As a kid growing up in Brooklyn, Henry Hill always had aspirations that were well beyond his humble beginnings. His Irish father had worked long hours for little pay and from early on, Henry knew that lifestyle wasn't going to be in the cards for him. Truth be told, there was no reason for it--Hill was a quick, smart kid who loved to hustle and had a knack for turning a quick buck. The mob was alive and well in Henry's neck of the woods and he used to watch the wiseguys through his window, longing to be a part of their seemingly glamorous world. Not far from where Henry lived, a young Martin Scorsese was watching too, fascinated by what he saw in those men who didn't have to play by the rules. Wiseguys didn't have to bust their asses to make a living like the working stiffs did--they were more like movie stars with their big cars, flashy clothes and giant wads of cash. It's safe to say this all made a huge impression on Henry Hill, who saw in the goodfellas an escape from a dead end, workaday existence. To be a wiseguy was to own the world. And for Henry, it meant "being somebody in a neighborhood that was full of nobodies."

Before long, Henry became an errand boy for Mafia capo and racketeer Paul Vario, who owned a local cab stand and pizzeria. Vario was a member of the Lucchese crime family and he liked what he saw in young Henry Hill. Henry's entrepreneurial nature was evident even then, when he started supplying sandwiches for the wiseguy's poker games at a cheaper price than the deli. Eventually, Hill relented and let the deli make the sandwiches again--but not until they gave him a percentage of the profits. That's just the kind of kid that he was.

After a brief stint in the Army, Henry became totally immersed in the gangster lifestyle. He was intimately involved in many capers, including the Air France heist, which ended up netting close to 500 thousand dollars. He became a close friend and confidant to his many goodfella associates, among them Tommy DeSimone and Jimmy "The Gent" Burke, a Mafia hit man and hijacker who just loved to steal anything he could get his hands on. Along the way, Henry fell in love and married a Jewish beauty named Karen, who wasn't too sure about what her husband did for a living. Henry had told her that he was "in construction" and, for a while at least, she was willing to accept that explanation and not ask too many questions.

And why not? For a number of years, it wasn't such a bad life. Henry and the rest of the crew got used to the money, the women, the great food and being treated "like movie stars with muscle." And Hill had the satisfaction of knowing that he'd become a wiseguy, just like the men he'd once admired as a kid. But as the years passed, things slowly started to go wrong. Sometime in 1970, Tommy DeSimone (who was known to have an explosive temper) got into a petty argument one night with Mafioso Ronald Jerrothe, an argument that led to Jerrothe's murder some two weeks later. This caused all sorts of problems--for one thing, Jerrothe was a member of the Gambino family and a "made man." You couldn't just whack a made guy without permission, which is exactly what Tommy had done. Jerrothe's disappearance became a sore spot with Paulie Vario, who had to endure constant questions from the Gambino crew as to what had happened to him. Paulie began investigating his own crew, somehow found out that Tommy was responsible for Jerrothe's death, and decided to have a sit-down with the Gambinos. At that point, DeSimone was lied to and told that he was to be "made." Tommy was excited at this prospect, but he never returned from the ceremony... which turned out to be nothing more than a setup. It was later learned that Vario had ordered the hit on DeSimone as punishment for the Jerrothe situation. To this day, neither Jerrothe's or DeSimone's bodies has ever been recovered.

Before DeSimone's death in early 1979, however, he was involved with the infamous Lufthansa heist. Henry Hill was also involved, but only slightly. As the story goes, there was a guy named Louis Werner who was an employee of Lufthansa Airlines and, by all accounts, a compulsive gambler. He was in the hole with several bookies to the tune of thousands of dollars and they were starting to harass and threaten him. One such bookie was a guy named Marty Krugman (the Morrie character in Goodfellas ), who was willing to forgive the debt in exchange for a good hijacking tip. Fearing for his life, Werner spilled the beans about a huge shipment of cash and jewels that would be coming through the airport. Krugman caught wind of this and told his friend Henry Hill about it, who immediately passed on the tip to Jimmy Burke. Jimmy, along with the rest of the Robert's Lounge Gang, planned out "the heist of a lifetime" and walked away with a HUGE score--almost 6 million dollars worth of cash and jewels. It was the biggest heist in American history at that point.

It's hard to put into words just how great of a movie Goodfellas is. An instant classic, Goodfellas has been hailed as possibly the best film to come out of the 1990's. It even managed to make the AFI's list of the top 100 films of all time a scant 6 years after its release. In many ways, it's somewhat of a "guy" movie with its harsh language and extreme violence--but its power is undeniable. You know, I was talking to a friend of mine recently who admitted to never having seen it. My reaction was immediate and extreme; "Holy shit, you mean to tell me that you've NEVER seen Goodfellas?" It was almost offensive to me in a way--so I sat him down that very day and made him watch it. So what if I've already seen it a thousand times? I'm sure I'll wind up seeing it a thousand more. I can't get enough of that damn movie, folks.

It had everything you could ask for in a film; you had Scorsese in top form, DeNiro at his peak, Ray Liotta perfectly capturing the essence of Henry Hill, and an outstanding, unsettling performance from Joe Pesci. And unlike the Godfather movies, this stuff actually happened. Henry Hill was on the set during filming and his input helped make a great movie even better, not to mention authentic. That's not to say that EVERYTHING was accurate, however... for one thing, the last names of the characters were changed. And even though Pesci won an Oscar for his work, in reality he looked nothing like the real Tommy. In real life, Tommy was tall and dapper, with striking good looks and immaculately shined shoes. (So go home and get your fuckin' shinebox!) Not only did he not resemble Pesci one iota, he was also much younger, being only 28 years old when he was murdered. He also wasn't nearly as close to Paulie as the movie would have you believe... no, in real life Paulie didn't really care for Tommy and didn't like having him around. Tommy also didn't do all of the things he was credited with doing in the film; some of them were carried out by Paulie's son Lenny (who was still alive when the film was shot). And there's other things, too. The Billy Bats character was actually based on the guy I mentioned earlier, Ronald Jerrothe. Events in the movie happen out of sequence with the real life events. Henry's first arrest came from using a stolen credit card, not from selling hot cartons of cigarettes. The Lufthansa heist didn't happen exactly as it's portrayed in the film--some of the characters (like Stacks Edwards) weren't actually present during the robbery. Karen Hill didn't REALLY flush drugs down the toilet as narcs were raiding their house. There were other inconsistencies as well, but I think you get the point.

The overall scope of the movie was accurate though, and supposedly hit the nail right on the head. Even 15 years after it was first released, Goodfellas continues to find new fans and capture the imagination of its audience. The special edition DVD is a consistent top seller and a fitting presentation for my favorite movie. It's Henry Hill's legacy, that film. And it's not too bad of a legacy for a street punk from Brooklyn.

So, what is Henry up to now? Well, he's no longer in Witness Protection--there's really no need for it, as he's pretty much the last of his crew that's still alive. Hill is a public figure these days, appearing on countless radio and TV shows--everything from Montel Williams to Howard Stern. He's also the author of Gangsters and Goodfellas, which is all about his life in Witness Protection during the post Goodfellas days. In addition to this, he has a book of all his favorite Italian recipes, The Wiseguy Cookbook. Yes, despite it all, Henry's first love is still cooking. He's in the restaurant business now and currently marketing his own brand of marinara sauce, which is exactly like the Sunday Gravy his mother used to make. In other words, this is REAL Italian sauce; you won't find this stuff on the shelf at Kroger. (At least not yet, anyway.) So if you're looking for the really good sauce like the wiseguys used to eat, check out his website at www.sundaygravy.net.
This is the real deal, people.

Say what you want about Henry Hill, but he's managed to go through life without becoming a working stiff, unlike so many of us. He recently turned 62 years old, which is pretty amazing when you consider that most people don't last 5 years in the mob. And he's still hustling, too. Granted, his hustling is legit now, but it's hustling nonetheless. Whether he's hijacking trunks or selling marinara sauce, Henry Hill is still Henry Hill--and the man can still turn a quick buck.

I caught up with Henry recently, who was nice enough to do a Q and A session with Dean's Planet. It wasn't easy to get him on board and it took several months to pin him down, but it was worth the wait. Read on as Henry talks about Sunday Gravy, Robert DeNiro, a possible sequel to Goodfellas and life as a wiseguy.
Enjoy!

Henry Hill: I learned standing on my Italian mother's apron strings. As a boy, I helped her out in the kitchen – cutting, slicing, mixing ingredients. As I grew older I began paying attention to how her old-world recipes were prepared and I learned her secrets. I became a good cook. I used to cook for the family. Everyone loved it. When I went into the witness protection program I had to improve my skills in order to have good food and avoid that crap like you mentioned before.

Recently, I designed a restaurant menu and the meals for the Firefly Italian Restaurant in North Platte Nebraska. It was here I realized just how many people around the country are suffering by not being able to get good Italian Sunday Gravy and other sauces. Everyone loves good Italian food. That's why we began marketing our all natural Sunday Gravy marinara sauce.

JTL: Special thanks to Henry Hill for hooking me up with the interview, I enjoyed it. Hell, I could have asked him questions about Goodfellas for days--but I'm sure he's heard them all before. Make sure to pick up some of his Sunday Gravy marinara sauce. I'm sure he wouldn't be promoting it this much if it wasn't really good stuff. Besides, you can get some sauce, some good pasta, and impress the hell out of your inlaws the next time you make dinner for the family--even if you're an idiot like me, whose idea of "pasta" is a box of macaroni and cheese. Maybe I can talk Henry into making me a decent dinner some night, huh? Give me a ring, man... I'll bring the wine.

Happy belated birthday, Henry.

Henry's Sunday Gravy Site
Henry's Official Site

-JTL

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