Confessions of a lifetime gambler-retiring after 50 years

Tony had about 200  regular customers, I figure,  he had about 50 floaters in and out from week to week. His players were on the numbers mostly with a fair group of horse and dog men and a small but growing sports crew.

He had all kinds of crazy stuff going on between the store and barber shop with the big creepy room in the back where old couches, a cot, a bunch of boxes and Hollywood type lights on poles and old wooden  desk looked straight from a junior high school principal's office it was storage space at best with a dank little pisser that always stank.

He spent his days smoking,bitching and telling stories of the good old days when men had class and cared about their appearance. I always found this hilarious because he was a fat darn that always wore the same bagging button down shirt rolled at the sleeves everyday of his life.

Five of us from the Blue Hill gang were his runners, me,  Tommy (Tuna can), Danny Potts who was known as (Potts), Juliano who we called (Julie) and Buddy Coin (Coins).

But as we grew older we began to spread out on our own a little. I had become his lead  kid I had always thought it was because I was a little smarter but I doubt that was the reason now looking back. I think I was more enthusiastic that the rest. I loved people and I loved to listen and try to figure out people and their angles. I don’t think I missed much and that caught Tony’s eye and I think he wanted me close, way too close, for my liking but I loved his cash so I did his bidding.

By the end of that year I had meet 3 or 4 other books with other offices within the  same group or side of the “family” but they operated In North Boston, Cambridge and Somerville we had shops in Malden and  Hyde Park and the whole bunch tied in through Irish and Italian roots but by the mid to late sixties that was changing fast. Dope had made the come into the picture and the youngers were dabbling where the elders forbid. We scammed for weed like it was a gift from the gods. With the revelation that chicks dug pot  if you could get it you could get them and if you could sell it some quick cash came too.

The real problem was the old guard like Tony, Abe, Johnny S and Frankie fish all hated dope, all dope and doppers this quickly would become a big problem and would cause a huge rift in the workings of the group.

The old person knew it was only a matter of time but they weren’t bringing anyone up that wouldn’t play ball. Some stayed in and kept on the lowdown but lots branched to different groups with a more lenient view of proper commerce. Weed  became OK ,anything harder your were out  on your behind quick. Small clubs and shops little bars and big bars all were filled with the old guard they seemed afraid to change so we ran and scammed and all of Boston,Cambridge and Somerville became our playground.

From Newbury street down Boylston through St Botolph and Northeastern all the way past BU to Allston and Brighton we had phone pads, stashes and meeting spots. We shared apartments with nurses and college kids who needed help with their rent,we knew every club and bar owner every neighborhood store and liquor store.We worked through car dealers,junk men,truck drivers and all forms of working class but the college kids gave us an unlimited market and Boston was nirvana for college kids and any kid from Southie with ambition. a quick wit and something to sell.

The Blue Hill boys were riding high by the end of 1966. 1967 was our senior year we would all be 18 and free from our youthful restrictions. We had a couple of old crap box cars and were mobile and active.

I become close friends with a kid from Brookline who  also ran for a book named Abe, a Jewish guy that controlled the Newton and Brookline action. Mark became know as' Zip' because no matter where you went he was there first, we crossed paths continuously, I’d be going up a stoop and he’d be going down.

Mark was a good kid always goofing and had a way with the ladies which I found very appealing as a sidekick I caught some of his leftovers. We sold weed all summer and from Gloucester to Cape Cod the party just kept going until one late August dog day when everything changed.

Abe was getting on and was looking for Zip to take over one of his shops and keep the phones up it was a big step up from chasing slips and Mark was plenty smart enough and having gone to school in Brookline he knew everyone

.

Zip picked me up in Southie one Saturday morning we were on our way  down to  the south shore to meet a kid from Brockton to pick up some pot.

We zipped down Rte 3 and as we rode he told me what Abe had in mind and told me he was looking for a partner to help him run the shop and put together a crew.. opportunity was knocking

Impossibly, we jumped in at the beginning of football season pulling our numbers from Abe and tossing all our action in together we built a nice little shop and were developing a decent group of young players most whose cash was fueled by moving weed and hustling in 67 we were on the early side of the curve but as the party mentality grew in the next few years our business boomed.

I had said goodbye to the neighborhood and moved to an apartment in Allston with Tuna can.

Tony was kinda pissed but not much he could do without us in neighborhood he had lost his influence. At first there were hostilities, as to whose customers were whose, he knew that we had starting working for Abe but as they say time heals all wounds and soon we were just another branch of the same tree there was plenty to go around so we were left to our path without much interference.

Zip and Tuna Can were always trying to come up with new schemes and they decided it was time to visit NYC and see if we could come up with a pipeline into and out of the city. Abe had a cousin in Brooklyn and we had met him before up in Boston he was older than us but much younger and seemingly hipper than most so we piled into our heap and began one of our many famous road trips seeking adventure,fame and a larger footprint. We knew we could lay off NY action for less than in Boston. We could get better weed and all the rest that came with biz in the city.

With a couple of grand to buy goodies we made our way into Brooklyn and found our way to Jay Sweens pad Abe’s cousin.

Jay had the run of the city he could get you anything you needed quick and for the right price.

He was happy to take on some new work from Boston he hooked us up with all kinds of people over the next few years. 

New York, Jayman, became our closest adviser in both the gambling world and the procurement of party favors for Boston. Our ever blossoming college market eager to consume whatever conscience expanding substances we could put our hands on just kept growing they couldn't get enough.

Rocking and rolling life was good for us but 1967 was a bad year for most kids just out of high school. Viet Nam was the major worry and there was already talk of a draft lottery although it didn't come till 1969 we made elaborate plans to evade and escape capture by the dreaded selective service if called. Bobby Coins got a girl pregnant from southie dumb mother fuk..er

and Julie left with his girlfriend on a road trip to California leaving the blue hill boys only 3 standing members.Potts,Tuna Can and me. The workload started to overpower us so we looked for new blood to carry the flag. We took on about 6 new guys to the crew and two women who were girlfriends of the crew and became couriers. One from Jamaica Plain  and two from Cambridge, a couple from south shore and one from Nahant our number now up to 9 and we settled into a routine.

We all worked separately and together when a project needed manpower, we shared cars and houses,money and women but things started to get tighter before the summer was out as we went into the fall it was college,work or war. None of those options were particularly appealing in my case.  I could fish with my father and uncle, which I did.  You could make  great money by straight standards but  the work was hard,smelly and took long hours and early rising.

Sports betting and pot had made me allergic to hard work but having always been grilled to have a” visible means of support” I choose fishing to satisfy my family. I loved the water and it was in the blood in the meantime I applied to colleges and kept carrying on

.By the time football season rolled around we had moved out of the dive apartment in Allston and taking up in Fresh Pond in Cambridge on a strange little street called Poplar Drive a 3 floor walk up we had all 3 floors it sat on a dead end street and backed up to Fresh Pond Parkway across the street from the pond it was pissa. We paid 250 a month rent and had room to sleep 20 you could cram a hundred kids in for a party a block from the liquor store and two blocks to the market. Oh yeah baby this place was sweet the street was tree lined and shady had mostly younger renters.professionals types and college aged kids with only one old family on the street that owned the fruit company up the road.You could be in Harvard square in 5 minutes, Inman square in ten you could cut through the back roads to Somerville,Arlington or Medford in 20 minutes or be downtown in about the same if you blasted across the bridge and cruised up storrow drive.Yup, Old Poplar Drive saw some huge parties.

We had become newpaper junkies buying everything with a box score or a racing form. We kept everything in boxes marked by  sport, month, year and city and spent hours arguing about what this or that proved.  The TVs and stereos were always on and always blasting we always had a crowd of people hanging out, coming and going.

We kept it tight on the business end and operating like secret agents we tried to keep our two life paths from crossing. Potts worked in a family glass business,Tuna Can had a job with the MTA and I fished with the brothers grimm. In our straight jobs we made enough to cover the ‘visible means of support’  part but in reality in one weekend we would spend a month's wages without a care on a whim.

As 1967 turned into 1968 and then 1969 not a whole lot changed for the Blue Hill boys. We we scattered around Boston working out the angles.

Coins was going to Suffolk Law School  was not married but had a son named Nate with a girl from the neighborhood. Coins was soon to become our legal brain. No shiit! Coins was soon to become our attorney.

Tuna Can walked the tracks of the MTA as an inspector he would have his pockets full by the end of the day with every driver,ticket taker and track workers wagers.

Tuna can and I had caddied as kids and loved to hit the golf ball around at George Wright, the public track of course.

We had booming action from golf courses and golfers always so it was a biz pleasure thing, playing golf, but we both started to get pretty good and tried to play a couple times a week and talk about  the action. Coins and I bet on every possible outcome, nothing was more fun than sticking it to each other. We carried a rubber chicken whoever 3 putted last held the chicken and if you had the chicken and it looked like the other guy was about to 3 putt you threw it down on the green and whatever bet was working was doubled. Guys thought we were nuts as the rubber chicken was often seen on the green as we played.

I fished at least a couple times a week with my Dad and uncle it kept me connected to old school and we were fishing  tied down gill nets for flounder and catching “bugs”(lobster) like crazy so it was easy and the cash was decent 200 a day on average.

1969 the year of Nixon was the beginning of the drug wars years.Julie was also back from a year on the coast we had a bunch of new connections for this and that and although politically things were getting hot it was still the age of love and we were lovers. Julie’s brother got killed in Nam in April and Julie went kind of nuts for awhile we all watched out for him as his behavior became unpredictable. About half the time Julie was his happy go lucky scheming self and the rest of the time in an angry funk. Julie  handled most of the party bizz. We had products coming from the west coast,new york and miami and the kids just kept eating up all we could get and the cash just kept piling up. I often wondered if life could really be this easy at the time I saw no end in sight it was onward and upward for the Blue Hill boys.

On my 20th birthday, I counted 145,000 in my own stash box and I dare say each of us had that much and Julie, well, he had a lot more.

About the middle of the summer in 1969 we had a group meeting to talk about where to go with our happy little band. Jayman in New York was trying to get us to come to NY and listen to a proposition he had and we were bored with Boston so we planned a getaway and off we went.

 We piled into a shiny new corvair convertible that Julie’s girl had just gotten and down the road we went.

New York in 1969 was a playground for us we went to clubs and concerts and any game we could get into our bookmaking operation in full swing we laid off tons of action often squeezing an extra dime in for us.

1969 was good year for us but a disappointing year for the Sox.They finished 3rd behind the Orioles and Tigers with a line up that should have done much better. We  had Yaz and Tony C, Ken Harrelson, Rico Petrocelli and George Scott on the rooster. Jim Lonborg was our ace on the mound and some kid later to be called,’ spaceman’  Bill Lee who would turn out later to be one of the great characters in the game. The Sox  should have had a better year in 1969 than they did but the silver lining was when the Sox sucked we raked in the cash as everyone in Boston bet home teams.The Celtics and Bruins made for a long winter season for Boston books always looked forward to recouping on the Sox come springtime.

I  was yet to have my first real girlfriend.  I had plenty of casual romps but had not found a girl I couldn't stay away from as of yet..that was about to change too.

Her name was Patricia,’ Patty’ for short an Irish girl from Brooklyn. She was a year older than I and art student in New Paltz, NY. She had big blue eyes and kind of curly blondish hair we met at a friends party in Brighton. She and I  spent a few days tethered together and for the next few months we were constant companions, when she wasn't in New Paltz at school, she was in my bed.

My friends started giving me a hard time when I made excuses to hang with Patty shrugging  off my tasks on others but we were a close group and I was forgiven and the boys covered me.

Right around thanksgiving Patty and I had a bad beef we were living between Boston and upstate NY  and she knew I wouldn’t leave Boston and she  was getting tired of my routine of constant motion. So she packed up her stuff and left back to New Paltz. Never to be  heard from again .