He Was A Good Fella

Henry Hill, the man behind one of Hollywood's most famous mobsters, has passed at age 69.

Henry Hill, a former member of the Lucchese family of mobsters, died Tuesday in a Los Angeles hospital, according to a statement on his website.

Hill passed away one day after his 69th birthday. The cause of Hill's death has not yet been released.

The self-proclaimed mobster first came onto the media scene in the nonfiction book "Wiseguy," by journalist Nicholas Pileggi, detailing the "never-before-revealed day-to-day life of a working mobster -- his violence, his wild spending sprees, his wife, his mistresses, his code of honor," according to the book's back cover.

The 1990 film, "Goodfellas," depicted the rock-n-roll lifestyle of New York City mobsters -- everything from wealth and women to drugs and death.

"You never rat on your friends and you always keep your mouth shut," Hill's character, played by Ray Liotta, was told in the movie.

However, when Hill became worried his mob associates were out to kill him he became a police informant and "ratted out" scores of other gangsters.

As the New York Times reported, the largest crime in which Hill participated was a theft at New York's Kennedy International Airport, when the clan stole $5 million in cash and another $1 million in jewels from a Lufthansa cargo terminal.

Hill testified against his compatriots and was not prosecuted for the crime.

Cops haven't released the cause of death yet as you can see, so I have to wonder.  I think "death by cement overcoat" would have been kind of obvious, but as they say, there are old mobsters and bold mobsters, but very few old, bold mobsters.

Only in America, right?