Joseph Bruno's Blog, page 40
February 16, 2014
Joe Bruno’s “Mobsters, Gangs, Crooks, and Other Creeps – Volume 5 – Girlfriends and Wives” is free today on Amazon.com
Joe Bruno’s “Mobsters, Gangs, Crooks, and Other Creeps – Volume 5 – Girlfriends and Wives” is free today on Amazon.com.
The average review on Amazon is 4.4 stars out of 5.
It’s is presently ranked #1 in the free category of “Criminals.”
To grab your free copy, click the link below.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CJWTV5M
February 14, 2014
Joe Bruno’s Article For Boxing.com – Re: Boxing Promoter Don King
The King and I
By Joe Bruno on February 14, 2014
After almost four decades of hearing about Don King’s poor victims in boxing, it’s time to tell about someone who finally got over on the “Electric Hair Wonder” and lived to tell about it. His name is Little Old Me.
In the winter of 1979, I was hired by The News World in New York City (owned by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, who now owns The Washington Times) to do a full page of boxing every week on the News World’s Sport’s Monday section. This daily newspaper only had a circulation of 75,000 a day, a mere pittance compared to the New York Times’ one million a day circulation.
So, the editors of The News World decided to do something the Times would never do to grab part of the Gray Old Lady’s mostly liberal readership, and my boxing page fired their first salvo. At the time, no other daily paper in New York City employed a full-time boxing writer, and the Monday boxing page was an immediate success. So much so, advertisers were lining up to take ads to appear on the boxing page.
Bob Arum placed the first ad, publicizing his new Tuesday Night Boxing fight card on ESPN. Not to be outdone by his arch enemy, Don King decided he wanted a piece of the action too, but I didn’t realize that piece included a piece of me.
King took a ridiculously bold and brazen ad that ran the full top of my boxing page. The ad consisted of a silhouetted drawing of a parade led by a man with tall hair waving the American Flag. The headline over the parade read: “Don King’s American Dream.” And in small letters under the drawing was, “By Joe Bruno.”
I almost swallowed my Underwood when I saw the ad the first week. Although it didn’t explicitly say so, it certainly inferred that I now worked for Don King.
I ran to the publisher of the News World, a Moonie, who before he was publisher used to clean the News World’s toilets, and demanded that the word “advertisement” be placed between the ad and my name, to removed me from any connection to King, other than the fact that he advertised on my page. The publisher agreed, and for one week “advertisement” did appear where I demanded that it did.
The second week all hell broke loose.
The story I heard was King personally called the paper and said he would not pay the second and last installment of his fee for 52 (one year) weekly ads, if the word “advertisement” was not removed immediately. He had paid a reported ten grand up front, and still owed another forty grand to the newspaper. The ad executive (not a Moonie), who sold King the ad, then informed me that if I didn’t like the arrangement he had made with King, I could certainly seek employment elsewhere.
So for the next four weeks, I ate crow, and believe me it did not taste like chicken.
Then King, as per the agreement, coughed up the final forty grand.
I’d love to say it was my idea, but the truth is the great sports columnist Dick Young taught me a way to get even with Don King, who had only four years earlier been released after seven years in jail for manslaughter. (King was later pardoned by outgoing Governor George Rhodes, in an act of government that stunk worse than the Fulton Fish Market).
Dick Young asked me, “Has your paper told you to write only nice things about Don King?”
I said, “No, but let me make sure anyway.”
I went back to the publisher, who was now as happy as a pig in shit because he had fifty grand of King’s cash, and asked point blank, “Can I write anything I want about Don King under Don King’s American Dream?’”
The Moonie bastard said, “Joe, we got King’s money. Write what you want.”
And so I did.
So, for the next three weeks, I dug up every nasty item I could find on King, and believe me there were plenty, and I displayed them for all to see under “Don King’s American Dream.”
I started with items like: “With his fists and his feet, Don King brutally beat Samuel Garrett to death in Cleveland in 1966 because Garrett couldn’t pay King the $500 he owed King on a usurious loan. King spent the next seven years in jail after his conviction for manslaughter.” “King did this. King did that. King screwed this fighter. King screwed that fighter. King……. blah, blah, blah, blah…….”
Well, you get the message, and so did Don King.
“Don King’s American Dream” became “Don King’s Nightmare,” and after three weeks of getting abused under his own ad, King withdrew “Don King’s American Dream” after the ad ran only six weeks, even though King had already paid for an entire 52 weeks.
So, to paraphrase what Claude Rains told Bogart at the end of Casablanca, it became the start of a long and unrewarding relationship for the King and I.
Joe Bruno is the author of 17 books, including “Mobsters, Gangs, Crooks, and Other Creeps – Volumes 1-5” and “Whitey Bulger – The Biggest Rat.” Joe Bruno’s Amazon Author Page can here seen here. Also visit his blog, “Joe Bruno on the Mob.”
http://www.boxing.com/the_king_and_i.html
“Parable of the Cafones” is a short story written by my friend and editor Larry Venturato
“Parable of the Cafones” is a short story written by my friend Larry Venturato. The story appeared in a recent edition of VIA. For those of you who don’t understand the term “cafone,” it is an Italian word meaning a peasant, but it is often used instead as a slang reference to an uncouth person or a person who is an embarrassment to himself or others.
Check it out:
http://tinyurl.com/cafones-parable
February 13, 2014
Another 5-star review for Joe Bruno’s “Mobsters, Gangs, Crooks, and Other Creeps-Volume 1 – New York City”
Another 5-star review for Joe Bruno’s “Mobsters, Gangs, Crooks, and Other Creeps-Volume 1 – New York City.”
This review was posted on Amazon/UK.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent!!!
11 Feb 2014
By KEVIN NAGBERI
Amazon Verified Purchase
This review is from: “Mobsters, Gangs, Crooks, and Other Creeps-Volume 1 – New York City” (Kindle Edition)
“Brilliant. I was hooked from the first page. Joe Bruno has a delightful way of painting images and characters of the past. I am definitely going to download the other volumes in this series.”
"Mobsters, Gangs, Crooks and Other Creeps-Volume 1 – New York City"
February 12, 2014
Joe Bruno has 12 of the top 20 Books on Amazon.com in the category “Hot New Releases in Biographies & Memoirs of Criminals”
Joe Bruno has 12 of the top 20 Books on Amazon.com in the category “Hot New Releases in Biographies & Memoirs of Criminals.”
“Mobsters, Gangs, Crooks, and Other Creeps-Volume 1 – New York City” is ranked highest at #1.
"Mobsters, Gangs, Crooks and Other Creeps-Volume 1 – New York City"
February 11, 2014
Joe Bruno has six of the top nine books On Amazon/Canada in the category “Hot New Releases – Gangs
Joe Bruno has six of the top nine books on Amazon/Canada in the category “Hot New Releases – Gangs.
“Mobsters, Gangs, Crooks, and Other Creeps-Volume 1″ is ranked #1, Volume 3 is ranked #2, and Volume 2 is ranked #3.
"Mobsters, Gangs, Crooks and Other Creeps-Volume 1 – New York City"
http://www.amazon.ca/gp/new-releases/books/929372/ref=zg_bs_tab_t_bsnr
February 10, 2014
Former Boxing Writers Association V.P. Joe Bruno Comments on Boxing.com Concerning the BWA
I wrote the column below for boxing.com. It pertains to my feelings about the Boxing Writers Association, of which I was a member from 1979-90, and the vice president from 1982-1986.
The More Things Change
By Joe Bruno on February 9, 2014
Joe Bruno awards Marvelous Marvin Hagler the BWAA Fighter of the Year Award in 1985.
I was a member of Boxing Writers Association of America from 1979-90, and I was its Vice President from 1882-1986. The conflict of interest Ted Sares wrote about Tom Hauser is certainly nothing new.
In the early 1980s we had Rich Rose and Irving Rudd as full-time voting members. They both worked for Bob Arum. Then we had Murray Goodman and Bobby Goodman. They worked for Don King. The treasurer was New York State Athletic Commission member Marvin Kohn, and the secretary was Tommy Kenville, who worked for Madison Square Garden.
All of these men mentioned above, except Kohn, who was a publicist before, worked in the public relations department for their bosses.
There were also several other members who were freelance publicists. The famed Harold Conrad comes to mind. If I remember correctly, about half of our 50 odd members actually wrote about the sport of boxing.
I complained constantly that the publicists should not be able to vote for our yearly awards, and certainly should not able to make nominations. I was ignored, and we constantly had men like Goodman and Rudd nominate fighters, whom their bosses promoted, for awards.
And oh yes, I knew Tom Hauser. I found him to be condescending and a person who went out of his way to not be friendly.
So in summation, you’re banging your head against a stone wall trying the make the BWAA an honorable organization. Because of their perpetual conflicts of interest, this is an impossibility.
Like I said up top, the more things change…the more they remain the same.
Joe Bruno is the author of 17 books, including “Mobsters, Gangs, Crooks, and Other Creeps – Volumes 1-5” and “Whitey Bulger – The Biggest Rat.” Joe Bruno’s Amazon Author Page can here seen here. Also visit his blog, “Joe Bruno on the Mob.”
http://www.boxing.com/the_more_things_change.html
February 9, 2014
Joe Bruno had nine of the top twenty ranked books on Amazon.com in the category “Hot New Releases – Biographies & Memoirs of Criminals.”
Joe Bruno had nine of the top twenty ranked books on Amazon.com in the category “Hot New Releases – Biographies & Memoirs of Criminals.”
“Mobsters, Gangs, Crooks, and Other Creeps-Volume 1 – New York City” is ranked #1.
“Mobsters, Gangs, Crooks, and Other Creeps – Volume 1″ was the runner up in the 2013 eFestival of Words Best of the Independent Book Awards in the category “General Nonfiction.”
And it’s only 99 cents on Amazon Kindle and discounted to $8.96 in paperback.
"Mobsters, Gangs, Crooks and Other Creeps-Volume 1 – New York City"
February 7, 2014
“Joe Bruno’s Mobsters – Five Volume Set” is on sale at Amazon.com for $1.99
“Joe Bruno’s Mobsters – Five Volume Set” is on sale at Amazon.com for $1.99. That’s a 33% savings on the normal price. It runs about 800 pages, so you’ll get bang for your two bucks.
Below is a review posted on Amazon.com:
“Although I am certain that not every mobster, gang and crook was covered the author sure didn’t miss many. Even though some overlapped from book to book it remained interesting. I especially liked the history of the New York police departments around 1865. It closely followed the story line on the BBC TV series Copper. Highly recommend this book.”
February 5, 2014
Another five star-review for Joe Bruno’s “Whitey Bulger – The Biggest Rat”
Another five star-review for Joe Bruno’s “Whitey Bulger – The Biggest Rat.” This one was posted on Goodreads.com.
Marcella Tadeo rated it 5 of 5 stars
“I have to agree that Whitey Bulger was the biggest rat, and nobody likes a rat. I tried to say that last sentence with menace. I hope it came through.
The book is surprising for how much loyalty the man inspired when he was turning everyone over to the feds. What a hypocrite. No honor among thieves and all that, yada-yada.
I thought the book was very well researched. It was full of details and facts one could look up if one were inclined. It was presented without contempt. Just the facts. The facts were enough to prove the title is correct.”
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EZCFVNU
