9. Henry Hill became a valuable resource at considerable expense
While his family waited out the decision of where they would be relocated (over which they had little say), Henry provided testimony to federal authorities. As he did so he revealed crimes and scams of which the authorities had no prior knowledge. One such crime was a points shaving scheme involving the Boston College men’s basketball team. The lead investigator interviewing Henry Hill happened to have been a Boston College graduate, and a former basketball player for the school. He personally took the lead in prosecuting the players and others involved in the scam, though as with all of his other crimes to date, Hill was not charged for his role. While Hill was held for interviews, he lived in luxurious circumstances. He ordered food from expensive restaurants, paid for by the government.
While Hill enjoyed himself at the expense of the government, as well as of his former colleagues and associates, his family waited to learn of their new home. They stayed at a series of motels on Long Island and in Connecticut while their new identification papers were prepared and a destination selected. Gregg Hill wrote of the period that his father was “ratting out” his friends, continuing to refer to them as Uncle Paulie and Uncle Jimmy, years after learning both were serial murderers and thieves. Eventually, according to Gina Hill, the FBI put them in a rented house in the Hampton’s, on Long Island. Gina and Karen selected their new name surname, Haymes, which they shared with a convict who had served time with Henry at Lewisburg. But they did not know of their assigned new home until they arrived in Omaha, Nebraska.