As for Henry Hill, he continued on his downward spiral. Whats my sons name? she asked him. What do you mean? In an interview with CBS News in 2009, Gregg, whose face was disguised, recalled that there was a breaking point where he couldn't take it any more. Anders said her initial reaction was to say no - insisting that she had to work that day - however her beau of less than two months quickly convinced her otherwise, and they packed up her car and, along with her then-13-year-old son Kris, drove to Virginia City, Nevada, where they tied the knot. Its just temporary, she said. While Henry . It was during his relationship with Anders that Hill began working on his book Wiseguys - whichwould inspire the 1990 Martin Scorsese crime classic Goodfellas in which he was played by Liotta alongside Robert de Niro and Joe Pesci. In "On the Run: A Mafia Childhood," Gregg and Gina Hill tell their story of life as the children of "Goodfellas" mobster Henry Hill. Henry Hill. My mother always brought a big bag jammed with all kinds of stuff. She found him at the bar next door. 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. My mom called my dad and he picked her up and drove her home, but instead of going into the house with her, he went across the street. Our trips to Lewisburg were always miserable. He would stay out all night, and then my mom and grandma would get into terrible arguments. 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. Sherry would lie to herself it was the stress of a new relationship, thats all. Not much later, Karen returned to the house to scream at Sherry and demand that she sign the papers. @gina.hill.50552338. The authors were Gregg Hill and Gina Hill, described as "Son and Daughter of 'Wiseguy' Henry Hill". My dad had a dangerous side too, and I think Mom liked that, the whole outlaw mystique. Wed leave at eleven oclock, sometimes even later, and drive west into Pennsylvania. But I wasnt in a laughing mood. The Feds also changed the familys last name again: this time to Scott. I cant get married today. Through the 1970s, the Hill family was involved in organized crime, through which they became very wealthy and lived extravagantly. His first arrest came when he was 16 years old and he carried out the Lufthansa raid after serving a six-year prison sentence in the Seventies. Marty was the fun and spontaneous one, and they just wanted to go along for the ride. It took quite a while for the DEA officials to confirm that their target Martin Lewis was actually Henry Hill, and when the news broke, choppers were hovering over the Hill house for weeks. In other words, he thought he had a permanent get out of jail free card.. But what did Hill want from her after all this time? Goodfellas didn't leave Henry's personal life behind and included his wife, Karen Hill (Lorraine Bracco), in the story. Henry Hill died of a heart attack in 2012 eight years after On the Run was written. Hill's arrest in 1980 by Nassau County narcotics officers officially marked the end of his life in the Lucchese family. Hill went so far as to threaten Sherry with her life if she didnt sign the divorce papers. Those who knew her well say that shes surrounded by nature, which makes her happy. The couple had two kids Gregg and Gina. Gina also got married and started her own family. And if he wasnt in jail, it wasnt unusual for him to go out one night and come back three mornings later. The movie Goodfellas told the story of Henry Hill the gangster who famously broke the mafia code of silence. We were living in the Fairview, a luxury high-rise right across the highway from Flushing Meadows, in Queens. In 1989, Henry and Karen divorced after 25 years of marriage. I got smacked at home, I got smacked at school, he said later. The mobster, who died at the age of 69 in 2012, assumed varying cover stories during his time in witness protection. 2005 The Jane Pauley Show (TV Series) Self. It seemed like this woman knew who her husband was. Over the years, he would fly to New York to testify against Paul Vario and Jimmy Burke, his old accomplices. When Sherry was turning to Karen for support, she let slip the fact that a private eye had been investigating her for months. Anders told Karen, who decided his second marriage needed to be dissolved immediately. Nobody said anything to him, Gregg wrote. After their first date, the two were inseparable. But Hill was still letting himself into Sherrys house at odd hours, one time writing I love you, Sherry Amour, HH on the bathroom mirror in lipstick. He started betting on Kentucky horses. 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. She was mesmerized with the glitz and glamour of being a gangster's wife who was involved in organized crime and the life his earning potential can buy her. After their divorce, he remarried and had another child. And again, Sherry escaped. Of particular interest to Janet, was Sherrys recent marriage to Martin. He stayed out all night, and in the morning he hired a limousine to take him to prison. That is where this book by Gregg and Gina Hill comes into play. It was titled, On The Run: A Mafia Childhood. He was arrested on a number of occasions in the years leading up to his death for public drunkenness. Not long into their marriage, his behavior grew more erratic. Despite being under the supervision of the Feds, Hill became a violent drug addict and began dealing drugs to support his habit. Watch a rare interview with one of the most famous wiseguys of all time Henry Hill,ofGoodfellas fame. What that meant was that the Church offered legal provisions for one-party annulments under certain circumstances. She once told me a story about how, after theyd been dating for a couple of months, this boy from her neighborhood, Ted, someone shed known her whole life, took her for a ride in his Corvette one afternoon and made a pass at her. The real Henry Hill talking to Karen Hill. Soon enough, Sherry received a phone call. The man was flirting with disaster. I think sometimes my grandparents liked my dad in spite of themselves. She was leading an ordinary life at that time and was working at a New York dental office. My mom and dad got their own place for a while, a small apartment, then moved back right before my mom had me. The private detective had been hired by a New York law firm to look into Henry Hill, who was rumored to be in Washington. It was a long ride, five and a half hours, too long to feel comfortable in a car, especially with two dogs dozing in the backseat with my little sister. Gregg, in his early teens, thoroughly hated his father and his fathers deceptive and downright mean machinations, while Gina, a few years younger, was more of a Daddys Girl, until she eventually smartened up too. Sherry wasnt going to sign anything without an attorney. 'No, that's Henry Hill who's married,' he told a confidante when told he had committed a 'major crime' by taking a second wife. His father, Grandpa Hill, beat him with a belt when he found out; he was an honest man, an Irish electrician with a Sicilian wife raising eight kids my father and his five sisters and two younger brothers in a walk-up. Excerpted from "On The Run: A Mafia Childhood." Karen seems to relish the brand-new Buick Riveras in the driveway and closets which were always bursting with trending expensive clothes. Gina Hill. As Janet went on and on about the details of Hills secret life, more and more of the puzzle came together for Sherry. My head hurt so bad I didnt care how I looked to anyone driving by. 'Isaid, "You know, I hope that's not a red flag, but there's something kind of creepy about him."'. It was here that he participated in the murder and burial of a fellow mobster. Thats how he always explained it connections. Like the time the pavers showed up with a truckload of asphalt to blacktop my grandmas driveway. My father was one of them. But people stared and then they glared. Charlie Lankston For Dailymail.com, said, "You know, I hope that's not a red flag, but there's something kind of creepy about him. All I knew was that my father was in trouble, and I resented him for it. 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. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. They were so young, my dad twenty-two and my mom just nineteen. She recounted how, just seven weeks after they met for the first time, Hill suggested that they 'get married today'. Read an excerpt. Anders would later throw him out of their home, screaming: 'Don't you ever f***ing come back here.'. The Hills werent given a choice of where to live, so they ended up in Omaha, Nebraska. Disorder in the household turned into utter mayhem. That package was a woman named Sherry Anders. But she had her own anger to unleash. Karen Friedman Hill (born January 16, 1946) is an American socialite, known for her involvement in the mafia through her husband Henry Hill, who was an associate of the Lucchese crime family. And so, Hill was released on probation. And like all gangsters, he acted like he owned the world. She was crying just a little. Henry worked his way up, became an earner, and proved himself worthy of playing a key role in the notorious heist of Lufthansa Airlines in 1978. To learn more you can visit: IE 11 is not supported. Most girls would have been terrified, but my mom said she thought it was sexy. After their meal, she gave him a ride to Barnes & Noble, where she bought a copy of his recently published Wiseguy Cookbook (a collection of his favorite recipes), which he signed for her: Sherry, You are the love of my life, HH., By the time she finished looking at what he wrote to her in the book she just bought, she looked up to see he was gone. He said he felt closer to God now. At least in New York, she could hide most of the dirt behind humor and carefully placed words. He wrote about the heist in a detailed form and from his point of view. 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. He was eventually removed from the general inmate population. 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. On New Years Eve, he didnt show up for, leaving her crying for hours. Karen and Henry's daughter Gina later described her mother's account of the aftermath of the Ted incident in the memoir On the Run: A Mafia Childhood: "My mom called my dad and he picked her up and drove her home, but instead of going into the house with her, he went across the street. Thats no way for a married man to behave! So my parents moved in and out, depending on how much money they had. In line with his eternal luck, Hill was rescued by the FBI. In another jaw-on-the-floor moment, Hill drank himself dumb as he watched his wives have a hell of a night on the dance floor. She didnt want me to know how upset she was. There was also another reason for why she didnt want to cut the cord Yes, she was pregnant. Those bastards. She made it sound like the government was picking on him over something petty. Anders, however, was entirely unaware of her husband's dark past - and his murky present - and had no idea that his arrival in her hometown came as the result of the multiple crimes he had committed, not only in New York as a gangster, but in the various other locations where he and his family were squirrelled away by law enforcement. In the end he died at a hospital . Then the prison would rise up through the windshield, climbing above the trees like a fortress in the woods. In On the Run we discover that in 1980, after being shuttled from one hotel to another for several months while the Feds got as much information as they could from Hill, the family ended up on the outskirts of Omaha, Neb. The truth was, as I found out later, somebody did get hurt. 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. He even bragged about his double life to his friends. The events of their lives were portrayed in various novels and the 1990 film Goodfellas. One day, Hill announced that the four of them were going on an impromptu trip to Canada immediately. Henry Hill's business partner, Jimmy Burke has whacked every person who could possibly implicate him in the infamous Lufthansa robbery at JFK airport. Tony also probes Hill on the ultimate, moral penalty of terrorizing another human being, beyond the consequences of the law. The born and bred New Yorkers were now hosting impromptu polo matches in their fields. The book also sheds light on their experience with the mafia and how their childhood was spent. There was one day when Sherry ran into Karen her fellow survivor and had a chat about their husbands past infidelities. Gregg ultimately became a successful attorney. In 1980 Hill left the life, entered the witness protection program and testified against the mob. They beat the state case, and now the feds are going after him, she said. In 1955, Hill began to warm up to Paul Vario by running some errands for the mafioso at Vario's meat stores,. The marriage was finally over. In fact, it was reported that he even tried to convince the FBI to allow him to take two of his lovers into witness protection with his wife and children, according to writersMatthew Pearl and Greg Nichols of Truly*Adventurous. Thats who my dad was to me then, a wonderful man who brought me dolls and called me Princess. It is not known where she is now. But even her most suspicious friends found something appealing about this Martin guy. He told people he worked for the government, an insurance investigator and an author. Suddenly, a man who never knew life outside of the mob, was walking the streets as one of us. She managed to flee by car. Just a few years, she said, like a few years was a long weekend. Announcing his death, Hills girlfriend Lisa Casserta said he struggled with alcoholism. Sherrys next move was breaking the bad news to her mother, who adored her son-in-law, and to her son, Kris, who was heartbroken. GREGG: Wed be up all night, I would be, anyway, riding in the front seat to help my mother stay awake. In the film, Karen Hill was portrayed as a woman with a sense of rationalizing everything her husband Henry had done. 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. Her children released a book in 2004, titled 'On the Run: A Mafia Childhood', which was about their own experience with the Mafia. For as much as Dad might have irritated my grandma, she wasnt one to throw her daughter into the street. Whereas Hill was doing all the wrong things, Karen went into survival mode. Therefore, exact details about them are still unavailable. Karen knew that Burke and his goons wanted Hill dead. 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. He told her that he recently dealt with a medical crisis and almost died. But the heist turned up the heat on all the guys connected with it. You want to have some fun? Sherry asked Karen. Hill was sent to prison again and his book Wiseguys was released, while Anders lost their baby. Sherry rode the white, bony horse bareback into the night, crying the whole way. Gram was always tough on Dad. 00:44 GMT 27 May 2022. Written with Sean Flynn, the siblings tell their story of life with a mobster father and the realities of being in witness protection. And then my mom told me he was going away. This time, the family was placed in Redmond, Washington, and right off the bat, Hill spoke to an acquaintance in Kentucky asking him to ship one of the horses he had bought for his daughter to him, the one named Banana Split. Hill is a design-build firm offering full multi-discipline design, construction and construction administrative services based in Jacksonville, Florida. He had a few cover stories under his belt, about how he worked for the government (not so far from the truth). She even ended her friendship with Samantha, whom Hill told her he slept with one night (he never did). It was magic, Sherry recalled. But when he drank, he was a loudmouth, which was how Karen heard about the pregnancy. I dont want anything to do with you! she yelled when she saw him. But Hill, aka Marty, was bored, reckless, and started hustling more and more. Now that the secret was out, Janet no longer had to tiptoe around. He bragged about having a Kings X a term for being exempt from the rules of a game. Im going to bash Sherrys face in, and then Im going to beat your father, Karen replied. I dont know how long wed lived there before my mom told me Dad was leaving. Whenever she drove, it was like she was being chased, speeding down back streets and constantly checking her mirrors. Their dad was Henry Hill - immortalised in the book Wiseguy and the Martin Scorsese film. Now that Sherry was no longer the target of her investigation, Janet started to sympathize with her and even became her friend. At the same time Hill was being followed by a private investigator called Janet. (Ha!) 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. But eventually, Sherry needed to head back to work to make money. In the late sixties and early seventies, when he had a wife and two young kids at home, my father was a full-time criminal. They wanted dirt on the prosecution's star witness. They knew Hill was going to go to a dance club, so Sherry and Karen walked in arm and arm. The journal entry on this blog is one that my father wrote in his personal journal. She called him Morton and couldnt stop talking about him to her friends. My father thought it was funny, eating at Godfathers Pizza, and maybe it was funny, Gregg wrote. Sherry, unwittingly a target, was Janets path to Hill. I married her under the name Scott, Hill told Karen. With Janets help, Sherry sued Hill for compensation of the money he siphoned off from her when they were married. Their last night in Vancouver was spent at a Japanese restaurant where the four sipped sake and sat on cushions while Hill flirted with a server in a geisha outfit. ', One night the two wives are even said to have walked arm in arm into the club Hill was in. Janet, who thought Hill was a Shmuck, noticed the terror in Sherrys eyes when they met. @page { margin: 2cm } p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; direction: ltr; line-height: 120%; text-align: left; orphans: 2; widows: 2 }. Following his arrest for the robbery on April 27, 1980, detectives played him wire taps of other mob members threatening to kill him but he refused to talk, at least for a while. My mother explained it to me in pretty blunt terms, considering how old I was. The two women who were married to the same man talked. In On the Run: A Mafia Childhood, Gregg and Gina Hill tell their story of life as the children of Goodfellas mobster Henry Hill. The details of my fathers line of work were sketchy to me when I was eight. 'My attempt at bigamy was a complete failure. As for Sherry, shes now around 70 years old and goes by Scarlett. G.M. So it's cool.'. Hide Self (2 credits) 2021 Narco Wars (TV Series documentary) Self - Henry Hill's Daughter. Reprinted by permission of Warner Books. Vivian had always been protective of Sherry, who had a knack for choosing the wrong men. 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