Born on June 11, 1943 in Brooklyn, New York, Henry Hill grew up in an area of Brooklyn that was dominated by the Lucchese crime family. Fascinated by gangsters, he began dreaming of being in the Mafia at age 12. Hill, his wife and their two children entered the U.S. Federal Witness Protection Program in 1980. Two years later—after moving his family to Nebraska, and then Kentucky—Hill was thrown out of the program for blowing his cover.