On this day‬ in 2012 Henry Hill passed away at the age of 69. For 25 years he was a Lucchese Crime Family associate who took part in the 1968 Air France Heist and then ten years later in 1978 the Lufthansa Heist. In the Lufthansa Heist an estimated $5 million in cash ($18.1 million today) and $875,000 in jewelry ($3.2 million today) were stolen.

In 1980 he became an FBI informant and the information he provided lead to 50 convictions which included Paul Vario and Jimmy Burke. Hill was also portrayed by Ray Liotta in the 1990 film Goodfellas.

On this day in 2012, Henry Hill passed away at the age of 69, bringing to a close one of the most remarkable and turbulent lives in American organised crime history. Born in Brooklyn in 1943 to an Irish-American father and a Sicilian mother, Hill grew up in the shadow of the Lucchese Crime Family, running errands for local mobsters from the age of eleven. Though he could never be formally inducted as a made man due to his mixed heritage, Hill spent the better part of 25 years as a trusted associate of the family, operating under the wing of capo Paul Vario and alongside the volatile Jimmy Burke.

Hill's criminal career was punctuated by two audacious heists that cemented his place in mob folklore. In 1968 he was involved in the Air France robbery at John F. Kennedy International Airport, a brazen theft that served as something of a dress rehearsal for what was to come a decade later. In December 1978, Hill participated in the Lufthansa heist, also at JFK, which remains one of the largest cash robberies in American history. The crew made off with an estimated five million dollars in cash, worth roughly 18.1 million dollars today, along with 875,000 dollars in jewellery, valued at approximately 3.2 million dollars in today's money. It was a masterclass in criminal ambition, though the brutal aftermath — in which Burke systematically murdered many of the participants to silence them — revealed the savage reality lurking beneath the glamour.

Hill's story took a dramatic turn in 1980 when, facing serious drug charges and fearing he was next on Burke's hit list, he made the fateful decision to become an FBI informant. The information he provided proved devastating to the Lucchese family, leading to over 50 convictions, including those of Paul Vario and Jimmy Burke himself. Placed into the federal Witness Protection Programme, Hill struggled for years with addiction and repeatedly violated the terms of his protection, eventually being removed from the programme altogether.

His story was immortalised in Martin Scorsese's 1990 masterpiece Goodfellas, in which Ray Liotta delivered an iconic portrayal that introduced Hill's world to a global audience. The film, widely regarded as one of the greatest crime movies ever made, drew heavily from Nicholas Pileggi's book Wiseguy, written with Hill's full cooperation.

Henry Hill lived a life that was equal parts thrilling and tragic, and his willingness to talk remains one of the most consequential betrayals in the history of American organised crime.