Former wiseguy pleads to drug charge
By the Lincoln Journal Star

Henry Hill, the former New York mobster whose crime life was portrayed in the film "GoodFellas," will be sentenced on a drug charge next month in North Platte.
Hill

Hill pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of attempted possession of methamphetamine on Aug. 8 in Lincoln County District Court, said Rebecca Harling, chief deputy county attorney. His sentencing has been scheduled for Sept. 26.

Hill, 62, had been charged with two felony counts of possessing meth and cocaine. Through a plea bargain, the meth charge was reduced and the cocaine charge was dismissed, Harling said.

The case started in August 2004 when Hill left three bags at the North Platte airport because he didn't have time to check them for a flight. Airport authorities searched the bags and found glass tubes that police determined contained residue of the illegal drugs.



In the 1970s, the Brooklyn native worked for the Lucchese crime family in New York. Following his 1980 arrest on federal drug charges, Hill agreed to testify against his former criminal associates. In exchange for testimony that Hill says helped convict about 50 mafia members, the FBI put Hill and his family in the witness protection program.

By the time his story came out in "GoodFellas" in 1990, Hill had been kicked out of the witness protection program. Since then, he has been convicted of drunken driving in Washington, where he and his second wife, Kelly, formerly lived.

The couple moved to North

Platte about a year ago because Kelly has a family connection to the city. Since then, he started working at a local restaurant called the Firefly, where he introduced a full slate of Italian fare to the menu.