Henry Hill, the inspiration...

...for Ray Liotta's character in the 1990 movie "Goodfellas," died at age 69. From the Times obit: 

He joined the Army at 17 and soon had a tidy sideline in surplus mess-hall steaks, which he sold to restaurants near his base at Fort Bragg, in North Carolina. 

He was discharged several years later, he wrote, when he started a brawl and, after the sheriff arrived, elected to steal the sheriff’s car.