Henry Hill began his life of crime at age 11 in 1955, by working as a go-fer for
Paul Vario, the local boss of Hill's working-class Irish/Italian neighborhood. Vario quickly "promoted" Hill to selling loose cigarettes and other stolen goods on his behalf. In 1959, Hill was arrested for the first time for using stolen credit cards. Hill refused to cooperate with the police, earning the respect of Vario and Vario's close associate, hijacker and fence
Jimmy Burke. In 1960, when Hill was 17, he enlisted in the
United States Army, to the surprise of his peers. When questioned about his decision by Vario, Hill explained that he wanted to please his father, who disapproved of his son's association with the Mafia. While stationed at
Fort Bragg in
North Carolina, however, Hill continued his criminal activities, which led to his dishonorable discharge in 1963. He returned to the streets of
New York, where he was happily welcomed back by Vario and Burke. In 1964, Hill met
Tommy DeSimone, aka "Two Gun Tommy," a young aspiring gangster with violent tendencies, and both worked as stick-up men for Vario, hijacking trucks and stealing their contents for resale. In 1965, Hill reluctantly joined Vario's son on a double date, where he met
Karen Friedman, a young
Jewish woman from the
Five Towns section of New York. Hill and Friedman continued to date, and they
eloped only four months after meeting. They had their first child, Gregg, in 1966, and a second, Gina, in 1968. In 1969, Hill began an affair with Linda Coppociano behind Karen's back and invested the profits of his crimes into purchasing a restaurant/lounge called The Suite. It was there that, on June 11, 1970, Burke and DeSimone murdered
William Bentvena (also known as William "Billy Batts" Devino), a
made man with the
Gambino crime family and a close friend of Gambino family captain and future Boss
John Gotti. In 1978, Burke masterminded a
robbery of the Lufthansa cargo terminal at
John F. Kennedy International Airport after being tipped off to the lax security by an inside man. The heist was carried out by DeSimone and Burke's associates Robert "Frenchy" McMahon and Montague Montemurro in December of that year. In 1980, Hill was arrested for heroin trafficking, and, knowing that he was facing a long sentence and also that Burke and Vario were planning to kill him, decided to become an
informant and entered the
Witness Protection Program. ==References==