Uncle Joey's Joint with Joey Diaz - #568 - T.J. English

Episode Date: March 19, 2018

T.J. English, author of multiple books including The Westies and Havana Nocturne, joins Joey Diaz and Lee Syatt LIVE via Skype to talk about his new book The Corporation. T.J. English's new book The Corporation will be released on March 20,2018. Wherever books are sold, TJ-English.com, and Amazon: http://amzn.to/2HJYIU6 This podcast is brought to you by:  Square Space - Go to squarespace.com and use promo code "church' for 10% off of your first purchase of a website or domain.    Onnit.com. Use Promo code CHURCH for a 10% discount at checkout.   Recorded live on 03/18/2018.

Welcome to podcast bill the church of what's happening now is brought to you by square space You know what things you could do with space space square space you create a beautiful website You could turn your cool idea Into a website you could showcase your work You could blog or publish content listen to this one you can sell products and services of all kinds and promote your physical or online business You can announce upcoming events or special projects and much much more all right I mean square space is where it's at when you're ready to rock right now

What I want you to do is go to square space calm For a free trial just take a look when you're ready to launch your website use offer code church It's gonna save you 10% off your first purchase of the website or domain That's square space calm at the code church This podcast is also brought to you by on it Leader and supplements you understand me from shroom tech sport to shroom tech immune To the alpha brain which has a money back guarantee and guess what we don't even want you fucking money back We don't even send the stuff back. We'll just send you back the money if alpha brain don't work

I knew there's got to be a problem. You understand me That's why some days I'm a mama Luke and some days on tip top my goods because I'm back on the fucking alpha brain cycle So go to honor calm right now and press in church and get 10% off your motherfucking order kick this mule Lee Oh shit Monday the 19th of March St. Patties is over Your little ha ha time is done. It's back to business motherfuckers The little uncle Joey the flying Jew my man TJ English

Here we go what I Monday bitches tip top my goo. Get ready to go. They ain't giving out shit today Oh Shit it's Monday morning You ready to go Whatever you had on your mind is fucking gone Cuz you're ready you're ready for the world you got the world by the ball if you were depressed if you were sad

If you were to having a bad day, that was yesterday today's today Scrubbed that pussy powder that motherfucker and put some pit toenail polish on those toes and get out there ladies It's all over. You don't need to march. You need to do nothing. Just let these cock suckers know you're running things Lee say at what's happening We're doing pretty good buddy. How you doing good? I'm no no problems. Had a great weekend. I want to thank My man the Irishman fucking now. What's his name TJ English? No, you're the fucking guy Grapeford Simmons put me on the show last night. I had a great time just switching it up to the improv Like we were talking about the other night. You got to get out of your comfort zone

I forgot to tell you guys is last week. I went to a meeting the other day for breakfast and some guy goes Have you tried cryotherapy yet? And you know, I've heard it from Rogan for years and all these fucking guys I don't think I'm a half a penguin. I don't think I could last in the fucking barrel for fucking minutes with freezing weather But you know what that morning? I was feeling a little froggy And I want to go out of my comfort zone and I was a little sore from the day before and I stopped I got the free fucking thing and I went into that cryotherapy place It's right. I'm been touring to hunger. Let me tell you something That shit is fucking tremendous

Whatever the fuck I was feeling when I walked in there. I did the first one three minutes I lasted in there. I listened to heaven hell by black Sabbath blasting over the thing I did jumping jacks. I couldn't do push-ups because I can't fit. I can't guy. I just can't do it You can just do jumping jacks and throw punches in the air, but I gotta taste them I don't know if I feel better or not. I'm just When I do shit like that. I'm just better. I go out of my comfort zone Like I don't think like I don't even like coach hours too much Never mind going in a fucking cold room like that, but you know what it was fine. I took my wife

And she checking that as always she tapped out after three minutes to fly the fight response It's too much for some people. It used to be too much for me before I joined you Jitsu But it doesn't give you like when you do something that takes you out of your comfort zone Does it give you confidence? So like what does it do for you? It gives you confidence and it lets you know that you did something You did something not nobody else nobody else Helped you with it. There's nothing like the feeling of you doing something like you accomplishing something that is fucking weird and

We all get set in our ways. We get fucking lazy and we do the same shit and we take the same route home and and Sometimes just have to do things outside the ordinary because you may discover something about yourself that you didn't know That's what going out of your comfort zone is, you know, it's like when I write I fucking hate writing not not because you know Why I'm bad at it, but I just been writing lately and This week I'm almost finished with that fucking chapter in a book that was the shortest chapter in the book But the longest one for me. I don't know why it's been a fucking nightmare But you know every day I write like a daily journal every day like I write a fucking Some every three days I write a letter to my daughter to

Explain what's going on in my life and why she's so special. So if something does happen to me She has a journal. It's dedicated just to her, you know, I always try to write and It's funny. I I don't know I quit high school guys and I was always a reader I still remember reading Jonathan Livingston Segal. I still remember reading the world's greatest athlete and all these dumb books I just like to read. I think it's part of being an only child. It's part of an escape So when you do comedy and you go on the road For you, there's just so much you could do, you know at that time I wasn't into exercising at all in hotel rooms Oh, I thought that was absurd and after hotels that they put you in those days

They're lucky if you have a shower never mind the fucking gym. So I would read I would go to Barnes and Nobles and spend 30 books on 30 bucks on books. I had the discounts. I had the coupons I had everything you get in those days and I would read and I read a lot of fucking crime shit because I When I got here in 97, I would audition for mafia roles and I knew nothing about the role So I wanted to do some character shit. So I read as many mafia books as I could I read as many Irish mafia books as I could I read as much shit as organized crime if I could even the m13 whatever the fuck they are I read a book on them. I just enjoy reading those types. Some are stupid some I just throw away because they're just You know a bunch of bravado and self bravado and shit like that

But some books you just learn how this system and why you know and one of the books I read was a book about the Westies And it was a great book. I Knew half the story. I knew that there was nine of them and the mafia had a bow down to them and whatnot at one point Because there were killers and kidnapped and fucking Mafia bookies and fucking oh shit and taking their fucking books and shit and then collecting And the one the guys that wrote it was a guy teach English I didn't think anything of it. I mean, you know, to be honest, you guys didn't even give a fucking then Years later buddy of mine my daughter's godfather James called me and said to

Order a book Havana Nocturne and it really changed my life. I really gave me a clearer View of what my country was about all the things I had heard had been confirmed and then some you know and how the Revolution had taken over and especially started in this place named Union City in New Jersey That's what my mother had the bar and that's where you know, I grew up part-time and I knew a lot of people It's very dear little Spanish city. I don't know now. I don't even know what it's like It used to be very Cuban and very Irish and very Italian and and the more I think about is now it was

one of those neighborhoods that you see in movies like Bronx Tale and stuff like that and I was at a party and somebody had mentioned books and I mentioned this Kavana Nocturne. They said they had the The book on hold to maybe make a movie about it But then I heard him about another book named the corporation and guess who the author is TJ English and I fucking emailed him and He got back to me and he went to one of my shows when I was at the Gotham and We spoke a little bit and we continued speaking on the phone. It's an interesting book and it's getting released on the 20th He's not here. So what I'm gonna have to do is call in and then we'll discuss what we learned afterward. Good afternoon

Yeah, this is TJ. Kepas. I said it The aim total beyond you too. Hi. Hi. Oh, you know where who you are thing? I like to welcome to the show one of my favorite favorite authors. I'm like a a fan groupie of this guy You know the the great writer mr. TJ English, thank you very much for taking the time and calling in today, mr. English Joey, it's a pleasure. It's a real pleasure You know, I was on the road. I would go on the road when I first got to LA in 97 I had a really good manager and even though as soon as he got me he started sending me out for

auditions and 10% of them were from Mexican auditions and the other 90% were for basically Italian hot dog guys that guys but a majority of that was for Italian Italian gangsters and I had Grown up around a few of them. I knew the mannerisms, but I didn't really know the story So while I was on those Greyhound buses across the country, I would stop at Barnes and Nobles by four books and read them in a weekend And I came across your Westies book and Later on in my life, I dealt with a guy that said he was a Westie and he got me a lot of side jobs I did a lot of lookout work for him and

Stuff like that. So when I read the book It's you know, it was great book and blah blah blah I mean, I was reading so many books then TJ and Then a friend of mine James Valano is married to a Cuban chick I grew up with him and his cousins and he called me one day and says you got to read this book a van on our turn And I was completely overtaken and what I was I looked you up right away And I go, why would a fucking guy from Tacoma give a fuck about Cuba? And write such a great and elaborate

research book You know and and and then I go to a party Which I never go to for CAA to watch a UFC thing And we're talking and I go man the book to read is a man knocked down he goes I think we have that on option and Then a month later. He calls me the same age and he goes. Hey, but he should just signed on for TJ English's new Cuban book about where you're from some place in Jersey in my head almost Exploded I went to your website. I looked up the name Jose battle. I

Contacted you you were a gentleman and Contacted me right back and here we are today two three four or five months later Why are the guy from Tacoma? Be so enriched with crime writing organized crime writing Well, I don't know where the Tacoma comes in, you know, I left Tacoma pretty early in life Okay, I just read that I do a group in a big Irish Catholic family ten ten kids five girls and five boys Tacoma is one of those kind of places where you start dreaming of getting out of there as soon as you're old enough to dream and And you know, it's it's evolved a lot

Tacoma today is kind of an interesting place But when I was there it was sort of a gritty little industrial dumping ground For it's more beautiful neighbor city of Seattle So, you know, every every really nice city has this Ugly stepchild city next door, you know New York has a new work San Francisco has Oakland

Seattle had Tacoma, but it was okay. It was a good place to grow up. It was a working class place I did come I did calmly there at the continental in you did I used to eat. Yeah, I got dicks there. They fucking hated me That's too bad Anyway, so I left there when I was like 18 I mean, I got out of there. I went to college in LA Loyola, Marama little Catholic University the Jesuits as you educated by the Jesuits and Then headed east as soon as I could I had dreamed about the big show Ever since I was an adolescent getting to New York the big proving ground, you know, I wanted to be a writer

I had that idea from pretty early in life was always working on school newspapers and Getting lots of positive feedback on essays and things I would write in school So like anything you you get applause you get positive feedback that becomes your focus And writing get it for me. I especially like journalism because it got me out of the house Got me out into the into the universe Into worlds that maybe I didn't grow up in or didn't have any knowledge of and all I had was my curiosity and my wits and

This became a great challenge. I always thought is a great challenge and so I came to New York With the desire to be a writer. So of course, what's the first thing I do drive a cab for three years? That was my New York City education what What's that what year was this TJ, I'm sorry This was the this that was in the mid-80s and I'm telling you driving a cab in New York City in the mid-80s We're talking about the heart of the crack cocaine here right 84 85. That's what I love. Yeah 2000 over 2000 homicides a year. I mean, it was a dangerous place and

You could feel it when you're driving a cab around during those years So this was the things that were sort of compelling me to be a writer, but you know Cuba and the interest in Cuba You know the first book the Westies that's a that's an easy one I mean, I'm Irish American and that was about the last of the Irish mob in New York And so that was I was almost writing about my own culture cultural experience writing about that Cuba always fascinated me, you know, I was born in October 57 and so I'm a young kid when when Castro comes into power and

Castro in the United States at odds with each other was an item on the news every day and I was just fascinated More so with the relationship between the United States and Cuba. It just seemed like such a fascinating love-hate Connection and the idea that this island that was right there somehow could be the biggest nemesis to the United States It all just it all fascinated me from captured my imagination from a from a pretty young age So I go on and become a crime writer and I'm writing about the Irish mob I'm I write about a Vietnamese gang in Chinatown in New York But in the back of my mind is the great untold story of the era of the mafia mafia in Havana in the 1950s

You know that story had never really been written it had been done in Godfather part two and there were a few other movies that had dealt with it, but nobody had really Gone to Cuba done the research Really got to the past the legend and the folklore and got to some actual truth of what happened there So that's what led to the writing of Havana Nocturne and by then I'll be honest with you. I was already In love with Cuban culture. I listen to Cuban music I'm fascinated with a lot of things about Cuban culture so getting to go there and do the research for that book Havana Nocturne was like dying and going to heaven it was

One of the greatest things I've ever had the opportunity to do to do research in Cuba To spend you know some real time there Just wonderful so I you know then when that book was over I I Wanted to do more There was the obvious question of what happens Once the mafia gets chased off the island. Do they take that lying down? What's what comes next and that was what motivated me to want to write the corporation now in a van How long did it take you to write Havana Nocturne?

Probably three years you know they take three years to research and write now you have some your research skills are fucking magnificent and You know, I read the the credits for the corporation when you went to Cuba And you found out I'd say you heard the story about Santo when Kennedy came down When you when you approach these people how? Would they react to you at first? I mean this isn't a Cuban guy going up to a Cuban guy This is a white guy going up to a Cuban guy Yeah, yeah, well, you know

When I first went to Cuba to do research for Havana Nocturne it was right at the time that Del Castro Disappeared from public with at the time was with some strange ailment that the Cuban government wasn't wouldn't Wasn't revealing what it was Everyone knew that Castro was sick and he disappeared. You remember this? Yes. Yes, 2006. Yes Yeah, and so there was rumors that Castro was dead and there was a body double and yeah, there was a bunch of shit Yeah, yeah, so I had I had applied With the US government to get authorization to go there legally through the Treasury Department you get a Special visa to go there and do research and I had gotten it. I'd gotten the okay from the US

And so I'm heading down to Cuba and I just happened to be heading there right when all this shit hits the fan about Sidel and his health and whether he's dead or alive and a lot of people Journalists friends and Cubans were telling me you're not going to get in to Cuba. They're they're on lockdown right now They're paranoid about information being leaked if they know you're a writer or journalist and then they're not gonna let you in So I was like shit. I I got to go. I got my license. It's only good for a specific period of time I don't want to I don't want to lose it So I'm gonna go and and then people told me to make up stories to lie to get into the country I said no, I'm just gonna tell them what I'm doing

Because the truth is in Cuba, you know, they're they're proud of having chased the Mafia Out of out of the off the island So it's a story that they're they're predisposed to to like having written But I still I had to convince them that I was sincere and all that so what I did was just by chance I this was not intentional. I attacked my bags and I attacked a Book paperback book the collected writings of Jose Marti and it was right on top of my Right on top of my clothes. It was the first thing you'd see when you open the bag So I get to Cuba and right away I stand out. This is back in 06

There's not a lot of travelers going there at that time and they pull me out of the line and With my with my bags and take me into a separate room and I get a pretty I get a pretty rigorous interrogation What are you doing here? Where are you going? What are your intentions all in Spanish? So like I'm immediately having having to use my my Spanish and The guy is uptight. I can see he's really Not sure whether he's gonna let me in or not and then he opens my bags and he sees that Copy of the collective writings of Jose Marti and it was like a weight was lifted off his shoulders, man He just kind of like a lightened up. There was something magical about that book

Jose Marti and And and and they let me in and so I was in and once you're sort of allowed in the Cuba and you're authorized People were pretty talkative as long as I was getting the proper introduction You know as as is the case anywhere if you're introduced to somebody by somebody they know and trust Then then there's a good chance you might get them to talk to you. So It was easier than you might think once I got there You know, I want you to describe to people In 1985 I met a Panamanian woman in Fort Lee, New Jersey

She looked in the building, you know, whatever. I was hiding out from North Bergen guys looking for me and We became friends. She was a lot older than me. I mean no sexual just friends I'd see in the laundry room and she once told me She looked me in the face and she goes I went to Cuba as a young girl And it was a beautiful beautiful beautiful country and I had a good time But when I left there, I Realized that they were pushing the envelope a bit too far She goes I never

You know, she was really Catholic and she said I never forgot thinking that God would punish them one day for what they were doing there. She goes it was a little more Dirtyer than what I expected at the time And she goes five years after that Castro boom and look what Cuba is today. They were starving nation, blah blah blah blah, yeah And it was very interesting that she said that to me that she goes, you know make the everybody says that Las Vegas is the new Cuba She goes that's one extreme

She goes it was so blatantly Satanic did you read that article? I think I sent you a couple weeks ago in search of Superman No, did you send me that I don't remember getting that Superman was meaning the sex performer Superman. Yes, the Fifty years of research looking for this guy Even Duvall went I'm gonna look for the time my Facebook page 50 years of research and And they answered a lot of questions for me because I'm like you teach I was born there

But I left when I was three I remember a beach. I remember a house and driving in a Cadillac and taking pictures That I don't remember anything else about Cuba, but in that article they pretty much broke it down He was fucking a chick and the funny thing was I oh in my special I opened up a joke about his grandson Cubans are very proud of Who they're grandparents and you know this kid bragged that the guy and Godfather too was his grandfather So he owned the bar on 38th Street Club Club 38 Which he bought from Nene? Marquez

Then that Marquez owned that bar first in the 60s and 50s my mother owned a little diner next to it called the ok up To block from a school called Washington School But he had bought it and on Saturdays, you know during the week they did salsa, but on Saturdays They did he took his dick out and fuck some Cuban chick live for 200 Cubans while they drank fucking rum and clapped and shit and you know Well this article really went deep TJ and it was a 30 minute read and they found the guy and blah blah blah and They also found out that Marlon Brando was one of his lovers

Just just just fucking but they said listen man at that time People went to Cuba to see that guy with the big dick Like that was the biggest fucking attraction. They had was watching a guy with a 16 inch dick Fuck some poor helpless fucking human trafficking chick from China some because they did it in a Chinese restaurant Did you well, no, they did it at this place called the Shanghai theater Shanghai theater whatever the fuck Now that when you were down there, did you you know, it's Chinese fucking people, you know Shanghai theater They had to serve egg rolls TJ knock it off They had to serve something somebody's getting dick. They got to serve some type of food 15 inch 15 inch egg rolls

Yeah, 15 inch egg rolls, but it was did you get that same impression at some like there was a reason Why those Cubans wanted to overtake the casinos And they were lied to they were sold a bill of lading. Did you get that feeling? Well, first of all, let me go back to Superman because because I did a fair amount of research on that in fact I was able to There was a guy in Tampa Who was the son of a lawyer who represented? And he got the tapes he had the tapes

He had a video video of Superman Uh Fucking a girl and he and in a private like club in somebody's home They had these sex salons where you'd go to the nice part of town and you'd go to a nice house and there would be live sex shows there cocktail party and live sex shows egg rolls So, um This guy would would had to take but he would not let it out of his possession

He said if you come here to Tampa, I will show it to you Never forget I got to his office. He also was a lawyer went to his legal office He said come at six when it closes and there's nobody around So we can watch it And uh, I get there and he sets it up in a conference room and he got this super eight footage of Superman fucking this this poor Woman and he's he's he's hitting her from every conceivable angle and it did not look pleasurable, man I mean he was big and she was not big

and uh The old man had scored it to music like Wagner and shit like triumphant classical music Uh to to the to the scene the scene of Superman Fucking this woman. So that was pretty amazing. I don't know if there's any other actual foot. It did exist of that guy So I was able to see him. I was told that he died of gang green Yeah, no, they in the article says he died in Mexico Of a jealous lover the kid who The kid who you know some woman he fucked he went on the run

He was a guard during the daytime And he got paid 25 hours a night for his shows And then the writer went deep and he goes look at we're not here to You know tell you about his life as a performer We're here to tell you about how tragic his life really was. Yeah, no, I know it ended quite tragically He got 125 hours And these people would pay fucking 50 bucks american to see him fuck somebody You know, yeah, it was it was a freak show is what it was, you know

um And it was particularly popular with politicians I mean that scene in the godfather where they with godfather 2 where they show him taking the senator To the to the club to see superman. That's very accurate because that's They used to use that show that sex show to like show it off to the politicians and businessmen who were coming into town Everyone wanted to see it And they'd take them over there and give them a drill Let them see it when you were down in Cuba. Did you meet any cubans with irish last names?

Yeah, yeah, the main the main street in uh In little of old Havana Abana the a ha is O'Reilly O'Reilly street You believe that because of the battle of boine All the cubans all the irish went to Cuba because it was the only other catholic country And they didn't want to you know, they just wanted to keep the party alive the irish They don't want to fight no money. They just want to get some fucking beers and some fucking Yeah, and and you know, I love lat lat jazz apple cuban jazz is one of the things I love the most

And uh, one of the founding fathers of latin jazz is a guy named cheek old feral Cheek old feral was one of the early composers irish blood And irish cuban So you really fell in love with the culture and all this and now you go down there You investigate how they get out of the fucking mind how they got the mob out of cuban took their money I mean that fact that you put in your book That batista was getting 1.5 million dollars a week That's 6 million american

Every fucking month that's 72 million dollars a year if he was making 72. Can you imagine what the mob was really making? Yeah, but you know, they knew they had to pay him well and uh, he put a high tariff on them To allow them to do their thing But of course he totally allowed them to do their thing. He stayed out of their way and and they had those casinos up and running and There was no gaming commission. Um, you know, the mob was the gaming commission. So they were pretty much free to To the the casino money went right into their pocket Or it went to the the skim the cut of it that went to batista The deal of course was is that he would keep the lid on everything and that there would there would be no revolution

And that was that was batista's job. That's what he was getting paid for And he kept telling them things were fine that they did this little thing with castro and and And disputes around the country was being squelched That there was no chance at all that this would be Successful and then it would take over the country and of course it was a dictatorship and he controlled the media He controlled everything that was reported in the newspapers and on tv and everything that was reported was is that The army has the matter in hand. The revolution is going nowhere. We're defeating the rebels at every turn

Blah blah blah blah blah blah so so nobody saw it coming Nobody saw it coming. I mean, uh, it wasn't until january 1st 1959 when a revolutionary guard came rolling into Havana that Everybody fled suddenly, you know batista Got out of there in the dead of night on an airplane and suitcases full of cash And uh, lansky got out of there a few days later and traficante didn't get out of there. He got snatched and held in prison and thought he was going to be, uh Executed he was on an execution list and the the rumor is I think it's more than a rumor

It's a fact that he paid a million dollars in cash directly to raul castro To get out of prison so that he could leave the island now I read somewhere when batista left he left with 250 million dollars Hard to calculate, but yeah, I mean whatever he could carry he took with him. I'm sure So now You you rewrite a van and I turn and you want to know about the mob. So this is how The whole hosé battle thing comes into play Yeah, well, this is one of the great. This is one of the great

mobs their stories. I think um Of recent times and it was just sitting there waiting to be written really, um I had heard of battle. I knew the battle story Battle was a numbers rack racketeer Whose name would pop up in the local papers in new york as far back as the 1980s And there was always talk about the cubans and and the so-called corporation and what that was And I always was interested in it because I thought it had some connection

To the anti-castro political movement also the attempts to overthrow Cuba to destabilize the cuban government to assassinate castor to take back cuba This was always a part of it. Although I wasn't sure how these pieces fit together I could kind of see that they were all one one and the same thing Battle was a very kind of charismatic guy Very earthy looking guy um

salt of the earth character A certain amount of charisma Um street level charisma not not an intel intellectual by any stretch um More of a street guy But he had this incredible reputation because he had been a soldier during the bad pig's evasion He got captured and held in prison in cuba. So I was sort of aware of all of this Even back when I was writing halana nocturne and in fact battle died

I believe in 2006 right when I was into the research of Of halana nocturne and I had a guy who helped me with my spanish cuban guy Come over here and sit in my apartment and I would read to him He was so good now anywhere. I travel in the world mexico or whatever and I speak spanish They they think i'm cuban because I speak spanish with a cuban accent So but he used to tell me about the corporation and he said the corporation is that is the most powerful organized crime entity in the latin world He said they're untouchable. They have this mystique that they have some connections to the cia

because of the bad pigs invasion and and They're they're all powerful and nobody can fuck with them and everyone fears them and So I was kind of aware of it But you know it didn't get a doesn't get a lot of press in the mainstream media back then everything was mafia mafia mafia um Was the only thing it seemed that anyone wanted to hear about and I knew there were all these great Crime stories because I was writing a lot of it as a journalist

I did a series for playboy magazine called the new mob and it was like an article on a jamaican posse from kingston That didn't set up operations in brooklyn. I did an article about the chinese triad and went to hong kong So I was aware that there was more than there was much more than just the italian mafia out there And I was interested in the cuban thing, but I just didn't see how I could write the story I didn't have the sources. I didn't have a way in to the story So I was kind of lusting from afar at the story of hosé mcgill mcgill battle and

I knew it was a great book. I thought well someone else is kind of write that book Probably and and I'll feel bad about it and wish that I had done it But I like I said, I really didn't have the have the sources to do it and that didn't happen until Fairly recently about three years ago. I get contacted by these two young cuban american produce movie producers And they contact my agent and they say We've been developing this material a story on hosé mcgill battle in the corporation and We think it would be a great book

They said does tj anglish know anything about this story and and would he be interested in doing it? And I said, yeah, fuck. Yeah, I know I know the story Very very well at least as well as know it from just what's in the in the mainstream media And I said, so what do you guys have? You know right away I wanted to know what they had and what they had was this cop who had Worked the corporation case pretty much this almost his whole career close to 20 years And he'd become obsessed with battle and he'd been involved in all these

Investigations over the years with all the different agencies fbi everyone else who got involved at different points along the way This guy knew more about battle in the corporation than any single person And not only that he kept to all the documents man. He had like a mother load of police reports and and autopsy reports and transcripts of Criminal hearings and trials and he had a mother load of information and once I saw what he had I said, yeah I think I can do this And then I still had a lot of work to do because you know, you know some you read that's if this is the third book of mine

you've read now you know, they're they're they're pretty intensely researched And uh, I I try to go deep and I try to get at intimate Inner personal stuff, you know, not just the stuff you would get from reading the newspaper article or magazine article So I know I had to try to meet people who would live this story Or maybe we're just one step removed who could really who could place me there so that I kind of write it in such a way The reader feels like they're right there in the thick of it I

When I first found out about this I remember my heart beating the way it is now from listening to you I've known for 15 years That there's a tremendous story there There was always a tremendous story when I was nine Uh on the weekends when I came home from catholic school. I would have to deliver flowers for our glass of our float And that was owned by a guy named jose toy meal who was a big time bookmaker

Who will get to lay that he was one of battle's guys none of them specifically saying That these flowers better be fucking perfect So battle or his mother or his son, you know, it could have been anybody But they lived in a tall high rise building at the time So if I was nine this had to be 72 71 Uh, we you and I just spoke a little bit. You came to one of the shows It was packed. I didn't really get to see you much

We spoke a few times after that I go to my daughter's dance recital And I come home that night and there's a package on the fucking thing and it's half ripped open Because everything my my wife lives on amazon every time I come home. There's a fucking box in front of the god damn house so I bring the book in tj and I sit down my daughter comes in we're talking and I didn't really have a chance to read but I opened up to a page And it was fucking goosebumps It was the page where Ernesto

Nina and munchie's wife come to visit him And uh, they do blow and they rob the jewelry store and next thing you know, there's compromising pictures and stuff like that And I closed the fucking book You know, I tell uh, I told a joke For years, which is a true story. We lived on 88 89th street on riverside drive This had to be 68 69 on tuesday nights My mom would sit around with six women and they played dominoes and cards and Do blow and fucking drink and listen to jim morrison and talk about how hot jim morrison was

And one of those women was nina You know, I was very tight with her and I remember growing up And the husband tati coming in and out of jail, but he was always very close to me because of my father I didn't understand it at the time when he would come to me He would say, uh, you know pick up your chest You know, you eat pussy yet. I must have been six and he would ask me do you eat pussy yet? You know, you gotta eat pussy your father loved eating fucking pussy He had a tattoo of a fucking scorpion on his dick

Your father was a real man and this was every but he would disappear The periods of time and then he'd come back and give me I could be nine and he'd give me 300 dollars Don't tell your mother, you know When my mother died and I had to live with the italian family the benders who took me in My dog went to nina I knew those people like I closed the book right away and I think I called you Yeah, and I said, uh, like I knew this And the thing about the you know, you spoke about in the van and octurn how the revolution started

in union city Tampa and then cuba obviously Yeah, but you spoke about the three brothers that battle approached That were down on their luck and he made partners with the one irish brother First thing I did when I when I read that was called mike askelies his mother patricia You he lives on lived on 19th street in union city grew up there as a child And she still remembers fidel castro talking to her

She goes, I knew fucking fidel When he would still just talk to he was talking to her and you know So I called and told him the name sure enough He calls back three days later and michael talked to you for hours because he knows the whole history of union city like early But I was so impressed with what you had done Like somebody had finally opened the door on this story Yeah, I because I grew up in this, you know, I was that kid tj

That would come to your house and we'd be watching something And your mother would say, uh, you know, I went and uh did something today and I couldn't tell you what my mother was doing that day I lived in I had two worlds growing up. I lived in a kid's world And I lived around guys like tati and mochi and malagamba and uh, nene my And nene carlero and There was a whole lot, you know, that bar was a book making bar at night. That's where they celebrated was at my mother's bar

So I remember half the stories like I remember the car bombing in 76 Yeah, and my mother used to tell me, you know, when I got out of catholic school in the fifth grade I used to go to mckinley school right off of route three if you go by route three And you'd you stay on there you you passed a york motel where the ice man chopped the body in half Right across from there. There's a fucking uh an embroidery shop And a school that's mckinley I used to go to mckinley and when I would walk down the stairs tati would be there with a fucking catalog

And he picked me up take me into the city take me to get a haircut I don't know what he'd do up the corner on that diner. He'd go in there while I was getting my haircut the stage Or something was there And then we what did he do? Did you what did you know of what he did for a living at that time? What I knew was that He did something I don't know what he did. I thought it was something something illegal. Yes. I knew it was cocaine related. Okay, and then

Then he went away one time and Nina shows up with this black Cuban Black Cuban would go fucking teeth and gold everywhere His name was at negar on my cell And that was a new husband and to me my loyalty was with fucking toffee Even at that age I was a young kid. I asked my mom. What the fuck is this shit? But I knew that she went both ways. There was times I went to a house and there'd be a young girl there Nina was just a fucking sexual deviant animal I mean, that's the only way as I got older even when I was

16 after my mother died there was nights I would walk home and She was living on 51st in north bergen and I jumped the fence And I'd play with the dog and she'd be in there with three fucking chick coked up to the gill. She was heavier then And she would talk to me for a little while, but she became kind of a country later on towards me after my mother died Well, we should tell people Tati Monci and Malagamba Uh, were three very notorious professional hitmen

um For organized crime for Cuban organized crime and some of it was just gangster shit, you know hits that were done For business reasons, but they also were professional political assassins They were used to do killings on behalf of an organization called omega seven Which was uh, you know an anti-castro militant A terrorist organization basically a group that was dedicated to doing

covert bombings assassinations all in the interest of trying to destabilize Cuba and bring down Castro So we're talking about, you know, some heavy motherfuckers. I knew you could you couldn't utter the words fidel as freely as you could today In union city when I was growing up. I told the joke a couple weeks ago that I got cousins of the commies I don't even know the fucking commies tj anglish. I just knew That you didn't talk to them

You know, I was raised. Yeah, no This is interesting because I I don't think the average American and even some Cubans maybe that didn't grow up You know either in union city or miami They don't know this history. They don't they don't know how how heavy that was heavy heavy heavy You couldn't even say fidel in the late 60s and 70s. It wasn't till mariel opened That it really loosened up, but that's when shit Hit the fucking fan. Yeah, well a lot of those guys the marielitos they got used for You know doing a lot of the

the The wet work so to speak, you know the dirty work for For the mob. I mean they became Guys, you'd have go do murders that you knew they weren't going to survive that murder, you know, and they were so desperate They they'd do it for ten dollars You know, there's a lot of names in the book that I remember and there's a lot of names in the book I don't remember And I wish I would have got to your ear

A year earlier. Yeah, that would be because there was you know, like I remember There was a guy Miguel that had his own bank. He ended up moving to florida He walked through the pigeon toe So they would always goof on my mother that he was really my father And he was married to a Puerto Rican Woman named Marlene and I guess nene car Carrero who owned a barbershop had a problem on a monday. Yeah, he fucked his wife and he shot nene in the leg you know, this was

common knowledge that I would hear whispers of at the bar And I grew up in a house that was mida oya ikaya For american people listening in my house. My mom had elephants everywhere and she had monkeys everywhere, but the monkeys All had the same meaning. They all covered their eyes their ears and their mouths So I was not allowed to repeat this. You mentioned Two stories in the book one about a cuban doctor I know exactly who they're talking about That was my family doctor as a child

He yeah, you're right. And we mentioned the name and I had the name. I just the lawyer wouldn't let me use the name Oh my god. What was it del valio del valio? He would come over to my house When we let his uh, his office was in we hawking But when I lived on 205 west 88th street, he would come over in the afternoons I always had a bad problem with my tonsils tj. He would come over come into the back room Touch my temperature. Oh santona. You have a fever. I have to give you a penicillin shot And I would go let me think about it. He loved it because that must that must be from all that pussy You were eating when you were six no no listen to this

This motherfucker would go out in living room and start doing bumps with my mom and whoever else was there And then he'd come in an hour later. Fucked up to the gills And give me a needle and then he'd leave my mother two syringes and a bottle of penicillin Or del valio was well known as The man for whatever you made if you got shot at four in the morning Del valio took care of you, you know, you needed anything That's just what you want to cope up with a needle in his hand standing over you, right? But I gotta tell you something between you and i tj till this day

2017 I still talk to him once a year And I love him Dealing I love him daily. I bumped into him in a disco years later And he came up to me. He goes. Tell me that you have a blast. Tell me that you have something for the head And I looked at my gardener. I got nothing but up in the heat and this is what he said it He goes nobody I suck on such day and he walked away from me. That's the last time I physically told him and you also told the story in the book about hose a battle Getting arrested in north bergen

Okay, he got arrested in north bergen for something minor you ready for this one I called one of my friends that are cops and I asked him and I told him about the book he pre-ordered it He called me back four days later. He goes dog. I looked into that arrest. Well, he got arrested in north bergen They didn't even put the handcuffs on them Oh, yeah, that one. Yeah when they drove him to the station and by the time he got to the station supposedly the call was already in Yeah, see that oh he controlled that was there he controlled that town That was there genius that nobody understood. This is why I do not watch CNN I do not care about political

Elections because I was exposed to something at the age between the ages of eight and 12 that broke My system down at an early age I saw cops getting paid off You know in an early age. I saw You know cops that would have uniforms on the daytime at family santeria parties snort and coke And I also when I went to north bergen, that's a completely different political system that's tied into union city

And we hawk and also Yeah, so I got to see the political system in a micro way Yeah, I couldn't even imagine the macro corruption If the micro was as bad as I had seen Yeah Yeah, I know it's fascinating and a lot of it was gambling gambling money Gambling money was allowed to flourish The gambling is allowed to flourish there numbers in bergen county in hudson county

That that numbers racket goes pre-date cubans You know cute battle battle was brilliant and battle came and plugged into a pre-existing system knowing that He was going to bring with him all these latinos that Were playing the number is like a religion and and but he was very careful about um

Getting approval from all the people he needed to get approval from he went to the mafia guys told him what he was going to do Cut them in on a piece of it. He went to these irish brothers that had the had the connection between gambling and the police and He took over from them with their blessing by giving them a piece of it The whole system of corruption that exists had existed there for I don't know a century probably um

He went there and and you know because he was from havana in the 50s and I didn't mention that you know, he was a vice cop in havana in the 50s And supposedly was the bag man for the mob who would deliver the money From traficante to batista to the presidential palace Battle knew how the world went round man. He knew how things worked. He was and he was He was coming as having been a cop having been a corrupt cop in one of the most corrupt places ever And he just said, you know, you take care of everybody You make everyone who's supposed to get a piece gets a piece

And everybody's happy if you keep everybody happy then we all get rich together and And it worked for a long time. I mean that the corporation Was up and running before it was ever even called the corporation For a long time for decades and then it continued even longer than that the thing that battle tripped up on is He had another Cuban trait And that was this guy had a very

Overdeveloped Need for revenge If he ever got wronged in any way or he felt his honor had been insulted in some way this fucker would would spend years calculating ways to To take you out and get revenge. Why is that in our system tj? Can you tell me why man on fire is my favorite movie? Can you tell me why death wish is my favorite movie? Can you explain to me why? Well, I have an ex-wife in colorado. I'll tell you tell me why with With it with the cute with the cubans lots of it comes from spain comes from the from the spanish

The spanish have the I have a very sophisticated and elaborate This thing of honor and if you're and if your Honor is stepped on in any way that you that you are on you are honor bound in return to to get revenge to exact revenge and you really Are not even a decent man anymore if you don't do that And it's all tied into manhood getting revenge for having been wronged and so fucking

Latinos have it and everyone has it. I mean irish have it. Italians have it but Not that it keeps you up at night. My ex-wife in bolder colorado 20 years. I'm happily married I'll uh, you know, I'm doing what I'm doing And I still can't trust myself to go to bold tj english I go to denger and I stay in the hotel And I pray to god that I don't have to go to bold and I tell you this from one man to another that I don't

I don't trust myself if somebody cuts me off I won't go over there. I I'm still telling you as a man right now And I could kept the cops are listening or the da or fucking law and order that I still dream about fucking slicing her fucking throat tj english. I don't know why And uh, yeah, it's got to be something in your genes It's got to be one thing about the cuban household is the main word is nunca te quedará No end up hasta casa now And that goes with the irish the irish have that too and that means don't come home to this house hit

Don't you dare walk into this house hit? You fight till the end Yeah, if he has and if he's bigger than you You hit him in the head with a chair you break his fucking head every time he combs his hair He'll think of you hitting him in the chair. That's the cuban mentality I cannot lie to you that that was my mother's Fucking number one pet peeve No end up hasta casa now do not stay hit

By no means never in your life. There's no dishonor in being beat in a fight as long as you fight As long as you find it out fighting One uh, listen man, first of all, I want to thank you for your time. I want to thank you for your gift But one thing I also want you to explain to these fucking lunatics that don't know Is how deep The number system goes in our soul you explain that in the book you even broke it down to la charralla The book of dreams, you know, if you go to 118th street in those days when I was a kid You would walk into a candy store that had one you who in the shelf

And three boxes of fucking candy that hadn't been touched in 20 years that had dust on it And there was a bulletproof glass or sometimes it was an open counter And there were 10 magazines hanging all about dreams So if you have a dream about uh getting hit by an ambulance You it's 32 and you put a five prefix How deep is that in the cuban? Yeah, no, it's fucking amazing. Uh It's like a deep. It's like a religion. It is a religion. It's an extension a numerology, you know It's a belief that that that true numbers you can you can know the mysteries of life

And that that everything Everything that happens and everything that is is associated with a number And you know, if you can somehow align those numbers put the numbers together you can you can be rich And bolita was a system That made that possible You could be rich if you hit the number you bet the number And so it was like well, there has to be a science to this. What's the science and the science was like Did um deciphering your dreams?

So like you just said every every animal or or many different things have a number assigned to it And so those things pop up in your dreams and you use those numbers to to bet to bet the number And uh people believed it like you would believe a religion you believe in it really really strongly Um, then all it took was for like one person to hit it and then it was like see shit Conyol, you know bet that number man. I had a dream. I had the dream. I told you there was a dog in my dream you know, whatever that number is and so

That extended itself to the idea that the bolitaros the people who organized bolito who were the overseers of bolito Miko battle and all the people in his organization Were somehow the the dream makers These were the guys that you could make your dreams come true And so they had a certain Mystique within the community. They were they were more than just gangsters really they were They were cultural figures that were tied into this thing of bolito as this kind of almost like a pagan

Religion that had deep deep meaning to everybody So it wasn't just a criminal activity It was a cultural activity betting the number Being interested in the number. It was you know, you know, it was a communal Thing for cubans. It was part of the culture and it wasn't meant to be Violent by the way back in cuba bolito was not a violent It was illegal But everyone sort of allowed it to happen cops bet the number little ladies bet the number the corner priest

Pets the number it was considered to be a victimless crime It's not supposed to be violent It got violent because it got so profitable They it was so what what battle created became so profitable that greed said it and greed led to the violence But bolito itself is uh It's a beautiful thing. Yeah, it really is when you think about it. It's uh I grew up in it, you know, I grew up in it early on

One day I went to union city And got uh joined the the basketball league and I walked in with a t-shirt and it said 57 on it And my stepfather one was on the phone while I walked in And he goes, what's that number on that shirt and 57? And all of a sudden we got in the car and he ran up because he would not use the phone He ran up to the corner and he put $10 on 557 Six o'clock. He told me I hit the number. I won $5,000. I think he gave me 2000. He kept a rest you know, it's such a

My birthday my 1969 on 2 19 2 19 came out And I went to jersey city with snow to foot and a half of fucking snow tj english Me and my little goombas decided to take the number one bus To go see some fucking pink panther movie or some shit We walk in the house and my mother tells you son of a bitch You hit the fucking number for five thousand. I gave her a couple grand And I opened up a bank account and fucking hug

The Hudson united savings there in union city and I hit the number a couple times. I used to be pretty good with it. It was My mother had a guy that sat there all day 10 o'clock to three just taking numbers on a little tiny sheet of fucking paper Tiny and he would write the number and he would fold it up very tightly and put it in his hat Because in jersey as you know, it's a felony, but in new york city in those days It was a misdemeanor And I just want to tell you one last point about union city

Let me tell you how corrupt union city was In those days never mind the fucking cubans The numbers the politicians What was going on in hoboken? Do you know what was around the corner? From the neymar kez's old club club 38 A bar by the name of bottom of the barrel Now I know in your crime research, you know, you're reading you've read about bottom of the barrel I'll tell you two figures who hung out at bottom of the barrel

tons number one henry hill And I confirmed that when I did a movie a few years ago And he was on the set and number two the guy that turned on Costellano dominic monteglio Yeah, he hung out there a lot union city was a very hot bed I mean, uh, you know originally the iceman is from jersey city But he lived in west new york

And then he lived in north bergen on 74th street across from the coat factory I snorted so much coke at that coke factory. We all did In the backyard that if they take a dog there today 20 years later that dog will fucking die He cut his his wife's nipples off in that building in that house In his book. So that that area is a very interesting place. I thank you for shining a light on it Because you opened the door to a thousand things that are gonna come now Because people like me know The stories. I mean I grew up in this small community that was

I remember that bar on 48th street. We're an esthico. I don't know the name of it, but they had a tremendous Be there that follow me With white rice and they'd sprinkled that grew. What's that green shit parsley? They sprinkled that on the Cuban steak with fried tortones and black beans. Nice. It was fucking tremendous Uh, but he is tj. I love your writing Uh, I I'm so happy you opened up this It's a pleasure joey. It's one of the great pleasures with this book is Lifting the lid on on this history and I do think

It's given people The opportunity to talk about certain things. I mean I had a lot of Younger people who were who were sort of the sons and daughters of or the nieces and nest views of A lot of the main players in this story and a lot of them Reached out to me and I really had a feeling that there was a generation of people cubans who'd grown up in the shadow of all of this And haven't been able to talk about it for generations. It's kept it kept it bottled up And it's never good to keep stuff bottled up. So, you know, I hope it's a

process of of people getting some of this history off their chest See Jen never thought people would believe me Yeah, I never really thought People would believe me about the frank moaner stories and that The two cops that would come in for The the beat cop and the regular cop that were coming for an envelope I still remember them, uh, you know new work Some guy named bonny awa

A cuban fucking ruthless guy that's ran new work drugs and he made a call to my mother's bar So the pay phone at my mother's bar was connected to a A house phone behind the bar so she could answer it They they got her on conspiracy charges and I still remember me being in my living room And the phone ringing and it was a dear cop that I knew that said to me hey, man Tell your mother to clean the house that she's about to get a visitor And then they said to come over when you're finished and I went upstairs and I told my mom And I sure enough I went down she threw away a bunch of shit and

Next thing, you know, as I was walking down the block with my basketball I saw the detectives making a Left turn onto my block It was that type of community that It was so corrupt, but then again It seemed like it was normal Yeah, it was the norm. It was the fucking norm, you know You and I could go for hours about things you discovered while you were writing this book that

People wouldn't believe now, uh, I know that you have tjenglish.com You're selling the book on there and you also have the book pre-ordering on amazon.com Yeah, amazon and there's one other thing I want to mention I'm hosting a latin jazz series at the zinc lounge in in the village in new york every thursday night in april To promote the book but also just because I love the music and it's like a dream come true for me I get to choose the musicians. I get to host the evening. So Anybody out there who likes latin jazz? We're gonna we're gonna have some of the best of it at that series

Now I will see you tuesday night for the uh, yes book premiere. I'm excited And we will talk for hours about about the stuff that's in the books. It won't be on the air all of it No, well, you're doing rogan on the 26th Up a little more. That's why I didn't want to do a lot of spoilers. I just wanted to uh Tell you that You know, you always want to do what you can't do and I know I can do it But uh, you writing this book really opened my eyes to writing I've been writing every day since then. I want to thank you. I want to thank you for your gift your talent

and for writing this beautiful story and I want people to Pre-order your book on amazon. So you get the word out and it's going to be turned into a movie and hopefully a latin series or whatever the fuck It doesn't even matter just that you got the story out there You like the round the rousey of the cuban fucking community now You expose this you open the fucking door. So tj. I love you to all my heart man, and this is no bullshit I love you what you did and I will see you tuesday Tip top magoo ready to fucking go. Yes, you will. Okay. Thank you for calling in my brother. Ciao. Yeah, that was great, man

It was crazy. So it like it's very inspiring to see how much work he said he took three years of research and writing and it's There's a lot more to putting a book together like this than than you would think that well Let me tell you something. There's a lot of fucking research When you read a book like I read I read the The copy that's Was say on here. It's uh, whatever proof not the sale I read the uncorrected proof not the sale and then he sent me a copy of the finished product

and I'm just saving that for myself and it's funny how I could tell he did a lot of Research and if you see the credits I mean one thing that I usually guys should know is my name is one of the credits Because I contacted him and whatnot, but just All the people he interviewed There is acknowledgements

that are uh You know Maybe from page 524 To 560 There's acknowledgements of people that he spoke to And different conversations and shit like that, which means he did the work

He did the research. I mean for me to write a book like this would take me fucking 10 years I'm trying to write a book about me And it's taking me fucking four years already, you know Just outlining and shit like that and what seems important and what seems not and I can't imagine You have to dedicate yourself to this shit Well, he mentioned uh briefly on on the phone call how he doesn't he he wants to go deeper than just news articles or something and that's It's a very because you you guys mentioned that it was a a story that needed to be told. Yes, but it's also

It has to the timing has to work perfectly because he He can't just go to newspapers. It's not like they wrote the stuff down They had he had some he had the police reports and stuff like that, but that only gives you A certain view of it. You have to go and It's it's not it's not research like writing a paper. He has that's why I asked the full story That's why I asked him how hard it was to Get the people get people to talk to you get people to lighten up. Let me get some shout outs real quick here First off to my man his birthday over there in japan

sad hatek Your girlfriend hit me up and told me to say happy birthday sad. So there you go You over there in japan listening you bad motherfucker Sad hatek my man nick owens dwayne johnson patrice sodette random rocha brad morrissey jeff boone j. Bechetti andrew nandow who i'll see through the wednesday night My man renae and carson who i'll see wednesday night in nyak

And 1971 capital don't forget on april Fifth and sixth i'm at the san anacasina I think the sixth is already sold out nor you got left this thursday night at 7 30 Which is still i'm still gonna rock that fucking show them fresh like a mother fucking ready to go And then for 20 columbus ohio that whole fucking weekend thursday friday and saturday and then if you know anything about me the mules I got mules leaving here april like 14th

Bringing a pound of weed and tons of edibles to fucking columbus So if i was you you better check your insurance policy and make sure you're allowed to go to the hospital And then don't charge you a lot for emergency motherfucking visits. No I've always been a groupie not a groupie But a fan of authors like i've always I really liked when i read the godfather books as a child mario puzo I just like a certain style of writing there's people that overwrite and they knock me to fuck down because They try to be woody and they forget what the fuck they're doing that shit fucking tries me crazy, but when i read

Something that's well written and something like like i said i have stock in the story I grew up in this i saw this around me And i was not allowed to talk about it did i know tati? And malagamba were fucking omega 7 not at all and like that i never even heard the word omega 7 You know till years later i believe it's not that i think you're lying But some of the stories you tell are just so Out there that you're like Maybe maybe he's just misremembering it or i don't know but then we get your friends are like this guy who you have

No idea and he's like oh yeah those guys were Political assassins it was crayons and he was at my house for every christmas Shit like that you know i forgot to tell the story That he you know nina his wife was dating this negro marsala when he would go to jail And tati would go to jail every two fucking years like he'd be out for a year and then he'd go to jail for two years And one time he actually came out and shot that motherfucker. They were like he's gone Everybody knew it was tati. You know the cops didn't say nothing nothing nobody said nothing You know my mother warned me of hanging out with two people and one of them was tati that one day

He's gonna get shot and i want you to call him And malagamba Danny bianculo we used to call him to the podcast a lot I was tight with malagama growing up I was really not as tight as i was with tati, but i always talked to malagamba. He was always nice to me and shit And after my mother died he sent for me one day he called dany and asked dany where And i went up then told him and he gave me some money and I told him that i wanted him to get the money from my stepfather for me

And he was like that we create a war right now between us I can't do that If you need help just check with me from time to time. You know, I didn't want to be a fucking Even though I was a fucking mooch And then I just lost contact with those people and then I heard years later tati Went to prison because where I used to work at the galaxy towers 1984 right he went into his main thing was tumbes That's what they call him in spanish. You know the tumbes. No A tumbes when I tell you li what's the story you got those two kilos of coke and you're like, yeah

Yeah, meet me at the office. Nice your opinion. I pull a gun And I go there ain't no fucking money. I'm taking this from you. You can't report that to the cops So that was his main thing. So ripping off drug dealers ripping off drug dealers was his main thing What was my main thing ripping off drug dealers? So it affected me in a way. I got in trouble for doing What he did all the time, which was just rob drug dealers Jesus So you see somewhere along the line, I always felt guilty about this. I never told these stories to nobody

Tati ended up going to jail because he kicked down the door to rob some columbians and there were two kids there And he shot the two kids and he killed the columbians That's how evil of a person he had become towards the end, you know, but I hadn't seen him He went he died in like 96 and 97 from cancer And nina did too nina died of cancer in miami. I found that years later TJ asked if you knew what he did and he said at six Like I thought you're gonna be like, oh, no, he was just a family friend Like I was trying to think back when I was six

But no, but you said he knew he did something illegal I knew he did something that like I don't think I knew illegal things existed at six I don't I don't I'm trying to think back. I don't I don't remember six as clearly as you do But I don't even think I would have known I don't know. I knew they did something. I just didn't know what it was. I didn't ask I didn't care. They would always throw money in my pocket Whenever they'd see me my mother would lose her mind. They would always give me a hundred dollar bill and go buy go buy yourself a toy I haven't seen you in a few months or something

So I didn't judge him in that way as I got older I had heard through different people what tati did I knew that he'd killed negro marcello So that made him a fucking killer and uh I just I didn't you know, I have This story like he like I'd said no, he's gonna open up 200 other stories And it's a story I have the story of how I saw how the machine worked early on I have no listen

I don't believe nothing that that bronx tail that has a line that says nobody cares Okay, that line sticks out in my mind every day Because I know at the end of the day nobody cares. There's a few people who really fucking care, you know And the point I'm trying to make is that as a child I was exposed to this police corruption Then I went to north bergen And I got exposed to a complete different type of corruption that was right in front of my eyes that was being done by somebody I was very

In love and admire and admired with I admired this family and I admired the way they raised their kids and I And this is what I yearned for as a child Was that type of family environment? So I overlooked the things he did Until this day, I love him daily. Uh when he died, he left me money Um, I left it to my daughter I put in my daughter's account for her to have a little start Because he loved my daughter. I always sent them pictures and stuff like that. I didn't judge him for those things

I wasn't raised to judge him for those things. I judge him for his heart And how he treated me growing up Even though I know he murdered somebody even though I know he left buildings on fire And he was part of a machine at the time. He was part of a corruption machine at the time That I benefited from So I'd be a hypocrite if I told you anything his kids got I got If they got a motorcycle, I got a motorcycle If they went to the hamptons or Montauk, I went to the hamptons and they got sneakers. I got sneakers

If they got Yankee tickets, I got Yankee tickets. They were all things from corruption, you know That park where I play that dirty hg park one of my friends is uh His team is in the finals final four this weekend of uh Of division three chuck mcbreen And me and chuck mcbreen. He's a coach. They just did a write-up about him on on facebook and a bunch of other things that He's a he's a coach me and him played basketball since we were kids I used to go to his backyard. He had a dirt backyard So whenever you play basketball back there, you'd go home dirty as fuck jack

and uh We were talking about the corruption that we grew up around but especially Like if if a net, you know the nets on the basketball rims Okay, okay If you went to 51st street and played at 51st street park when I was growing up, they had no nets If you went to 46th street if a net broke It took them a week to fix it like for somebody to come down from the town and re hook it up on the thing Our park that basketball court was such a fucking immaculate court

The only problem it had was that it went uphill But the backboards were brand new and our rims If all I had to do was cross the street. I mean 30 yards Until marianne or Carmine that the rim something was wrong and within 10 minutes They'd be a guy there fixing the fucking net for us I was a part of that I learned that so I could never be a hypocrite But still it opened up my eyes to a world that existed that a lot of other people That they don't get to see in life

And like it's it's very easy to be like oh corruption all corruptions battle Every criminal is terrible stuff like that But it's like you're saying like there's another side to it where Especially as kids, you don't know you just you're taking you it helps you out or they're nice people And you can't judge them like that. I'm gonna tell you that I knew everybody I dealt with on what they did I'm gonna tell you that you know, I enjoyed being around tati. I enjoyed being around There was two factions to the corporation. There was the corporation and then there were these guys that ran

They did their own thing and I knew these guys that ran their own thing. That's who my mother's loyalty was Won my stepfather. He was with a guy that was part of the corporation. He's not in this book. His name is jose tormillo. They called him nico Nico had a lot of money and a lot of power But he didn't have muscle So he needed a guy like my stepfather So he made my stepfather a partner to collect for him at the same time my stepfather became a loan shark Because if li doesn't have the money I'll loan it to you now so you could pay it was a three-pronged operation You understand me so yeah smart muscle. They let you run numbers on credit

So you could play two fifteen five dollars six fourteen five dollars To correct people to even understand what bolita and numbers are It's the last three numbers of the paramutual of the track So tomorrow morning when you wake up in jersey or new york Open up the daily news or the fucking new york post and you'll always see the paramutual Of certain tracks aqueduct belmont The one in jersey Because that's the three last numbers. That's the bolita number

So it can't be messed with it's based on the total profit of the track that day And that it was it's it sounds like it's like Part of like almost like a religion party culture culture you're growing up with numbers like one of the funniest things I ever heard Was when I was a kid at a dry cleaner Some lady came in and she goes for some reason and she was cuban and she was a friend of my mother's And she goes for some reason I keep thinking of the number 33 and my mother goes That's because your mother was a whore and she wore fake eyelashes

That's the 33 meant that your mother was a whore and she wore fake eyelashes So all you had to do was put a prefix number on it five anything from one to nine Yeah, but what if you what if you made a mistake like what if it was 33, but you picked four and it was seven Like what do you get pissed off? Yeah, you get pissed off because you didn't win no money. So how do you how do you pick that number you pick that number by Like 604 was my mother's number. That was the last six. That was the last three numbers of my father's death certificate or something

Something to do with my father 517 was some other fucking lucky number she had 219 she played If she'd look up and there was a cop outside cops always have a number on top of that car 314 get get the phone call renait. I was on 314 You become addicted to those numbers. So those people collect at the end of the week just like a sports bet with a thousand to one Dog I was always involved in From the time I was a kid. I knew it existed

I would go to the banks with my mother and then my mother ran a bank in the Bronx when I was a kid But later on was when I was rich like when I went to Catholic school There's a guy that called into the podcast want Julio. He's my cousin of sorts His brother and me they used to call him sandwich because he was fat So they would call him sandwich Me and sandwich on saturdays would shoot into the Bronx or Brooklyn every saturday. It was a different designated area And we would run numbers eight nine ten Because these were the years I went to Catholic school and I would come home on saturdays

And fucking run numbers and on sundays I'd fuck around my mom and then go back to the school and I'd work the bingo hall So I was pulling down a hundred a weekend in those days when I was eight and nine I'd make a hundred a day running numbers and I'd make about 50 60 a night doing the bingo hall Which when you're a kid that's a scam To scam right now 150 a day. Yeah, I learned at an early age about how to run numbers how to get tips from people when they hit the number See that that that that was the part I didn't understand where you gave People I mean, I guess your mom. Yeah, but I would never give people a tip

Why you give people a tip you always give people a tip because it's money in the common bank And if you're giving him a yardstick tip You might bump into 200 later Last night I did something I went somewhere And parking was 10 bucks Already my blood pressure was high But guess what the guy had a hoodie on And a sweatshirt and he approached me like a gentleman and he spoke to me and guess what he did

He gave me two fives That means he did his homework. That's how you get a tip. So I gave him a five I went into the improv What do they usually pay at the improv $16, $22 for a cent they gave me a $50 bill So I made his day and then the improv made my fucking day It all comes out in the wash at the end of the day Well, holding on to that $5 or $10 to make somebody's day Is going to make your your time better tenfold. You're just putting five cents into the common bank. I did I did take uh

I'm like, well, you never told me advice, but I always noticed that you tip very well when we're out at shows So when I had that show last week in Santa Barbara They they were giving free drinks and I gave the bartender 10 bucks and you should like her eyes lit up And like it was uh, so I I do notice that you do that and I learned in an early age You go to a bar there's 50 people at a bar, right? How do you get the bartender's attention by giving her a dollar? No, open up with a 20 And look her in the face and go I'm in the city of fucking two hours And I don't want this thing to be empty

And guess what when a hundred people got their glasses out guess who she's gonna come to first That's true you It's business Tipping is a part of business You tip everybody you could tip and you tip a little extra and you make that day Why because there's so many fucking people out there that are just cheap That don't understand that people work for tips and you have to make that day Whether it's a homeless guy. Listen, I refuse to give money to homeless guys, but I got my little black

Bodyguard here in north hollywood, but every time I see him I pull over and duke him at 20 You know, that's like duke him at 20. I got my wife giving him 20 So now he knows what my wife looks like So if shit gets danged down the corner Watch fucking black superman show up the real superman and beat him up with his 19 inch dick I was gonna say do you have like a code word that you guys can scream if you need help or something Just fucking look at the situation people like that are always watching those homeless people. I told you this a few weeks ago I don't understand what people's cheapness is

Especially when you have a credit card and you're paying with a credit card If the thing says 15 18 and 20 percent and it tells you I give them more than what it says on there Because what we do we're in the karma business we're not in the cash business We're in the karma business We give we make somebody's day and hopefully somebody makes our day every fucking day And if you do that every day and you leave the house at that type of mentality Your life will be a lot fucking better It really pans out for you and that's for everybody who listens to this listen

Uh, like I said, I really enjoyed my conversation with teaching English today. I was a little giggly Like my heart was pumping Because I love this guy. I love I would love to be a rider like him. I always dreamt of being Hemingway and Drinking margaritas and writing about cube and passing out and shit like that. So today Was a fucking pleasure for me. I hope you enjoyed it And I hope you got something out of it and don't forget to pre-order the book on amazon It's called the corporation. They're gonna write a movie. I mean, it's fucking gonna be huge Like I said to him and I'm telling you I'm really happy

This guy opened up this avenue Especially with narcos, you know, now it's time to tell this fucking story. So don't forget Santana casino tickets only available for the fifth, which is a thursday night at 7 30 I'll get you out of there by 9 30 And then uh, fucking for 20 weekend motherfuckers Columbus, ohio, like I said, I'm waiting on netflix For an answer. I can't put together a tour Till netflix gives me an answer and then I will be in your fucking town

And yes, I'm working on the fucking passport. All right. I love you motherfuckers. Have a great day monday Uh, don't forget. Oh before I leave I want to thank on it one more time always being having our back There were great supplement companies. Like I said, I can't get get your 10% off on The bells and the the gorillas and all that shit, but I can't get your 10% off in the supplements Whether it's the beef jerky the jerky the protein powder The alpha brain the new mood the shroom tech the shroom tech sport Which brother people fucking love if you're

If you're involved in some type of like performance and you're not using shroom tech You're missing the fucking boat go to honor dot com right now and press in church and get 10% off your Off your order to live it right to your house number two I love squarespace. I love it when they contacted me to do this I can't make I can't do nothing But on squarespace, let me tell you something if you're ready to start a business Make it stand out get started with squarespace I mean because you think it you dream it you make it and all this could be done

With squarespace right now. You're sitting there. You're thinking about your idea, but destiny is calling It says you need a new website Make it with squarespace. All right make it brighter And make it make it so it's a reality with the website from squarespace The dream is just a great idea that doesn't have the website yet. Think about it. Make it a reality With squarespace I mean the reason why they do this they do beautiful templates that create world-class designers And with a powerful e-commerce functionality that lets you sell

Anything online with the ability to customize the look feel settings Products and more with just a few clicks Everything is optimized for the mobile right out of the box And it's a new way to buy domains and choose from over 200 extensions. Okay They also show you analytics that help you grow in real time with a built-in search engine optimization free and secure hosting and nothing to patch upgrade ever and 24 7 Award-winning customer support. That's what squarespace is about. So do me a favor Head over to squarespace.com right now

For a free trial when you're ready to launch. All right. Use the offer code church CHURCH to save 10 percent off your first purchase of a website or a domain Who's helping you out today? Who's helping you reach a dream uncle joey? But it starts with squarespace.com After you enter code church right now You're going to showcase your work and you're going to turn this idea that you've been burning into a website. All right I love you guys with all my heart stretch it out Don't quit before the miracle happens. I love you motherfuckers. See you Wednesday morning

Uh, and I'll see you guys Wednesday night in nyak bitches. Have a great monday. Stay black Hey La traicionó y ese hombre nunca había querido Y por ese fuegüe Juana Peña lloró Y dicen que los años como la nieve fueron pasando Ella seguía llorando por ese amor que nunca llegó Ay, Juana Peña, ahora me llora Ahora me llora y no te quiero yo

Era bonita pero creedora tuve Juana Peña, ahora me llora Ay, Juana Peña, ahora me llora Juana Peña, ahora me llora Eh, no tienes corazón, no tienes falta solución Juana Peña, ahora me llora Eh, Juana Peña, Juana Peña, ahora me llora Ahora me llora, ahora me llora

Juana Peña, ahora me llora Juana Peña, ahora me llora Juana Peña, ahora me llora Era traídora, era traídora Juana Peña, ahora me llora Juana Peña, Juana Peña, ahora me llora Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, superb purple vou

When I paint out every year When I paint out every year When I paint out every year When I paint out every year When I paint out every year When I paint out every year