Mafia Files

Henry Hill was born in Brooklyn, New York, on June 11, 1943. Although not related by blood, Hill worked his way up in the Lucchese crime family from a young age. Arrested for drug trafficking in 1980, Hill became a federal informant and joined the Witness Protection Program for a number of years. Hill’s life is the basis of the 1990 Martin Scorsese movie Goodfellas.
He began dreaming of being in the Mafia at age 12.
The son of an Irish father and Sicilian mother, Hill could never be a "made" Mafia member because he wasn't a full-blooded Italian, but his charm and cunning made him welcome inside the Lucchese family. Hill soon became a close associate and friend of Paul Vario, one of the more respected capos in the family. In his teenage years, Hill would do errands for Vario and his crew, and eventually moved to more serious crime. His time in the Mafia would span three decades, beginning in 1955.
Hill lived up to the gangster image by having a number of affairs and staying out until all hours, drinking, partying and playing cards. After beating up a non-paying gambler whose sister happened to work at the F.B.I., Hill was sentenced to 10 years in jail. Once inside, he soon realized that Mafia members received preferential treatment by convicts and guards, who were paid off by crime families.

Michael Franzese is an American former mobster and captain of the Colombo crime family who has a net worth of $1 million. Michael Franzese was born in Brooklyn, New York in May 1951. Michael is the son of the reputed Colombo underboss John "Sonny" Franzese. Michael dropped out of college to become a capo regime (captain) of a crew for the Colombo family. He was involved in the gasoline bootlegging rackets and sold millions of gallons of gas with the Russian Mafia. He was listed as #18 on Fortune Magazine's Fifty Most Wealthy and Powerful Mafia Bosses in 1986 and made more money than anyone else for a crime family since Al Capone. He partnered with booking agent Norby Walters and extorted a role for Walters in Michael Jackson's US tour. Michael co-founded Motion Picture Marketing. He was indicted on 14 counts of racketeering, counterfeiting, and extortion from the gasoline bootlegging racket in 1986 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison and $14 million in restitution. He decide to leave the Colombo family in 1989 and was released in 1989. He was sentenced to four years in 1991 for violating probation was released in 1994. His autobiography Quitting the Mob was published in 1992. He is the founder and chairman of the Breaking Out Foundation and is a motivational speaker.