Thoughts
I’ve jotted down as the year ends.
You have make peace with the
past, otherwise that little bugger will never, ever, leave you alone. Never.
All it will do is rip into all of your pristine perfect tomorrows and ruin them
for you.
Whatever it is that’s haunting
you, bothering or making you doubt yourself, give it time. Time, I assure you
heals everything.
Smile and laugh. It’s that
simple. It’s about happiness and you, and you alone, are responsible for your
own happiness.
Don’t over think it and if you
can’t come up with the answer, don’t worry about it, its okay not to have every
answer all of the time.
Whatever others think of you is
none of your affair. They’re going to hold the same opinions about you whether
you care what they think or not, so move along and do something
productive.
Bad companionship takes from your
soul and returns nothing. If you can’t find the right companion to travel
through this life with, then its better to be alone rather than share the
journey with someone who will hinder your progress, your happiness and your
peace of mind.
Make a decision. It may be the
right one or the wrong one, you never know, but make one. Life will fit itself
around what you have decided to do. Life shifts and possibilities arrive.
Don’t hide from difficulties
because you think they will disturb your peace of mind. Rather greet them with
peace of mind and bend all difficulties to fit your happiness.
Find peace in prayer and meditation
and in turn they will open the door to God, love, light, music and poetry. Don’t
avoid prayer and meditation because of the negative connotation given to it by
those who seem to practice it. Those who make it look like and effort, who make
it look serious and gloomy. Those people have lost the joy, the playfulness and
the celebration that there is prayer and meditation. Enjoy prayer and the
meditative life, be fun, be happy and let it show in your face and in your
words and in your life.
Be kind no matter what. Remember
that when you make a decision to live a life of kindness that most people will
automatically suspect you of being and of having ulterior motives. That’s okay,
let them think whatever they wish because we will know each other by our acts,
not our words.
DON’T WORRY-BE HAPPY
My sister Florence (Seated) dropped by for the Holidays. That's Mary and I in the back.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John William Tuohy is a writer who lives in Washington DC. He holds an MFA in writing from Lindenwood University.
He is the author of No Time to Say Goodbye: Memoirs of a Life in Foster Care and Short Stories from a Small Town. He is also the author of numerous non-fiction on the history of organized crime including the ground break biography of bootlegger Roger Tuohy "When Capone's Mob Murdered Touhy" and "Guns and Glamour: A History of Organized Crime in Chicago."
His non-fiction crime short stories have appeared in The New Criminologist, American Mafia and other publications. John won the City of Chicago's Celtic Playfest for his work The Hannigan's of Beverly, and his short story fiction work, Karma Finds Franny Glass, appeared in AdmitTwo Magazine in October of 2008.
His play, Cyberdate.Com, was chosen for a public performance at the Actors Chapel in Manhattan in February of 2007 as part of the groups Reading Series for New York project. In June of 2008, the play won the Virginia Theater of The First Amendment Award for best new play.
Contact John:
MYWRITERSSITE.BLOGSPOT.COM
JWTUOHY95@GMAIL.COM
Sculpture this and Sculpture that
Street sculpture on the edge of Patterson Park, Baltimore. The high ground at the northwest corner of Patterson Park, called Hampstead Hill, was the key defensive position for U.S. forces against British ground forces in the Battle of Baltimore during the War of 1812. On September 13, 1814, the day after the Battle of North Point, some 4,300 British troops advanced toward Baltimore, forcing U.S. troops to retreat to the defensive line in what is now Patterson Park. When the British began probing actions, the American line was defended by 100 cannon and more than 10,000 troops. The American defenses were far stronger than anticipated, and U.S. defenders at Fort McHenry successfully stopped British naval forces from advancing close enough to lend artillery support, and British attempts to flank the defense were countered. Thus, before dawn on September 14, 1814, British commander Colonel Arthur Brooke decided the land campaign was a lost cause, and ordered the retreat back to the ships, and the United States was thus victorious in the Battle of Baltimore.
Elaine Moran, wife of my long time friend Happy Moran
Enjoyed a wonderful day trip to the town of Gettysburg Pa.with the Moran's
Down in the Valley
by Anonymous
Down in the valley,
Valley so low,
Hang your head over,
Hear the train blow.
Hear the train blow, love,
Hear the train blow,
Hang your head over,
Hear the train blow.
If you don't love me,
Love whom you please,
But throw your arms round me,
Give my heart ease.
Step right up to me,
Before it's too late.
Throw your arms round me,
Feel my heart break.
I'll write you a letter,
Only three lines:
"Answer my question,
Will you be mine?'
Go build me a castle,
Forty feet high,
So I can see you,
As you pass by.
Roses of sunshine,
Violets of dew,
Angels of heaven
Know I love you.
Bird in a cage, love,
Bird in a cage,
Dying for freedom,
But forever a slave.
Write me a letter,
Write it out plain,
And send it me care of
The Barbourville Jail.
Barbourville Jail, love,
Barbourville Jail,
And send it me care of
The Barbourville Jail.
HERE'S MY LATEST BOOKS.....
This is a book of
short stories taken from the things I saw and heard in my childhood in the
factory town of Ansonia in southwestern Connecticut.
Most of these
stories, or as true as I recall them because I witnessed these events many
years ago through the eyes of child and are retold to you now with the pen and
hindsight of an older man. The only exception is the story Beat Time which is based on the disappearance of Beat poet Lew
Welch. Decades before I knew who Welch was, I was told that he had made his
from California to New Haven, Connecticut, where was an alcoholic living in a
mission. The notion fascinated me and I filed it away but never forgot
it.
The collected stories
are loosely modeled around Joyce’s novel, Dubliners
(I also borrowed from the novels character and place names. Ivy Day, my
character in “Local Orphan is Hero” is also the name of chapter in Dubliners, etc.) and like Joyce I wanted
to write about my people, the people I knew as a child, the working class in
small town America and I wanted to give a complete view of them as well. As a
result the stories are about the divorced, Gays, black people, the working
poor, the middle class, the lost and the found, the contented and the
discontented.
Conversely many of
the stories in this book are about starting life over again as a result of
suicide (The Hanging Party, Small Town
Tragedy, Beat Time) or from a near death experience (Anna Bell Lee and the Charge of the Light Brigade, A Brief Summer)
and natural occurring death. (The Best
Laid Plans, The Winter Years, Balanced and Serene)
With the exception of
Jesus Loves Shaqunda, in each story
there is a rebirth from the death. (Shaqunda is reported as having died of
pneumonia in The Winter Years)
Sal, the desperate
and depressed divorcee in Things Change,
changes his life in Lunch Hour when
asks the waitress for a date and she accepts. (Which we learn in Closing Time,
the last story in the book) In The
Arranged Time, Thisby is given the option of change and whether she takes
it or, we don’t know. The death of Greta’s husband in A Matter of Time has led her to the diner and into the waiting arms
of the outgoing and loveable Gabe.
Although the book is
based on three sets of time (breakfast, lunch and dinner) and the diner is
opened in the early morning and closed at night, time stands still inside the
Diner. The hour on the big clock on the wall never changes time and much like
my memories of that place, everything remains the same.
http://www.amazon.com/Short-Stories-Small-William-Tuohy/dp/1517270456/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1444164878&sr=1-1&keywords=short+stories+from+a+small+town
The Valley
Lives
By Marion Marchetto, author of The
Bridgewater Chronicles on October 15, 2015
Short
Stores from a Small Town is set in The Valley (known to outsiders as The Lower
Naugatuck Valley) in Connecticut. While the short stories are contemporary they
provide insight into the timeless qualities of an Industrial Era community and
the values and morals of the people who live there. Some are first or second
generation Americans, some are transplants, yet each takes on the mantle of
Valleyite and wears it proudly. It isn't easy for an author to take the reader
on a journey down memory lane and involve the reader in the life stories of a
group of seemingly unrelated characters. I say seemingly because by book's end
the reader will realize that he/she has done more than meet a group of loosely
related characters.
We
meet all of the characters during a one-day time period as each of them finds
their way to the Valley Diner on a rainy autumn day. From our first meeting
with Angel, the educationally challenged man who opens and closes the diner, to
our farewell for the day to the young waitress whose smile hides her despair we
meet a cross section of the Valley population. Rich, poor, ambitious, and not
so ambitious, each life proves that there is more to it beneath the surface.
And the one thing that binds these lives together is The Valley itself. Not so
much a place (or a memory) but an almost palpable living thing that becomes a
part of its inhabitants.
Let
me be the first the congratulate author John William Tuohy on a job well done.
He has evoked the heart of The Valley and in doing so brought to life the
fabric that Valleyites wear as a mantle of pride. While set in a specific
region of the country, the stories that unfold within the pages of this slim
volume are similar to those that live in many a small town from coast to coast.
By Sandra Mendyk
Just
read "Short Stories from a Small Town," and couldn't put it down!
Like Mr. Tuohy's other books I read, they keep your interest, especially if
you're from a small town and can relate to the lives of the people he writes
about. I recommend this book for anyone interested in human interest stories.
His characters all have a central place where the stories take place--a
diner--and come from different walks of life and wrestle with different
problems of everyday life. Enjoyable and thoughtful.
I loved how the author wrote about
"his people"
By kathee
A
touching thoughtful book. I loved how the author wrote about "his
people", the people he knew as a child from his town. It is based on sets
of time in the local diner, breakfast , lunch and dinner, but time stands still
... Highly recommend !
WONDERFUL book, I loved it!
By
John M. Cribbins
What
wonderful stories...I just loved this book.... It is great how it is written
following, breakfast, lunch, dinner, at a diner. Great characters.... I just
loved it....
An award winning full length play.
"Cyberdate.Com is the story of six
ordinary people in search of romance, friendship and love and find it in very
extraordinary ways. Based on the real life experiences of the authors
misadventures with on line dating, Cyber date is a bittersweet story that will
make you laugh, cry and want to fall in love again." Ellis McKay
Cyberdate.Com, was chosen for a public at the Actors Chapel in Manhattan in February of 2007 as part of the groups Reading Series for New York project. In June of 2008, the play won the Virginia Theater of The First Amendment Award for best new play. The play was also given a full reading at The Frederick Playhouse in Maryland in March of 2007.
THE BEAT POETS
Beat
poetry evolved during the 1940s in both New York City and on the west coast,
although San Francisco became the heart of the movement in the early 1950s. The
end of World War II left poets like Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Lawrence
Ferlinghetti and Gregory Corso questioning mainstream politics and
culture. A Brief Guide to the Beat Poets | Academy of American Poets https://www.poets.org/poetsorg
Art by Beat Poet Charles Bukowski (Who did not consider himself a Beat)
The art and joy of cinematography
Genius in the making: Orson
Welles in Ireland
Paul Whitington
This has been the centenary year
of Orson Welles' birth, and during 2015 there've been retrospectives,
re-releases of his most celebrated films, documentaries, new biographies and
endless reassessments of his life and work. But before the year ends I thought
it would be nice to explore the great man's relationship with Ireland.
Because although Welles made his
name in New York and Hollywood, and later plied his trade around the great
cities of Europe, he made his professional acting debut in Dublin, and throughout
his life retained a strong connection to this island. He even made a short film
here, and one of his Irish theatrical friends popped up in several of his later
movies.
It's often been noted that the
lonely childhood of Charles Foster Kane echoes that of his creator. Born in
Wisconsin in 1915, Orson Welles had lost his doting mother by the age of nine,
and his father was dead by the time he was 15. Thereafter he fell under the
guardianship of Maurice Bernstein, a Jewish doctor from Chicago who was given
the onerous task of trying to control the teenage Orson's conduct and spending.
When Orson left high school at 16
in the summer of 1931, his guardian faced a dilemma. Bernstein wanted to send
him to Harvard or some other Ivy League institution that might knock the edges
off him and turn him into a substantial citizen, but the wildly precocious
Welles had other plans, and was anxious to launch his career as an actor.
An uneasy compromise was reached,
and the 16-year-old was sent off to Europe for the summer to complete his
cultural education. He left New York aboard the SS Baltic in August of 1931,
bound or so he thought on a grand tour of old Europe - but in fact he would
spend almost all his time in Ireland.
He disembarked in Galway after
four days at sea, and set off on a "painting tour" of the west coast.
He hired a cart and a donkey named Sheeog and proceeded in stately fashion
through the wilds of Connemara, painting landscapes by day that he described as
"hideous abortions" in letters to home, and sleeping out under the
stars by a turf fire at night.
He was hugely impressed by our
western landscape, and even found time to visit the Aran Islands. Young Orson
spent some time on Inisheer, where he was fondly remembered for his
enthusiastic dancing, but an account he gave late in his life appears to
contradict the popular view of chaste, Catholic, early 20th-century Ireland.
During a series of taped
interviews with his friend Henry Jaglom, which were published in book form a
couple of years back, Welles claimed that rural Ireland at that time was
teeming with "poor virgin ladies waiting to get married" and that
when he went to the Aran Islands he was pursued by them so vigorously that he
"could hardly draw a breath".
"Those great marvellous
girls in their white petticoats, they'd grab me - off the petticoats would go.
And with all the husbands out in their skin-covered canoes." One should
note at this point that Orson Welles, a peerless after-dinner speaker and
storyteller, was prone to embellishments and wild exaggerations in the service
of his yarns. And if his account of life on Inisheer sounds suspiciously like
refried John Millington Synge, that may not be a coincidence.
Whatever about all that, by the
start of October he abandoned his western travels and headed east for Dublin
City. On his second night in the capital he attended a performance of the Earl
of Longford's play The Melians at the Gate Theatre. Among the cast he spotted a
young actor he'd met in the west, and this was pretext enough for Welles to
present himself backstage after the performance.
The tall, broad, plumply handsome
Orson caught the eye of Hilton Edwards, the Gate's legendary co-founder.
Edwards had been looking for an actor charismatic enough to play the key role
of Duke Karl Alexander in a forthcoming production of a play called Jew Suss,
and now he thought he'd found him.
Welles, who always looked and
sounded much older than his years, claimed he was 18 and already an established
player in New York. Edwards would later say he didn't believe a word, but
nevertheless he hired him on the spot, and young Orson began his first
professional rehearsal.
Not everyone at the Gate Theatre
was over the moon about Orson's arrival on the scene, most particularly Hilton
Edwards' professional and romantic partner, Micheal MacLiammoir. A very
interesting character in his own right, MacLiammoir had been born Alfred
Willmore in Kensal Green, London, and fell in love with Irish culture when he
visited the country in the 1920s.
Though having no connection with
Ireland whatsoever, he studied the Irish language until he could write and
speak it fluently, changed his name to MacLiammoir and began claiming Cork
heritage. A rich southern lift invaded his plummy accent, and his apparent
Irish credentials were a great help when he and the very English Hilton Edwards
set up the Gate Theatre in 1928. He and Edwards became perhaps Dublin's first
openly gay couple, their sexuality quietly acknowledged by the city's
residents, who referred to them, affectionately for the most part, as 'the
boys'.
Fiercely jealous both of Hilton's
attention and of actors who might upstage him, McLiammoir saw the young and
dashing Orson as a rival on several fronts. About his lover he need not have
worried - Welles was and would always remain enthusiastically heterosexual. But
MacLiammoir's other worst fear was confirmed when Welles received a thunderous
standing ovation for his performance in Jew Suss on the play's opening night -
October 13, 1931.
Welles himself was probably the
only one in the house who knew this was his professional début, and the
response of the Dublin crowd would stay with him for the rest of his life.
"It was thunderous and totally unexpected," he told his biographer
Barbara Leaming many years later. "I got more acclaim for that than for
anything I've done since!"
In the wings, MacLiammoir fumed,
and thereafter, as Welles himself put it, "whenever I was anywhere near
the Gate it was one long plot to cut me down".
He appeared in a number of other
Gate productions over the next few months, including Hamlet, but his roles from
then on were relatively minor, and he would often find bits of scenery
mysteriously interposing themselves between him and the audience. He left
Ireland again for New York in 1932, but he held fond memories of the Gate in
his heart and, remarkably, no ill feeling towards MacLiammoir.
More than anyone he understood
the raging insecurities of the performing artist, and when he made a movie
version of Othello in the early 1950s it was Micheal MacLiammoir whom he asked
to be his Iago. And around that time he returned to Ireland and made a short
film with Edwards and MacLiammoir called Return to Glennascaul (1951).
It was filmed in the Phoenix Park
and narrated by Welles, who played an American who's driving through the Irish
countryside when he picks up a hitch-hiker who tells him a disturbing ghost
story. This atmospheric little film was shown for many years in Dublin cinemas
before the main feature, and can be found on a DVD release of Welles' Othello.
MacLiammoir also starred in a
1954 TV production Welles did of King Lear, and Orson always credited Hilton
Edwards for inspiring him towards the kind of bold and overtly theatrical
productions of Shakespeare's plays that would ultimately get him noticed. He
owed the Gate - and Ireland - a great deal, and never forgot it.
He returned numerous times, and
in 1960 brought his Shakespeare mash-up stage production Chimes at Midnight to
The Gaiety Theatre. That show would eventually become Welles' last great film.
In later life he would often speak fondly of Ireland, but was less keen on
Irish-Americans, whom he referred to as "a new and terrible race".
"Look, I love Ireland,"
he told Henry Jaglom just a year before his death, "I love Irish
literature, I love everything they do, you know. But the Irish-Americans have
invented an imitation Ireland which is unspeakable. The wearin' o' the green.
Oh my God! To vomit!" Harsh words, but one gets the point.
MISH MOSH..........................
Mish Mash: noun \ˈmish-ˌmash, -ˌmäsh\ A : hodgepodge, jumble “The painting was just a mishmash of colors and abstract shapes as far as we could tell”. Origin Middle English & Yiddish; Middle English mysse masche, perhaps reduplication of mash mash; Yiddish mish-mash, perhaps reduplication of mishn to mix. First Known Use: 15th century
Mish Mash: noun \ˈmish-ˌmash, -ˌmäsh\ A : hodgepodge, jumble “The painting was just a mishmash of colors and abstract shapes as far as we could tell”. Origin Middle English & Yiddish; Middle English mysse masche, perhaps reduplication of mash mash; Yiddish mish-mash, perhaps reduplication of mishn to mix. First Known Use: 15th century
TODAY'S ALLEGED MOB GUY
Jerry Angiulo
Jerry Angiulo
Gennaro "Jerry" Angiulo
(March 20, 1919 – August 29, 2009) was a New England mob boss who rose through
the Mafia under Raymond L. S. Patriarca. He was convicted of racketeering in
1986 and was in jail until being released in 2007. One of the Angiulo Brothers,
Angiulo was "probably the last very significant Mafia boss in Boston’s
history".
DON'T YOU JUST LOVE POP ART?
HERE'S SOME NICE ART FOR YOU TO LOOK AT....ENJOY!
I LOVE BLACK AND WHITE
PHOTOS FROM FILM
WHY THE WORLD NEEDS EDITORS.....................
Our dog Bart tried to bull his way into the Thanksgiving meal again this year by posing as an Eastern European war refugee. It didn't work.
Why
God made the day after Thanksgiving. How to make a day after Thanksgiving
sandwich.
Get three pieces of Wonder Bread,
and it has to be Wonder Bread. You’ll ruin the sandwich if you use healthy
glutton free bread or better made bread.
Put Hellmann’s Mayonnaise on one
side of two of the slices. Be very careful not to ruin your happiness by using
pretend mayonnaise made of anything but eggs that’s supposed to be good for
you. There is no happiness in that.
Toss on as much white meat turkey
as you can before everybody eats and you’re stuck with dark meat. Put a lot of
salt on it.
Spread cranberry sauce from a can
on top of the turkey meat but be sure and tell your wife how much you liked the
other cranberry sauce she made for the main meal but don’t use that because it
will ruin the sandwich and your happiness.
Take the third piece of bread and
drown it in gravy from yesterday’s meal.
Put that on top of the good kind of cranberry sauce.
Spread stuffing on top of the
middle piece of bread.
Put the last piece of bread on
top of the stuffing and squish tightly.
Eat the hell out of the
sandwich.
Church
Stops Clergy from Digging up 'Shakespeare Skull'
CLERGYMEN
WANTED CONJECTURE SETTLED ONCE AND FOR ALL
By Neal
Colgrass
Like to size up the cranium that once held the
brain behind Macbeth, Hamlet, and roughly 1,500 words we still use today? Well,
it's bad news for you—and anyone who believes William Shakespeare's skull is
lying under a small village chapel in England, the Birmingham Mailreports.
Seems a clergyman at St. Leonard's Church in Beoley, Redditch, asked to have
the skull there removed for a quick DNA test and saw his request denied.
"The curiosity as to the skull at Beoley has no factual base whatsoever to
justify exhumation, removal, or investigation," says church lawyer Charles
Mynors, who issued the denial in a nearly 7,000-word report. "The whole
enterprise is entirely speculative." Shakespeare scholars are on his side,
but local folklore and two mysterious articles tell a different tale.
Dated
1879 and 1884, the anonymous articles claim that a doctor dug up Shakespeare's
skull to win a reward offered by an art historian in 1769, the Telegraph
reports. But after the doctor couldn't get his money, the skull was buried in a
vault under St. Leonard's Church. With the Rev. Paul Irving's request for a DNA
test now denied, area clergymen are licking their wounds: "There is this
skull sitting there on its own and we would love to know who it is," says
a reverend who oversees the Beoley church. "The problem for us now is that
the failure to conduct a detailed investigation will result in a higher level
of uninformed speculation." As it happens, Shakespeare's tombstone epitaph
at Stratford-upon-Avon includes a warning against grave-robbers: "Bleste
be the man that spares thes stones," it reads in part. "And curst be
he that moves my bones." (Researchers have credited Shakespeare with a new
play.)
The Observation and Appreciation of Architecture
As
director of the 2016 Venice Biennale, Alejandro Aravena is on a mission to
harness the knowledge of other disciplines, embrace the insights of untrained
citizens, and take architecture to new frontiers
Alejandro
Aravena
As
architects, we are living at a time of shifting paradigms. In the past, the
scale of our designs grew large, but how many people were we really engaging
with? Today, we understand better the sheer complexity of the issues at play
when we design and plan buildings, neighbourhoods and even entire cities – and
this demands a new, more open approach.
It’s why
I’m so interested in how architects and urban planners engage with other fields
– economics, security, the environment and so on. Our challenge must be to go
beyond architecture and speak the languages of these other disciplines, before
translating our discussions into formal design proposals. One of the biggest
problems is bad information – well, architects have a responsibility to engage
in broad conversations that ensure we are properly informed about all the
parameters of a given project. Our ultimate focus is still on form, but what
informs this has expanded dramatically.
I believe
the next step must be to create “open systems”: physical conditions in cities
that allow all forces at play to have an input. We are entering a new game –
one which I hope to shed more light on through next year’s Architecture
Biennale in Venice.
The
battle for a better built environment is a collective effort that requires
everybody’s force and knowledge. As curator of Reporting From The Front, I want
to reverse the idea that the Biennale only deals with issues that are of
interest to other architects. We have begun by identifying problems that every
citizen can not only understand but actually has a say in: immigration, water,
land capacity, waste and so on. And we’ve seen an immediate, positive response
from people who don’t normally get involved with architecture – across both the
developed and developing worlds.
Alejandro Aravena discusses his entry for the
2012 Biennale
To
improve the quality of the built environment (and thus people’s quality of
life), battles need to be won and frontiers need to be expanded. More and more
people in the world are searching for a decent place to live, yet the
conditions to achieve this are becoming tougher by the hour. Any attempt to go
beyond business as usual encounters huge resistance in the inertia of reality.
Any effort to tackle relevant issues has to overcome the increasing complexity
of the world.
Unlike
military wars where nobody wins and there is a prevailing sense of defeat,
however, on the frontlines of the built environment there is a sense of vitality,
because architecture is about looking at reality in a proposal key. We should
never forget that design can be a very powerful tool in mobilising people to
act. Iconic architecture captures people’s desires, and we certainly won’t
improve our cities by dumbing everything down to the same level. But we must
pay attention to the circumstances – the shocking or the dramatic is not always
the right response.
We want
to learn from architectures that, despite (or perhaps because of) a scarcity of
means, intensify what is available instead of complaining about what is
missing. We want to understand what design tools are needed to subvert the
forces that privilege individual gain over collective benefit; to highlight
cases that resist reductionism and oversimplification, and do not give up on
architecture’s mission to penetrate the mystery of the human condition. We will
present numerous examples where organised communities and empowered citizens,
sometimes without any formal design training, have been able to improve their
own built environment.
There are
new actors in this story – not least those property developers who use
buildings to chase huge profits. But we are interested in how architecture can
introduce a broader notion of gain: design as added value instead of an extra
cost; architecture as a shortcut towards equality. We want to see cases where
architecture did, is, and will make a difference in winning those battles and
expanding those frontiers. Design ideas that, by balancing intelligence and
intuition, are able to escape the status quo.
Major
changes in cities happen over a timescale much longer than that of the typical
political administration, and citizens are the core authors who can guarantee
these changes. We hope that Reporting From The Front will be not just the
chronicle of a passive witness, but a testimony of people who “walk the talk” –
showing what it is like to improve their quality of life while working in the
margins, under tough circumstances, facing pressing challenges.
We seek
to balance hope with rigour: the battle for a better built environment is
neither a tantrum nor a romantic crusade. It is nothing more – but also nothing
less – than the disciplined construction of the spaces in which life takes
place.
Alejandro Aravena is director
of the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale, and executive director of Elemental.
Urban Age is a worldwide investigation into the future of cities, organised by
LSE Cities and Deutsche Bank’s Alfred Herrhausen Society. Its 10-year
anniversary debates are held in conjunction with Guardian Cities
AND NOW A FEW WORDS FROM F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
To these two life had come quickly and gone, leaving not bitterness, but pity; not disillusion, but only pain. There was already enough moonlight when they shook hands for each to see the gathered kindness in the other’s eyes. F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Lees of Happiness
THE ART OF PULP
A crowd helps a man who got his leg stuck
MUSIC FOR THE SOUL
Lester Young
Never Say
Die: The Remarkable Life of Harland Sanders, Optimist.
Colonel
Harland David Sanders (September 9, 1890 – December 16, 1980) was a American
businessman, best known for founding fast food chicken restaurant chain
Kentucky Fried Chicken (now known as KFC) and later acting as the company's
goodwill ambassador and symbol. His name and image are still symbols of the
company.
Sanders
was born on September 9, 1890 in a four-room house located 3 miles (5 km) east
of Henryville, Indiana. He was the oldest of three children born to Wilbur
David and Margaret Ann (née Dunlevy) Sanders. The family attended the Advent
Christian Church. The family were of mostly Irish and English ancestry.
His
father was a mild and affectionate man who worked his 80-acre farm, until he
broke his leg after a fall. He then worked as a butcher in Henryville for two
years. One summer afternoon in 1895, he came
home with a fever and died later that day. Sanders' mother obtained work in
a tomato cannery; and the young Harland was required to look after and cook for
his siblings.
By the
age of seven he was reportedly skilled with bread and vegetables, and improving
with meat; the children foraged for food while their mother was away for days
at a time for work. When he was 10 Harland began to work as a farmhand for
local farmers Charlie Norris and Henry Monk.
Sanders'
mother remarried in 1902, and the family moved to Greenwood, Indiana. Sanders
had a tumultuous relationship with his stepfather. In 1903 he dropped out of
seventh grade (later stating that "algebra's what drove me off"), and
went to live and work on a nearby farm. He then took a job painting horse
carriages in Indianapolis. When he was 14 he moved to southern Indiana to work
as a farmhand for Sam Wilson for two years.
In 1906,
with his mother's approval, he left the area to live with his uncle in New
Albany, Indiana. His uncle worked for the streetcar company, and secured
Sanders a job as a conductor.
Sanders
falsified his date of birth and enlisted in the United States Army in October
1906, completing his service commitment as a teamster in Cuba. He was honorably
discharged in February 1907 and moved to Sheffield, Alabama, where an uncle
lived. There, he met his brother Clarence who had also moved there in order to
escape their stepfather. The uncle worked for the Southern Railway, and secured
Sanders a job there as a blacksmith's helper in the workshops. After two
months, Sanders moved to Jasper, Alabama where he got a job cleaning out the
ash pans of trains from the Northern Alabama Railroad (a division of the
Southern Railway) when they had finished their run. Sanders progressed to become
a fireman (steam engine stoker) at the age of 16 or 17.
In 1909,
Sanders found laboring work with the Norfolk and Western Railway. While working
on the railroad, he met Josephine King of Jasper, Alabama, and they were
married shortly afterwards. They would go on to have a son, Harland, Jr., who
died in 1932 from infected tonsils, and two daughters, Margaret Sanders and
Mildred Sanders Ruggles.
He then
found work as a fireman on the Illinois Central Railroad, and he and his family
moved to Jackson, Tennessee. By night, Sanders studied law by correspondence
through the La Salle Extension University. Sanders lost his job at Illinois
after brawling with a colleague.
While
Sanders moved to work for the Rock Island Railroad, Josephine and the children
went to live with her parents. After a while, Sanders began to practice law in
Little Rock for three years, and he earned enough fees for his family to move
with him. His legal career ended after a courtroom brawl with his own client.
After
that, Sanders moved back with his mother in Henryville, and went to work as a
laborer on the Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1916, the family moved to
Jeffersonville, where Sanders got a job selling life insurance for the
Prudential Life Insurance Company. Sanders
was eventually fired for insubordination. He moved to Louisville and got a
sales job with Mutual Benefit Life of New Jersey.
In 1920,
Sanders established a ferry boat company, which operated a boat on the Ohio
River between Jeffersonville and Louisville. He canvassed for funding, becoming
a minority shareholder himself, and was appointed secretary of the company. The
ferry was an instant success.
In around 1922 he took a job as secretary at
the Chamber of Commerce in Columbus, Indiana. He admitted to not being very
good at the job, and resigned after less than a year. Sanders cashed in his
ferry boat company shares for $22,000 and used the money to establish a company
manufacturing acetylene lamps. The
venture failed after Delco introduced an electric lamp that they sold on
credit.
Sanders
moved to Winchester, Kentucky, to work as a salesman for the Michelin Tire
Company. He lost his job in 1924 when
Michelin closed their New Jersey manufacturing plant.
In 1924,
by chance, he met the general manager of Standard Oil of Kentucky, who asked
him to run a service station in Nicholasville. In 1930, the station closed as a result of the Great Depression.
In 1930,
the Shell Oil Company offered Sanders a service station in North Corbin,
Kentucky rent free, in return for paying them a percentage of sales. Sanders
began to serve chicken dishes and other meals such as country ham and steaks.
Initially he served the customers in his adjacent living quarters before
opening a restaurant. It was during this period that Sanders was involved in a shootout with a Matt Stewart, a local
competitor, over the repainting of a sign directing traffic to his station.
Stewart killed a Shell official who was with Sanders and was convicted of
murder, eliminating Sanders' competition.
Sanders
was commissioned as a Kentucky Colonel in 1935 by Kentucky governor Ruby
Laffoon. His local popularity grew, and, in 1939, food critic Duncan Hines
visited Sanders's restaurant and included it in Adventures in Good Eating, his
guide to restaurants throughout the US. The entry read:
Corbin,
KY. Sanders Court and Café
41 — Jct.
with 25, 25 E. ½ Mi. N. of Corbin. Open all year except Xmas.
A very
good place to stop en route to Cumberland Falls and the Great Smokies.
Continuous 24-hour service. Sizzling steaks, fried chicken, country ham, hot
biscuits. L. 50¢ to $1; D., 60¢ to $1
In July
1939, Sanders acquired a motel in Asheville, North Carolina. His North Corbin restaurant and motel was
destroyed in a fire in November 1939, and Sanders had it rebuilt as a motel
with a 140-seat restaurant.
By July
1940, Sanders had finalized his "Secret Recipe" for frying chicken in
a pressure fryer that cooked the chicken faster than pan frying. As the United
States entered World War II in December 1941, gas was rationed, and as the tourists dried up, Sanders was forced to
close his Asheville motel. He went to work as a supervisor in Seattle until
the latter part of 1942. He later ran cafeterias for the government at an
ordnance works in Tennessee, followed by a job as assistant cafeteria manager
in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
He left
his mistress, Claudia Ledington-Price, as manager of the North Corbin
restaurant and motel. In 1942, he sold the Asheville business. In 1947, he and
Josephine divorced and Sanders married Claudia in 1949, as he had long desired.
Sanders was "re-commissioned" as a Kentucky Colonel in 1950 by his
friend, Governor Lawrence Wetherby.
In 1952,
Sanders franchised "Kentucky Fried Chicken" for the first time, to
Pete Harman of South Salt Lake, Utah, the operator of one of that city's
largest restaurants. In the first year of selling the product, restaurant sales
more than tripled, with 75% of the increase coming from sales of fried chicken.
For
Harman, the addition of fried chicken was a way of differentiating his
restaurant from competitors; in Utah, a product hailing from Kentucky was
unique and evoked imagery of Southern hospitality.
Don
Anderson, a sign painter hired by Harman, coined the name Kentucky Fried
Chicken. After Harman's success, several other restaurant owners franchised the
concept and paid Sanders $0.04 per chicken.
Sanders
believed that his North Corbin restaurant would remain successful indefinitely,
but at age 65 sold it after the new
Interstate 75 reduced customer traffic. Left only with his savings and $105 a month from Social Security,
Sanders decided to begin to franchise his chicken concept in earnest, and
traveled the US looking for suitable restaurants. After closing the North
Corbin site, Sanders and Claudia opened a new restaurant and company
headquarters in Shelbyville in 1959. Often
sleeping in the back of his car, Sanders visited restaurants, offered to
cook his chicken, and if workers liked it negotiated franchise rights.
Although
such visits required much time, eventually potential franchisees began visiting
Sanders instead. He ran the company while Claudia mixed and shipped the spices
to restaurants.
The
franchise approach became highly successful; KFC was one of the first fast food
chains to expand internationally, opening outlets in Canada and later in
England, Mexico and Jamaica by the mid-1960s. The company's rapid expansion to
more than 600 locations became overwhelming for the aging Sanders. In 1964, he
sold the Kentucky Fried Chicken corporation for $2 million to a partnership of
Kentucky businessmen headed by John Y. Brown, Jr. (a then-29-year-old lawyer
and future governor of Kentucky) and Jack C. Massey (a venture capitalist and
entrepreneur), and he became a salaried brand ambassador. The initial deal did
not include the Canadian operations (which Sanders retained) or the franchising
rights in England, Florida, Utah, and Montana (which Sanders had already sold
to others).
In 1965,
Sanders moved to Mississauga, Ontario to oversee his Canadian franchises and
continued to collect franchise and appearance fees both in Canada and in the
U.S. Sanders bought and lived in a bungalow at 1337 Melton Drive in the
Lakeview area of Mississauga from 1965 to 1980. In September 1970 he and his
wife were baptized in the Jordan River. He also befriended Billy Graham and
Jerry Falwell.
Sanders
remained the company's symbol after selling it, traveling 200,000 miles a year
on the company's behalf and filming many TV commercials and appearances. He
retained much influence over executives and franchisees, who respected his
culinary expertise and feared what The New Yorker described as "the force
and variety of his swearing" when a restaurant or the company varied from
what executives described as "the Colonel's chicken".
One
change the company made was to the gravy, which Sanders had bragged was so good
that "it'll make you throw away the durn chicken and just eat the
gravy" but which the company simplified to reduce time and cost. As late
as 1979 Sanders made surprise visits to KFC restaurants, and if the food
disappointed him denounced it to the franchisee as "God-damned slop"
or pushed it onto the floor
In 1973, Sanders sued Heublein Inc.—the then
parent company of Kentucky Fried Chicken—over the alleged misuse of his image
in promoting products he had not helped develop. In 1975, Heublein Inc.
unsuccessfully sued Sanders for libel after he publicly described
their gravy as "wallpaper paste" to which "sludge" was
added.
Sanders
and his wife reopened their Shelbyville restaurant as "Claudia Sanders,
The Colonel's Lady" and served KFC-style chicken there as part of a
full-service dinner menu, and talked about expanding the restaurant into a
chain. He was sued by the company for
it.
After
reaching a settlement with Heublein, he sold the Colonel's Lady restaurant, and
it has continued to operate since then (currently as the "Claudia Sanders
Dinner House"). It serves his "original recipe" fried chicken as
part of its (non-fast-food) dinner menu, and it is the only non-KFC restaurant
that serves an authorized version of the fried chicken recipe.
After being
recommissioned as a Kentucky colonel in 1950 by Governor Lawrence Wetherby,
Sanders began to dress the part, growing a goatee and wearing a black frock
coat (later switching to a white suit), a string tie, and referring to himself
as "Colonel." His associates went along with the title change,
"jokingly at first and then in earnest," according to biographer Josh
Ozersky.
He never
wore anything else in public during the last 20 years of his life, using a
heavy wool suit in the winter and a light cotton suit in the summer. He
bleached his mustache and goatee to match his white hair.
Sanders
later used his stock holdings to create the Colonel Harland Sanders Trust and
Colonel Harland Sanders Charitable Organization, which used the proceeds to aid
charities and fund scholarships. His trusts continue to donate money to groups
like the Trillium Health Care Centre; a wing of their building specializes in
women's and children's care and has been named after him. The Sidney, British
Columbia based foundation granted over $1,000,000 in 2007, according to its
2007 tax return
Sanders
was diagnosed with acute leukemia in June 1980. He died in Louisville, Kentucky
of pneumonia on December 16, 1980 at the age of 90. Sanders had remained active
until the month before his death, appearing in his white suit to crowds. His
body lay in state in the rotunda of the Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort
after a funeral service at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Chapel,
which was attended by more than 1,000 people. Sanders was buried in his
characteristic white suit and black western string tie in Cave Hill Cemetery in
Louisville.
By the
time of his death, there were an estimated 6,000 KFC outlets in 48 countries
worldwide, with $2 billion of sales annually.
China court upholds conviction against journalist but cuts two years off sentence
By Sui-Lee Wee
BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese court upheld a conviction on Thursday against a journalist accused of leaking an internal Communist Party document to a foreign website but reduced her jail sentence by two years in a case criticized by the West and rights groups.
Gao Yu, 71, was detained in May 2013 over accusations she had leaked a party document that warned senior members against "seven mistaken ideologies", including the "universal values" of human rights, according to Gao's lawyer, Shang Baojun.
Rights activists say her case is part of a broad government effort to suppress journalists, lawyers and activists critical of the party.
Gao was sentenced to seven years in jail in April after being convicted on a charge of providing state secrets to foreign contacts.
On Thursday, the Beijing high court reduced her sentence to five years but upheld her conviction.
Shang said the court had decided to reduce Gao's sentence after she "gave a true account of the facts of the crime during the second trial and pleaded guilty".
Shang said he would continue to seek Gao's release on medical parole, which authorities have already rejected three times.
"She has very serious high blood pressure and heart problems," Shang said. "Taking into account the fact that she's already 71, from this perspective, we are not satisfied (with the sentence reduction)."
State news agency Xinhua said later that because of her health, the court had decided Gao could "temporarily serve the sentence outside of prison". The report did not elaborate.
Court officials did not respond to phone calls or a faxed query seeking comment. China's Foreign Ministry said that Gao's case had been handled in accordance with the law.
Dozens of police officers sealed off roads leading to the court and stopped journalists from approaching.
Germany denounced the court's decision.
"The rejection of the journalist's application, who is over 70 years old and suffers from medical problems, is incomprehensible and fills me with dismay," Germany's Commissioner for Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid, Christoph Strässer, said in a statement.
At a daily news briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei called on other countries to "respect China's judicial sovereignty".
British-based rights group Amnesty International said Gao's health had deteriorated since her detention.
Gao was accused of giving the internal party document to Ho Pin, head of Mirror Books. Ho has told Reuters Gao did not pass him the document.
Gao, a freelance journalist well known for her articles critical of government leaders, has said she is innocent.
Her trial was held behind closed doors and diplomats and reporters were blocked from attending.
The case marked the third time Gao has been jailed on charges stemming from her activism and for leaking state secrets.
(Additional reporting by Natalie Thomas and Michael Martina; Editing by Nick Macfie and Sanjeev Miglani)
IT'S ALL GREEK MYTHOLOGY TO ME
Ruins of Ancient Greek City Found on Mount Pindos
By Toni Aravadinos -
Archaeologists were stunned to find the ruins of an unknown ancient city which dates back to the 4th century BC, at an altitude of 1,200 meters on the Greek mountain of Pindos. It is believed to be the highest archaeological excavation in Greece.
Some fragments of inscriptions which were found near the area of Kastri include the Greek letters “ΙΕΡ…” (ιερό/iero=sacred place) and have led archaeologists to believe that this might have been a very important place for the ancient Macedonians, filled with temples and places of worship. The exact name of this city is yet unknown.
“Even though the findings are many and are very important, we still are unable to find the name of this city and of the God it worshipped. However, the rest of the evidence, including its geographical location and the findings, even the heyday of its acropolis towards the end of the 4th century BC, prove the importance of this city’s historical frame in the ancient Macedonian kingdom” noted the head of this excavation Mrs Stella Drougou.
The systematic excavation in Kastri brought to light large portions of the fortified acropolis of this ancient city and as all evidence proves it had a religious character. Even though the remains of the acropolis are highly damaged, the coins, the ceramics and the vast variety of metallic equipment reveal a well organized economy which obviously leads to a well organized life. The excavation findings and the parts of architecture as well as the coins, date the city towards the end of the 4th century BC to the beginning of the 3rd, but the destruction of the acropolis (which is thought to have been very violent) is dated somewhere in the 2nd century BC. The large amount of copper arrows and fire traces prove that there was most likely some sort of warfare.
“All this data shows that our next excavation target should be at the east mountain slopes of Pindos with the certainty that in the future there can be a very interesting archaeological place in that area” concluded Mrs Drogou.
- See more at: http://greece.greekreporter.com/2015/11/25/ruins-of-ancient-greek-city-found-on-mount-pindos/#sthash.7gD10LuA.dpuf
The Pindus (also Pindos or Pindhos) mountain range is located in northern Greece and southern Albania. Because it runs along the border of Thessaly and Epirus, the Pindus range is often called the "spine of Greece". The mountain range stretches from near the Greek-Albanian borders in Northern Epirus, entering the Epirus region and Macedonia region in northern Greece down to the north of the Peloponnese. Geologically it constitutes an extension of the Dinaric Alps, which dominate the western region of the Balkan Peninsula. This vast complex of mountains, peaks, plateaus, valleys and gorges traverses the Greek mainland from the Northwest to the Southeast.
Impertinent (im-PURT-nuhnt)
1. Presumptuous or rude. 2. Irrelevant. From in- (not) + pertinere (to
pertain), from per- (through) + tenere (to hold). Ultimately from the
Indo-European root ten- (to stretch), which also gave us tense, tenet, tendon,
tent, tenor, tender, pretend, extend, tenure, tetanus, hypotenuse, tenuous,
tenable, extenuate, distend, detente, countenance, and abstentious
ROGER TOUHY, GANGSTER
Editorial
Reviews
From
Publishers Weekly
JFK's
pardons and the mob; Prohibition, Chicago's crime cadres and the staged
kidnapping of "`Jake the Barber'" Factor, "the black sheep
brother of the cosmetics king, Max Factor"; lifetime sentences, attempted
jail busts and the perseverance of "a rumpled private detective and an
eccentric lawyer" John W. Tuohy showcases all these and more sensational
and shady happenings in When Capone's Mob Murdered Roger Touhy: The Strange
Case of Touhy, Jake the Barber and the Kidnapping that Never Happened. The
author started investigating Touhy's 1959 murder by Capone's gang in 1975 for
an undergrad assignment. He traces the frame-job whereby Touhy was accused of
the kidnapping, his decades in jail, his memoirs, his retrial and release and,
finally, his murder, 28 days after regaining his freedom. Sixteen pages of
photos.
From
Library Journal
Roger
Touhy, one of the "terrible Touhys" and leader of a bootlegging
racket that challenged Capone's mob in Prohibition Chicago, had a lot to answer
for, but the crime that put him behind bars was, ironically, one he didn't
commit: the alleged kidnapping of Jake Factor, half-brother of Max Factor and
international swindler. Author Tuohy (apparently no relation), a former staff
investigator for the National Center for the Study of Organized Crime, briefly
traces the history of the Touhys and the Capone mob, then describes Factor's
plan to have himself kidnapped, putting Touhy behind bars and keeping himself
from being deported. This miscarriage of justice lasted 17 years and ended in
Touhy's parole and murder by the Capone mob 28 days later. Factor was never
deported. The author spent 26 years researching this story, and he can't bear
to waste a word of it. Though slim, the book still seems padded, with
irrelevant detail muddying the main story. Touhy is a hard man to feel sorry
for, but the author does his best. Sure to be popular in the Chicago area and
with the many fans of mob history, this is suitable for larger public libraries
and regional collections. Deirdre Bray Root, Middletown P.L., OH
BOOK
REVIEW
John
William Tuohy, one of the most prolific crime writers in America, has penned a
tragic, but fascinating story of Roger Touhy and John Factor. It's a tale born
out of poverty and violence, a story of ambition gone wrong and deception on an
enormous, almost unfathomable, scale. However, this is also a story of triumph
of determination to survive, of a lifelong struggle for dignity and redemption
of the spirit.
The
story starts with John "Jake the Barber" Factor. The product of the
turn of the century European ethnic slums of Chicago's west side, Jake's
brother, Max Factor, would go on to create an international cosmetic empire.
In
1926, Factor, grubstaked in a partnership with the great New York criminal
genius, Arnold Rothstien, and Chicago's Al Capone, John Factor set up a stock
scam in England that fleeced thousands of investors, including members of the
royal family, out of $8 million dollars, an incredible sum of money in 1926.
After
the scam fell apart, Factor fled to France, where he formed another syndicate
of con artists, who broke the bank at Monte Carlo by rigging the tables.
Eventually,
Factor fled to the safety of Capone's Chicago but the highest powers in the
Empire demanded his arrest. However, Factor fought extradition all the way to
the United States Supreme Court, but he had a weak case and deportation was
inevitable. Just 24 hours before the court was to decide his fate, Factor paid
to have himself kidnapped and his case was postponed. He reappeared in Chicago
several days later, and, at the syndicates' urging, accused gangster Roger
Touhy of the kidnapping.
Roger
"The Terrible" Touhy was the youngest son of an honest Chicago cop.
Although born in the Valley, a teeming Irish slum, the family moved to rural
Des Plains, Illinois while Roger was still a boy. Touhy's five older brothers
stayed behind in the valley and soon flew under the leadership of
"Terrible Tommy" O'Connor. By 1933, three of them would be shot dead
in various disputes with the mob and one, Tommy, would lose the use of his legs
by syndicate machine guns. Secure in the still rural suburbs of Cook County,
Roger Touhy graduated as class valedictorian of his Catholic school.
Afterwards, he briefly worked as an organizer for the Telegraph and
Telecommunications Workers Union after being blacklisted by Western Union for
his minor pro-labor activities.
Touhy
entered the Navy in the first world war and served two years, teaching Morse
code to Officers at Harvard University.
After
the war, he rode the rails out west where he earned a living as a railroad
telegraph operator and eventually made a small but respectable fortune as an
oil well speculator.
Returning
to Chicago in 1924, Touhy married his childhood sweetheart, regrouped with his
brothers and formed a partnership with a corrupt ward heeler named Matt Kolb,
and, in 1925, he started a suburban bootlegging and slot machine operation in
northwestern Cook County. Left out of the endless beer wars that plagued the
gangs inside Chicago, Touhy's operation flourished. By 1926, his slot machine
operations alone grossed over $1,000,000.00 a year, at a time when a gallon of
gas cost eight cents.
They
were unusual gangsters. When the Klu Klux Klan, then at the height of its
power, threatened the life of a priest who had befriended the gang, Tommy
Touhy, Roger's older brother, the real "Terrible Touhy," broke into
the Klan's national headquarters, stole its membership roles, and, despite an
offer of $25,000 to return them, delivered the list to the priest who published
the names in several Catholic newspapers the following day.
Once,
Touhy unthinkingly released several thousand gallons of putrid sour mash in to
the Des Plains River one day before the city was to reenact its discovery by
canoe-riding Jesuits a hundred years before. After a dressing down by the towns
people Touhy spent $10,000.00 on perfume and doused the river with it, saving
the day.
They
were inventive too. When the Chicago police levied a 50% protection tax on
Touhy's beer, Touhy bought a fleet of Esso gasoline delivery trucks, kept the
Esso logo on the vehicles, and delivered his booze to his speakeasies that way.
In
1930, when Capone invaded the labor rackets, the union bosses, mostly Irish and
completely corrupt, turned to the Touhy organization for protection. The
intermittent gun battles between the Touhys and the Capone mob over control of
beer routes which had been fought on the empty, back roads of rural Cook
County, was now brought into the city where street battles extracted an awesome
toll on both sides. The Chicago Tribune estimated the casualties to be one
hundred dead in less then 12 months.
By
the winter of 1933, remarkably, Touhy was winning the war in large part because
joining him in the struggle against the mob was Chicago's very corrupt, newly
elected mayor Anthony "Ten percent Tony" Cermak, who was as much a
gangster as he was an elected official.
Cermak
threw the entire weight of his office and the whole Chicago police force behind
Touhy's forces. Eventually, two of Cermak's police bodyguards arrested Frank
Nitti, the syndicate's boss, and, for a price, shot him six times. Nitti lived.
As a result, two months later Nitti's gunmen caught up with Cermak at a
political rally in Florida.
Using
previously overlooked Secret Service reports, this book proves, for the first
time, that the mob stalked Cermak and used a hardened felon to kill him. The
true story behind the mob's 1933 murder of Anton Cermak, will changes histories
understanding of organized crimes forever. The fascinating thing about this
killing is its eerie similarity to the Kennedy assassination in Dallas thirty
years later, made even more macabre by the fact that several of the names
associated with the Cermak killing were later aligned with the Kennedy killing.
For
many decades, it was whispered that the mob had executed Cermak for his role in
the Touhy-syndicate war of 1931-33, but there was never proof. The official
story is that a loner named Giuseppe Zangara, an out-of-work, Sicilian born
drifter with communist leanings, traveled to Florida in the winter of 1933 and
fired several shots at President Franklin Roosevelt. He missed the President,
but killed Chicago's Mayor Anton Cermak instead. However, using long lost
documents, Tuohy is able to prove that Zangara was a convicted felon with long
ties to mob Mafia and that he very much intended to murder Anton Cermak.
With
Cermak dead, Touhy was on his own against the mob. At the same time, the United
States Postal Service was closing in on his gang for pulling off the largest
mail heists in US history at that time. The cash was used to fund Touhy's war
with the Capones.Then in June of 1933, John Factor en he reappeared, Factor
accused Roger Touhy of kidnapping him. After two sensational trials, Touhy was
convicted of kidnapping John Factor and sentenced to 99 years in prison and
Factor, after a series of complicated legal maneuvers, and using the mob's
influence, was allowed to remain in the United States as a witness for the
prosecution, however, he was still a wanted felon in England.
By
1942 Roger Touhy had been in prison for nine years, his once vast fortune was
gone. Roger's family was gone as well. At his request, his wife Clara had moved
to Florida with their two sons in 1934. However, with the help of Touhy's
remaining sister, the family retained a rumpled private detective, actually a
down-and-out, a very shady and disbarred mob lawyer named Morrie Green.
Disheveled
of not, Green was a highly competent investigator and was able to piece
together and prove the conspiracy that landed Touhy in jail. However, no court
would hear the case, and by the fall of 1942, Touhy had exhausted every legal
avenue open to him.Desperate, Touhy hatched a daring daylight breakout over the
thirty foot walls of Stateville prison.The sensational escape ended three months
later in a dramatic and bloody shootout between the convicts and the FBI, led
by J. Edgar Hoover.
Less
then three months after Touhy was captured, Fox Studios hired producer Brian
Foy to churn out a mob financed docudrama film on the escape entitled,
"Roger Touhy, The Last Gangster." The executive producer on the film
was Johnny Roselli, the hood who later introduced Judy Campbell to Frank
Sinatra. Touhy sued Fox and eventually won his case and the film was withdrawn
from circulation. In 1962, Columbia pictures and John Houston tried to produce
a remake of the film, but were scared off the project.
While
Touhy was on the run from prison, John Factor was convicted for m ail fraud and
was sentenced and served ten years at hard labor. Factor's take from the scam
was $10,000,000.00 in cash.
Released
in 1949, Factor took control of the Stardust Hotel Casino in 1955, then the
largest operation on the Vegas strip. The casino's true owners, of course, were
Chicago mob bosses Paul Ricca, Tony Accardo, Murray Humpreys and Sam Giancana.
From 1955 to 1963, the length of Factor's tenure at the casino, the US Justice
Department estimated that the Chicago outfit skimmed between forty-eight to 200
million dollars from the Stardust alone.
In
1956, while Factor and the outfit were growing rich off the Stardust, Roger
Touhy hired a quirky, high strung, but highly effective lawyer named Robert B.
Johnstone to take his case. A brilliant legal tactician, who worked incessantly
on Touhy's freedom, Robert Johnstone managed to get Touhy's case heard before
federal judge John P. Barnes, a refined magistrate filled with his own
eccentricities. After two years of hearings, Barnes released a 1,500-page
decision on Touhy's case, finding that Touhy was railroaded to prison in a
conspiracy between the mob and the state attorney's office and that John Factor
had kidnapped himself as a means to avoid extradition to England.
Released
from prison in 1959, Touhy wrote his life story "The Stolen Years"
with legendary Chicago crime reporter, Ray Brennan. It was Brennan, as a young
cub reporter, who broke the story of John Dillenger's sensational escape from
Crown Point prison, supposedly with a bar of soap whittled to look like a
pistol. It was also Brennan who brought about the end of Roger Touhy's mortal
enemy, "Tubbo" Gilbert, the mob owned chief investigator for the Cook
County state attorney's office, and who designed the frame-up that placed Touhy
behind bars.
Factor
entered a suit against Roger Touhy, his book publishers and Ray Brennan,
claiming it damaged his reputation as a "leading citizen of Nevada and a
philanthropist."
The
teamsters, Factor's partners in the Stardust Casino, refused to ship the book
and Chicago's bookstore owners were warned by Tony Accardo, in person, not to
carry the book.
Touhy
and Johnstone fought back by drawing up the papers to enter a $300,000,000
lawsuit against John Factor, mob leaders Paul Ricca, Tony Accardo and Murray
Humpreys as well as former Cook County state attorney Thomas Courtney and Tubbo
Gilbert, his chief investigator, for wrongful imprisonment.
The
mob couldn't allow the suit to reach court, and considering Touhy's
determination, Ray Brennan's nose for a good story and Bob Johnstone's legal
talents, there was no doubt the case would make it to court. If the case went
to court, John Factor, the outfit's figurehead at the lucrative Stardust
Casino, could easily be tied in to illegal teamster loans. At the same time,
the McClellan committee was looking into the ties between the teamsters, Las
Vegas and organized crime and the raid at the mob conclave in New York state
had awakened the FBI and brought them into the fight. So, Touhy's lawsuit was,
in effect, his death sentence.
Twenty-five
days after his release from twenty-five years in prison, Roger Touhy was gunned
down on a frigid December night on his sister's front door.
Two
years after Touhy's murder, in 1962, Attorney General Robert Kennedy ordered
his Justice Department to look into the highly suspect dealings of the Stardust
Casino. Factor was still the owner on record, but had sold his interest in the
casino portion of the hotel for a mere 7 million dollars. Then, in December of
that year, the INS, working with the FBI on Bobby Kennedy's orders, informed
Jake Factor that he was to be deported from the United States before the end of
the month. Factor would be returned to England where he was still a wanted
felon as a result of his 1928 stock scam. Just 48 hours before the deportation,
Factor, John Kennedy's largest single personal political contributor, was
granted a full and complete Presidential pardon which allowed him to stay in
the United States.
The
story hints that Factor was more then probably an informant for the Internal
Revenue Service, it also investigates the murky world of Presidential pardons,
the last imperial power of the Executive branch. It's a sordid tale of abuse of
privilege, the mob's best friend and perhaps it is time the American people
reconsider the entire notion.
The
mob wasn't finished with Factor. Right after his pardon, Factor was involved in
a vague, questionable financial plot to try and bail teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa
out of his seemingly endless financial problems in Florida real estate. He was
also involved with a questionable stock transaction with mobster Murray
Humpreys. Factor spent the remaining twenty years of his life as a benefactor
to California's Black ghettos. He tried, truly, to make amends for all of the
suffering he had caused in his life. He spent millions of dollars building
churches, gyms, parks and low cost housing in the poverty stricken ghettos.
When he died, three United States Senators, the Mayor of Los Angles and several
hundred poor Black waited in the rain to pay their last respects at Jake the
Barber's funeral.
Interesting
Information on A Little Known Case
By Bill Emblom
Author John Tuohy, who has a
similar spelling of the last name to his subject Roger, but apparently no
relation, has provided us with an interesting story of northwest Chicago beer
baron Roger Touhy who was in competition with Al Capone during Capone's heyday.
Touhy appeared to be winning the battle since Mayor Anton Cermak was deporting
a number of Capone's cronies. However, the mob hit, according to the author, on
Mayor Cermak in Miami, Florida, by Giuseppe Zangara following a speech by
President-elect Roosevelt, put an end to the harrassment of Capone's cronies.
The author details the staged "kidnapping" of Jake "the
Barber" Factor who did this to avoid being deported to England and facing
a prison sentence there for stock swindling, with Touhy having his rights
violated and sent to prison for 25 years for the kidnapping that never
happened. Factor and other Chicago mobsters were making a lot of money with the
Stardust Casino in Las Vegas when they got word that Touhy was to be parolled
and planned to write his life story. The mob, not wanting this, decided Touhy
had to be eliminated. Touhy was murdered by hit men in 1959, 28 days after
gaining his freedom. Jake Factor had also spent time in prison in the United
States for a whiskey swindle involving 300 victims in 12 states. Two days
before Factor was to be deported to England to face prison for the stock
swindle President Kennedy granted Factor a full Presidential Pardon after
Factor's contribution to the Bay of Pigs fund. President Kennedy, the author
notes, issued 472 pardons (about half questionable) more than any president
before or since.
There are a number of books on
Capone and the Chicago mob. This book takes a look at an overlooked beer baron
from that time period, Roger Touhy. It is a very worthwhile read and one that
will hold your interest.
GREAT
BOOK FROM CHICAGO AND ERA WAS MY DAD'S,TRUE TO STORY
Very good book. Hard to put down
Bymistakesweremadeon
Eight long years locked up for a
kidnapping that was in fact a hoax, in autumn 1942, Roger Touhy & his gang
of cons busted out of Stateville, the infamous "roundhouse" prison,
southwest of Chicago Illinois. On the lam 2 months he was, when J Edgar &
his agents sniffed him out in a run down 6-flat tenement on the city's far
north lakefront. "Terrible Roger" had celebrated Christmas morning on
the outside - just like all square Johns & Janes - but by New Year's Eve,
was back in the bighouse.
Touhy's arrest hideout holds
special interest to me because I grew up less than a mile away from it. Though
I never knew so til 1975 when his bio was included in hard-boiled crime
chronicler Jay Robert Nash's, Badmen & Bloodletters, a phone book sized
encyclopedia of crooks & killers. Touhy's hard scrabble charisma stood out
among 200 years' worth of sociopathic Americana Nash had alphabetized, and
gotten a pulphouse publisher to print up for him.
I read Nash's outlaw dictionary
as a teen, and found Touhy's Prohibition era David vs Goliath battles with
ultimate gangster kingpin, Al Capone quite alluring, in an anti-hero sorta way.
Years later I learned Touhy had written a memoir, and reading his The Stolen
Years only reinforced my image of an underdog speakeasy beer baron - slash
suburban family man - outwitting the stone cold killer who masterminded the St.
Valentine's Day Massacre.
Like most autobiographies tho,
Touhy's book painted him the good guy. Just an everyday gent caught up in
events, and he sold his story well. Had I been a saloonkeeper back then I could
picture myself buying his sales pitch - and liking the guy too. I sure bought
into his tale, which in hindsight criminal scribe Nash had too, because both
writers portray Touhy - though admittedly a crook - as never "really"
hurting anybody. Only doing what any down-to-earth bootlegger running a million
dollar/year criminal enterprise would have.
What Capone's Mob Murdered Roger
Touhy author John Tuohy does tho is, provide a more objective version of
events, balancing out Touhy's white wash ... 'er ... make that subjectively ...
remembered telling of his life & times. Author Tuohy's account of gangster
Touhy's account forced me - grown up now - to re-account for my own original
take on the story.
As a kid back then, Touhy seemed
almost a Robin Hood- ish hood - if you'll pardon a very lame pun. Forty years
on tho re-considering the evidence, I think a persuasive - if not iron-clad
convincing - case can be made for his conviction in the kidnapping of swindler
scumbag Jake the Barber Factor. At least as far as conspiracy to do so goes,
anyways. (Please excuse the crude redundancy there but Factor's stench truly
was that of the dog s*** one steps in on those unfortunate occasions one does.)
Touhy's memoir painted himself as
almost an innocent bystander at his own life's events. But he was a very smart
& savvy guy - no dummy by a long shot. And I kinda do believe now, to not
have known his own henchmen were in on Factor's ploy to stave off deportation
and imprisonment, Touhy would have had to be as naive a Prohibition crime boss
- and make no mistake he was one - as I was as a teenage kid reading Nash's
thug-opedia,
On the other hand, the guy was
the father of two sons and it's repulsive to consider he would have taken part
in loathsomeness the crime of kidnapping was - even if the abducted victim was
an adult and as repulsively loathsome as widows & orphans conman, Jake
Factor.
This book's target audience is
crime buffs no doubt, but it's an interesting read just the same; and includes
anecdotes and insights I had not known of before. Unfortunately too, one that
knocks a hero of mine down a peg or two - or more like ten.
Circa 1960, President Kennedy
pardoned Jake the Barber, a fact that reading of almost made me puke. Then
again JFK and the Chicago Mob did make for some strange bedfellowery every now
& again. I'll always admire WWII US Navy commander Kennedy's astonishing
(word chosen carefully) bravery following his PT boat's sinking, but him
signing that document - effectively wiping Factor's s*** stain clean - as
payback for campaign contributions Factor made to him, was REALLY nauseating to
read.
Come to think of it tho, the
terms "criminal douchedog" & "any political candidate"
are pretty much interchangeable.
Anyways tho ... rest in peace
Rog, & I raise a toast - of virtual bootleg ale - in your honor:
"Turns out you weren't the hard-luck mug I'd thought you were, but what
the hell, at least you had style." And guts to meet your inevitable end
with more grace than a gangster should.
Post Note: Author Tuohy's
re-examination of the evidence in the Roger Touhy case does include some heroes
- guys & women - who attempted to find the truth of what did happen.
Reading about people like that IS rewarding. They showed true courage - and
decency - in a world reeking of corruption & deceit. So, here's to the
lawyer who took on a lost cause; the private detective who dug up buried facts;
and most of all, Touhy's wife & sister who stood by his side all those
years.
Crime
don't pay, kids
Very good organized crime book. A
rather obscure gangster story which makes it fresh to read. I do not like these
minimum word requirements for a review. (There, I have met my minimum)
Chicago
Gangster History At It's Best
ByJ. CROSBYon
As a 4th generation Chicagoan, I
just loved this book. Growing up in the 1950's and 60's I heard the name
"Terrible Touhy's" mentioned many times. Roger was thought of as a
great man, and seems to have been held in high esteem among the old timer
Chicagoans.
That said, I thought this book to
be nothing but interesting and well written. (It inspired me to find a copy of
Roger's "Stolen Years" bio.) I do recommend this book to other folks
interested in prohibition/depression era Chicago crime research. It is a must
have for your library of Gangsters literature from that era. Chock full of
information and the reader is transported back in time.
I'd like to know just what is
"The Valley" area today in Chicago. I still live in the Windy City
and would like to see if anything remains from the early days of the 20th
century.
A good writer and a good book! I
will buy some more of Mr. Tuohy's work.
Great
story, great read
ByBookreaderon
A complex tale of gangsters,
political kickback, mob wars and corrupt politicians told with wit and humor at
a good pace. Highly recommend this book.
One
of the best books I've read in a long time....
If you're into mafioso, read
this! I loved it. Bought a copy for my brother to read for his
birthday--good stuff.
GUNS AND GLAMOUR
Capone. Torrio. Ricca. Giancana and
Accardo. The giant legends of organized crime that led the largest, wealthiest,
most powerful, and near completely documented organized crime syndicate in the
world. At the height of its power, the Chicago mobs influence extended from
Lake Shore Drive to the beaches of Havana, the neon lights of Vegas and the
heroin drenched back alleys of Hanoi. The years 1900 through 1959 are largely
considered the Golden Age for the Chicago mob. The end came with the accession
of Sam “Momo” Giancana to the criminal throne that Big Jim Colosimo had founded.
Flashy, arrogant and dangerous, Giancana’s rise to the leadership of the
Chicago Mob was paralleled by the federal government’s assault on organized
crime. By 1980, the Chicago mob has lost control of the organized labor on a
national basis and given up Las Vegas Las Vegas. Virtually every significant
Mafia Boss in the country was in jail or under indictment and Sam Giancana was
shot dead by his own men. The so-called Golden Age of Chicago Mob had ended.
Between 1900 and 1959, fifty-nine years, only seven Bosses led the Chicago Mob.
Between 1963 and 2000, thirty-seven years, there were more than nine Bosses in
rapid succession. All except one of them…the indomitable Tony Accardo…died in
jail or under federal and state indictment. While the Chicago Mob still wields
considerable criminal, financial, and political influence, it is a mere shadow
of what it once was. With increased pressure from far reaching RICO laws, the
constant surveillance of a well-informed and effective federal organized crime
task force and increased competition from equally ruthless and ambitious new
ethnic mobs, there is little chance it will ever reemerge as the awesome power
it once was.
READERS REVIEWS FROM AMAZON BOOKS
I heard a lot about Chicago mafia and I
think it very interesting theme and I read few books but those books were so
hard to read (!): small font, a lot of slangs, hard spelling words! But John
Tuohy's book not like that!!! It's easy to read(and I'm not saying it written
poor or anything), what I mean is for the person who doesn't know much about
the mafia world this book is really helps to understand all the details, I
would say to see the whole picture!!! This book is really interesting and
helpful!
It also has a lot of photographs which
makes the book even better!
I wish there would be more writers like
John Tuohy who makes the books more interesting and cognitive!
Mr. Tuohy, has out done himself with
this prized piece of literary work! Since I'm a Chicagoan, born and raised for
40 years, some of them on the very same streets where some of the Outfit's
associates and higher-ups lived, and after the first few pages I'm hooked. His
writing style to me is very easy to digest, and his photos are spectacular,
either due to it's rarity or the person being photo, alot of these Outfit
bosses/hitman didn't like to be photographed, and believe me, they made sure
that you knew it. To take the Chicago Outfit and write about the ups and downs
the Organization went through during this 100 year time frame is an amazing feat.
You get some real good stories, written with out an agenda, just to get the
information out to the public. A brilliant topic which was handled with care
and dignity by Mr.Tuohy, as I'm finding out is the case in ALL OF HIS BOOKS, be
they organized crime or based on something else. Get if a try, you'll end up
buying more than the one book, betcha you can't read just one!!!
An interesting book about the history
of the Chicago mob. It highlights the legends of the Chicago mob in the 1900s.
Any fan of the Chicago mob should add this to their collection.
The Mob and the Kennedy Assassination: Jack Ruby. Testimony by
Mobsters Lewis McWillie, Joseph Campisi and Irwin Weiner (The Mob Files) Kindle
Edition
From the Inside Flap
The United States House of Representatives
Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) was established in 1976 to
investigate the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.
and the shooting of Alabama Governor George Wallace. The Committee investigated
until 1978 and issued its final report, and ruled that Kennedy was very likely
assassinated as a result of a conspiracy. However, the Committee noted that it
believed that the conspiracy did not include the governments of the Soviet
Union or Cuba.
The Committee also stated it did not believe
the conspiracy was organized by any organized crime group, nor any anti-Castro
group, but that it could not rule out individual members of any of those groups
acting together.
The House Select Committee on
Assassinations suffered from being conducted mostly in secret, and then issued
a public report with much of its evidence sealed for 50 years under
Congressional rules.
In 1992, Congress passed legislation to
collect and open up all the evidence relating to Kennedy's death, and created the
Assassination Records Review Board to further that goal.
General conclusions
In particular, the various
investigations performed by the U.S. government were faulted for insufficient
consideration of the possibility of a conspiracy in each case. The Committee in
its report also made recommendations for legislative and administrative
improvements, including making some assassinations Federal crimes.
The Chief Counsel of the Committee
later changed his views that the CIA was being cooperative and forthcoming with
the investigation when he learned that the CIA's special liaison to the
Committee researchers, George Joannides, was actually involved with some of the
organizations that Lee Harvey Oswald was involved with in the months leading up
to the assassination, including an anti-Castro group, the DRE, which was linked
to the CIA, where the liaison, Joannides, worked in 1963.
Chief Counsel Blakey later stated that
Joannides, instead, should have been interviewed by the Committee, rather than
serving as a gatekeeper to the CIA's evidence and files regarding the
assassination. He further disregarded and suspected all the CIA's statements
and representations to the Committee, accusing it of obstruction of justice.
Conclusions regarding the Kennedy
assassination
The HSCA concluded in its 1979 report
that:
1.Lee Harvey Oswald fired three shots at
Kennedy. The second and third shots he fired struck the President. The third
shot Oswald fired successfully killed the President.
2.Scientific acoustical evidence establishes a
high probability that at least two gunmen fired at the President. Other
scientific evidence does not preclude the possibility of two gunmen firing at
the President. Scientific evidence negates some specific conspiracy
allegations.
3.The committee believes, on the basis of the
evidence available to it, that the President John F. Kennedy was probably
assassinated as a result of a conspiracy. The committee was unable to identify
the other gunmen or the extent of the conspiracy. The committee believes, on
the basis of the evidence available to it, that the Soviet Government was not
involved in the assassination of President Kennedy.
The committee believes, on the basis of
the evidence available to it, that the Cuban Government was not involved in the
assassination of President Kennedy.
The committee believes, on the basis of
the evidence available to it, that anti-Castro Cuban groups, as groups, were
not involved in the assassination of President Kennedy, but that the available
evidence does not preclude the possibility that individual members may have
been involved.
The committee believes, on the basis of
the evidence available to it, that the national syndicate of organized crime,
as a group, was not involved in the assassination of President Kennedy, but
that the available evidence does not preclude the possibility that individual
members may have been involved.
The committee believes, on the basis of the
evidence available to it, that the Secret Service, Federal Bureau of
Investigation, and Central Intelligence Agency were not involved in the
assassination of President Kennedy.
4. Agencies and departments of the U.S.
Government performed with varying degrees of competency in the fulfilment of
their duties. President John F. Kennedy did not receive adequate protection. A
thorough and reliable investigation into the responsibility of Lee Harvey
Oswald for the assassination was conducted. The investigation into the
possibility of conspiracy in the assassination was inadequate. The conclusions
of the investigations were arrived at in good faith, but presented in a fashion
that was too definitive.
The Committee further concluded that it
was probable that:
Four shots were fired. The third shot came
from a second assassin located on the grassy knoll, but missed. They concluded
that it missed due to the lack of physical evidence of an actual bullet, of
course this investigation took place almost sixteen years after the crime.
The HSCA agreed with the single bullet theory,
but concluded that it occurred at a time point during the assassination that
differed from any of the several time points the Warren Commission theorized it
occurred.
The Department of Justice, FBI, CIA,
and the Warren Commission were all criticized for not revealing to the Warren
Commission information available in 1964, and the Secret Service was deemed
deficient in their protection of the President.
The HSCA made several accusations of
deficiency against the FBI and CIA.
The accusations encompassed
organizational failures, miscommunication, and a desire to keep certain parts
of their operations secret. Furthermore, the Warren Commission expected these
agencies to be forthcoming with any information that would aid their
investigation. But the FBI and CIA only saw it as their duty to respond to
specific requests for information from the commission. However, the HSCA found
the FBI and CIA were deficient in performing even that limited role.
In 2003, Robert Blakey, staff director
and chief counsel for the Committee, issued a statement on the Central
Intelligence Agency:
...I no longer believe that we were
able to conduct an appropriate investigation of the [Central Intelligence]
Agency and its relationship to Oswald.... We now know that the Agency withheld
from the Warren Commission the CIA-Mafia plots to kill Castro. Had the
commission known of the plots, it would have followed a different path in its
investigation. The Agency unilaterally deprived the commission of a chance to
obtain the full truth, which will now never be known. Significantly, the Warren
Commission's conclusion that the agencies of the government co-operated with it
is, in retrospect, not the truth. We also now know that the Agency set up a
process that could only have been designed to frustrate the ability of the
committee in 1976-79 to obtain any information that might adversely affect the
Agency. Many have told me that the culture of the Agency is one of
prevarication and dissimulation and that you cannot trust it or its people.
Period. End of story. I am now in that camp.
READERS REVIEWS FROM AMAZON BOOKS
Senator Kefauver is a great person! The
committee did a amazingly great job investigating organized crime in different
cities, the same as the author did putting it all together in one book!!It was
really interesting to read this record! I felt like I was there in a court
room! Seriously, very impressive!
It's great that we have such a great
historical document in print! Senator Kefauver and the committee investigate
Organized Crime all over the country: Miami, NY, New Orleans, Philadelphia,
Kansas city, etc. This record
has many interviews with mafia leaders. Rare and great
photographs! It's one of the best criminal books I ever read! I would highly
recommend it to anyone!
READERS REVIEWS FROM AMAZON BOOKS
This book is not a history of the Irish
in Connecticut so much as it is a history of people of Irish decent of the
great State of Connecticut, but in that, it does a very good job reporting the
facts and being wholly inclusive. It has presents dome very wonderful
photographs and fives a brief but disturbing picture of the Anti-Irish movement
in the New England states.
READERS REVIEWS FROM AMAZON BOOKS
"Shooting the Mob: Organized Crime
in photos, Crime Boss Tony Accardo" was a welcomed addition to my book
collection. For one thing, not much is written about ,"the Big Tuna",
Tony Accardo; the Chicago Outfit's "man of many talents", let alone
any photos. This book gives the reader a chance to gain some knowledge on the
amazing Outfit boss/consigliere, that might not otherwise be available.
For me, it was a must for my collection;
not to give too much away, but there are photos and personal information about
the life and times of Anthony "JB" Accardo; from his days hanging
around the "Circus Cafe" with "Tough" Tony Capezio, John
"Screwey" Moore and "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn, to catching
"the Big Guy's",attention, "Snorky" who then had him
sitting in the lobby of his hotels with a Thompson Sub-Machine Gun on guard
duty!
Things just kept getting better for the
capable "Joe Batters"!!
Mob Testimony: Joe Pistone, Michael Scars
DiLeonardo, Angelo Lonardo and others: The court testimony of FBI New York
Undercover Agent Joe Pistone
READERS REVIEWS FROM AMAZON BOOKS
What I loved about this book is that
even though its mostly testimony before government investigative inquires, you
can sense the hood attitudes and their arrogance. This is the real mob talking
about everyday life as a gangster. Good stuff
This is the story of gangland told in
the federal testimony of the hoodlum who decided to talk about life in the underworld.
Although some Chicago gangsters are included in the text and photos (Lots of
photos here) the concentration is on the New York mob.
I purchased this book for my daughter
who loves Emerson. The quotes are organized in categories and are easy to find
and read. The book includes the most memorable quotes of Emerson and my
daughter loves it.
This is really enjoyable to read and I
like how it is done and you can look up all sorts of things. I have shared some
of Emerson's quotes from this book on my website right from this book, giving
him credit.
Made me hungry for more!!
It's a keeper!
DON'T YOU WANT TO SEE THE ENTIRE WORLD?
I DO
AND HERE'S SOME ANIMALS FOR YOU...................
BLOGLAPEDIA’S
BLOGS
ARCHITECTURE
Architecture
for the blog of it
http://architecturefortheblogofit.blogspot.com/
THE ARTS
Art
for the Blog of It
http://artfortheblogofit.blogspot.com/
Art
for the Pop of it
http://artforthepopofit.blogspot.com/
Photography
for the blog of it
http://photographyfortheblogofit.blogspot.com/
Music
for the Blog of it
http://musicfortheblogofit.blogspot.com/
Sculpture
this and Sculpture that
http://sculpturethisandsculpturethat.blogspot.com/
The
art of War (Propaganda art through the ages)
http://theartofwarcleverhuh.blogspot.com/
Album
Art (Photographic arts)
http://albumartsocheesyitsgood.blogspot.com/
Pulp
Fiction Trash (The art of Pulp Fiction covers)
http://pulpfictiontrash.blogspot.com/
Admit
it, you want to Read this Book (The art of Pulp Fiction covers)
http://goaheadadmitityouwanttoread.blogspot.com/
FILM
The
Godfather Trilogy BlogSpot
http://thegodfathertrilogyblogspot.blogspot.com/
On
the Waterfront: The Making of a great American Film
http://onthewaterfrontthefilm.blogspot.com/
FOOD
Absolutely
blogalicious
http://absolutelyblogalicious.blogspot.com/
The
Wee Book of Irish Recipes (Book support site)
http://theweeblogofirishrecipes.blogspot.com/
Good
chowda (New England foods)
http://goodchowda.blogspot.com/
Old
New England Recipes (Book support site)
http://oldnewenglandrecipes.blogspot.com/
And I
Love Clams (New England foods)
http://andiloveclams.blogspot.com/
In
Praise of the Rhode Island Wiener (New England foods)
http://inpraiseoftherhodeislandwiener.blogspot.com/
Wicked
Cool New England Recipes (New England foods)
http://whickedcoolnewenglandrecipes.blogspot.com
Old
New England Recipes (New England foods)
http://oldnewenglandrecipes.blogspot.com
FOSTER CARE
Foster Care new and Updates
Aging out of the system
Murder, Death and Abuse in the
Foster Care system
Angel and Saints in the Foster
Care System
The Foster Children’s Blogs
Foster Care Legislation
The Foster Children’s Bill of
Right
Foster Kids own Story
The Adventures of Foster Kid.
HEALTH
Me
vs. Diabetes (Diabetes education site)
http://mevsdiabetes-bloglapedia.blogspot.com/
HISTORY
The
Quotable Helen Keller
http://thequotablehelenkeller.blogspot.com/
Teddy
Roosevelt's Letters to his children (Book support site)
http://teddyrooseveltsletterstohischildren.blogspot.com/
The
Quotable Machiavelli (Book support site)
http://thequotablemachiavelli.blogspot.com/
HUMOR
Whatever
you do, don't laugh
http://whateveryoudodontlaugh.blogspot.com/
The
Quotable Grouch Marx
http://thequotablegrouchmarx.blogspot.com/
IRISH-AMERICANA
A Big
Blog of Irish Literature
http://abigblogofirishliterature.blogspot.com/
The
Wee Blog of Irish Jokes (Book support blog)
http://theweeblogofirishjokes.blogspot.com/
The
Wee Blog of Irish Recipes
http://theweeblogofirishrecipes.blogspot.com/
The
Irish American Gangster
http://irishamericangangsters.blogspot.com
The
Irish in their Own Words
http://theirishintheirownwords.blogspot.com/
When
Washington Was Irish
http://whenwashingtonwasirish.blogspot.com/
The
Wee Book of Irish Recipes (Book support site)
http://theweeblogofirishrecipes.blogspot.com/
LITERATURE
Following
Fitzgerald
http://followingfitzgerald.blogspot.com/
Shakespeare
http://shakespeareinamericanenglish.blogspot.com/
The
Blogable Robert Frost
http://theblogablerobertfrost.blogspot.com/
Charles
Dickens
http://charlesdickensfan.blogspot.com/
The
Beat Poets of the Forever Generation
http://thebeatspoetsoftheforevergenera.blogspot.com/
Holden
Caulfield Blog Spot
http://holdencaulfieldblogspot.blogspot.com/
The
Quotable Oscar Wilde
http://thequotableoscarwilde.blogspot.com/
NEW ENGLAND BLOGS
The
Quotable Thoreau
http://thequotablethenrydavidthoreau.blogspot.com/
Old
New England Recipes
http://oldnewenglandrecipes.blogspot.com
Wicked
Cool New England Recipes
http://whickedcoolnewenglandrecipes.blogspot.com
Emerson
http://emersonsaidit.blogspot.com/
The
New England Mafia
http://thenewenglandmafia.blogspot.com/
And I
Love Clams
http://andiloveclams.blogspot.com/
In
Praise of the Rhode Island Wiener
http://inpraiseoftherhodeislandwiener.blogspot.com/
Watch
Hill
http://watchhillwesterly.blogspot.com/
York
Beach
http://yorkbeachfortheblogofit.blogspot.com/
The
Connecticut History Blog
http://connecticuthistory.blogspot.com/
The
Connecticut Irish
http://theconnecticutirish.blogspot.com/
Good
chowda
http://goodchowda.blogspot.com/
NOSTALGIA
God,
How I hated the 70s
http://godhowihatedthe70s.blogspot.com/
Child
of the Sixties Forever
http://childofthesixtiesforeverandever.blogspot.com/
The
Kennedy’s in the 60’s
http://thekennedysinthe60s.blogspot.com/
Music
of the Sixties Forever
http://musicofthesixtiesforever.blogspot.com/
Elvis
and Nixon at the White House (Book support site)
http://elvisandnixonatthewhitehouse.blogspot.com/
Beatles
Fan Forever
http://beatlesfanforever.blogspot.com/
Year
One, 1955
http://yearone1955.blogspot.com/
Robert
Kennedy in His Own Words
The
1980s were fun
http://the1980swereokayactually.blogspot.com/
The
1990s. The last decade.
http://1990sthelastdecade.blogspot.com/
ORGANIZED CRIME
The
Russian Mafia
http://russianmafiagangster.blogspot.com/
The
American Jewish Gangster
http://theamericanjewishgangster.blogspot.com/
The
Mob in Hollywood
http://themobinhollywood.blogspot.com/
We
Only Kill Each Other
http://weonlykilleachother.blogspot.com/
Early
Gangsters of New York City
http://earlygangstersofnewyorkcity.blogspot.com/
Al
Capone: Biography of a self-made Man
http://alcaponethebiographyofaselfmademan.blogspot.com/
The
Life and World of Al Capone
http://thelifeandworldofalcapone.blogspot.com/
The
Salerno Report
http://salernoreportmafiaandurderjohnkennedy.blogspot.com/
Guns
and Glamour
http://gunsandglamourthechicagomobahistory.blogspot.com/
The
St. Valentine’s Day Massacre
http://thesaintvalentinesdaymassacre.blogspot.com/
Mob
Testimony
http://mobtestimony.blogspot.com/
Recipes
we would Die For
http://recipeswewoulddiefor.blogspot.com/
The
Prohibition in Pictures
http://theprohibitioninpictures.blogspot.com/
The
Mob in Pictures
http://themobinpictures.blogspot.com/
The
Mob in Vegas
http://themobinvegasinpictures.blogspot.com/
The
Irish American Gangster
http://irishamericangangsters.blogspot.com
Roger
Touhy Gangster
http://rogertouhygangsters.blogspot.com/
Chicago’s
Mob Bosses
http://chicagosmobbossesfromaccardoto.blogspot.com/
Chicago
Gang Land: It Happened Here
http://chicagoganglandithappenedhere.blogspot.com/
Whacked:
One Hundred years of Murder in Gangland
http://whackedonehundredyearsmurderand.blogspot.com/
The
Mob Across America
http://themobacrossamerica.blogspot.com/
Mob
Cops, Lawyers and Front Men
http://mobcopslawyersandinformantsand.blogspot.com/
Shooting
the Mob: Dutch Schultz
http://shootingthemobdutchschultz.blogspot.com/
Bugsy&
His Flamingo: The Testimony of Virginia Hill
http://bugsyandvirginiahill.blogspot.com/
After
Valachi. Hearings before the US Senate on Organized Crime
http://aftervalachi.blogspot.com/
Mob
Buster: Report of Special Agent Virgil Peterson to the Kefauver Committee (Book
support site)
http://virgilpetersonmobbuster.blogspot.com/
The
US Government’s Timeline of Organized Crime (Book support site)
http://timelineoforganizedcrime.blogspot.com/
The
Kefauver Organized Crime Hearings (Book support site)
http://thekefauverorganizedcrimehearings.blogspot.com/
Joe
Valachi's testimony on the Mafia (Book support site)
http://joevalachistestimonyonthemafia.blogspot.com/
Mobsters
in the News
http://mobstersinthenews.blogspot.com/
Shooting
the Mob: Dead Mobsters (Book support site)
http://deadmobsters.blogspot.com/
The
Stolen Years Full Text (Roger Touhy)
http://thestolenyearsfulltext.blogspot.com/
Mobsters
in Black and White
http://mobstersinblackandwhite.blogspot.com/
Mafia
Gangsters, Wiseguys and Goodfellas
http://mafiagangsterswiseguysandgoodfellas.blogspot.com/
Whacked:
One Hundred Years of Murder and Mayhem in the Chicago Mob (Book support site)
http://whackedonehundredyearsmurderand.blogspot.com/
Gangland
Gaslight: The Killing of Rosy Rosenthal (Book support site)
http://ganglandgaslightrosyrosenthal.blogspot.com/
The
Best of the Mob Files Series (Book support site)
http://thebestofthemobfilesseries.blogspot.com/
PHILOSOPHY
It’s
All Greek Mythology to me
http://itsallgreekmythologytome.blogspot.com/
PSYCHOLOGY
Psychologically
Relevant
http://psychologicallyrelevant.blogspot.com/
SNOBBERY
The
Rarifieid Tribe
http://therarifiedtribe.blogspot.com/
Perfect
Behavior
http://perfectbehavior.blogspot.com/
TRAVEL
The
Upscale Traveler
http://theupscaletraveler.blogspot.com/
TRIVIA
The
Mish Mosh Blog
http://theupscaletraveler.blogspot.com/
WASHINGTON DC
DC
Behind the Monuments
http://dcbehindthemonuments.blogspot.com/
Washington
Oddities
http://washingtonoddities.blogspot.com/
When
Washington Was Irish
http://whenwashingtonwasirish.blogspot.com/
FROM LLR BOOKS. COM
Litchfield Literary Books. A really small company
run by writers.
AMERICAN HISTORY
The Day
Nixon Met Elvis
Paperback 46 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Day-Nixon-Met-elvis/
Theodore
Roosevelt: Letters to his Children. 1903-1918
Paperback 194 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Theodore-Roosevelt-Letters-Children-1903-1918/dp/
THE ANCIENT GREEKS AND CIVILIZATIONS
The Works
of Horace
Paperback 174 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Works-Horace-Richard-Willoughby/
The
Quotable Greeks
Paperback 234 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Greeks-Richard-W-Willoughby
The
Quotable Epictetus
Paperback 142 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Epictetus-Golden-Sayings
Quo
Vadis: A narrative of the time of Nero
Paperback 420 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quo-Vadis-Narrative-Time-Nero
CHILDRENS
BOOKS
The
Porchless Pumpkin: A Halloween Story for Children
A Halloween play for young children. By consent of the author,
this play may be performed, at no charge, by educational institutions, neighborhood
organizations and other not-for-profit-organizations.
A fun story with a moral
“I believe that Denny O'Day is an American treasure and this
little book proves it. Jack is a pumpkin who happens to be very small, by
pumpkins standards and as a result he goes unbought in the pumpkin patch on
Halloween eve, but at the last moment he is given his chance to prove that just
because you're small doesn't mean you can't be brave. Here is the point that I
found so wonderful, the book stresses that while size doesn't matter when it
comes to courage...ITS OKAY TO BE SCARED....as well. I think children need to
hear that, that's its okay to be unsure because life is a ongoing lesson isn't
it?”
Paperback: 42 pages
http://www.amazon.com/OLANTERN-PORCHLESS-PUMPKIN-Halloween-Children
It's Not
All Right to be a Foster Kid....no matter what they tell you: Tweet the books
contents
Paperback 94 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Right-Foster-Kid-no-matter-what
From the Author
I spent my childhood, from age seven through seventeen, in
foster care. Over the course of those
ten years, many decent, well-meaning, and concerned people told me, "It's
okay to be foster kid."
In saying that, those very good people meant to encourage me,
and I appreciated their kindness then, and all these many decades later, I
still appreciate their good intentions. But as I was tossed around the foster
care system, it began to dawn on me that they were wrong. It was not all right to be a foster kid.
During my time in the system, I was bounced every eighteen
months from three foster homes to an orphanage to a boy's school and to a group
home before I left on my own accord at age seventeen.
In the course of my stay in foster care, I was severely beaten
in two homes by my "care givers" and separated from my four siblings
who were also in care, sometimes only blocks away from where I was living.
I left the system rather than to wait to age out, although the
effects of leaving the system without any family, means, or safety net of any
kind, were the same as if I had aged out. I lived in poverty for the first part
of my life, dropped out of high school, and had continuous problems with the
law.
Today, almost nothing
about foster care has changed. Exactly
what happened to me is happening to some other child, somewhere in America,
right now. The system, corrupt, bloated,
and inefficient, goes on, unchanging and secretive.
Something has gone wrong in a system that was originally a
compassionate social policy built to improve lives but is now a definitive
cause in ruining lives. Due to gross
negligence, mismanagement, apathy, and greed, mostly what the foster care
system builds are dangerous consequences. Truly, foster care has become our
epic national disgrace and a nightmare for those of us who have lived through
it.
Yet there is a suspicion among some Americans that foster care
costs too much, undermines the work ethic, and is at odds with a satisfying
life. Others see foster care as a part
of the welfare system, as legal plunder of the public treasuries.
None of that is true;
in fact, all that sort of thinking does is to blame the victims. There is not a single child in the system who
wants to be there or asked to be there.
Foster kids are in foster care because they had nowhere else to go. It's that simple. And believe me, if those kids could get out
of the system and be reunited with their parents and lead normal, healthy
lives, they would. And if foster care is a sort of legal plunder of the public
treasuries, it's not the kids in the system who are doing the plundering.
We need to end this
needless suffering. We need to end it
because it is morally and ethically wrong and because the generations to come
will not judge us on the might of our armed forces or our technological
advancements or on our fabulous wealth.
Rather, they will judge
us, I am certain, on our compassion for those who are friendless, on our
decency to those who have nothing and on our efforts, successful or not, to
make our nation and our world a better place.
And if we cannot accomplish those things in the short time allotted to
us, then let them say of us "at least they tried."
You can change the tragedy of foster care and here's how to do
it. We have created this book so that
almost all of it can be tweeted out by you to the world. You have the power to improve the lives of
those in our society who are least able to defend themselves. All you need is the will to do it.
If the American people,
as good, decent and generous as they are, knew what was going on in foster
care, in their name and with their money, they would stop it. But, generally speaking, although the public
has a vague notion that foster care is a mess, they don't have the complete
picture. They are not aware of the human, economic and social cost that the
mismanagement of the foster care system puts on our nation.
By tweeting the facts laid out in this work, you can help to
change all of that. You can make a
difference. You can change things for
the better.
We can always change the future for a foster kid; to make it
better ...you have the power to do that. Speak up (or tweet out) because it's
your country. Don't depend on the
"The other guy" to speak up for these kids, because you are the other
guy.
We cannot build a future for foster children, but we can build
foster children for the future and the time to start that change is today.
No time
to say Goodbye: Memoirs of a life in foster
Paperbook 440 Books
http://www.amazon.com/No-Time-Say-Goodbye-Memoir
BOOKS ABOUT FILM
On the
Waterfront: The Making of a Great American Film
Paperback: 416 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Waterfront-Making-Great-American-Film/
BOOKS ABOUT GHOSTS AND THE SUPERNATUAL
Scotish
Ghost Stories
Paperback 186 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Scottish-Ghost-Stories-Elliott-ODonell
HUMOR BOOKS
The Book
of funny odd and interesting things people say
Paperback: 278 pages
http://www.amazon.com/book-funny-interesting-things-people
The Wee
Book of Irish Jokes
http://www.amazon.com/Book-Series-Irish-Jokes-ebook
Perfect
Behavior: A guide for Ladies and Gentlemen in all Social Crises
http://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Behavior-Ladies-Gentlemen-Social
BOOKS ABOUT THE 1960s
You Don’t
Need a Weatherman. Underground 1969
Paperback 122 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Weatherman-Notes-Weatherman-Underground-1969
Baby
Boomers Guide to the Beatles Songs of the Sixties
Paperback
http://www.amazon.com/Boomers-Guide-Beatles-Songs-Sixties/
Baby
Boomers Guide to Songs of the 1960s
http://www.amazon.com/Baby-Boomers-Guide-Songs-1960s
IRISH- AMERICANA
The Connecticut
Irish
Paper back 140 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Connecticut-Irish-Catherine-F-Connolly
The Wee Book of Irish Jokes
http://www.amazon.com/Book-Series-Irish-Jokes-ebook/
The Wee
Book of Irish Recipes
http://www.amazon.com/The-Wee-Book-Irish-Recipes/
The Wee Book of the American-Irish Gangsters
http://www.amazon.com/The-Wee-Book-Irish-American-Gangsters/
The Wee book of Irish Blessings...
http://www.amazon.com/Series-Blessing-Proverbs-Toasts-ebook/
The Wee
Book of the American Irish in Their Own Words
http://www.amazon.com/Book-American-Irish-Their-Words/
Everything
you need to know about St. Patrick
Paperback 26 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Need-About-Saint-Patrick
A Reading
Book in Ancient Irish History
Paperback 147pages
http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Book-Ancient-Irish-History
The Book
of Things Irish
http://www.amazon.com/Book-Things-Irish-William-Tuohy/
Poets and
Dreamer; Stories translated from the Irish
Paperback 158 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Poets-Dreamers-Stories-Translated-Irish/
The
History of the Great Irish Famine: Abridged and Illustrated
Paperback 356 pages
http://www.amazon.com/History-Great-Irish-Famine-Illustrated/
BOOKS ABOUT NEW ENGLAND
The New
England Mafia
http://www.amazon.com/The-New-England-Mafia-ebook/
Wicked
Good New England Recipes
http://www.amazon.com/Wicked-Good-New-England-Recipes/
The
Connecticut Irish
Paper back 140 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Connecticut-Irish-Catherine-F-Connolly
The
Twenty-Fifth Regiment Connecticut Volunteers
Paperback 64 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Twenty-Fifth-Regiment-Connecticut-Volunteers-Rebellion
The Life
of James Mars
Paperback 54 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Life-James-Mars-Slave-Connecticut
Stories
of Colonial Connecticut
Paperback 116 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Stories-Colonial-Connnecticut-Caroline-Clifford
What they
Say in Old New England
Paperback 194 pages
http://www.amazon.com/What-they-say-New-England/
BOOK ABOUT ORGANIZED CRIME
Chicago
Organized Crime
Chicago-Mob-Bosses
http://www.amazon.com/Chicagos-Mob-Bosses-Accardo-ebook
The Mob
Files: It Happened Here: Places of Note in Chicago gangland 1900-2000
http://www.amazon.com/The-Mob-Files-1900-2000-ebook
An
Illustrated Chronological History of the Chicago Mob. Time Line 1837-2000
http://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Chronological-History-Chicago-1837-2000/
Mob
Buster: Report of Special Agent Virgil Peterson to the Kefauver Committee
http://www.amazon.com/Mob-Buster-Peterson-Committee-ebook/
The Mob
Files. Guns and Glamour: The Chicago Mob. A History. 1900-2000
http://www.amazon.com/Mob-Files-Guns-Glamour-ebook/
Shooting
the Mob: Organized crime in photos. Crime Boss Tony Accardo
http://www.amazon.com/Shooting-Mob-Organized-photos-Accardo/
Shooting
the Mob: Organized Crime in Photos: The Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre.
http://www.amazon.com/Shooting-Mob-Organized-Valentines-Massacre
The Life
and World of Al Capone in Photos
http://www.amazon.com/Life-World-Al-Capone
AL
CAPONE: The Biography of a Self-Made Man.: Revised from the 0riginal 1930
edition.Over 200 new photographs
Paperback: 340 pages
http://www.amazon.com/CAPONE-Biography-Self-Made-Over-photographs
Whacked.
One Hundred Years Murder and Mayhem in the Chicago Outfit
Paperback: 172 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Whacked-Hundred-Murder-Mayhem-Chicago/
Las
Vegas Organized Crime
The Mob
in Vegas
http://www.amazon.com/Mob-Files-Vegas-ebook
Bugsy
& His Flamingo: The Testimony of Virginia Hill
http://www.amazon.com/Bugsy-His-Flamingo-Testimony-Virginia/
Testimony
by Mobsters Lewis McWillie, Joseph Campisi and Irwin Weiner (The Mob Files
Series)
http://www.amazon.com/The-Kennedy-Assassination-Ruby-Testimony-ebook
Rattling
the Cup on Chicago Crime.
Paperback 264 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Rattling-Cup-Chicago-Crime-Abridged
The Life
and Times of Terrible Tommy O’Connor.
Paperback 94 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Life-Times-Terrible-Tommy-OConnor
The Mob,
Sam Giancana and the overthrow of the Black Policy Racket in Chicago
Paperback 200 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Giancana-ovethrow-Policy-Rackets-Chicago
When
Capone’s Mob Murdered Roger Touhy. In Photos
Paperback 234 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Capones-Murdered-Roger-Touhy-photos
Organized
Crime in Hollywood
The Mob in Hollywood
http://www.amazon.com/Mob-Files-Hollywood-ebook/
The Bioff
Scandal
Paperback 54 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Bioff-Scandal-Shakedown-Hollywood-Studios
Organized
Crime in New York
Joe Pistone’s war on the mafia
http://www.amazon.com/Joe-Petrosinos-War-Mafia-Files/
Mob
Testimony: Joe Pistone, Michael Scars DiLeonardo, Angelo Lonardo and others
http://www.amazon.com/Mob-Testimony-DiLeonardo-testimony-Undercover/
The New
York Mafia: The Origins of the New York Mob
http://www.amazon.com/The-New-York-Mafia-Origins
The New
York Mob: The Bosses
http://www.amazon.com/The-New-York-Mob-Bosses/
Organized
Crime 25 Years after Valachi. Hearings before the US Senate
http://www.amazon.com/Organized-Crime-Valachi-Hearings-ebook
Shooting
the mob: Dutch Schultz
http://www.amazon.com/Shooting-Mob-Organized-Photographs-Schultz
Gangland
Gaslight: The Killing of Rosy Rosenthal. (Illustrated)
http://www.amazon.com/Gangland-Gaslight-Killing-Rosenthal-Illustrated/
Early
Street Gangs and Gangsters of New York City
Paperback 382 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Early-Street-Gangs-Gangsters-York
THE RUSSIAN MOBS
The
Russian Mafia in America
http://www.amazon.com/The-Russian-Mafia-America-ebook/
The
Threat of Russian Organzied Crime
Paperback 192 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Threat-Russian-Organized-Crime-photographs-ebook
Organized
Crime/General
Best of
Mob Stories
http://www.amazon.com/Files-Series-Illustrated-Articles-Organized-Crime/
Best of
Mob Stories Part 2
http://www.amazon.com/Series-Illustrated-Articles-Organized-ebook/
Illustrated-Book-Prohibition-Gangsters
http://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Book-Prohibition-Gangsters-ebook
Mob
Recipes to Die For. Meals and Mobsters in Photos
http://www.amazon.com/Recipes-For-Meals-Mobsters-Photos
More Mob
Recipes to Die For. Meals and Mobs
http://www.amazon.com/More-Recipes-Meals-Mobsters-Photos
The New
England Mafia
http://www.amazon.com/The-New-England-Mafia-ebook
Shooting
the mob. Organized crime in photos. Dead Mobsters, Gangsters and Hoods.
http://www.amazon.com/Shooting-mob-Organized-photos-Mobsters-Gangsters/
The
Salerno Report: The Mafia and the Murder of President John F. Kennedy
http://www.amazon.com/The-Salerno-Report-President-ebook/
The
Mob Files: Mob Wars. "We only kill each other"
http://www.amazon.com/The-Mob-Files-Wars-other/
The Mob
across America
http://www.amazon.com/The-Files-Across-America-ebook/
The US
Government’s Time Line of Organzied Crime 1920-1987
http://www.amazon.com/GOVERNMENTS-ORGANIZED-1920-1987-Illustrated-ebook/
Early
Street Gangs and Gangsters of New York City: 1800-1919. Illustrated
http://www.amazon.com/Gangsters-1800-1919-Illustrated-Street-ebook/
The Mob
Files: Mob Cops, Lawyers and Informants and Fronts
http://www.amazon.com/The-Mob-Files-Informants-ebook/
Gangster
Quotes: Mobsters in their own words. Illustrated
Paperback: 128 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Gangsters-Quotes-Mobsters-words-Illustrated/
The Book
of American-Jewish Gangsters: A Pictorial History.
Paperback: 436 pages
http://www.amazon.com/The-Book-American-Jewish-Gangsters-Pictorial/
The Mob
and the Kennedy Assassination
Paperback 414 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Mob-Kennedy-Assassination-Ruby-Testimony-Mobsters
BOOKS ABOUT THE OLD WEST
The Last
Outlaw: The story of Cole Younger, by Himself
Paperback 152 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Last-Outlaw-Story-Younger-Himself
BOOKS ON PHOTOGRAPHY
Chicago:
A photographic essay.
Paperback: 200 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Chicago-Photographic-Essay-William-Thomas
STAGE PLAYS
Boomers
on a train: A ten minute play
Paperback 22 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Boomers-train-ten-minute-Play-ebook
Four
Short Plays
By John William Tuohy
http://www.amazon.com/Four-Short-Plays-William-Tuohy
Four More
Short Plays
By John William Tuohy
http://www.amazon.com/Four-Short-Plays-William-Tuohy/
High and
Goodbye: Everybody gets the Timothy Leary they deserve. A full length play
By John William Tuohy
http://www.amazon.com/High-Goodbye-Everybody-Timothy-deserve
Cyberdate.
An Everyday Love Story about Everyday People
By John William Tuohy
http://www.amazon.com/Cyberdate-Everyday-Story-People-ebook/
The
Dutchman's Soliloquy: A one Act Play based on the factual last words of
Gangster Dutch Schultz.
By John William Tuohy
http://www.amazon.com/Dutchmans-Soliloquy-factual-Gangster-Schultz/
Fishbowling
on The Last Words of Dutch Schultz: Or William S. Burroughs intersects with
Dutch Schultz
Print Length: 57 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Fishbowling-Last-Words-Dutch-Schultz-ebook/
American
Shakespeare: August Wilson in his own words. A One Act Play
By John William Tuohy
http://www.amazon.com/American-Shakespeare-August-Wilson-ebook
She
Stoops to Conquer
http://www.amazon.com/She-Stoops-Conquer-Oliver-Goldsmith/
The Seven
Deadly Sins of Gilligan’s Island: A ten minute play
Print Length: 14 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Deadly-Gilligans-Island-minute-ebook/
BOOKS ABOUT VIRGINIA
OUT OF
CONTROL: An Informal History of the Fairfax County Police
http://www.amazon.com/Control-Informal-History-Fairfax-Police/
McLean
Virginia. A short informal history
http://www.amazon.com/McLean-Virginia-Short-Informal-History/
THE QUOTABLE SERIES
The
Quotable Emerson: Life lessons from the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Over 300
quotes
http://www.amazon.com/The-Quotable-Emerson-lessons-quotes
The
Quotable John F. Kennedy
http://www.amazon.com/The-Quotable-John-F-Kennedy/
The
Quotable Oscar Wilde
http://www.amazon.com/The-Quotable-Oscar-Wilde-lessons/
The
Quotable Machiavelli
http://www.amazon.com/The-Quotable-Machiavelli-Richard-Thayer/
The
Quotable Confucius: Life Lesson from the Chinese Master
http://www.amazon.com/The-Quotable-Confucius-Lesson-Chinese/
The
Quotable Henry David Thoreau
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Henry-Thoreau-Quotables-ebook
The
Quotable Robert F. Kennedy
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Robert-F-Kennedy-Illustrated/
The
Quotable Writer: Writers on the Writers Life
http://www.amazon.com/The-Quotable-Writer-Quotables-ebook
The words
of Walt Whitman: An American Poet
Paperback: 162 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Words-Walt-Whitman-American-Poet
Gangster
Quotes: Mobsters in their own words. Illustrated
Paperback: 128 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Gangsters-Quotes-Mobsters-words-Illustrated/
The
Quotable Popes
Paperback 66 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Popes-Maria-Conasenti
The
Quotable Kahlil Gibran with Artwork from Kahlil Gibran
Paperback 52 pages
Kahlil Gibran, an artist, poet, and writer was born on January
6, 1883 n the north of modern-day Lebanon and in what was then part of Ottoman
Empire. He had no formal schooling in Lebanon. In 1895, the family immigrated
to the United States when Kahlil was a young man and settled in South Boston.
Gibran enrolled in an art school and was soon a member of the avant-garde
community and became especially close to Boston artist, photographer, and
publisher Fred Holland Day who encouraged and supported Gibran’s creative
projects. An accomplished artist in drawing and watercolor, Kahlil attended art
school in Paris from 1908 to 1910, pursuing a symbolist and romantic style. He
held his first art exhibition of his drawings in 1904 in Boston, at Day's studio.
It was at this exhibition, that Gibran met Mary Elizabeth Haskell, who ten
years his senior. The two formed an important friendship and love affair that
lasted the rest of Gibran’s short life. Haskell influenced every aspect of
Gibran’s personal life and career. She became his editor when he began to write
and ushered his first book into publication in 1918, The Madman, a slim volume
of aphorisms and parables written in biblical cadence somewhere between poetry
and prose. Gibran died in New York City on April 10, 1931, at the age of 48
from cirrhosis of the liver and tuberculosis.
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Kahlil-Gibran-artwork/
The
Quotable Dorothy Parker
Paperback 86 pages
The
Quotable Machiavelli
Paperback 36 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Machiavelli-Richard-L-Thayer
The
Quotable Greeks
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The
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