Death, Drugs, And Muscle

Gregg Valentino

Description

The uncensored, no-nonsense true account of a life marred by murder, tragedy, sex, drugs and sport, describing Valentino's life involvement with bodybuilding and its association with steroids and underground behaviour, including the sex and muscle worship trade in which Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger also participated. Valentino eventually began dealing drugs himself and details the dangers and the fallout, which included the murder of his girlfriend, his arrest and his rise as the most unlikely of celebrities.

Informations

• Publié par: Ecw Press
• Date de parution: 15 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781554906802
• Langue: English

Extrait

DEATH, DRUGS, AND MUSCLE


Gregg Valentino

and Nathan Jendrick
ECW Press

ECW Press
Copyright © Gregg Valentino and Nathan Jendrick, 2010
Published by ECW Press, 2120 Queen Street East, Suite 200 ,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4E 1E2
416.694.3348 / [e-mail]
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any process — electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise — without the prior written permission of the copyright owners and ECW Press.
LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION
Valentino, Gregg
Death, drugs, and muscle / Gregg Valentino, Nathan Jendrick.
ISBN 978-1-55022-921-9
1 . Valentino, Gregg. 2 . Bodybuilders—United States—Biography.
3 . Doping in sports. I . Jendrick, Nathan II . Title.
GV545.52.V35A3 2010 796.41092 C2010-900588-0
Cover and photo section: Rachel Ironstone
Cover image: Gregg Valentino
Typesetting: Mary Bowness
Printing: Easy ePub / EasyPress
This book is set in Minion and Akzidenz
PRINTED AND BOUND IN CANADA




Disclaimer
Out of necessity, some names and details have been changed to protect the innocent. Additionally, other names and locations have been altered as a safeguard against the many parties who still walk free and might wish to do harm to those who have made their pasts known.
Contents

Cover

Imprint

Dedication


Acknowledgments


Prologue


THE EARLY YEARS


THE LIFE I ALMOST HAD


Mark Wahlberg


Andrew Crispo


Steroids 101


Meeting Julissa: A Lover and a Partner


Learning to Live Two Lives


Unexpected Hold-Up


Saved by an Angel


Carelessly Stepping into the Dark Side


Tears of My Love


44th and 11th


A Little Help from a Friend


Police Assault


The Most Important Thing


Samantha


Losing My Pillar of Strength


Complete Betrayal


The End of One Life


Julissa Punks a Punk


A Couple of Characters in My Drama


When the World Ends


Running on Empty


Little Death


Julissa’s Ghost


The End of Life as I Knew It


Unlikely Celebrity


On the Inside


Eugene Barbagallo


Beginning Anew


The Synthol Myth


Media Scandals and Costly Misunderstandings


A Crazy Little Thing I Called Raven


My Life Today

The Ramblin’ Freak Speaks

Victor Richards

Arnold and Lou

Ray Mentzer and Onions

A Date at Gold’s Gym

The Jacket Story

New York Rat Trap

Fat Boy

The New Freak


PHOTO SECTION & FAN LETTERS

Another Gregg and MD Fan

Fan For Life!

The Ramblin’ Freak Fan Club
Acknowledgments
This book is dedicated to the memory of my mother, Rosemary Valentino, and to the memory of Julissa Rivera. My most heartfelt appreciation goes out to my family: my father, Paul Valentino, and my sister, Jamie Valentino DeRosso; if not for their love, I would never have made it. My love and thanks go out to my children: my son, Paul, and my light and angel, Gina. I would also like to acknowledge many friends, whose support and actions have kept me from being lost in my life — Bob Bonham, Dana Capobianco, and Father Mark Rosetti; they helped me to make it through hell on earth — and my boss and, most importantly, my good friend, Steve Blechman, whom I love and admire. Steve believed in me and gave me a chance when the rest of the world told him he was crazy. His faith in me means more than words can say, and my life would not be the same without him. To Carlon Colker, Garry Michel, Michael Gennusa, Steve Zaccaro, Mitch Farina, Alex Abbay, Mike Lambile, Mike Gentile, Jasmine Bellard, my sweetheart Lucia Moreno, and my friend Nathan Jendrick . . . thank you all.
– Gregg Valentino
To all who have helped me with yet another amazing project that I have been blessed to take part in, I offer my deepest gratitude. Foremost, my sincere thanks to Gregg Valentino for allowing me the opportunity to take this ride. To Jack David and the staff at ECW , thank you for believing in this terrific story. To my wife, Megan Jendrick, I could never thank you enough for your patience and love; you are truly wonderful and the biggest blessing in my life. To Tom and Janice Tani, Don Anderson and Christena Warwick, Michael Jendrick, Matt Nader, Jerimy and Maria Edee, Mel and Tiffany Stewart, Mike Heaberlin, and Anjan Mitra: thank you all, the reasons for which would require a book of their own.
– Nathan Jendrick
Prologue
I’m not a superstitious guy. I don’t tend to believe things I can’t see with my own eyes. But over time, when all the pieces are put together and you look at something without bias, there are moments when you just have to admit that the most unusual things seem not just plausible but also true.
Upstate New York is home to Howe Caverns, described as a “living, limestone cave, carved by an underground river over the course of 6 million years, located 156 feet below the earth’s surface.” They say now that it’s over 10 million years old. Some people will also tell you that it’s a powerful and mysterious place — that it’s sacred, that it can place a curse on you — and however crazy it sounds I believe it. Keep in mind I don’t say this lightly; I’m a headstrong realist. But if the story is true, it took 10 million years for that place to develop into what we know it as today, and after going there myself it took only a couple of months for my entire world to come crashing down.
For much of my life, I did things backward. Often I had my priorities all mixed up, to the detriment of not just myself but my friends and family as well. Years after I married, I found the woman I believed wholeheartedly was my true love, Julissa, and things only became more confused. I couldn’t leave my wife because we had a history together, and we had children. But during the time that I should have been nurturing my relationship with my family, I was spending it giving Julissa the life she had never had. I neglected my obligations, and over time everything deteriorated.
Eventually, my marriage couldn’t sustain my lack of attention. It fell apart — something that I claim full responsibility for — and my wife and I divorced. That moment was a shock for me, though, and it caused me to revert to a stage of real husbandry. Like I said, I went backward. My now ex-wife was threatening to take the kids away, and the possibility that they could leave my life hit me like a ton of bricks. I knew too that they deserved better from me. Nothing that goes on between parents should ever affect the kids, but my way of living — the money, the sex, the drug deals, the two lives — had always been their burden.
Over the few months after my divorce, I spent less time with Julissa, who felt she should have been my top priority now that I didn’t have to hide her, and more time with my ex-wife. Julissa became jealous of this, and now my relationship with her was suffering. And it all comes back to those caverns.
In 2000 , I went upstate with my ex-wife and my two children. Even though I was staying with Julissa most of the time, I knew it would be good for my kids to see their parents together and getting along. So Julissa stayed home, keeping an eye on my drug-dealing business as well as my Powerhouse Gym branch, and off on vacation I went. I had been desperately missing spending time with my children.
We visited the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, and we stopped by Howe Caverns. They are a fun place that puts its own little spin on everything. All over there are signs telling you not to touch the walls lest you disrupt the “fragile ecosystem” of the caves. They say the moisture and oil from human hands can completely alter what happens in the caves, and those who disrespect them are subject to a curse. It sounds crazy, something made up for the fun of a tourist, yet I truly believe that my disrespect caused a horrible curse that I still carry with me.
By the time we reached the caverns, everything had gone perfectly. The minute we took the elevator down into the caves, though, I needed to use the restroom. I’m not easily embarrassed, so I have no problem telling this story: I had to take a piss like never before in my life. The trip was long, and I was still in training, so throughout it I was sipping water and drinking protein shakes. That was a lot of liquid. And, of course, there are no bathrooms anywhere on the tour.
As we followed a blonde girl who acted as our tour guide, my ex-wife and kids were cracking jokes and making fun of me because they knew the agony I was in. It’s no exaggeration when I say that my insides literally hurt because of how badly I needed to go. Eventually, I just couldn’t take it anymore. I ran away from the crowd and, between two pillars of rock, started to piss all over the wall. My son ran up behind me, and I could hear his little footsteps before he said, “What are you doing, Dad? Are you crazy?”
My ex-wife came over looking for my son and saw the puddle of piss on the ground. She shook her head at me and scoffed. “You’re a fucking idiot, Gregg,” she said. “Watch what happens to you now.”
I laughed and flipped off the wall as we started walking away. “I’m not afraid of a bullshit curse,” I told her.
Most people tell such a story to laugh and brush it off. But days later I would lose the woman I loved and hold her cold, dead body. Weeks later I would be robbed, beaten, and near death, and within a couple of months I would lose everything else I held dear in my life.
I don’t need to be told there is no such thing as a curse. I’m living it.
Chapter 1
THE EARLY YEARS
Most people who become an infamous part of history are haunted by a dark past. Whether it was an uneasy childhood or a traumatic event as a teenager, something led them to a life that is so far off the beaten path that it morphed into something evil. Some people use this