After years spent dodging bullets and avoiding sleeping with the fishes, Henry Hill - the real-life mafia turncoat immortalized in the film Goodfellas - dies naturally aged 69Mafia gangster died day after his 69th birthday after battle with long illness Had been depicted by Ray Liotta on the big screen in 1990 Scorsese movie Convicted of being involved in $4million robbery at Kennedy airport Had problems with drugs and petty and was convicted of petty crimes in later life Had been in hiding for 30 years after 'rattting' on former associates He was an infamous mafia turncoat who spent the last three decades in hiding, but the man immortalised by Ray Liotta in the film Goodfellas has died a natural death. Henry Hill died yesterday, just a day after his 69th birthday, following a long battle with an undisclosed condition. His girlfriend Lisa reportedly told TMZ 'he has been sick for a long time, his heart gave out on him.' Having spent the last 30 years hoping that his gangster past would not catch up with him, it is perhaps ironic that Hill finally died naturally as opposed to at the hands of one of the mob men he angered when he 'grassed' on them in 1980. Hill's colourful life featured the 1978 Lufthansa heist which scooped what was then a record $5million. Hill hit public attention after the publication of his book about his life story called Wiseguy written by crime reporter Nicholas Pileggi which later became the hit Martin Scorsese film Goodfellas. 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. His is sister Lucille Chrisafulle described him as a likeable boy, but one who showed early signs of developing into a mafia man. Against his father's wishes Hill got in with the mafia crowd at the age of 11 when he started hanging around with Paul Vario from the infamous Lucchese mob family. Lured by power and money and a flambouyant lifestyle Henry gradually got more entrenched with the family and while his only 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. His close relationship with Vario meant he earned good money. He dropped out of school in 1957 and began running errands for Vario. When the Rebel Cab Company opened on Glenmore Avenue Hill he was notoriously assigned to set alight to their taxis to take out the direct competition to Paul Vario. Hill later said after carrying out the arson that he heard one explosion after another, but was running so fast he never had a chance look back. His first arrest came when he was 16 years old after he used a stolen credit card to steal snow tires and it was his refusal to talk that earned him the respect of fellow gangster Jimmy Burke. He maintained his connections with the Vario family during his three year stint in the army between 1960 and 1963 and in 1967 he stole $420,000 from a security safe belonging to Air France with Thomas DeSimone. Hill famously discovered that the security guard responsible for the safe had a weakness for women, so he and Simone got him drunk, took him to a motel where a prostitute was waiting and while his trousers were down they stole the key to the safe and copied it. On June 11, 1970, Hill threw a party at Robert's Lounge (owned by Jimmy Burke) for William 'Billy Batts' Devino. Burke had decided he wanted Devino dead and DeSimone later carried out the murder in a hotel suite. Hill helped to conceal the body in a mattress, placing it in the trunk of a car. On the way to bury Devino the pair heard a banging from the trunk and realized Devino was still alive. DeSimone opened the trunk and smashed Devino with the shovel and Burke beat him with a tire iron. When they were sure he was dead, they drove on. They buried Devino in a shallow grave because the ground was frozen and they covered him with lime, before driving him back to New York. Three months later, when the land was about to be developed into a housing project, Hill and DeSimone dug up Devino, tossed the decomposed remains into the back of Hill's brand-new Pontiac Catalina convertible and dumped them in a New Jersey Junkyard (owned by Clyde Brooks). According to Hill however, the car smelled so terrible he later had to scrap it. In 1972 he was charged with extortion and both he and Burke served six years of their ten year sentence. After Hill's release from prison in late 1978 he carried out the famous Lufthansa robbery. On December 11, 1978 he stole $5million dollars from Kennedy Airport. FBI officers were quick to point the finger at the Robert's Lounge crew and Hill and his associates were followed 24/7. Jimmy Burke killed half the people involved in the robbery for their share of the loot and to prevent them from 'ratting'. The bodies of more than 12 suspects were discovered in different locations. Hill became paranoid that he too would be in Burke's line of fire and he began selling marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and quaaludes. He was arrested on April 27, 1980. Officers played him wire taps of other mob members threatening to kill him but he refused to talk. In the end Hill testified against his former associates to avoid a possible execution by his crew or going to prison for his crimes. The testimony led to 50 convictions, but it meant that Hill, his wife Karen, and their two children (Gregg and Gina) had to be put in the U.S. Marshals' Witness Protection Program in 1980. They also had to change their names, and move to undisclosed locations in Omaha, Nebraska; Independence, Kentucky; Redmond, Washington; and Seattle, Washington. Due to his numerous crimes while in witness protection, Hill and his wife, who he separated from in 1989 were expelled from the program in the early 1990s. In 2006 after being encouraged by actor Ray Liotta Hill entered rehabilitation to combat his drug addiction problems. He was arrested on a number of occasions in recent years for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct and he also worked as an Italian chefs returning to a love of cooking developed in his youth.
He was portrayed in Goodfellas. Goodfellas is about the mafia. The mafia are Catholics. The mafia kill lots of people.
