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ALL AMERICAN MAFIOSO

THE JOHNNY ROSSELLI STORY

Los Angeles-based journalist Rappleye and Las Vegas p.i. Becker join forces in this exciting, appalling life of a high- echelon mobster. Johnny Rosselli, born Filippo Sacco in Italy in 1905, was a gangster's gangster—an urbane, handsome killer whose associates included Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Howard Hughes, and the Kennedys. After a tough childhood in Boston's North End, Rosselli lit out for Chicago, jackknifing his way into the Capone organization. A bout of TB sent him to California, where he engineered a multimillion-dollar extortion of major Hollywood studios. There, too, Rosselli adopted his taste for hiding in the shadows, raking in money while his pals—Bugsy Seigel, Sam Giancana, etc.—soaked up the limelight. In the 1950's, Rosselli reprised his Hollywood success in Las Vegas, overseeing the construction of the Tropicana and other mob-connected casinos. His biggest scams came in the 60's—first ``Operation Pluto,'' the CIA-Mafia attempted hit on Fidel Castro, which Rosselli helped design, and then, according to the authors, a key role (as far as the fraying trail can be followed) in the Kennedy assassination (one eyewitness even places Rosselli in Dealey Plaza that fateful day). Filled with tidbits both salacious and violent (JFK's inauguration-night orgy, the disposition of Rosselli's bullet- heavy, dismembered corpse), but successful above all in its scary sense of how Rosselli epitomizes the dark side of the American dream. (Sixteen b&w photographs—not seen.)

Pub Date: Sept. 16, 1991

ISBN: 0-385-26676-6

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1991

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THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS

FROM MEAN STREETS TO WALL STREET

Well-told and admonitory.

Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.

Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.

Well-told and admonitory.

Pub Date: June 1, 2006

ISBN: 0-06-074486-3

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006

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BLACK BOY

A RECORD OF CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH

This autobiography might almost be said to supply the roots to Wright's famous novel, Native Son.

It is a grim record, disturbing, the story of how — in one boy's life — the seeds of hate and distrust and race riots were planted. Wright was born to poverty and hardship in the deep south; his father deserted his mother, and circumstances and illness drove the little family from place to place, from degradation to degradation. And always, there was the thread of fear and hate and suspicion and discrimination — of white set against black — of black set against Jew — of intolerance. Driven to deceit, to dishonesty, ambition thwarted, motives impugned, Wright struggled against the tide, put by a tiny sum to move on, finally got to Chicago, and there — still against odds — pulled himself up, acquired some education through reading, allied himself with the Communists — only to be thrust out for non-conformity — and wrote continually. The whole tragedy of a race seems dramatized in this record; it is virtually unrelieved by any vestige of human tenderness, or humor; there are no bright spots. And yet it rings true. It is an unfinished story of a problem that has still to be met.

Perhaps this will force home unpalatable facts of a submerged minority, a problem far from being faced.

Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1945

ISBN: 0061130249

Page Count: 450

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1945

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