But she had her own anger to unleash. Nearly broke, Sherry had no choice but to take her son to her hometown and move in with her parents. He stole everything and from everyone. When I was five, my mother made a left turn into a gas station in Island Park in front of a drunk driver who was speeding. I had a friend in the building, and wed go roaming around the hallways, knocking on doors. When my parents first got married, in 1965, they lived with my grandparents, my moms parents, in Valley Stream, on Long Island. It began to snow and soon enough, all of his stuff was buried under the white. It seemed like this woman knew who her husband was. Eight years old, and I had to get past an armed guard to see my father. Find your friends on Facebook. Although he was convicted on drug charges stemming from his 1987 arrest, the FBI and prosecutors pleaded with the court to release him. Sherry accepted his apology. In an attempt to keep their true identities hidden from everyone around them, the family changed their names - with Hill becoming Martin Lewis, a name that he borrowed from two of his favorite actors, Hollywood heartthrob Dean Martin and comedian Jerry Lewis. Sherry asked the woman, Do you know Martin Lewis? She replied, Yeah, hes my husband.. Hill immediately got drunk and started cursing out loud in front of the local yokels. Lured by power and money, Hill gradually became more entrenched with the family and while his half-Sicilian genes his father was Irish meant he could never be a fully-fledged member of the family, he was able to be an associate. I don't think it lasted more than a month, and it brought about an ugly breakup. Unfortunately, Hill later discovered the only reason the girl married Hill was because she thought he had money. Thats how their life together started, nightclubs and pistol-whippings. And she did it with style, too, riding her horses in heels and white clothes. The marriage was finally over. He violently pushed her out of his car and drove away. Sherry, who was paranoid about the whole situation, started sleeping with a gun under her pillow just as Hill had when he first entered Witness Protection. This is a copy of the contract my father signed when he agreed to become an FBI informant in exchange for protection from his crew. But under witness protection, everything changed. '[Sherry and I] both knew the marriage wasn't valid when we sobered up,' he recalled. They had a son named Justin, but in 1997, Hill and Dawn, now living in California, became totally out of control with their drug use. While Tony wasnt a member of any crime family, he refused to turn states evidence on any of his friends and associates, even when staring jail time square in the face. "One of the most painful things I ever did was leave my mother and my sister. Karen first met her future husband, Henry through mutual friends. He was put behind bars in 1987 and later claimed he dodged at least two attempts by Vario and Burke goons who were in the same prison to have him killed. Gregg and Gina talk about life in witness protection and their book, On the Run: A Mafia Childhood. But Janet was a professional (albeit only 25 years old) and had a job to do. As much as she tried to move on, Hill was always in her thoughts; she couldnt get him out of her mind. Goodfellas didn't leave Henry's personal life behind and included his wife, Karen Hill (Lorraine Bracco), in the story. The federal penitentiary at Lewisburg was a big beige block with a tower in the center near the front where I could see a guard with a military rifle slung over his shoulder. Henry immigrated to Gloucester county, Virginia, where, in 1651, he married Susan Ann Newman, born in 1630, in Blackburn, Lancashire England, a daughter of Reverend Thomas Newman What that meant was that the Church offered legal provisions for one-party annulments under certain circumstances. Dont you ever f***ing come back here! she screamed. Still, under the creepiness there was something magnetic about Sherrys new beau. After their first date, the two were inseparable. Hill even managed to swindle the governor of the state he was hiding in: John Y. Hill was now going by the name Martin Lewis. Dont worry about it, one of them told Gram. Hill was the hustler not her. He would disappear for days (probably to visit his actual family). This is me and my brother, Gregg Hill. I think sometimes my grandparents liked my dad in spite of themselves. He ran numbers and sold bootlegged cigarettes out of his car. I guess I had my dads charm. The book covers both the remembrances of the Hill children prior to their entry into WITSEC and their subsequent . Gregg ultimately became a successful attorney. Kaylen replied: 'Yeah. As for Henry Hill, he continued on his downward spiral. Im sure she never used the word prison, and it wouldnt have mattered because I was only six years old and wouldnt have known what prison was. But there would always be at least one nice old lady whod say, Oh, how cute, and give us cookies and milk. Actor: Sinatra Club. Thats how she said it: Daddy has to go away for a little while. It was late in the afternoon, and she was leaning down so her face was close to mine and I could smell her perfume. Soon enough, Sherry received a phone call. My mom had a lot of things on her mind that day. The script for the film was based on the book Wise guy written by Nicholas Pileggi. Sherry would lie to herself it was the stress of a new relationship, thats all. My mother always brought a big bag jammed with all kinds of stuff. There would be a guard at the main entrance, an enormous black steel gate, waiting with a massive key, just like in the old movies. Ever since the family came out of the Witness Protection Program due to various criminal activities performed by Henry while still in the program, Karen has not appeared in public much. Hill was even making collect phone calls from Omaha to New York. She wanted to meet, and Sherry agreed. How could she have been so blind? In "On the Run: A Mafia Childhood," Gregg and Gina Hill tell their story of life as the children of "Goodfellas" mobster Henry Hill. Gina also got married and started her own family. Some of the other thefts were easier: Theyd just walk into a garage and steal the truck, or theyd buy off the driver so hed leave his keys in the cab when he stopped for coffee. We are the children of one of the most notorious mobsters turned FBI informants, Henry Hill. In the fall of 1981, Hill walked into El Toreador, his favorite spot where he found both of his vices in one package. The film revolves around the life of Henry Hill, who was a notorious New York gangster and his wife, Karen. Your father did some things he shouldnt have done, is how shed put it. Henry Hill died in 2012, but Karen is alive and well, according to her husband's former manager, says ABC News. That package was a woman named Sherry Anders. What was once a general underlying anxiety was now full-fledged panic. Martin moved into the apartment Sherry was sharing with her roommate and lifelong friend, Samantha, who had a son of her own. There were twenty-two hundred men inside, some of the worst criminals in the federal system. My grandma is strict to begin with, and my dad wasnt used to following rules. The man who Anders knew as the charming and charismatic Martin was in fact a married mafia informant with a large target on his back, who had a wife and two children living just a few miles from where he and his second spouse met. She was crying just a little. See Photos. In the end he died at a hospital . Wide-eyed and jaw on the floor would be correct. But right to the end, he managed to stay one step ahead of the mafia assassins he long feared. Hes MY husband, Sherry told her. The two met for the first time at a, Karen Friedman Hill was mostly unaware of her husbands illegal, Things took a nasty turn when Henry received a ten-year sentence for, Henrys children officially released a book titled On the Run: A Mafia Childhood, in the year 2004 that gives the readers an insight into the family's life. As for Karen she divorced Hill in 1990 and it was finalized in 2002. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Before he could properly get kicked out of Sherrys house, he passed out. He saw Ted in the driveway, grabbed him by the hair, pulled a gun out of his pocket, and pistol-whipped him. He and his family were put under witness protection. He told others that he was an insurance investigator for arson cases (completely fake, but he had some experience with torching places down). His name was John Ciaccio, and he owed a gambling debt to a friend of my father, a guy who ran one of the unions at Kennedy Airport. My dad had a dangerous side too, and I think Mom liked that, the whole outlaw mystique. I was the best Mob informant [theyd] ever get, he later boasted. Hill teamed up with journalist and writer Nick Pileggi on the tome, which documented the time he had spent working in the mafia underworld in New York City, from the horrific 'whackings' he witnessed to his eventual decision to rat on his fellow gangsters in a desperate attempt to save himself. It's cable reimagined No. He was arrested on a number of occasions in the years leading up to his death for public drunkenness. Hill was sent to prison. My mother explained it to me in pretty blunt terms, considering how old I was. They had a son named Justin, but in 1997, Hill and Dawn, now living in California, became totally out of control with their drug use. Born on June 11, 1943, in the tough Brownsville area of New York, Hill was the fifth of seven children and the first son to his Sicilian mother Carmella and his father, also called Henry. She walked into Sherrys home, which was unlocked, and went straight to the bedroom to find her husband sleeping. Their design and construction work history include an array of governmental, institutional, commercial, and private-sector projects. Then we went up a set of wide stone steps into the building, where we got in line with everyone else who had a father or a brother or a son locked up in Lewisburg. So brazen was Hill that he even wore a 'Witness Protection Program' T-shirt while dating Anders. And she was already pregnant with my brother. In 2006, at the encouragement of Liotta, Hill entered rehabilitation to combat his drug addiction problems. He had a better ride through the Pennsylvania farmlands than I ever did. But people stared and then they glared. Sherry was a hopeless romantic. He didnt make eye contact with her, she recalled. One day shes a dental assistant from a middle-class family on Long Island, and the next shes sipping from a bottle of champagne that Sammy Davis Jr. sent to Dads table at the Copa. He stayed out all night, and in the morning he hired a limousine to take him to prison. She had met her true love. At any rate, in 2004 another book addressing the Henry Hill saga appeared. Therefore, exact details about them are still unavailable. Every time Hill was busted by local authorities, he and his family had to relocate so as to keep them off the mafia radar, and within the first year of their time in the program, the Hills had moved from Omaha, Nebraska, to Independence, Kentucky, then to the sleepy town of Redmond, Washington. But it was about the same time hed bought me Baby Alive, this doll that you could feed pretend baby food and her mouth would move, like she was chewing. Hill grew up in Brooklyn, New York, where he admired local mafiosi, including Paul Vario, a capo in the Luchesse crime family. The couple had two kids Gregg and Gina. His romance with Anders imploded just months after it had begun when his first wife Karen, who was living under the alias Kaylen, learned of their affair and confronted her husband's new spouse. By the time they made close friends and felt comfortable enough to spill the beans, their friends disappeared from their lives too spooked to keep up the friendships. Fortunately for her, it's tricky to find out exactly what she's up to these days. Then my dad came trotting back across the street, all sweaty and red, and gave my mom the gun and told her to hide it. She was notorious mobster Henry Hill's girlfriend - the dude from Goodfellas who passed away at age 69 yesterday. He stole, fenced, bootlegged, loan-sharked, and extorted. In walked a likable 38-year-old guy who appeared at their table and introduced himself as Martin Lewis. Filmography. Gram was always tough on Dad. No one asked why it was so urgent for him to leave the country. He was eventually removed from the general inmate population. This behavior was partly out of love, and partly out of greed for the luxurious lifestyle, his criminal background gave her. Our trips to Lewisburg were always miserable. We had it backwards, Girl Scouts asking for cookies, almost like a scam. Brown, the former owner of the Boston Celtics who bought KFC from Colonel Sanders and became the governor of Kentucky. Hill, who died in LA in 2012, was taken into witness protection with his wife Karen and their two children, Gina and Gregg, in 1980, after helping the FBI to arrest several of his fellow gangsters. He immediately answered: Kris Gregory Cowin. The two met at a diner in Everett, Washington. When Karen found out her husband was a bigamist, Hill gave her this incredible excuse; Dont worry; it means nothing. She then dragged him out of the bed by the crotch and beat him with a telephone. The funny thing is he never even showed up to court. They were so young, my dad twenty-two and my mom just nineteen. We lived on the third floor, overlooking the pool, and I shared a bedroom with my brother. The creature was emaciated and neglected, so after climbing the fence and entering the property, she crept into the barn and grabbed hold of Teriyaki, the horses name. Source: ABC News "It was like another country," Henry later said. Sherry stared at her in disbelief this must be a mistake. Janet and a few members of her team used disguises when necessary; they staked out Sherrys home, salon, and the places she ate and shopped at. When Hill came under federal protection, his wife, Karen, and their two children did too. He torched a few buildings. My father was one of them. He told her that he recently dealt with a medical crisis and almost died. I had a much different childhood than most children, for starters, I and my brother grew up in the Witness Protection Program; however, this blog is about my father, not us. It was almost as if he had come to believe his own hype, bought into his own scam, convinced himself that, yeah, it was really like a movie.. When I was older, my mom told me that that was part of what attracted her to my dad the glitz, the way he could get them a front-row table at the Empire Club or the Copacabana, the way he seemed to know everyone and everyone knew him. And then wed get to the prison. In the Afterword of the On the Run Greg Scott wrote, In the 1990s, after he (Henry Hill) squandered whatever money he made off the book and the movie, he was in and out of prison on an assortment of charges and parole violations. Its just temporary, she said. He was busy, after all, writing a book under contract for Simon & Schuster. Henry took care of it. Or when my dad and his friend Tommy DeSimone would back a truck up to the garage and unload boxes of microwaves or knit shirts or toaster ovens. Disorder in the household turned into utter mayhem. By then, he and Karen had divorced, and he was now married to a woman named Kelly in California. One day, Sherrys nephew, a toddler, pulled her handgun out from her purse, nearly giving her sister a heart attack. by Gregg Hill (Author), Gina Hill (Author) 344 ratings Kindle $11.99 Read with Our Free App Hardcover $28.79 64 Used from $2.36 12 New from $24.85 2 Collectible from $14.00 Paperback $18.93 6 Used from $8.11 6 New from $17.81 Mass Market Paperback $3.04 12 Used from $3.04 In the book, Gregg and Gina discuss how their maternal grandparents, and Karen's two younger sisters, Cheryl and Ellen, helped take care of them, when Karen and Henry were out dealing in crime.Henry died in 2012. Well, thats the alias the government allowed her to go by (she chose the name). Hills last major job with his gang was the Lufthansa heist at John F Kennedy airport in New York in December 1978, which netted them a then-record $5.875 million. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Hills death came 34 years after his last major job with his gang: the Lufthansa heist at John F Kennedy airport in New York in December 1978, which netted them a then-record $5.875 million. Stealing was second nature to my father. Of course, I dont actually remember a lot of that, and I didnt know most of those stories until years later. Their dad was Henry Hill - immortalised in the book Wiseguy and the Martin Scorsese film. Whats my sons name? she asked him. While Henry . What he lacked in the looks department he made up for with his charisma. That was my dads greatest asset, his charm. Just a few years, she said, like a few years was a long weekend. His thriving business made the front page of the Cincinnati Enquirer he was seen in a photo with a perm and a fake mustache, clearly trying to escape the photographers frame. 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