Bamboozled (23 page)

In his dressing room before his big televised fight, Joey says he thought about those who were no longer in his life—Sonya, JoJo, Ana Luisa, his parents, Emma, Dolly, and Blanca, but perhaps his analysis lacked the perspective to show how it was his own actions that pushed each person away.

After finding out that he was working for the FBI, Smith, Molitor, and Davis eventaully stopped returning his calls or those of reporters seeking comment about their longstanding ties. As a girlfriend who asked that her name not be used explains: “You have to understand. He burned a lot of us.”

Meanwhile, Senator John McCain continues to push for the Professional Boxing Amendments Act. The bill, which would protect fighters by strengthening safety measures and monitoring medical histories, passed the Senate but remains bottled up in the House.

In a moment of diplomatic excellence, “Butterbean” Esch, the prize fighter who was apparently never told that money was offered to his opponents to lose to him, told the investigator, “I didn't see anything at Top Rank that was criminal … related to fighting.”

Despite all of the evidence compiled by Big Frankie, Joey wonders why he's the only player from
Operation Matchbook
doing time. It sure doesn't seem like justice was served.

“[Senators Richard Bryan and John McCain] tried to do the right thing … unfortunately, I think they faced on the federal level what I met on the state level,” Oklahoma Labor Commissioner Reneau Wynn said. “There are too many people involved who would, basically, have to tell on themselves or admit that they're doing wrong.”

A part of me wants to argue that the way Joey bamboozled the FBI—getting them to pay for his extravagent and expensive parties on an investigation that ultimately had few rewards—is about the punkest thing he could have done, given his situation, but ultimately it was his inside connections and charm that got the FBI inside Top Rank and the ineffectiveness of the investigation was unrelated to anything Joey had done.

So while it appears that Top Rank and the FBI may have bamboozled many people with relative impunity and there are times in his life that Joey may have been led on by empty promises while stuck between a rock and a hard place, it seems arguable that he has bamboozled his own fair share of people.

But forever only able to see his own suffering, Joey says, “I still can't understand why they're doing this to me.”

Fiona Manning, a reporter for San Diego's
La Prensa,
shares the skeptical view of Joey's reform and expects Joey's pleading sob stories to continue. “You can bet, he'll let his fingers do the walking, looking for a new set of sympathetic ears.”

And so in the end, who was bamboozled?

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