Henry “Goodfellas” Hill

I found the below Documentary on You Tube. I recommend it if you want to learn more of the back story behind the DeNiro film, Goodfellas. This tells the un-glamerous story of a real life professional criminal and based on the book, Wiseguy. Nicholas Pileggi‘s book Wiseguy was a great depiction of a certain class of criminal in the underworld. “Made Guys” in La Cosa Nostra depend on these “mob associates” to do the work and make them money.  In Kansas City we had Sonny Bowen, Leonard “The Arab” Crego, Bobby Gene Jones, Gene Maggio, Gene Shepard and many others. Of all these guys, only Mike Ruffalo and Bobby Gene Jones went into Witness Protection. All of these men were involved in high end jewely and fur thefts as well as theft from interstate shipments.

Sonny Bowen learned he was in trouble and did a preemptive strike killing “Johnny Green” Amaro. Bowen was subsequently killed a few days later. Crego got caught robbing a drug dealer, had his parole violated, and was killed in prison. Bobby Gene Jones went into Witness Protection ( I need to tell the story of him setting up Gene Maggio on a bank burglary). Gene Maggio did a long stretch for the bank burglary. Gene Shepard died recently of natural causes in old age. You may learn more about many of these characters in William Ouseley’s book, Mobsters in our Midst.

Henry Hill was exactly like these Kansas City guys. They all grew up in the Northeast area of Kansas City and were exposed to the KC La Cosa Nostra at an early age.