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The Big Bang: A Brief History of Henry Hill
Henry Hill was born in 1909, into a poor, but happy Italian American family. He grew up in Brooklyn and had a happy childhood, living in a decent family home with his mother, father and six siblings. Henry loved his mother and father but his father was always the source of trouble in the home. In the evenings, the elder Hill would play cards with his friends. Henry and his brothers would walk home from school along with the other children but sometimes they were distracted by the sight of a car parked outside one of the houses with four men inside. Henry and his brothers were fascinated by these cars and the men inside. They would often try to observe the goings-on through the windows. Henry would think to himself, “What’s this? A crime?”
Henry attended public schools and was an excellent student. He had a great passion for knowledge and his family did everything to support him in this. Every day, he would read the papers and magazines, go to the library and to the newspaper office to acquire more information. Henry enjoyed doing this so much that he eventually started his own library in his house. His mother did not like this because she knew that Henry would start spending time with the other children at school and not with her. She therefore forbade him to leave home without her permission and she allowed only one other person, his father, to visit the house. The family were very poor and his father ran a barbershop. Henry would often help his father in the shop. He wanted to do a barber’s apprenticeship, but his mother would never allow this.
In 1925, at the age of 12, he met a barber who was in the gang called “The Castellammarese” which operated on the east side of Brooklyn. The Castellammarese are a group of mainly Italian-American gangsters who are known for their brutal manners. This gang member introduced Henry to the drugs and alcohol. They would often go to nightclubs together and party, drink and take drugs. Henry started associating with bad characters, people who were gangsters and criminal characters. He quickly fell in love with the gangster lifestyle and went out of control. He would often skip school and was constantly coming home late. He began drinking and drugging more and more, not giving a thought to his mother and father. Soon, he was living a full
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