Henry Hill was a bandit. He was a swindler. He plotted, plotted and broke heads. He knew how to bribe and he knew how to put shoes on a sucker. He worked full time for the Mafia as a racketeer and thug, he was a rara avis - that rare bird that social anthropologists and cops alike would be eager to study. On the streets, he and his friends called themselves "smart guys." I think his story provides a unique inside look at the life of a foot soldier of organized crime, which is usually described either by outsiders or capo di tutti capi, mafia bosses.