On the Run: A Mafia Childhood [Hardcover]

Gregg Hill (Author), Gina Hill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 14, 2004

Henry Hill's business partner, Jimmy Burke has whacked every person who could possibly implicate him in the infamous Lufthansa robbery at JFK airport. On his way to prison, lifelong ganster Henry is given two options: sleep with the fishes, or enter the FBI's Witness Protection Program. Unfortunately for Gregg and Gina, they're dragged along for the ride. Like nomads, they're forced to wander from state to state, constantly inventing new names and finding new friends, only to abandon them at a moment's notice. Living under constant fear of being found and killed. But Henry, the rock Gregg and Gina so desperately need, is a heavy cocaine user and knows only the criminal life. He is soon up to his old tricks and consistently putting their identities in jeopardy. And so it continues until the kids, now almost grown, can no longer ignore that the Mob might be less of a threat to them than remaining under the roof of their increasingly unbalanced father.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Fans of mob turncoat Henry Hill based on Nicholas Pileggi's Wiseguy (an account of Hill's life) and the popular film adaptation Goodfellas will be forced to dramatically re-evaluate him after reading this gripping memoir by his children—who were only a passing blip in those earlier versions. Their warts-and-all portrayal of the immense disruption to their lives caused by their father's criminal recidivism is often heartbreaking. At a young age, they were exposed to family friends like Jimmy "the Gent" Burke, whom they knew as Uncle Jimmy, unaware he was a brutal truck hijacker. When investigators on the 1980 multimillion-dollar Lufthansa heist obtained Hill's cooperation as a witness, the children were given an hour to pick through their possessions to select what they could take with them into their new life in the witness protection program. Gregg and Gina often give overlapping perspectives of the same events, as they struggle to adjust, without the benefit of any guidance, and to craft plausible backstories for their new classmates and neighbors. Gregg's story is especially moving as he traces his personal evolution from model student to an adolescent forced to protect his mother from his father. The grimness is leavened with humor, and the many readers who will be rooting for these innocent victims will be heartened by their capacity to transcend a truly awful upbringing. B&w photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

While Martin Scorsese's almost-lovable wiseguy Henry Hill led a life of unbroken adventure with the Mob--finding haven in the federal witness protection program when he informed on his colleagues--it was hard to know just who, besides Hill's crime victims, was paying the tab. In this wrenching but involving account, we find out: his children. Hill's son and daughter pick up the story pretty much where Scorsese's Goodfellas left off: the family packing their belongings into Hefty bags and hustling to safe houses in the Hamptons, then Omaha, then rural Kentucky, then finally Redmond, Washington. "Our lives weren't just falling apart," explains son Gregg, "they'd been vaporized, liquidated, erased." And their father only made things worse, resuming his criminalizing but also carelessly exposing the family to the mobsters trying to kill them. Miraculously, son and daughter here seem to have outrun the horror of their childhood, so far. Alan Moores
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Warner Books; 1st edition (September 14, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 044652770X
• ISBN-13: 978-0446527705
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #741,378 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing, October 18, 2004

By 

Victoria (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: On the Run: A Mafia Childhood (Hardcover)

I loved the movie Goodfellas and so I was excited to read about the story from the viewpoint of Henry Hill's children. While I expected a typical tragic tale of a childhood destroyed, what I got was far more interesting: two very different viewpoints from Hill's children on their situation. Gregg, the older child, feels like he is the only one in the family who fully appreciates the danger they are in. Feeling like the only sane person in the family, he is enraged by the carelessness with which his father runs his life and how it impacts the rest of the family. Eventually this rage turns this straight-A student into somewhat of a psychotic kid who attacks his violent father with a homemade mace and contemplates murdering him on several occasions. Gregg is a truly terrifying person on several occasions -- and shows shades of his father's personality. Gina, on the other hand, spends most of her childhood idolizing her father and feeling that he is misunderstood. She is clearly the optimist in the family and characterizes their multiple moves in the witness protection program as an adventure, whereas Gregg views them as horrendous. Each chapter of the book contains alternating viewpoints on their situation from Gregg and Gina and they often comment on each other's perception of events. Gina's upbeat, cheery outlook is a dramatic juxtapose to Gregg's anger, hopelessness and negativity. It is interesting to see how two people in the same situation can have completely different reactions -- and coping mechanisms. Overall, it is an intriguing read.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Other Side of the Wiseguy/Goodfellas story..., January 31, 2006

By 

Colleen McMahon ""Omnivorous Reader"" (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: On the Run: A Mafia Childhood (Mass Market Paperback)

Infamous schmuck/mafia sellout and raconteur Henry Hill had his say in Wiseguy, Goodfellas and numerous other books cashing in on his mob career, and in the end comes off as at least somewhat likeable and sympathetic, or at least not as bad as the stone killers he ran with. But his now grown children Gregg and Gina have their say in this book (just published in paperback) and it isn't pretty for Henry.

Besides being completely selfish and utterly disrupting his kids' lives with having to go into hiding as they are on the brink of adolescence...and then having to move twice more within three years due to almost being discovered, Hill never stopped the petty scamming, hard drinking and drug use that got him in trouble in the first place. The fallout for the family is painful and ugly, and Gregg in particular comes frighteningly close to becoming as violent as Henry himself ever was...but according to this book both son and daughter ultimately rose above their past to become law abiding citizens.

A useful perspective/corrective on the legend Hill has built for himself in the wake of his criminal career (which is in fact still ongoing-he's been arrested again in recent years on further drug charges).

It was hard to put this book down. Gina and Gregg take turns telling their side of the story. By the time they went into hiding, Gregg had already seen through their father and understood what was going on. He began angry and became ever more furious as Hill's schemes continue to disrupt their lives even after they are in hiding. Gina is a little more heartbreaking; she was daddy's little girl and holds onto her belief in his promises for several years, but eventually her eyes, too, are opened to the real Henry.

This may be one more attempt to cash in on the Hill story and the fascination with the Mafia in general, but for anyone enamored of the wiseguy life, this is an eyeopening look at the effects on innocent victims--the children of the mobsters. To some extent at least the wives can choose to be involved, but the children have no choice from the start. Although Gina and Gregg seem to have created good lives for themselves, the scars run deep.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars HOLY CRAP THIS IS A GOOD BOOK TO READ!, February 4, 2005

By 

Amy Marchand Ventimiglia (Illinois) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: On the Run: A Mafia Childhood (Hardcover)

If you absolutely loved Goodfellas or the book Wiseguy...you will not put this book down! I didn't - I read it straight through! It will make you see Henry Hill in a new light. How his son ever became a lawyer is beyond me?? These kids had one F'd up childhood and not before Henry went away - but after!! Henry has screws loose - seriously - or at least did in witness protection. This is a very sad account of the kids lives told by them themselves! I dont want to give everything away but there are some crazy stories in this book, such as crazy Henry giving trolley tours in an old beat up trolly in the ghetto in Cincinnati, Ohio, WHILE HE SHOULD BE HIDING OUT BEING GOOD IN WITNESS PROTECTION. Or the time he ran off with some hag and got married while he was married to his wife still, will make you fall out your chair laughing with the way his son tells it. Its not really funny but his son tells it funny.I wish this book were just written by him.....he is really comical but this book isn't but his son is amusining and he just has a way with telling a story. This book is a great addition to Wiseguy and Goodfellas. You will love it I assure you. There is a million stories that make you for sure know Henry Hill is a nutjob or at least was at that time in his life.