In my young days back on the streets in Brooklyn, I never thought I could be a writer. My mind was always fixed on how to make a buck. Writing was for the guys in the news, and as for books, well, let’s just say I never had a thing for books. Now, playing horses and shooting craps, that was my game. The Made Men in the neighborhood never had to push me to it. Once I got horses up my nose there was no stopping me. Back then, the years I spent … [Read more...]
Richie Salerno Discusses Disrespect: “The Real Virus Eating Society”
So what makes me the big expert on Disrespect as a topic of conversation? Answer: the same thing that makes you one. It’s just like “Madge” told us on those old TV ads for Dawn liquid detergent: You’re soaking in it. You’re soaking in it and I’m soaking in it, and when we look at social media, we realize the whole world is soaking in it. It hit the actual world like a Tsunami not long after we all went online for the first time. Now we live in … [Read more...]
FROM THE MOB TO THE MOVIES: How Richie Salerno Escaped The Mafia And Became A Hollywood Actor
The public knows him as the character Tony Darvo in the movie Midnight Run, but Richie Salerno was born into the world of the Brooklyn Mafia during the heyday of the New York mob and for a time it looked like he'd get caught up in a life of crime. After all, some of the most notorious figures in the gangster world he knew as uncles, aunts, cousins and family friends. During a stint in prison for theft, Richie turned his life around using the … [Read more...]
Book Trailer for From the Mob to the Movies
True Crime Book Trailer for From the Mob to the Movies: How I Escaped the Mob and Landed in Hollywood by Richie Salerno. Available in ebook and paperback: wbp.bz/mobtomovies "Richie Salerno has an amazing story to tell and he does in From The Mob To The Movies, taking readers from the streets of Brooklyn to Hollywood. Truly a must read." - Dennis N. Griffin, award-winning author of A 'FAMILY' BUSINESS and THE RISE AND FALL OF A 'CASINO' … [Read more...]
Richie Salerno “I Learned Everything I Need To Know About The Lockdown In Solitary Confinement”
I’m an old guy now, but as a kid in Brooklyn I was, as my attorney once said, less than well-informed when it came to the nature of legal and illegal behavior. Nobody died because of me, but my work for the neighborhood mafia guys, who were people I simply knew as uncles, aunts, and friends of the family, often took me outside the law. Funny thing about stepping outside the law. People who do it usually stay there until they get caught. I … [Read more...]
Ori Spado Reminisces On His Time In Hollywood
As usual, I awoke thinking. I think constantly and often think of myself as The Thinker by Rodin, actually I had a statue of it on my desk for many years until my arrest and I do not know what happened to it after that. I guess everyone loses almost everything when they are arrested and do time. I actually think about everything I do. I think every job or scam out completely, and I always put myself in the other person’s place to think what … [Read more...]
THE ACCIDENTAL GANGSTER Photo Gallery
Photos From Ori Spado's New Book THE ACCIDENTAL GANGSTER … [Read more...]
Ori Spado
Orlando (Ori) Spado was born on December 17,1944 in Rome New York where he attended high school at Rome Free Academy and at the age of 18, he joined the U.S. Army and served his country proudly and was discharged honorably in 1966. He returned to Rome and had various jobs until he sold insurance for the Prudential Ins Company and was a leading agent. After a marriage and three children Ori moved to San Francisco where he married his second wife … [Read more...]
The Infamous Charles Manson is Featured In OUTLAW LOS ANGELES
Every generation has its bogeyman. Before 1969, maybe it was Adolf Hitler. After 2001, Osama bin Laden. But for those 30 or so years in between it was unquestionably an aspiring musician, deeply damaged outlaw, and hippie Svengali named Charles Manson. On two nights in the summer of 1969—the same summer as Woodstock—Manson rose from nobody to America’s most fearsome monster. Born in Ohio to an unwed, 15-year- old girl, Manson’s childhood … [Read more...]
OUTLAW LOS ANGELES Takes Readers To The City Where Anything Is Possible, Even The Ghastly
A sunset cruise through a place where ordinary inhumanities are entertainment... Los Angeles is where America’s dreams and nightmares got all tangled up. In this otherworldly place of seemingly everlasting life, death could have an otherworldly quality, too. In a city where anything was possible, even the ghastly could happen. Where else does a list of a city’s top five most recognized citizens include a mass murderer? Stand in the footsteps of … [Read more...]
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