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The Mafia and the Gays meticulously documents how the mob controlled gay bars for decades in New York and Chicago due to their once illicit status, and relies upon an extensive collection of primary sources including FBI files many of which were not publicly available until acquired by author Phillip Crawford Jr. through the Freedom of Information Act.
Mr. Crawford illustrates how the gay bars historically were integrated into the Mafia rackets. For example, the establishments often were financed through mob-tied coin-op vendors and their related loan companies. Jukebox king Alfred Miniaci funded dozens of gay bars and other joints controlled by the Mafia in the 1950s and 1960s including the Peppermint Lounge. Miniaci supplied slot machines in the 1930s to Frank Costello, and had dined with the mob boss on the May 2, 1957 night he was shot. Gay bars sometimes served as drug drops. Forget about the pizza connection; this was the pansy connection. Club 82 in New York's East Village was a popular club with drag revues, and in the 1950s also was part of the distribution network in the Genovese family's heroin trade for which boss Vito was convicted in 1959.
Gay bars were profit centers for all the Mafia families. Among the powerful mobsters who oversaw vast interests in LGBT nightlife were Gambino underboss Aniello Dellacroce, Genovese capo Matty Ianniello, Colombo underboss Sonny Franzese in New York and Joseph DiVarco who ran the Rush Street crew on the Near North Side for the Outfit in Chicago. The Mafia had ties to some of the most iconic gay establishments including the Continental Baths in the Hotel Ansonia from 1969 to 1976 on the Upper West Side which received protection from the Colombo family in exchange for installing its vending machines. Continental owner Steve Ostrow – a classically-trained opera singer – developed such close ties with Joe Colombo that he was performing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the June 29, 1970 Italian-American Unity Day rally in Columbus Circle when the mob boss was shot.
The LGBT community once was married to the mob out of forced necessity but after gay bars became legal the relationship often continued in many establishments out of mutual convenience. Gay bars no longer were busted simply for homosexual assembly but they still risked raids if serving as sex clubs or drug drops. Accordingly, the mob still had both services to provide and protection to offer particularly during the party decades following the Stonewall riots. If a bar had a back room for anonymous sex, operated afterhours or sold drugs or boys, then odds are it was a Mafia joint, and that involved numerous places during the 1970s and 1980s. Indeed, the Mafia hijacked gay liberation for political cover and used so-called Auntie Gays as frontmen for their bars to evade suspicion. The wiseguys allegedly even infiltrated the Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee and Christopher Street Festival Committee which ran New York City's gay pride parade and some related events for much of the 1970s and 1980s.
Over the decades there has been a fair number of gay guys in the mob's ranks including cross-dressing Genovese soldier David Petillo who once was a boy prostitute, hitman Vito Arena from Roy DeMeo's Gambino crew and DeCavalcante boss John D'Amato. There is no shortage of bad gays in The Mafia and the Gays, and most disturbing are the allegations of the mob's role in running underage boy prostitution rings.
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From lead pipes in Flint, Michigan, to a duplicitous water commission in Medford, Oregon, to a secret psychiatric ward at UCLA, to the elegant halls of the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, "At the Breaking Point of History" relentlessly details the US government's indifference to the welfare of individuals and to its legal obligations under national and international accords prohibiting human experimentation and biological and chemical weapons. Phelan uncovers shocking machinations, executed at the highest and lowest levels of power, pointing towards a pandemic of as yet unrealized proportions.
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Jeb! and the Bush Crime Family: The Inside Story of an American Dynasty Kindle Edition
by Roger Stone (Author), Saint John Hunt
"This book is very tough." - President Donald Trump
Jeb and the Bush Crime Family is the book that smashes through the layers of lies and secrecy that has surrounded and protected our country's very own political dynasty.
New York Times bestselling author and legendary political insider, Roger Stone lashes out with a blistering indictment that exposes the true history and monumental hypocrisy of the Bushes. In his usual “go for the jugular” style, Stone collaborates with Saint John Hunt—author, musician, and son of legendary CIA operative E. Howard Hunt—to make this a “no-holds-barred” history of the Bush family.
The authors reveal Jeb to be a smug, entitled autocrat who both uses and hides behind his famous name as he mingles with international drug peddlers. They show how Jeb:
Received a $4 million taxpayer bailout when his daddy was Vice President
Used his insider status to make millions from Obamacare
Avoided criminal prosecution on a fraudulent Federal loan
Hypocritically supports the War on Drugs, despite his own shocking drug history
After detailing the vast litany of Jeb’s misdeeds, Stone travels back to Samuel, Prescott, George H. W., and George W. Bush to weave an epic story of privilege, greed, corruption, drug profiteering, assassination, and lies. Jeb and the Bush Crime Family will have you asking, “Why aren't these people in prison?”
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How did the deeply flawed George W. Bush ascend to the highest office in the nation, what forces abetted his rise, and-perhaps most important-have those forces really been vanquished by Obama's election? Award-winning investigative journalist Russ Baker gives us the answers in Family of Secrets, a compelling and startling new take on the Bush dynasty and the shadowy elite that has quietly steered the American republic for the past half century and more. Baker shows how this network of figures in intelligence, the military, oil, and finance enabled-and in turn benefited handsomely from-the Bushes' perch at the highest levels of government. As Baker reveals, this deeply entrenched elite remains in power regardless of who sits in the Oval Office.
Family of Secrets offers countless disclosures that challenge the conventional accounts of such central events as the JFK assassination and Watergate. It includes an inside account of George W.'s cynical religious conversion and the untold real background to the disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina. Baker's narrative is gripping, sobering, and deeply sourced. It will change the way we understand not just the Bush years, but a half century of postwar history-and the present
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The Cold War ushered in a time of secrecy—and willing media cooperation to keep those secrets. But even after winning that war, the vault of secrets remains firmly locked, especially surrounding John F. Kennedy's murder. Even for those who fundamentally oppose the current presidential administration, notions of a national security state and "fake news" must be examined to maintain a functional democracy. This book explains the rapid decline in confidence in government that started after the assassination of JFK. The mainstream media failed to go beyond repeating the official story, and by 1991 they, along with academe and the government, had stopped investigating altogether. It was filmmaker Oliver Stone whose film fueled public outrage and led to the JFK Act to declassify all of the remaining documents. Almost four million pages of documents were then released—that even Congress had not yet seen. The JFK Act stated that all files must be released by October 2017, yet thousands are still withheld on the grounds of national security. This volume examines the tight alliances that have allowed this cover-up for more than 50 years. President Kennedy declared in October 1963 that “men who create power make an indispensable contribution to a nation’s greatness, but the men who question power make a contribution just as indispensable, especially when they are disinterested, for they determine whether we use power or power uses us.”
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Known as the “Movie Capital of the World,” Hollywood is chock-full of offbeat characters, peculiar activities, and strange sightings. With California resident and humorist Joe Oesterle as your guide, meander through bizarre back alleys and darkened theaters, observe the kitschy Singing Chairs of Santa Monica (a pair of 15-foot-tall harmonizing thrones), and take a walk down the haunted Boulevard of Broken Dreams. Weird Hollywood also offers readers a hellaciously fun, historical journey into Tinseltown suicide, murder, and mayhem. And who better to preface the tour of this wacky municipality than the Voice of Hollywood himself: Gary Owens.
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This book has been inducted into the Johnny Grant Hollywood Walk of Fame Library
Dr. Drew Pinsky: "I commend you for having the courage to step up and do it and do it thoroughly and do it properly."
"Originally, the main purpose for writing this book was first to help heal myself and maintain a sense of humor as I vented.I found it was helping by opening a door to dialogue, with people especially about "taboo" subjects. It became my mission to help empower others through our experiences and maybe others will see how they too can help themselves, confront their demons, issues, seek answers, recognize patterns, listen to their instincts, get clarity, closure and healing. If people reach out and are open to change, miracles can happen. It's not to say it won't be painful, but we can transform our lives for the better. By bringing various sensitive issues out in the open, I hope this book sheds a beacon of light on a path for others to find their way as I did."
Two dynamic people merging into a karmic-destined, intense and turbulent love relationship. Each struggling with their own demons including sexual abuse and incest.They were married on the Warner Bros. back lot Larmie St. and their six-year relationship was a whirl of auditions, star-studded parties, exotic locations, red carpets and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Marina, already an established actress, became Carradine’s personal manager and set about rehabilitating David's the career, who was now known for his heavy drinking. She introduced him to Quentin Tarantino, who cast David in a lead role in the popular film Kill Bill, which vaulted Carradine back onto Hollywood's A-list.
Their marriage was marred by a toxic secret that could not be ignored and private life was replete with love, passion, erotic pleasure, sexual experimentation. With the help of re-known celebrity Dr. Drew Pinsky (Celebrity Rehab, Sober House), issues are addressed with the interview occupying an entire chapter. Anderson was able to exorcise the demons that have haunted her for so long about their relationship and herself that almost destroyed her.
Her writing speaks to readers universally by focusing on their personal journey, revealing the truth about the couple, addresses conquering fear and overcoming obstacles, self discovery, recovery, re-inventing and rebuilding one’s self. It’s her personal survival while desperately trying to save the marriage as well as Carradine’s constant struggle to be someone he wasn’t, but wished he could be. Spirituality, psychic John Edward, other psychics and astrologers who helped her are written about in the book as well
“It’s an avenue for his fans and the general public to know, understand and hopefully accept him as a man, not a celluloid fantasy…to be admired for his talents and the motivations behind certain issues in his life understood. We are all human beings with our faults. What we do for love. He was afraid people wouldn’t remember him. That will never happen. The legend continues.”
His acting career spanned four decades onstage, television and cinema. He became an international sensation as Kwai Chang Caine in the 1970s hit television series Kung Fu and cemented his cult hero status with his role in the classic movie Death Race 2000. He portrayed Woody Guthrie in Hal Ashby’s Bound for Glory and Bill in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill films. Carradine received four Golden Globe nominations. He was a talented songwriter and musician and performed in a band called Cosmic Rescue Team.
David Carradine died in a Bangkok hotel room, June 3, 2009, an apparent victim of autoerotic asphyxiation. Amid sensational media speculation, Marina refused to let David’s death remain stigmatized like it was and launched her own investigation into the death of her ex-husband. Suicide? Foul play? A sex act gone wrong? Was he alone? Was there a cover-up? Her conclusions are startling.
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