UnMade

Robert Walason, Joe Broadmeadow

Description

With Foreword by Zac Stuart-Pontier, producer of Crimetown

For Bobby Walason, the turning point in his life began when he was thrown out of his house at age twelve. It was also the best moment in his short life. Forced to survive on his own, with no friends or family to turn to, his determination drives him without the benefit of a moral compass. Finding shelter in the basement of a Providence, Rhode Island inner city housing project, sleeping in an abandoned cardboard box, he tries to stay hidden from the world. 

Finding solace in the Olneyville Boys Club, he learns to box, discovers a physical strength beyond his age, and hones an ability to fight. His ability to absorb punishment, forged under the fists of his brutal father, earns him a reputation for toughness. A toughness which built a powerful street reputation, enhanced in prison, drawing the attention of organized crime.  

This the story of the horrific life of a 12-year-old boy, enduring abuse no child should ever face, the lure of organized crime, descent  into the brutal and violent world of a feared mob enforcer, and the power of resilience.  

Bobby Walason unmasks the false patina of Organized Crime, finding a way to leave the life; alive, without spending life in prison, and without disappearing into the invisibility of the witness protection program. Turning from a life of brutality to the world of business, Bobby builds a successful life as an entrepreneur. This story casts a light onto the ebb and flow of the dark side of American society; a look at the forces that play havoc with the lives that go adrift on the streets of all our cities.  And how one man found a way out against staggering odds.

Sujets

• Multitudes inteligentes
• True Crime
• Redemption
• Mob
• Organized Crime
• Rédemption (homonymie)
• Murder

Informations

• Publié par: JEBWizard Publishing
• Date de parution: 10 mai 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781733526432
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

UnMade: Honor Loyalty Redemption
Also by Joe Broadmeadow Choices: You Make ‘em You Own ‘em A Change of Hate Silenced Justice Collision Course Saving the Last Dragon Run Scream
UnMade: Honor Loyalty Redemption
By Robert Walason and Joe Broadmeadow
Copyright © 2019 Robert Walason and Joe Broadmeadow
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in an electronic retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means- by electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise- without prior written permission of the author.
The stories written here are true, some names have been changed to protect privacy.
Published by Jebwizard Publishing
USA
ISBN-13: 978-1-7335264-2-5
Author’s Note
This story is true, as hard as that may be to believe. Everything contained here was verified through multiple sources, court records, trial transcripts, and news accounts.
Some names have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.
Bobby Walason picked up the pieces of his life and made something out of them.
Something good.
Here he tells his story with words. Soon the movie version will hit the big screen and the world will see the horrors some in our society endure on a daily basis.
Table of Contents
Foreword
PROLOGUE
PART ONE: Early Years
Chapter 1 Trouble is Never Far Behind
Chapter 2 Low Expectations
Chapter 3 "That Fucking Leonard Swanson…"
Chapter 4 Crimes on Stage
Chapter 5 Finding Wonderland
Chapter 6 Boxed In
Chapter 7 The Only Hidden Boy in Olneyville
Chapter 8 Where You Gonna Run?
Chapter 9 Life at Lillian’s
Chapter 10 Earning a Living
Chapter 11 Crime Wave
Chapter 12 Don't shoot, Please Don’t Shoot
Chapter 13 Finding Hope in the Ruins of a Life
Chapter 14 On the Run
PART TWO: The Lure of the Mob
Chapter 15 Being Noticed
Chapter 16 I’m the Wind
Chapter 17 The Old Man Wants Him With Us
Chapter 18 Lugged
Chapter 19 Return from Hell
Chapter 20 Out of Work Protégé
Chapter 21 In for Real
Chapter 22 Working His Way Up
Chapter 23 Dressing the Part
Chapter 24 Learning from Nicky
Chapter 25 Working for Bobo
Chapter 26 The Company You Keep
Chapter 27 Reckless
Chapter 28 Night Terror
Chapter 29 The Past Never Leaves
Chapter 30 Downfall
Chapter 31 Trial by Jury
Chapter 32 Verdicts Without Justice
Chapter 33 Fall of the Barbatos
PART THREE: BUILDING A BUSINESS AWAY FROM THE FAMILY
Chapter 34 An MBA in Business
Chapter 35 Golden Deals and a Banking Crisis
Chapter 36 A Friend’s Passing
PART FOUR: You Can’t Outrun a Bullet
Chapter 37 Trying Not to Die
Chapter 38 Not a Friend in Olneyville
Chapter 39 Cutting Ties
Chapter 40 The Other Side of Life
PART FIVE: Redemption
Chapter 41 The Love of a Good Woman
Chapter 42 Reflections on a Life
Epilogue
Author’s Notes
About the Author Joe Broadmeadow
About the Author Robert Walason
Foreword
It’s a story you’ve heard before; troubled youth gets in with the mob, lives the high life for a while before things turn bad, he tries to get out, but they pull back in. Usually, a story like this ends up with the guy in witness protection or six feet under. But Bobby Walason’s story is different... and this book is different.
I’m going to do something frowned upon in a foreword. I’m going to reveal the ending; Bobby gets himself out of his life of crime and becomes a successful businessman. He doesn’t flip, and he doesn’t end up dead. And this is what makes Bobby’s story unique, it’s what makes me root for him. And by the time you get to that part in his story, dear reader, you’ll be rooting for him too. (I won’t tell you how he manages it. But it’s clever.)
And it’s this Bobby, businessman Bobby, that Marc Smerling and I had the pleasure of getting to know during the multiple hours of recording we did for Season 1 of our podcast Crimetown . It’s this Bobby who is going to tell you his story in the pages of this book, assisted by the prolific and talented author Joe Broadmeadow.
During the making of Crimetown , I spent a day following Bobby at the moving company he and his wife Jeanne run. I met him at 6:15 in the morning and watched as he ran his crew “Get the new guy a t-shirt,” answered the phones “how can I give you a quote without seeing how much stuff you have?” and told me about his labeling system, “it’s called put a fucking label on it.”
He was good at his job, and Jeanne runs a tight ship.
I wondered that day about how many of his customers knew his history with mob underboss Nicky Bianco or the fact that he had been involved in a murder trial with Frank “Bobo” Marrapese.
One of my favorite stories that ended up on the cutting room floor happened when Bobby started his first moving company. He had this idea to do a Wizard of Oz style commercial. “It was shot in black and white,” Bobby told me, “Dorothy runs into the scarecrow who says ‘If you have the brain, you know who to call.’ then the Tin man says ‘If you have the heart, you know who to call” and the lion says ‘if you have the courage…” The commercial ended with all of Bobby’s moving trucks lined up and his guys doing a dance routine a la the Munchkins.
After they finished the commercial, it aired on local TV to rave reviews and a few days later, Bobby got a call from Ted Turner’s personal secretary. Yeah. That Ted Turner. Turns out he owned the rights to Wizard of Oz . He told Bobby that he could use it in an ad for six figures. Bobby thanked him, politely refused and made a new commercial. Lucky for Mr. Turner, Bobby’s days of violence were in the past.
In that Wizard of Oz commercial, by the way, Bobby played the cowardly lion. Which is actually quite a stretch. If there’s one thing he’s got, it’s courage.
Zac Stuart-Pontier
Producer Crimetown www.crimetownshow.com
PROLOGUE
We know what we are, but know not what we may be
: Hamlet, Act 4 Scene 5
In the 1970s, Olneyville was a desolate neighborhood of rundown multiple family homes and small manufacturing shops, which sat in a valley across an overpass that ran above the Route Ten connector to I-95.
It was a short walk from the Italian, Federal Hill section of Providence. No emblems on street signs showing demarcation points, nothing separated one neighborhood from the other, yet it needed none. The intersection of Atwells and Harris Avenue was the boundary. Along Atwells, up on the Hill, sat cafes, restaurants, salumerias, social clubs, laundromats, pastry and veal shops, live poultry markets. All part of the fiefdom, the unofficial headquarters of one of the most feared of all Mafia Don's, Raymond L. S. Patriarca.
When gang-banging, street criminals thought about edging out of their Olneyville neighborhood and moving toward the Hill, the thought was a fleeting one. Patriarca deplored all street crime unless, of course, he ordered it. Bad for business, it brought unwanted attention from the police. Olneyville gangsters stayed in Olneyville; it was safer.
One day, a blond-headed, blue-eyed, scary guy, who would someday, scare very scary guys, crossed that bridge. Even way back then, Bobby Walason understood it would be suicidal to challenge the supreme power, it was far more sensible to join it.
And he wanted that more than anything he’d ever wanted in his life.
This story casts a light onto the ebb and flow of a dark side of American society, a look at the forces that play havoc with lives that go adrift on the streets of all our cities.
As a child, Bobby held out against cruelty no boy should ever endure. Kicked out of his own house at twelve, he lived in a cardboard box and survived.
Though the word survived is a stretch.
As an adolescent, there were turnstiles of reform schools, escapes, and then, even though he was underage, the adult correctional institution, known as the ACI. A prison for adult criminals where he was misdiagnosed, beaten by guards, and fought extraordinary battles holding his own against overwhelming numbers. Finally, they wrapped him in canvas and chains and shot him full of Thorazine—a drug he was allergic to.
As a young adult, there was little thought of a future; he lived hour to hour. Adrift in a world where no one would notice if he lived or died, he found a harbor of refuge in an even darker place.
A career path tailor-made for Bobby Walason as custom fitting as the expensive clothes he would soon come to wear. He became an enforcer in a Mafia crew. A manic-depressive Bipolar Type I enforcer for the mob.
A very scary guy who would come to scare very scary guys.
The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together: our virtues would be proud if our faults whipped them not; and our crimes would despair if they were not cherished by our own virtues.
‘All's Well that Ends Well’ Act IV Scene III
PART ONE: Early Years
Chapter 1 Trouble is Never Far Behind