As I noted in a previous post, a friend and
fellow Navy veteran who visited Olongapo in the Philippines while serving in
Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War asked to read Olongapo, the crime novel I’ve written and hope to soon publish.
I told him that I had posted five of the
chapters on my website, and he asked that I repost the
chapters.
Below is chapter two, Salvatore Lorino.
The below story originally appeared in American Crime
Magazine.
Salvatore Lorino
By Paul
Davis
I was standing
at the bar in a South Philadelphia bar & grill drinking a glass of Sambuca
and thinking about my time in Olongapo so long ago. I was waiting for an old
Kitty Hawk shipmate to join me.
I knew Salvatore Lorino
slightly before we served together in the U.S. Navy, as we were both raised in
the same South Philadelphia neighborhood. Our row home neighborhood was clean
and well-maintained back in the 1960s, as it remains today, but back in the
1960s there were a dozen or so troublesome teenage street corner gangs that
kept the police busy. I ran with one of the teenage street corner gangs and
Lorino ran with another corner gang a few blocks away.
Although the gangs rarely
bothered the neighbors, other than with late night noise, the gangs were often
in conflict – mostly over girls and perceived insults - and they fought one
another in schoolyards, playgrounds and parks. The worst of these teenage gangs
served as breeding grounds for future adult criminals. This was especially true
of the street corner gang at Dalton Street and Oregon Avenue.
Called the “D&O,” the
South Philly teenage gang spawned drug dealers, burglars, car thieves,
gamblers, armed robbers, and an enterprising hoodlum named Salvatore
Lorino.
As South Philadelphia was the
hub of the Philadelphia-South Jersey Cosa Nostra organized
crime family, the more criminally ambitious South Philly teenage gang members,
like Lorino, graduated from the street corners to the bars and nightclubs owned
and operated by the local mobsters.
I remember Lorino as being
about six feet tall, lean, with black hair and rugged features. I recall that
he had a long face and a perpetual lopsided grin that served to alternately
charm and menace.
Although Lorino was more than
five years older than I, we both coincidentally entered the Navy in 1970. I
enlisted at age 17 in a patriotic fever, coupled with a strong desire to see
the world. Lorino had a strong desire to avoid a term in the state penitentiary.
So when a judge gave him a choice between prison and the military, he chose the
Navy.
In February of 1970, Lorino
and I reported to the Naval Recruit Training Center, informally called “Boot
Camp,” in Great Lakes, Illinois. We were assigned to different recruit
companies, but I saw him during our training from time to time and we exchanged
greetings. After graduating from Boot Camp, Lorino and I received orders to
report to the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk, CVA-63.
In November of 1970, we
shoved off from San Diego and sailed to Southeast Asia for the Kitty Hawk’s
fifth WESTPAC (Western Pacific) combat cruise.
Although I was assigned to
the Communications Radio Division and Lorino was assigned to the Deck
Department, he often stopped by our berthing compartment and visited me. My
friends in the division got a kick out of Lorino’s engaging personality and
roguish demeanor.
Lorino gained quite a
reputation aboard the carrier. He was an aggressive predator. He conned naive
and gullible sailors out of their pay. He gambled, cheated and hustled. A large
ship like the Kitty Hawk allowed Lorino to be constantly on the move, like a
shark.
Despite his criminal
proclivities, he was a popular guy throughout the ship. Even the chiefs who
failed to get much work out of him could not help but like him. He was
gregarious and amusing, and most of the sailors on the ship reluctantly
accepted his larcenous bent.
Salvatore Lorino’s short
military career ended in 1971 when he left the USS Kitty Hawk in handcuffs,
escorted by special agents from the Naval Investigative Service.
So when after all these
years, I heard his rapid-fire, raspy voice on my voice mail, I was taken aback.
His message said he happened to see my crime column in the local newspaper and
called the telephone number listed. He suggested we meet somewhere for a drink,
and he left his telephone number. I was curious, so I called him back and
agreed to meet him.
I told Lorino to meet me at
the Bomb Bomb bar and grill in South Philly. The bar was so
named because after the corner taproom opened in 1936, local racketeers
were not happy with a competing bar in the Italian American neighborhood. So
they planted a bomb that exploded on a Sunday morning when the bar was closed.
Despite the bombing, the owner was not scared off. A second bomb was later
planted and exploded in the bar. But the bar remained open, and it is still
operating today.
The Bomb Bomb was typical
of a South Philly eatery; friendly and unpretentious, with relatively
inexpensive and good Italian food.
As I was sipping my Sambuca
and thinking of my time with my old shipmate, Lorino walked into the bar with
his old swagger and oversize personality. He had not changed all that much, it
seemed to me. His once dark hair was now gray, but he appeared to be the same
old Lorino. Lorino hugged me and we took a table in the back of the bar. Like
all predators, Lorino was keenly observant. He took noticed of my attire, a
light gray sport jacket, an open collar black dress shirt, black slacks and
black leather Italian loafers.
“I see you’re still a sharp
dresser,” Lorino said. “For an old guy.”
Lorino was clad in what
appeared to be an expensive sport shirt, jeans and white sneakers, and I
replied that he looked good as well – for an old guy.
Lorino also noticed my Rolex
Submariner watch held by a black leather band on my left wrist. He lightly
tapped the crystal above the watch’s black dial and white dot hour markers with
his finger.
“Nice watch.”
“It’s my prized possession. A
beautiful woman bought the watch for me on my 30th birthday,” I
explained. “I married her a month later.”
He laughed.
We ordered a bottle of red
wine and quickly dispensed with what we’ve done with our lives since our Navy
days. After the Navy, I went to Penn State for a year; he did two at the state
pen. I went to work for the Defense Department, doing security work as a
federal civilian employee; he went to work for Federal Prison Industries as a
federal inmate. I was happily married with grown children; he was happily
divorced without children. I covered crime as a reporter and columnist for the
local newspaper; he committed crime for the local mob.
We drank several glasses of
wine and I eat a generous serving of Chicken Parmigiana with Ziti.
Lorino had a large bowl of mussels with Linguini.
At the table next to us was a
young couple who looked like tourists or newcomers to South Philadelphia. As
our tables were close together, we overheard the young man say, “That was great
Italian sauce.”
Lorino titled his head
towards the couple, frowned, leaned over and poked the young man’s arm hard
with his index finger. “You’re in South Philly, cuz,” Lorino informed him. “And
in South Philly it’s called “gravy,” not sauce.”
“Sal,” I said in a low voice.
“Leave them alone.”
The couple reared back in
fright. They got up quickly, paid the waitress and hurried out.
“Fucking Medigans.”
Lorino said, using the crude insult that some Italian Americans call
non-Italians.
“You haven’t changed,” I
said. “You’re still a fucking nut.” Lorino shrugged and sipped his wine.
After our fine and filling
meal, we drank coffee and launched into swapping sea stories and reminiscing
about our time in the Navy with boyish enthusiasm. We spoke mostly about
Olongapo.
While most young American
sailors saw Olongapo as a wide-open city to have fun in, Lorino saw Olongapo as
the land of opportunity.
Lorino spoke fondly of his
adventures in Olongapo. He told me he was introduced to Olongapo by Douglas
Winston, a 2nd class Boatswain Mate that he worked for in the Kitty Hawk’s Deck
Department.
“Winston was a miserable and
annoying prick,” Lorino explained. “But you know me, I get along with everyone.”
Winston was thin but sported
a pot belly that dropped over his belt. He was about 30 but looked much older
with a craggy face and a bulbous nose. Lorino was one of the few sailors who
would associate with Winston off duty.
As the Kitty Hawk sailed from
Hawaii to Subic Bay, Winston regaled Lorino with tales of Olongapo. He told
Lorino about the great bars where one could meet great girls. Winston also told
Lorino that one could acquire anything that one could possibly want. Olongapo
knew no limitations.
“If you can’t get your nut in
Olongapo, you’re a real fucking pervert,” Winston told Lorino.
On Lorino’s first night in
Olongapo, he and Winston were drinking beers with a couple of hostesses in
the Ritz, which American sailors called the Ritz
Cracker. As Lorino was searching for a connection to buy methamphetamine in
bulk, he leaned over to one of the girls and flat out asked her where he could
score some meth.
She got up from the table and
walked away from Lorino without a word. Winston laughed. After a few minutes, a
portly Filipino with shaggy black hair came over, sat down and said his name
was Reeinald Bulan.
“Hey, Joe, you want to buy
shabu?”
“Shabu? Ain’t that a killer
whale in a zoo? I want to buy meth,” Lorino replied.
Bulan and Wilson laughed.
“The famous whale is Shamu,” Winston said, chuckling. Lorino
shrugged.
“Shabu is crystal meth,”
Bulan informed Lorino. "How much you want?”
Lorino pulled out his wad of
U.S. dollars. “This much.”
Bulan counted the cash in
Lorino’s hand. “That’s a lot of shabu. You wait here.”
Ten minutes later, Bulan came
back to the table and beckoned Lorino to follow him to the men’s room. As
Lorino walked behind Bulan, he slipped his knife out of his back pocket and
held it by his side. In the men’s room, Bulan handed Lorino a small U.S. Navy
Exchange paper bag. Lorino dipped his finger in, placed a bit of the meth on
his finger and snorted the meth. It was very good. Lorino handed over the money.
Bulan smiled and told Lorino
to have a beer on him. “You want girl for the night?”
“No thanks, but I’ll take a
beer.”
Lorino felt the stimulating
effects of the meth, even though he had snorted only a small portion. Lorino
drank the beer down, thanked Bulan, and said he’ll be back to do more business.
Bulan shook his shaggy hair and grinned like a mad fool.
Lorino left Winston at the
bar and walked happily down Magsaysay Drive. A Filipino in a short-sleeved
shirt and jeans suddenly appeared before Lorino, blocking his path. The
Filipino held up a badge in his left hand and a revolver in his right. Lorino
stopped and looked the Filipino cop in the eye. A second officer came up behind
Lorino and placed his firearm in the small of Lorino’s back.
“Hand over the shabu, sailor
boy.”
Lorino frowned and then
handed the Navy Exchange paper bag to the police officer in front of him.
“You cops are the same all
over the world,” Lorino said disdainfully. “Bigger crooks than us.”
“You want to go to prison,
sailor boy?”
“Fuck no.”
“Then go back to ship and
don’t come back here.”
The two police officers
laughed, pocketed the paper bag, and walked into the Ritz. Fuck,
Lorino muttered to himself. Bulan and these crooked cops didn’t even try to
hide the rip-off. Lorino walked across Magsaysay Drive, dodging jeepneys, and
went into another bar. He brushed off the girls who approached him and went
directly to the bar. He beckoned the bartender to come over.
“Where can I buy a baseball
bat?”
Lorino had a beer as the
bartender produced a baseball bat from under the bar. Lorino paid him. He
weighed the bat in his hands and smiled. Lorino planned to go all “South
Philly” on the two crooked cops and Reeinald Bulan.
After he downed his drink,
Lorino walked back across the street to the Ritz with the
baseball bat in his hand. He didn’t see Winston or Bulan anywhere when he
walked in, but he saw the two cops drinking at the bar with their backs to him.
Lorino walked up to them and
struck the two officers repeatedly across their heads and shoulders with the
baseball bat. The Filipino police officers dropped to the floor in blood
puddles. They never had the chance to draw their weapons.
As the bar girls screamed and
the American sailors backed away, Lorino leaned over and dug into the cops’
pockets, looking for his meth. He did not hear Bulan come up behind him, but he
felt the sharp pain in his back from a knife.
The pain was sheering, but
Lorino was able to turn around quickly, and he swung the bat at Bulan’s knees.
The Filipino drug dealer fell to the floor. Lorino struck Bulan’s knees again
and again as the drug dealer wiggled and screamed in pain on the floor. Lorino
reached down and pulled the Navy Exchange bag from the Filipino’s pants pocket.
Lorino got up, dropped the
baseball bat, and despite his knife wound, he walked calmly out of the bar and
walked two blocks down to the Starlight, another bar that
Winston told him about. He found Winston there and Lorino sat down,
leaned over and told Winston that he would cut him in on his new drug
trafficking enterprise on the carrier if the petty officer would store the
shabu on the ship until he returned. Winston agreed happily.
Lorino passed the paper bag
to Winston. He then asked Winston to hail a jeepney and take him to the base
hospital.
Lorino missed the Kitty
Hawk’s next Yankee Station line period, as he was recuperating from his knife
wound in the Subic Bay base hospital. He told the investigating NIS special
agent who visited him that he was drunk and no idea who stabbed him. Raised in
South Philly’s Cosa Nostra organized crime culture, Lorino
would never speak to cop, so he didn’t tell the special agent about Bulan.
After Lorino’s release from
the hospital, he was temporarily assigned to the base until the Kitty Hawk
returned to Subic Bay. In time, Lorino felt fit enough to go back into
Olongapo. He ventured to the Americano bar and sat down with a
hostess.
The waiter brought over a
beer for Lorino and a whiskey for the girl. The Americano had
an American Wild West motif and a band that played country & western music.
Lorino didn’t care for country & western music – he was a Motown R&B
fan – but he was in the Americano looking for a connection,
not entertainment.
He asked the girl about the
“Chief,” and she pointed to a nearly bald, hefty American in his 50s who stood
behind the bar. Winston had assured Lorino that the Chief, an American
expatriate and retired Navy chief petty officer, was a good guy to know in Olongapo.
Maxwell Walker, originally
from Arizona, told everyone to call him “Chief” as he said he was a retired
U.S. Navy chief petty officer. He also told people that he was the owner of
the Americano. Neither was true.
Although he did in fact
retired from the U.S. Navy after 20 years of service, he never achieved the
rank of chief petty officer. He retired at the next lower grade, a 1st Class
Boatswain Mate, but he liked being called chief, so he promoted himself in
retirement. And he was not the owner of the Americano. He was
an employee, hired to lure in American sailors. His Filipina wife, a former
hostess, was the Americano’s mama-san.
Lorino went up to the bar and
introduced himself to Walker. He told the chief that Winston told him that the
chief could hook him up.
“So, you’re friend of
Winston’s?”
“Yeah, we work in the Kitty
Hawk’s Deck Department. He told me I could get a gun here.”
“Why do you want a gun?”
“My business.”
“If I sell you a gun, it
becomes my business.”
Lorino told Walker the story
of the rip-off and how he was stabbed by Bulan. He told Walker how he beat the
cops and Bulan with a bat, but he now wanted payback for the stabbing.
“Yeah, I heard about that,”
Walker said laughing. “Reeinald is a piece of shit. If you want good shabu, I
can fix you up with some people here. Look, ya still looking to score good
shabu?”
“Yeah. I got plans to go into
business on the Kitty Hawk.”
“Tell ya what, I’ll give you
a gun. Do what you have to do with it and then toss it in Shit River. Come back
here and we can do shabu business.”
Lorino took the gun, a .38
Smith and Wesson revolver with a two-inch barrel. He hefted the firearm in his
hand. Lorino thanked Walker and left the Americano. He walked
down Magsaysay Drive to the Ritz. He brushed aside the girls
who rushed up to him and looked around for Bulan.
He spotted Bulan sitting at a
table with a pair of crutches leaning against his chair. Without a word, Lorino
walked up to Bulan briskly, pulled out the .38 revolver from his waistband and
shot the Filipino drug dealer once in the left foot and once in the right knee.
As Bulan lay screaming in pain on the floor. the bar patrons and employees all
backed away from the shots.
Lorino walked calmly out of
the bar and onto Magsaysay Drive.
“Gotta love Olongapo,” Lorino
said loudly and happily to two passing sailors.
© 2022 By Paul Davis
Note: You can read the other posted chapters via
the below links:
Paul Davis On
Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'Butterfly'
Paul Davis On
Crime: My Crime Fiction: The Old Huk
Paul Davis On
Crime: My Crime Fiction: Join The Navy And See Olongapo
Paul Davis On
Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'Boots On The Ground'
