2. Hill threw himself into the mobster’s life with abandon
Once Hill was part of a union scam he entered fully into the Vario mob family, as well as into the Varios’ personal families. The no-show job also allowed him to leave school. Instead of attending classes, he entered job sites using the union card. There he collected loan payments and betting slips. He ran errands for the Vario brothers and others in their organization, among them James Burke, a notorious Irish gangster called Jimmy the Gent. Burke specialized in truck hijackings, untaxed cigarettes, and stolen credit cards. Before he was 16, Henry Hill was adept at the use of stolen credit cards, as well as stolen checks. He also acquired skills as an arsonist, under the tutelage of Vito Vario, known as Tuddy around the mobsters’ hangouts. Henry’s mob family continued his education, including instructing him on how to deal with being arrested.
Henry’s first arrest took place when he was sixteen, having been caught using stolen credit cards to purchase tires for Tuddy Vario. Hill refused to cooperate with the police, and an attorney for the Varios’ obtained his release on bail, and eventually a suspended sentence. His comportment during the arrest and court appearance impressed the mobsters, and Hill became a full-fledged associate of the Lucchese family. Though he would never be eligible to be a “made man” in the family due to his Irish ancestry, he nonetheless became a respected associate, a protégé of Burke’s and Paul Vario’s, and an earner in a crew (Burke was of Irish background himself). Then, in 1960, Hill appeared to turn his back on his chosen family in order to please his natural parents. At the age of 17, with his father’s permission, Hill enlisted in the United States Army.