Chapter 20 Summary and Analysis

Pileggi shifts the viewpoint back to law enforcement in Chapter 20. Nassau County Narcotics Detective Daniel Mann describes how he first comes across Henry Hill. A nineteen-year-old from Long Island is arrested in a routine drug bust. Eager to make a deal, the teenager offers Mann information on an organized-crime heroin and cocaine ring. Mann checks out the kid's story and learns it is legitimate. The young man tells Mann that the ring is connected with Paul Vario and is run by members of the Lucchese crime family. Henry Hill is the leader. When Mann learns Hill is close to Paul Vario, he is pleased. The police have not found many people who know Vario well enough to implicate the mob boss in anything serious.

Mann and his men begin taping Henry's calls and have him under constant surveillance. Before long, they...