I like most man in this world I love sitting in front of my television and watching a great mobster movie.
I have to say one of my chosen for today was "Goodfellas" and after it was done I wanted to know just much of the story was true and what was false. I'll start with Henry Hill the main character who was played by Ray Leota.
This is his Mug Shot before going in to server a five year prison sentence for distribution of cocaine.
Early life
Hill grew up poor in the East New York section of Brooklyn. His father was an electrician, and there were 6 other siblings in the small apartment including a brother who was born with a deformed spine. From an early age he admired the local mafiosi, who included Paul Vario, a capo in the Lucchese crime family. In his early teens, he began running errands at Vario's cabstand and pizzeria, his first jobs included moving the mobster's cadillacs, something that drew the envy of his classmates. The two went on to become trusting business associates. Hill's first arrest came when he attempted to use a stolen credit card to buy tires at a gas station . He was quickly released after the arrest. He dropped out of high school to become a gangster-in-training, because Hill said he saw school as useless. It is known as a childhood precursor of potential psychopaths to play truant from school and many could argue that this combined with suspected undiagnose Attention Deficit Disorder could have formed the sociopath he became.
In 1960, Hill joined the army and was stationed at Fort Bragg for three years. He was a member of the 82nd Airborne paratrooper unit there, and maintained contact with Vario and his other friends in New York the entire time. Hill continued to hustle while in the service, selling extra food, loan sharking salary advances to his fellow soldiers, and selling tax free cigarettes. In 1963, he returned to New York and a life of crime.
Hill, Burke, and DeSimone were entrusted by Vario to steal trucks, plan airport heists (targeting Air France and carrying out 1978's huge Lufthansa heist), and carry out mob killings.
In 1965 Hill went on a double date with Vario's son, where he was set up with his future wife Karen, a young Jewish girl. The two eventually fell in love, and Karen admits she became infatuated with Henry's gangster lifestyle. Karen's mother did not approve of Henry because he was not Jewish, and she was suspicious of his lifestyle and occupation. Karen got a firsthand view of Henry's violent tendencies when he pistol whipped a neighbor after the man attacked Karen in his car. The two first eloped to North Carolina, and later had a large Jewish wedding, to which most of Hill's gangster friends were invited.
Hill started seeing other women, and when Karen Hill found out, she was furious and left him. In order to restore peace in the Hill family, Vario sent Hill and Burke to Tampa, Florida, to recover money from a gambler who owed Vario, while Vario would talk to Karen and convince her to take Hill back. (Tommy DeSimone, a fellow mobster who had a substantial presence in the movie "Goodfellas", had originally been scheduled to fly to Florida instead of Hill, but Vario decided to send Hill instead, at the last moment. DeSimone thus had only a small part in the meeting with the gambler.) As it turned out, the gambler's sister worked for the FBI, who were then able to arrest Hill, Burke, and the others on the strength of her testimony. Found guilty, they were given 10-year sentences, but Hill was paroled after serving only four and a half years. Burke served jail time in Atlanta, Georgia.
Paul Vario, already released before Hill left jail, set up a dummy job for Hill so that he could be paroled.
Fallout between Hill and Vario
Hill had made contacts with drug dealers while in jail. Vario strongly opposed the trade of drugs in his "crew," fearing the extra police attention that would result if anyone associated with him was found trafficking drugs.
The possibility that DeSimone, a man notorious for his short fuse, had murdered William Devino, a "made" mafioso, without Vario's consent, did not help either. Vario began to be blamed by other mafia bosses for the killing, so he began to investigate within his "crew."
Hill, meanwhile, had become a cocaine addict, using the same product he was supposed to make profits from. He had contacts with dealers in Pennsylvania and some other states. His wife Karen also fell into drug use, and family life for Hill — who took care of a disabled brother as well — was total chaos. Hill was dealing in marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and quaaludes. He was also involved in selling stolen military weapons and operating a major point shaving scheme in concert with the Boston College basketball team.
Eventually, Vario discovered that DeSimone had murdered Devino. Vario set up DeSimone to believe he was to be "made," and on what he thought was his initiation day, he was killed. Later information suggested that John Gotti conducted the hit on DeSimone, since Devino was from the Gambino family. Tommy DeSimone's corpse wasn't exhumed until 2004, after J. Gotti's death, at a burial place in NYC called The Hole.
Hill and his family attempted to go on the run, but they were arrested.
[edit]
As informant
Hill chose to become an informant, and he, Karen and their two children (portrayed in the film as two daughters; Hill actually had a daughter and a son) moved to an undisclosed location. They changed their names, and were protected under the U.S. Marshals' Witness Protection Program.
Hill's testimony was important in the convictions of Burke, Vario and the rest of his "crew."
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