My Washington Times Review Of 'The Last Pirate of New York: A Ghost Ship, A Killer, And The Birth Of A Gangster Nation'

The Washington Times published my review of The Last Pirate of New York: A Ghost Ship, A Killer, and the Birth of a Gangster Nation.

I loved Rod Serling’s “The Twilight Zone” when I was a teenager in the 1960s.

One episode I recall was “The New Exhibit,” in which Martin Balsam portrayed the curator of “Murderer’s Row” in a wax museum who later goes mad. The TV program opened with the curator speaking to a group of visitors about the wax figures of infamous killers, such as Jack the Ripper. The first murderer the curator introduced was an infamous sailor who murdered his fellow crew members in 1860. The ferocious, life-like, ax-wielding wax figure glared angrily at the museum visitors.    

And that was my introduction to Albert Hicks, the subject of Rich Cohen’s book, “The Last Pirate of New York: A Ghost Ship, a Killer, and the Birth of a Gangster Nation.”

Mr. Cohen notes that while other children heard fairy tales, his father told him tales about the criminal legends of his New York childhood, such as Louis “Lepke” Buchalter and “Charlie Lucky” Luciano. As a writer, he later discovered that criminals had also grown up on gangster stories told by their fathers.

“It gave me a mission, inspired a quest: I would track down and name and chronicle the very first New York gangster, the man behind all the other legends,” Mr. Cohen writes.

Monk Eastman is considered to have been the first, and then there was Bill “The Butcher” Poole (both of whom were featured in Martin Scorsese’s “Gangs of New York”). Mr. Cohen wondered who they were told stories about?

“Albert Hicks is the closest thing the New York underworld has to a Cain, the first killer and the first banished man, carrying that dread mark: MURDER,” Mr. Cohen explains. “He operated in a city so similar to and yet so different from our own, the word gangster had not yet been coined. He was called a pirate.”   

You can read the rest of the review via the below link:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/aug/8/book-review-last-pirate-new-york/

The Lies Of the Irishman: Netflix And Martin Scorsese Are Making Their Biggest Bets Ever On The Confessions Of A Mafia “Hitman” - The Guy Made It All Up.

In a previous post, I stated that I was looking forward to watching Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman on Netflix, as the film stars Robert De Niro (who is half-Irish), Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel and a cast of other fine actors. 

I love Martin Scorsese’s crime films, such as Goodfellas, Mean Streets and Casino. Goodfellas, in my view, is the best crime film ever made.    

I'm also looking forward to watching The Irishman as I'm from South Philly and the film has a South Philadelphia connection.

But, as I noted in the post, I’ll view The Irishman as a work of fiction.

The Late Frank Sheeran was a Philadelphia Teamster and a low-level crook who confessed in a book, I heard You Paint Houses, that he murdered former Teamster president Jimmy Hoffa, and New York mobster “Crazy Joe” Gallo. He makes other claims in the book as well. 

I don’t believe a word of it. 

I interviewed former Philadelphia Cosa Nostra boss Ralph Natale, and when I asked him about Sheeran’s claims, he responded, “Let me tell you about Frank Sheeran. He’s nothing but a drunk and he imagines things. He begged for me to see him when I was home and I did. I went over to South Philly and I met him there. He was half-drunk and that was it. He said he killed Jimmy Hoffa. I know who killed Hoffa. I have a picture in the book with me and a few of the guys from Lewisburg and one of the guys in the photos was one of the three guys who killed Hoffa. His name was Tommy Andretta. His brother was with him and there was the other guy they killed in New York, Salvatore Briguglio. This was a hit squad from “Tony Pro” Provenzano, who was my dear friend. He was a capo. I get a little angry. You know how guys claim to killed Jimmy Hoffa? I think 15.”    

Several former law enforcement officers I spoke to also dismiss Sheeran's claims.

Bill Tonelli (seen in the above photo), a writer and editor who grew up in South Philly, does a fine job of debunking Frank Sheeran’s claims in a piece at Slate.

Assuming you were alive in April 1972 and old enough to cross the street by yourself, you could take credit for the spectacular murder of mobster Crazy Joe Gallo—gunned down during his own birthday party at Umberto’s Clam House in Little Italy—and nobody could prove you didn’t do it. 

Of course, anyone who knows anything about New York City organized crime can tell you who was behind it: The murder was payback for an equally brazen shooting—in broad daylight, in midtown Manhattan—of mob boss Joseph A. Colombo Sr. a year earlier, an attack Gallo supposedly ordered (though even that no one can say with absolute certainty, since the shooter was shot dead on the spot). But no one has ever been arrested or charged in Crazy Joe’s killing, and so technically it’s still unsolved. 

The same is true about the disappearance, in July 1975, of Teamsters’ union legend Jimmy Hoffa. He had made some lethal enemies in the mob. After serving a prison term, he persisted in trying to regain control of the union even after he was warned, over and over, to back off. The last time anybody saw him, he was standing outside a restaurant in the suburbs of Detroit, waiting to be driven to what he believed would be a peace meeting. The FBI and investigative reporters have devoted decades of effort to solving the mystery, but all we have is guesswork and theories. So if you want to step up now and say you whacked him, be my guest. 

That’s the thing about these gangland slayings: When done properly, you’re not supposed to know who did them. They’re planned and carried out to surprise the victim and confound the authorities. Eyewitnesses, if there are any, prove reluctant to speak up. And nobody ever confesses, unless it’s to win easy treatment from law enforcement in exchange for ratting on other, more important mobsters. Those cases often turn into the ultimate public confessional—the as-told-to, every-gory-detail, my-life-in-crime book deal. Followed by—if you’re a really lucky lowlife—the movie version that fixes your place forever in the gangster hall of fame.

And then there’s the strange case of Frank Sheeran. 

Only if you had been paying close attention to the exploits of the South Philadelphia mafia back in its glory days (the second half of the 20th century) might you have noticed Sheeran’s existence. Even there he was a second-stringer—a local Teamsters union official, meaning he was completely crooked, who hung around with mobsters, especially Russell Bufalino, a boss from backwater Scranton, Pennsylvania. Sheeran was Irish, which limited any Cosa Nostra career ambitions he might have had, and so he seemed to be just a 6-foot-4, 250-pound gorilla with a dream. He died in obscurity, in a nursing home, in 2003. 

Then, six months later, a small publishing house in Hanover, New Hampshire, unleashed a shocker titled I Heard You Paint Houses. It was written by Charles Brandt, a medical malpractice lawyer who had helped Sheeran win early parole from prison, due to poor health, at age 71. Starting not long after that, Brandt wrote, Sheeran, nearing the end of his life, began confessing incredible secrets he had kept for decades, revealing that—far from being a bit player—he was actually the unseen figure behind some of the biggest mafia murders of all time.

Frank Sheeran said he killed Jimmy Hoffa. 

He said he killed Joey Gallo, too. 

And he said he did some other really bad things nearly as incredible. 

Most amazingly, Sheeran did all that without ever being arrested, charged, or even suspected of those crimes by any law enforcement agency, even though officials were presumably watching him for most of his adult life. To call him the Forrest Gump of organized crime scarcely does him justice. In all the history of the mafia in America or anywhere else, really, nobody even comes close. 

Now, though, Frank Sheeran is finally going to get his due. 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://slate.com/culture/2019/08/the-irishman-scorsese-netflix-movie-true-story-lies.html

You can also read my previous post on The Irishman via the below link:

www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2019/08/netflix-releases-trailer-for-martin.html

And you can also read my Q&A with Ralph Natale via the below link: 

www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2017/04/my-crime-beat-column-my-q-with-ralph.html 

And you can read my Crime Beat column, Goodfellas Don’t Sue Goodfellas; A Look Back at Organized Crime and the Philly Mob, via the below link:

www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2011/09/goodfellas-dont-sue-goodfellas-look.html 

My Washington Times Piece On Fighting The Scourge Of Drugs: El Chapo Rots In Prison, But The War On Drugs Must Go On

The Washington Times published my piece on the scourge of drugs.

The capture, extradition from Mexico, trial and imprisonment of Joaquin Guzman, better known as El Chapo (Shorty in Spanish), was a major blow to the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel. The drug lord will spend the rest of his life in an American Supermax prison.

Those who advocate an end to America’s war on drugs say the effort to combat drugs is pointless and fruitless, and the imprisonment of Guzman will not stop or even slow drug trafficking.Meet the new boss, same as the old boss, as the saying goes. Or perhaps not.

Guzman was an extraordinary criminal. He was brutal, inspirational, clever, ruthless, organized, innovative and murderous. According to the U.S. Justice Department, the evidence at his trial showed that he was responsible for importing and distributing more than a million kilograms of cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine and heroin into the United States.

Guzman used fishing boats, submarines, carbon fiber airplanes, underground tunnels and other methods to bring in the drugs, which were then sold to wholesale criminal distributors in New York, Miami, Atlanta, and other major cities and centers.

Guzman used violence to solidify his power. Witnesses testified that he ordered his hitmen to kidnap, torture and slaughter people who stood in his way, and he performed violent acts personally as well. In addition to spreading poison, Guzman also corrupted government officials.

We can hope that his replacement will be far less efficient.

Facing rampant drug abuse and increasing drug-related crime, President Richard Nixon announced at a press conference on June 17, 1971, that drugs were “public enemy number one.”

“In order to fight and defeat this enemy,” the president said. “It is necessary to wage a new, all-out offensive.”  

And so the war on drugs began.

The ACLU has repeatedly called for an end to the efforts to curb drug trafficking and the use of dangerous narcotics. The ACLU states that the war on drugs has cost more than a trillion dollars over the years and has had little or no effect on the supply of or demand for drugs in America.

The ACLU believes drugs should be a health issue rather than a crime. The ACLU believes America should use the money spent on fighting drugs to treat drug addicts. They and others state that the war on drugs is a failure, as after all these years, we have not eliminated drug trafficking, drug dealing and drug using. 

This, to me, would be akin to the idea of legalizing homicide simply because some people continue to get away with murder. 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/aug/6/fighting-scourge-drugs/

Emperors Of The Deep: Sharks - The Ocean's Most Mysterious, Most Misunderstood, And Most Important Guardian

As a young man, I’ve gone scuba diving around the world. I’ve been in the ocean with sharks on numerous occasions, and only once did I feel I was in danger, and that was off Key West, Florida when I came near a Tiger Shark. 

I've always enjoyed watching this great and sometimes frightening creature patrol in the open sea and I enjoy watching documentaries about sharks and reading books about the great sea predator.

Carol Herman, my editor at the Washington Times, offers a good review of a book on sharks, Emperors of the Deep.

There are goals, and there are death-defying goals. “I want to shift the perception of sharks from cold-blooded underwater predators to evolutionary marvels that play an integral part in maintaining the health of the world’s oceans, because this is the only way I know how to protect the species and save the world’s oceans,” writes William McKeever in the introduction to his extraordinary book “Emperors of the Deep: Sharks — The Ocean’s Most Mysterious, Most Misunderstood and Most Important Guardians.”

In a survey that takes Mr. McKeever across the world’s oceans, readers are treated to a close look at the very big fish immortalized in “Jaws” and are given a chance to replace raw dread with the appreciation of what the author posits as one of nature’s most misunderstood creatures. And while sharks still petrify this reader, there’s no doubt that Mr. McKeever makes a glorious — and eloquent — case for why the shark’s beauty, majesty and complexity should be respected.

You can read the rest of the review via the below link:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/aug/6/book-review-emperors-deep/

My Washington Times Review of 'Game Of Snipers: A Bob Lee Swagger Novel'

The Washington Times published my review of Game of Snipers.

Stephen Hunter has published his 12th Bob Lee Swagger novel, “Game of Snipers: A Bob Lee Swagger Novel,” which has the popular character pitted against an equally skilled and practiced professional sniper.

The reticent, rangy and retired rifleman, a former U.S. Marine Corps Vietnam War sniper known as “Bob the Nailer,” still manages to become involved actively in action plots and new tests of his specialized skill as a sniper.

Bob Lee Swagger has been portrayed by Mark Wahlberg in “Shooter,” a 2007 film based on Stephen Hunter’s 1993 thriller “Point of Impact,” and by Ryan Phillippe in the “Shooter” TV series. I enjoyed the film and TV series, but both actors were too young and short to fit Stephen Hunter’s description of Bob Lee Swagger as a tall, lean, grizzled and slow-talking but fast-thinking “Arkansas hick” with a hip replacement and assorted other combat injuries.

To me, there is one actor who can best portray the 72-year-old sniper, and that is Clint Eastwood. As Clint Eastwood at 89 is still acting in films he directs, such as 2008’s “The Mule,” I’d like to see him direct a film based on “Game of Snipers” and portray Bob Lee Swagger.

Until then, one can enjoy reading about Bob Lee Swagger in this new novel. In the opening of “Game of Snipers,” Bob Lee Swagger is resting on a rocker on the porch of his Idaho ranch when Janet McDowell arrives unannounced and unwelcomed. 

“Ma’am,” he called. “Just so you know: this is private property, and I’m not what you call a public fellow. If you’re selling, I’m not buying. If you’re interviewing, I’m not talking. And if you’re campaigning, I don’t vote. But if you’re lost, I will happily give you directions, and a glass of water,” Mr. Hunter writes.

“I’m not lost, Mr. Swagger — Sergeant Swagger. It took me days to find out where you lived. I know you don’t like interruptions, and there’s no reason you should, but I would claim the right to a hearing because of the circumstances”

 “Well,“ he said, thinking, oh, Lord what now?

“My son. Lance Corporal Thomas McDowell, sniper, 3/8. Baghdad, 2003. Came home to me in a box.”

And Mom wants the sniper who killed him dead.

… Bob Lee Swagger accompanies the Mossad on a raid that delivers some of the answers to these questions and suggests that the sniper is heading to America. Bob Lee Swagger once again becomes a gun consultant on the FBI/Mossad team as the manhunt for Juba in America begins.

The most important aspect of Stephen Hunter’s Bob Lee Swagger thrillers is guns. Mr. Hunter gets guns — and he gets guns right. As a gun enthusiast and shooter, he knows guns.     

You can read the rest of the review via the below link:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/aug/5/book-review-game-snipers-bob-lee-swagger-novel/ 

Trump Promises Action On Gun Violence After Two Mass Shootings - 'This Is Mental Health Illness'

Dave Boyer and David Sherfinski at the Washington Times offers a piece on President Trump’s reaction to the mass shootings in Texas and Ohio.

President Trump said Sunday he will announce steps to stop gun violence, as top Democrats raced to blame him for fomenting two mass shootings this weekend in Texas and Ohio with a toxic stew of violence and white nationalism, and pressed him for quick action on gun control.

After conferring Sunday with Attorney General William Barr, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, state officials and lawmakers, the president said he will outline his proposals around 10 a.m. Monday.

“We’re going to take care of it,” Mr. Trump told reporters in New Jersey before returning to Washington. “A lot of things are in the works. I’ve spoken to members of Congress about whatever we can do, and a lot of things are being done right now as we speak.”

He suggested that part of his approach will focus on mental health laws and gun ownership.

“This is also a mental illness problem,” Mr. Trump said. “If you look at both of these cases, this is mental illness. These are really people that are very, very seriously mentally ill.”

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/aug/4/trump-addresses-mass-shootings-proposals-address-m/

Heather Mac Donald: There Is No Epidemic Of Racist Police Shootings

Heather Mac Donald, (seen in the below photo), the Thomas W. Smith fellow at the Manhattan Institute and the author of The Diversity Delusion and the War On Cops offers a piece tin National Review debunking the idea of an epidemic of racist police shootings.   

The Democratic presidential candidates have revived the anti-police rhetoric of the Obama years. Joe Biden’s criminal-justice plan promises that after his policing reforms, black mothers and fathers will no longer have to fear when their children “walk[] the streets of America” — the threat allegedly coming from cops, not gangbangers. President Barack Obama likewise claimed during the memorial for five Dallas police officers killed by a Black Lives Matter–inspired assassin in July 2016 that black parents were right to fear that their child could be killed by a police officer whenever he “walks out the door.” South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg has said that police shootings of black men won’t be solved “until we move policing out from the shadow of systemic racism.” Beto O’Rourke claims that the police shoot blacks “solely based on the color of their skin.”

A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences demolishes the Democratic narrative regarding race and police shootings, which holds that white officers are engaged in an epidemic of racially biased shootings of black men. It turns out that white officers are no more likely than black or Hispanic officers to shoot black civilians. It is a racial group’s rate of violent crime that determines police shootings, not the race of the officer. The more frequently officers encounter violent suspects from any given racial group, the greater the chance that members of that racial group will be shot by a police officer. In fact, if there is a bias in police shootings after crime rates are taken into account, it is against white civilians, the study found.

The authors, faculty at Michigan State University and the University of Maryland at College Park, created a database of 917 officer-involved fatal shootings in 2015 from more than 650 police departments. Fifty-five percent of the victims were white, 27 percent were black, and 19 percent were Hispanic. Between 90 and 95 percent of the civilians shot by officers in 2015 were attacking police or other citizens; 90 percent were armed with a weapon. So-called threat-misperception shootings, in which an officer shoots an unarmed civilian after mistaking a cellphone, say, for a gun, were rare.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/07/white-cops-dont-commit-more-shootings/

You can also read my Crime Beat column Q&A with Heather Mac Donald via the below link:

www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2017/07/my-crime-beat-column-war-on-cops.html