"My mother was crying. The junkies were blank-faced. ... My father's book party, his coming-out event - his wiseguy cotillion, broke up early."
The book being celebrated, "Wiseguy" by Nicholas Pileggio, was a best-seller, later a movie "Goodfellas," based on the story, was a box office smash.
Unfortunately, Henry Hill, mobster, idiot, drunk, junkie, abusive father and husband, thought he was now a star of the first magnitude. Instead, it was only another beginning in his infamous downhill slide.
A lot of books, fiction and non-fiction, have been written about the Mafia, but few have had the emotional impact of "On The Run: A Mafia Childhood" by Gregg and Gina Hill.
These two attractive, bright and tragic figures are among hundreds of children who have been and are as much victims of their father's "business" as any guy slumped in the front seat of a car, his head blown off by a fellow mobster, perhaps even a good friend.
Gregg and Gina lived what they thought was an almost normal New York life for a while, until their father decided to sing for the government. They were shipped off to Omaha, along with their patient, loving, enabling mother, under new names, to begin a strange life under the aegis of the Federal Witness Protection Program.
The children were devastated. Omaha? Out in the middle of nowhere. They had to leave behind friends and school, the stick-ball games, all that made their lives bearable, to try again.
This time, the friends were harder to come by, as happens when you have secrets too deep and scary to share.
Still, they struggled along. Gregg's prowess with a tennis racket was a big help, and sweet Gina always put a good spin on life.
Dear old dad was being flown in and out of New York to testify against his old cronies and put them behind bars. He was some hotshot. Soon enough, his ego got the better of him, and he might have blown his cover. His wife, as well, was careless.
Next move: Kentucky, just across the river from Cincinnati. They stayed in a pretty nice hotel for a while. "It was not the Ritz, but it wasn't Motel 6 either."
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