Henry Hill Dead at 69

Henry Hill, the mobster whose life story was documented in the book Wiseguy and the 1990 movie Goodfellas has died of an undisclosed illness at 69.

Hill passed away at an LA hospital, the son of Hill’s fiancé Lisa Schinelli Casterta, confirmed.

“[His] heart just stopped. He had been sick for a long time,” Nate Caserta told ABC News.

“I will never be the same. I lost someone I cared about a lot . Someone who loved my family and helped me a lot with life,” Nate Caserta wrote in a post on Facebook. “You truly lived a life no one could live. You touched so many peoples lifes. Your spirit lives forever with me [sic].”

Hill had a smoking problem which concerned his family, while his health deteriorated.

The former gangster began his life of crime at 11 while growing up in Brooklyn, in the 1960s, running errands for Paul Vario, a captain in the Lucchese family, before more serious crime through the 70s.

After six years in prison Hill became an FBI informant following a 1980 arrest on a drugs-trafficking charge, and testimony he delivered led to 50 arrests.

Hill and his family entered the witness protection program and changed their names but were expelled from the program in the early 1990s following several arrests on narcotics-related charge.

Image: Rex