now.
” Bentvena was stuffed into the trunk of Hill’s car, but on the way to dispose of the body, they heard noises—Bentvena was still alive. DeSimone and Burke pulled over, opened the trunk, and beat him to death with a shovel and tire iron. The body was initially buried at a dog kennel in upstate New York, but when the property was sold to developers, Hill and DeSimone were ordered to exhume it. In Hill’s account in the book *Wiseguy*, the body was eventually crushed in a car compactor in New Jersey; in a later version he provided for the *Goodfellas* commentary, it was first buried in the basement of Robert’s Lounge.
In November 1972, Burke and Hill were arrested in Tampa, Florida, for assaulting a man with a gambling debt. Both were convicted on extortion charges and sentenced to ten years at the United States Penitentiary in Lewisburg. While serving time, Hill met a man from Pittsburgh who taught him how to smuggle drugs into prison—a skill that would later become central to his operations. During Hill’s imprisonment, his wife Karen became romantically involved with Paul Vario.
Meanwhile, DeSimone attempted to sexually assault Karen and beat her when she resisted. Many speculate this aggression led to DeSimone’s downfall: Vario, angered by the behavior toward Karen, is believed to have tipped off the Gambino family about DeSimone’s involvement in Bentvena’s murder. DeSimone was subsequently murdered, believed to be carried out by the Gambino crew as revenge. Hill was released on parole on July 12, 1978, after serving four years.
He quickly returned to crime, with drug trafficking becoming his primary focus—despite the Lucchese family’s strict rule against its members engaging in drug deals, Burke eventually became involved in Hill’s narcotics operation. Hill’s empire expanded rapidly as he wholesaled marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and Quaaludes, using connections made in prison. On December 11, 1978, an estimated $5. 875 million—$27.
4 million in 2023 dollars—was stolen from the Lufthansa cargo terminal at Kennedy airport, making it the largest cash robbery committed on American soil at the time. The plot began when bookmaker Martin Krugman told Hill that Lufthansa flew currency into its cargo terminal, and Burke set the plan in motion. Hill did not directly take part in the heist. He and two Pittsburgh gamblers also set up the 1978-79 Boston College basketball point-shaving scheme, convincing center Rick Kuhn to participate; Kuhn, a high school friend of one of the gamblers, encouraged teammates to join.
In 1980, Hill was arrested on narcotics trafficking charges and came to believe his former associates were conspiring to kill him. He suspected Paul Vario wanted him dead for his drug dealings, and Jimmy Burke aimed to silence him regarding the Lufthansa heist. His fears were confirmed when federal investigators played him a surveillance tape of Burke discussing the necessity of having Hill killed. Realizing his life was in danger, Hill made a critical decision.
On May 27, 1980, Hill signed an agreement to become an informant. His testimony against his former associates proved instrumental in securing 50 convictions. To protect his family, Hill, along with his wife Karen and their two children, entered the US Marshals Witness Protection Program and assumed new identities. Burke was sentenced to 12 years for the Boston College point-shaving scandal and later received a life sentence for the murder of a scam artist named Richard Eaton.
He died of cancer on April 13, 1996, at age 64. Vario received four years for helping Hill obtain a no-show job and was later sentenced to an additional ten years for extorting air freight companies at JFK airport. He died of respiratory failure while serving his sentence on November 22, 1988, at age 73. Hill’s life after entering witness protection was turbulent.
Living under the alias Martin Lewis, he met Sher Anders in the fall of 1981 and married her in Virginia City, Nevada, despite his existing marriage to Karen. In 1987, he was convicted of cocaine trafficking in Seattle, leading to his expulsion from the witness protection program. Karen filed for divorce in 1990 after 23 years of marriage; it was finalized in 2002. His legal troubles continued.
In 2004, Hill was arrested at North Platte Regional Airport in Nebraska after leaving behind luggage filled with drug paraphernalia. In 2005, he was sentenced to 180 days for attempted possession of methamphetamine. In 2009, he pleaded guilty to public intoxication, and later that year was arrested for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest—an incident he attributed to his battle with alcoholism. In his later years, Hill found new love and married Lisa Caserta, settling in Tuna Canyon near Malibu, California.
He appeared in documentaries and made guest spots on media platforms, including appearances on the Howard Stern Show, often showing up inebriated. He also welcomed a third child during this period. Hill’s story was vividly brought to life in the 1990 Martin Scorsese film *Goodfellas*, an adaptation of Nicholas Pileggi’s 1985 non-fiction book *Wiseguy*. Ray Liotta portrayed Hill in a powerful performance.
The film was renamed from *Wiseguy* to *Goodfellas* just weeks before filming to avoid confusion with an unrelated television series. Hill received $480,000 for his involvement. Robert De Niro, who played Jimmy Conway—a fictionalized version of James Burke—reportedly called Hill multiple times daily to learn Burke’s mannerisms, from his walk to how he held a cigarette. Liotta listened to FBI recordings of Hill to capture his voice.
Hill’s life was further explored in the 1990 comedy *My Blue Heaven*, scripted by Pileggi’s wife Norah Ephron, and in the 2001 TV movie *The Big Heist*. In 2004, he sat down with Charlie Rose for an interview featured on *60 Minutes*. In 2011, Hill participated in a photo shoot for *Entertainment Weekly* alongside Liotta; the encounter prompted Hill to enter alcohol rehabilitation afterward. In a candid interview with the BBC in March 2008, Hill addressed his victims’ feelings about his commercial endeavors: “I don’t give a heck what those people think.
I’m doing the right thing now,” he said, highlighting his unapologetic approach to his past. Hill passed away on June 12, 2012, just a day after his 69th birthday, due to complications from heart disease. His longtime girlfriend Lisa Caserta said he had been battling health issues for years. “He had been sick for a long time.
His heart gave out,” she said, adding, “He went out pretty peacefully. For a goodfella. ”
In a radio interview recorded before his death, Hill reflected on his childhood and how he became drawn to the life. “The peers in my neighborhood were the wise guys,” he recalled.
“Those were my idols. Those were the guys that I looked up to. I didn’t know they were gangsters. I thought they were good guys, ’cause they used to pat me on the back and give me money.
”
Hill also described witnessing his first murder as a teenager—a bookmaker whose hands were shot off. “I remember hearing the shots, sitting in front of the joint,” he said. “He come around the corner with his hands look like a pound of spaghetti. I had to wrap a napkin around his hand.
Blood was splattering all over me. ” Asked if the experience made him want to change course, Hill said his adrenaline was running so fast. “It didn’t stop me from getting hooked up. I couldn’t wait to go back and talk about it.
I’m alive, you’re alive. “