'But I moved in with her for a short period of time; it didn't last long because I kept going home to Karen and the kids. Whereas Hill was doing all the wrong things, Karen went into survival mode. Now that Sherry was no longer the target of her investigation, Janet started to sympathize with her and even became her friend. He ran up huge bogus tabs at his own restaurant, The Suite, on stolen credit cards. Read an excerpt. 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. Initially after their marriage, Karen and Henry moved in with Karen's parents at their home in Lawrence, New York. Gregg and Gina talk about life in witness protection and their book, On the Run: A Mafia Childhood. 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. Today, Karen and her two children, Gina and Gregg continue to use an alias to protect their identity. After her marriage with Henry Hill she had two children, Gregg Hill and Gina Hill. But Hill, aka Marty, was bored, reckless, and started hustling more and more. Gina also got married and started her own family. He saw Ted in the driveway, grabbed him by the hair, pulled a gun out of his pocket, and pistol-whipped him. Hill even managed to swindle the governor of the state he was hiding in: John Y. 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. Karen has remained out of the limelight since the family came out of the Witness Protection Program. The real Henry Hill talking to Karen Hill. 6 Amazon travel essentials for your next getaway, starting at $12. 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. She hugged me and then left me alone. Easy romance was just as enticing. At first, he was happy to hear the news. Hes a married man! Gram would scream. He stayed out all night, and in the morning he hired a limousine to take him to prison. She thought a nice Jewish girl like my mom should have married a doctor or a lawyer, not some hoodlum Catholic from Brooklyn that shed met on a blind date. Hill then told his wife the only reason he married the girl was because she had money. Karen is believed to be alive and running her own business today. Hill alleged that Sherry seduced him and kidnapped him (the word he used was f***-napped). 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. For example, there is a scene where a neighbor named Ted tried to force himself on Karen when she was dating Henry. She was leading an ordinary life at that time and was working at a New York dental office. He was always on the phone, walking around the house, dragging the long spiral cord behind him. Karen immediately called Henry. 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. One day, Sherrys nephew, a toddler, pulled her handgun out from her purse, nearly giving her sister a heart attack. Listed below are some pieces of my father's life that I will share on this blog and a small description of what was going on in his life during the time. He went out every night dressed in sharp suits and stayed out until dawn if he came home at all, and he always had money to throw around, twenty for the doorman, fifty for the waiter. It was about ten years after their wedding that Sherry got a call. She managed to flee by car. (Ha!) According to Gina and Gregg, Hill spent his days at the racetrack gambling and his nights drinking. I came back, and I had a second chance, he told her. So brazen was Hill that he even wore a 'Witness Protection Program' T-shirt while dating Anders. What do you mean? When Anders asked her: 'Do you know Martin Lewis?' Henry Hill died in 2012, but Karen is alive and well, according to her husband's former manager, says ABC News. The seasoned gangster was still an anxious man. Charlie Lankston For Dailymail.com 'Isaid, "You know, I hope that's not a red flag, but there's something kind of creepy about him."'. 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. 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. Just like with the witness program, Hill assumed hed get away with it. Eight years old, and I had to get past an armed guard to see my father. He told her that he had thought about it and he only wanted to be married three days of the week. Janet, who thought Hill was a Shmuck, noticed the terror in Sherrys eyes when they met. , updated The girls didnt ask questions and tried not to disturb them. She knew something wasnt right. My sister and I had to empty our pockets, and my mother had to hand over her purse to get searched. I just married him. But Karen repeated herself: No, hes my husband. Thats when Sherry said, We need to talk. Sherry followed the car to the familys ranch-style home. They beat the state case, and now the feds are going after him, she said. It seemed like this woman knew who her husband was. Martin moved into the apartment Sherry was sharing with her roommate and lifelong friend, Samantha, who had a son of her own. Usually, though, we were in our beat-up Oldsmobile Toronado, the car we got after my father accidentally dropped a lit cigarette in the front seat of our 1969 Chrysler Newport, causing it to go up in flames. Isnt that special?'. They eloped not long after my dad beat up Ted, and moved in with my grandparents. If youre wondering if Janet was Hills wife, she wasnt. Soon after, Gregg Hill left home to go out on his own. When a down-on-his-luck basketball scout finds a potential superstar in Spain, he sets out to prove they both have what it takes to make it in the . Sherry and her roommate were seated at a table in the Mexican restaurant. At least, at first. LOS ANGELES - Henry Hill spent much of his life as a "goodfella," believing his last moment would come with a bullet to the back of his head. Back in Washington, Sherry had to get back to work. 2022 History by Day all rights reserved, This Man Dug a Hole in His Backyard. Janet and two other female detectives at the agency were dubbed Charlies Angels. I guess I had my dads charm. Marty was the fun and spontaneous one, and they just wanted to go along for the ride. Fortunately for her, it's tricky to find out exactly what she's up to these days. We were living in the Fairview, a luxury high-rise right across the highway from Flushing Meadows, in Queens. Henry Hill, Jr. (June 11, 1943 - June 12, 2012) was a New York City mobster. But Karen thought it was a sexy thing to do. Associated Press. Henry Hill, an associate in the . But I wasnt in a laughing mood. My father would do almost anything to make a score. Related: Goodfellas True Story: The Real Life Gangster Morrie . But he didnt try hard enough. She wiped the tears from her eyes and streaks of mascara from her cheeks. Lets get married today, he told her. This is Henry Hill. She told the voice on the phone, No you arent. Thats how their life together started, nightclubs and pistol-whippings. She was in her mid-twenties and said her name was Janet. Hill later married Kelly Alor from 1990 to 1996 and then later got engaged to Lisa Caserta from 2006 up until his death in 2012. He bragged about having a Kings X a term for being exempt from the rules of a game. [2] Early life [ edit] Throughout his time spent working for the infamous Lucchese crime family, Hill, who wed his first wife Karen in 1965, was known to have had multiple mistresses. 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. He still wore his expensive suits and shiny loafers, but he had nowhere to go except to the store for milk. Apparently, he had a thing for pistol-whipping. The scar on my mothers face never completely healed. Twice Karen is said to have attacked Anders, who told Pearl and Nichols: 'I was never so scared in my life.'. - The Mob: The Addict Who Took Down the Mafia (2021) . Over the years, he would fly to New York to testify against Paul Vario and Jimmy Burke, his old accomplices. She wanted to meet, and Sherry agreed. Gina Hill. 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. He married his then-girlfriend Dawn, who was a degenerate junkie like Hill. I was never so scared in my life, Sherry later recalled. Kaylen Martin would frequently get into her old Ford Pinto and drive, just to get away from it all. In 1980, Hill became an FBI informant, and his testimony helped secure 50 Conviction (s), including those of mob capo (captain) Paul Vario and James . Years later, she admitted, It was so devastating I wanted to kill myself, to be quite honest. Slowly but surely, she moved on and started doing hair and makeup for movies and TV shows. As for Nick, the co-writer, he knew of the danger of his involvement with the mobster. For the third time in a year and a half, the Hills were moved again. I was the best Mob informant [theyd] ever get, he later boasted. 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. Sherry, unwittingly a target, was Janets path to Hill. The driver looked a few years older than her, weathered but attractive. She called him Morton and couldnt stop talking about him to her friends. Hills prediction was right: it was a bestseller. In walked a likable 38-year-old guy who appeared at their table and introduced himself as Martin Lewis. 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.. He ran numbers and sold bootlegged cigarettes out of his car. In fact, in his 2004 bookGangsters and Goodfellas: The Mob, Witness Protection, and Life on the Run, Hill recounted a conversation he had with a friend about his second marriage - in which he insisted that it didn't count as 'bigamy' because he had tied the knot, not as Henry Hill, but as Martin Lewis. When Hill (played by Ray Liotta) said that Karen (played by Lorraine Bracco) looked just like Elizabeth Taylor, Sherry felt chills down her spine as Hill had used the same line with her. His notorious smile kept the girls from asking any further questions. Sherry came with a small handgun in her purse, just in case, and asked her friend to call the police if she didnt hear from her by 2 p.m. At the diner, seeing a table of uniformed cops offered her some relief. Nobody said anything to him, Gregg wrote. Married to a mobster, Karen tried to maintain any form of normalcy in her chaotic life. 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. She ended up seeing Hill one last time (she has always called him Martin). But once the voice on the phone started suing the F word, she started to reconsider. Sherry threw all my clothes out of her second-story bedroom window right into a pile of snow. Like a moth to a flame, Hill found his way to make money. She was born in New York City and raised on Long Island around the Five Towns, the daughter of Jewish parents. Henry Rafferty, 22, from Hartlepool, Cleveland, died after he was struck by a car while sleeping on the driveway of a house in the town following a night out with friends. For as much as Dad might have irritated my grandma, she wasnt one to throw her daughter into the street. In other words, he thought he had a permanent get out of jail free card.. She then dragged him out of the bed by the crotch and beat him with a telephone. I had a friend in the building, and wed go roaming around the hallways, knocking on doors. Wed tell people we were Girl Scouts and ask for cookies. People named Gina Hill. He told Sherry of the Thoroughbreds he owned and raced and showed her a photo of a recent victory. See Photos. In 1989, Henry and Karen divorced after 25 years of marriage. According to Anders' then-roommate Samantha Kellum, who was with her when she met Hill for the first time, their chemistry was 'electric' and clearly evident to all those around them. 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 See Photos. Even though born to a middle-class family, Karen was ambitious about life, and she enjoyed the perks of marrying Henry Hill. Hill was sent to prison again and his book Wiseguys was released, while Anders lost their baby. 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. He told people he worked for the government, an insurance investigator and an author. Pistol-whipped him! The authors were Gregg Hill and Gina Hill, described as "Son and Daughter of 'Wiseguy' Henry Hill". One time, his dad even pulled a gun on a cook. 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. Hill immediately got drunk and started cursing out loud in front of the local yokels. Isnt that special?. Nick was around so often that he struck up a romance with Samantha, the roommate. It helped that a bona fide journalist named Nick Pileggi whom he introduced as his co-writer would come by often. In the fall of 1981, Hill walked into El Toreador, his favorite spot where he found both of his vices in one package. 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. I couldnt help but stare back and wonder what they must be thinking: New York hood on the run from the Mob.. At least in New York, she could hide most of the dirt behind humor and carefully placed words. After about twenty years together it's said that Caserta and Hill were ready to finally tie the knot and she was also at his side when died. Ten years after their wedding Hill called Anders, who has now also changed her name from Sherry to Scarlett. The film revolves around the life of Henry Hill, who was a notorious New York gangster and his wife, Karen. Im going to bash Sherrys face in, and then Im going to beat your father, Karen replied. 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. But what did Hill want from her after all this time? Finding steady work at a local morning show in Seattle, she moved to the city. Jimmy Burke usually tucked a fifty in the guys shirt pocket for his trouble; thats where he got his nickname, The Gent. I think sometimes my grandparents liked my dad in spite of themselves. Yet again, the man who was supposed to be laying low was making too much noise. But then federal prosecutors indicted them for extortion, which they could do because my father had crossed state lines. Our trips to Lewisburg were always miserable. 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