Hed say, Whaddya want, Princess? and Id say, Barbies swimming pool! or something like that, and the next day or the day after, hed bring it home. Her instincts proved spot on when one day an unfamiliar woman walked in to the hair salon. He immediately answered: Kris Gregory Cowin. The two met at a diner in Everett, Washington. Anders said: 'Heres wife Number One and wife Number Two. The born and bred New Yorkers were now hosting impromptu polo matches in their fields. The problem now was that the Hills were kicked out of the Witness Protection program, based on continued arrests and breaches of security. Hill was dealing drugs, which led to his arrest in a DEA sting. The two women decided to make their unique situation a little more amusing. 'The electricity during those months was just absolutely volatile, just screaming,' Kellum toldPearl and Nichols. And here comes my second wife, he bragged when she walked up to him. It felt like she was being interrogated. Gina Hill. Most girls would have been terrified at a similar situation if they had to find their man covered in blood and holding a gun. Now, almost 25 years later, Gregg and Gina Hill are breaking their own silence in a new book called "On the Run: A Mafia Childhood. The siblings were invited to discuss the book on Today. Heres an excerpt: GINA: One of my earliest memories of my dad was my mom telling me he was going away. Goodfellas saw Henry Hill doing all types of criminal activities, but one his mob boss, Paul Cicero, wasn't on board with was drug trafficking - and here's why. He started betting on Kentucky horses. This behavior was partly out of love, and partly out of greed for the luxurious lifestyle, his criminal background gave her. So if I got a migraine in the car, sometimes Id have to hang my head out the window to vomit. Wed bring pillows and blankets with us, which made me self-conscious when we pulled into a truck stop or the Perkins House of Pancakes because if anyone saw us they might think we were homeless. Sherry would lie to herself it was the stress of a new relationship, thats all. My grandma is strict to begin with, and my dad wasnt used to following rules. Her dreams did come true as the film showed her transition from just an ordinary woman to the gangsters wealthy wife. She found him at the bar next door. At least in New York, she could hide most of the dirt behind humor and carefully placed words. The Feds also changed the familys last name again: this time to Scott. We were living in the Fairview, a luxury high-rise right across the highway from Flushing Meadows, in Queens. But eventually, Sherry needed to head back to work to make money. Nobody said anything to him, Gregg wrote. Hill even managed to swindle the governor of the state he was hiding in: John Y. On New Years Eve, he didnt show up for, leaving her crying for hours. Karen Friedman Hill (born January 16, 1946) [1] is an American woman known for her involvement in the American Mafia through her husband Henry Hill, who was an associate of the Lucchese crime family. Secrets & Wives Truly*Adventurous Medium. In Vancouver, Sherry and Samantha went shopping as the guys wrote. ', And when Hill turned up later he found his two wives in the home he shared with Karen. Sherry had to explain to Samantha who HH was. According to Gregg Hill, his father constantly cheated on his wife, Karan, and he even got married again to one of his drug buddies while he was still married to Karen. Hill went so far as to threaten Sherry with her life if she didnt sign the divorce papers. One day, Sherry saw a woman in the same car her Martin drove, a beat-up green Ford Pinto. Hill was now going by the name Martin Lewis. In On the Run: A Mafia Childhood, Gregg and Gina Hill tell their story of life as the children of Goodfellas mobster Henry Hill. Watch a rare interview with one of the most famous wiseguys of all time Henry Hill, of "Goodfellas" fame. Their lives were far from normal. The real Henry Hill talking to Karen Hill. He was arrested again in July of that same year forpassing bad checks. Today, Karen and her two children, Gina and Gregg continue to use an alias to protect their identity. 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. And Hill didn't just bring along his wife and kids; he tried to take two of his mistresses into protection, too. Well, thats the alias the government allowed her to go by (she chose the name). That is where this book by Gregg and Gina Hill comes into play. Hed been running with mobsters for more than half his life, since he was eleven years old and started cutting school to hang out at Uncle Paulies cabstand in the Brownsville East section of Brooklyn. By the son and daughter of Henry Hill - immortalised in the book Wiseguy and the Martin Scorsese film Goodfellas - On The Run is the harrowing account of a childhood spent coping with an explosive father whilst dodging Mafia payback. So, he became an informant. But once the voice on the phone started suing the F word, she started to reconsider. He stole everything and from everyone. He ran up huge bogus tabs at his own restaurant, The Suite, on stolen credit cards. Over the next couple of years, they moved six times out to Kew Gardens, back in with my grandparents, out to Forest Hills, back to Valley Stream. Isnt that special?. Her friend Vivian Walsh, who owned the salon Sherry worked in, had a bad feeling about Martin from the moment he walked into the salon to visit Sherry. It got to the point where one day, Hills wife picked up the phone and received a blunt warning: Tell Marty hes dead.. The details of my fathers line of work were sketchy to me when I was eight. Its just temporary, she said. Between 1955 and 1980, Hill was associated with the Lucchese crime family. Against his fathers wishes Hill got in with the mafia crowd aged 11 when he started hanging around with the infamous Lucchese family. My dad tried to make my grandma happy. She didnt want me to know how upset she was. After Karen kicked out her husband for good and got a divorce, Gina Scott went back to New York City and attended New York University.
Heres wife Number One and wife Number Two, Sherry announced. 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. If I had a headache, the drive was even more unbearable. Several sources, including Alchetron, say that Karen runs her own business, but that may only be speculation. The rest of the book details how Hill kept on breaking the rules of the governments Witness Protection Program, and as a result, the Feds had to keep re-locating Hills family to different locations to keep them safe. As a host and someone who has been in that world, Tony Delvecchio wont let Henry Hill off the hook so easy. When Hill came under federal protection, his wife, Karen, and their two children did too. There were twenty-two hundred men inside, some of the worst criminals in the federal system. 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. She ended up seeing Hill one last time (she has always called him Martin). Gina Hill. Sherry was dumbfounded. As for Nick, the co-writer, he knew of the danger of his involvement with the mobster. Source: ABC News "It was like another country," Henry later said. Just like with the witness program, Hill assumed hed get away with it. The mobster, who died at the age of 69 in 2012, assumed varying cover stories during his time in witness protection. It began to snow and soon enough, all of his stuff was buried under the white. We are the children of one of the most notorious mobsters turned FBI informants, Henry Hill. Janet meant real trouble for her family. 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. GREGG: Wed be up all night, I would be, anyway, riding in the front seat to help my mother stay awake. Nearly broke, Sherry had no choice but to take her son to her hometown and move in with her parents. Henry Hill died of a heart attack in 2012 eight years after On the Run was written. Henry Hill. Vivian had always been protective of Sherry, who had a knack for choosing the wrong men. There was a point where Nick heard he might be a potential kidnapping victim in a plot to get to Hill. 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. Those bastards. She made it sound like the government was picking on him over something petty. 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. And again, Sherry escaped. Karen Hill eventually confessed to her daughter Gina that it was the fascination and glamour of the criminal lifestyle that attracted her to Henry. When Hill showed up to find all of his stuff buried under snow, he raised all hell. Sherry rode the white, bony horse bareback into the night, crying the whole way. By then, he and Karen had divorced, and he was now married to a woman named Kelly in California. Hill had already beenarrested for getting into a fight with a presumed mistress when they were hidden inIndependence, Kentucky. Things took a nasty turn when Henry received a ten-year sentence for extortion in 1974. There was also another reason for why she didnt want to cut the cord Yes, she was pregnant. Hill died at a hospital in Los Angeles in June 2012 having suffered a heart attack brought on by years of smoking, a habit he blamed on his nerves. I wondered how long it would be before I could wrap my arms around his neck and feel the smooth leather of his blazer or smell his Paco Rabanne cologne lingering in the apartment after he left to go to The Suite. Henry Hill continued to be the same reprobate he always had been. Her children released a book in 2004, titled 'On the Run: A Mafia Childhood', which was about their own experience with the Mafia. This book is told from two perspectives, where Gregg first gives his version of what happened and his feeling about what they were going through, and then Gina gives her versions. Then the prison would rise up through the windshield, climbing above the trees like a fortress in the woods. The couple had two kids Gregg and Gina. 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. As for Karen she divorced Hill in 1990 and it was finalized in 2002. 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. He told Sherry of the Thoroughbreds he owned and raced and showed her a photo of a recent victory. They wanted dirt on the prosecution's star witness. Burke wanted Janet to find Hill and get as much dirt as on the governments star witness to discredit his testimony. He was busy, after all, writing a book under contract for Simon & Schuster. @gina.hill.50552338. He got mad and threw her out of the car, miles from home, and tore off so fast that the tires threw gravel in her face. On the way home in a blinding snowstorm, the wheels slipped on a curve and threw the Duster into a spin, bouncing one side off the guardrail, then whipping around so the other side smashed it too. Henry Hills dead. She really did assume that Hill was dead, with all the drugs and drinking and wild lifestyle he ran. So it's cool.'. Although he had converted to Judaism for Karen, he was a born Catholic. To learn more you can visit: IE 11 is not supported. The day before he went to Lewisburg, the same day my mother was telling my little sister that he was going away for a while, he went out drinking with his friends. Kaylen Martin would frequently get into her old Ford Pinto and drive, just to get away from it all. They eloped not long after my dad beat up Ted, and moved in with my grandparents. Hill grew up in Brooklyn, New York, where he admired local mafiosi, including Paul Vario, a capo in the Luchesse crime family. The events of their lives were portrayed in various novels and the 1990 film Goodfellas. All he said was that he was writing about his life back in New York. In the midst of Karens threats to Sherry over the phone, Sherry told Hill that she was pregnant. All rights reserved. His fights with Sherry (Im not your maid or your mommy!) were followed by make-up sex. When Sherry was turning to Karen for support, she let slip the fact that a private eye had been investigating her for months. Wed leave at eleven oclock, sometimes even later, and drive west into Pennsylvania. 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. Karen knew that Burke and his goons wanted Hill dead. My mom had a lot of things on her mind that day. It helps, but is not necessary, to have read Wiseguy (I haven't) or seen Goodfellas (I have, multiple times). He was a fish out of water but wanting to feel like himself, Hill took his family out to dinner on their first evening there at an Omaha-based chain called Godfathers Pizza. Though it is speculated that Henry Hill's had five children, our research could only point us clearly to Gina and Gregg who were born to him by his first wife Karen and were 11 and 13 years in May 1980 when they entered into witness protection program with their parents and had to change their identities and locations as well as cut ties with He would disappear for days (probably to visit his actual family). Our trips to Lewisburg were always miserable. At the house, Sherry went upstairs and tossed all of Hills stuff out the window his expensive pots, his Armani suits all of it. He saw Ted in the driveway, grabbed him by the hair, pulled a gun out of his pocket, and pistol-whipped him. The book also sheds light on their experience with the mafia and how their childhood was spent. Truck hijackings were a favorite thing for him and Uncle Jimmy, stealing a load of goods that they could fence below wholesale, which was all pure profit for them. My head hurt so bad I didnt care how I looked to anyone driving by. Sherry may have been nave, but she was no aggressor. They wanted more information and his testimony. He stayed out all night, and in the morning he hired a limousine to take him to prison. As usual, Hill was drunk. What that meant was that the Church offered legal provisions for one-party annulments under certain circumstances. After their first date, the two were inseparable. The firm represented Jimmy Burke, Hills former Mob boss, a man who wanted him dead. '[Sherry and I] both knew the marriage wasn't valid when we sobered up,' he recalled. The testimony led to 50 convictions and meant that Hill, his wife Karen, and their two children had to be put in the US Marshals Witness Protection Program in 1980. And his connections. Martin moved into the apartment Sherry was sharing with her roommate and lifelong friend, Samantha, who had a son of her own. The events of their lives were chronicled in the 1990 film Goodfellas and several books. Gram probably knew it was stolen, but she never asked, so my dad never had to answer. Against his fathers wishes Hill got in with the mafia crowd aged 11 when he started hanging around with the infamous Lucchese family. Reprinted by permission of Warner Books. It was only a matter of time until Hill landed in prison. That was my mom, trying to make something very big sound very small. Janet, who became a good friend of Sherrys, helped the scorned woman find some closure by tracking Hill down. But Karen thought it was a sexy thing to do. He had a better ride through the Pennsylvania farmlands than I ever did. The authors were Gregg Hill and Gina Hill, described as "Son and Daughter of 'Wiseguy' Henry Hill". Whenever she drove, it was like she was being chased, speeding down back streets and constantly checking her mirrors. With this, Karen went into panic mode. by Gina Hall (Author), Gregg Hill (Author) 299 ratings Kindle $11.99 Read with Our Free App Hardcover $38.91 51 Used from $2.06 5 New from $29.98 2 Collectible from $14.00 Paperback $22.99 6 Used from $15.57 3 New from $17.23 Mass Market Paperback $16.78 9 Used from $12.80 '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. The real Henry Hill talking to Karen Hill, Karen and Henry Hills children Gregg and Gina Hill, Karen Hills Portrayal in Goodfellas Movie, Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. But under witness protection, everything changed. As for what he told his buddies at the bar, his cover was classic: he worked for the CIA. But she had her own anger to unleash. I said, You know, I hope thats not a red flag, but theres something kind of creepy about him, Vivian later shared. Ted was taken aback by Karen's behavior, and he gave up the attempt to force her. As much as she tried to move on, Hill was always in her thoughts; she couldnt get him out of her mind. Actor: Sinatra Club. "', 'I am utterly shattered': Ray Liotta's devastated Goodfellas co-star Lorraine Bracco leads tributes as Hollywood reacts to his shock death at age 67, 'He was way too young': Robert De Niro, 78, pays tribute to Goodfellas co-star Ray Liotta, 67, who died in his sleep next to his fiancee in Dominican Republic hotel while shooting new film Dangerous Waters, Ray Liotta's last film: Goodfella's star was shooting thriller Dangerous Waters with Eric Dane about 'a teen uncovering her mother's dark past' before he died in the Dominican Republic. But I definitely remember the Fairview. He was arrested on a number of occasions in the years leading up to his death for public drunkenness. She knew she had to get out of Redmond her life there was poisoned. Henry Hill Jr. (June 11, 1943 - June 12, 2012) was an American mobster who was associated with the Lucchese crime family of New York City from 1955 until 1980, when he was arrested on narcotics charges and became an FBI informant.Hill testified against his former Mafia associates, resulting in 50 convictions, including those of caporegime (captain) Paul Vario and fellow associate James Burke . It is thought that during the first year Hill and his family spent in witness protection, he continued to enjoy several illicit affairs, all the while continuing his criminal dealings - which forced the FBI to repeatedly move them around to different locations. But when he drank, he was a loudmouth, which was how Karen heard about the pregnancy. Sherry needed to keep her son safe. 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. Hed been sentenced to ten years on November 3, 1972, but his lawyer kept him out for almost two more years with a long string of appeals. Karen is initially troubled by Henry's criminal activities, but she is eventually drawn to the glamorous lifestyle that comes with being a mobster's wife. The guys at the cabstand, they didnt smack me. Sherry, unwittingly a target, was Janets path to Hill. Hed tell my grandma he did a guy a favor and bought a load of merchandise from him, stuff she could help sell to the neighbors. Martin was like a dad to the two boys, always giving them quarters for the arcades and making them laugh at his dirty jokes. 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.. 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