Bamboozled (4 page)

His opponent was very tall, so as Benny yelled, “body!” Joey took to his opponents' body with punches and kicks until he was crumpled on the floor and the referee raised Joey's hand. At that time his record was 18-0, with 14 KO's in full contact Karate, and 48-14 with 28 KO's in the AAU.

Joey claims that Ramirez approached him after the fight and handed him a card for the Beverly Hills Hotel, saying “Party tonight.”

Later that week, Benny pulled Joey aside and informed him that it was time to get his own place to live. Joey moved into the Cecil Hotel on Main St. in downtown LA. His routine included buying a bowl of rice from Johnny's shrimp boat, across the street from the world famous Main Street Gym, where managers would buy and trade boxers. By noon, Joey had his hands taped and would be hearing out managers in the gym. They started noticing Joey after he won the AAU fight the previous year. They offered cars, apartments, and money.

Joey focused on sparring with professional champs while they were getting ready for their title defenses. Fighters from around the world came to the Main Street Gym in the 70s: Duran, Mardrano, Arguello, Ali, and Lopez.

Joey claims Ramirez had paid his rent for a couple months at the Cecil, so he had the time to be present on 18
^th
St. for all “street activities” or as he puts it, to “be gangster.”

While Joey was suited to life in the ring, most of his problems occurred outside of it. One day, on his way to visit his mom, who had offered a surprise, Joey sat on the back of the bus. He says he was wearing his blue AAU jacket with his name and record stitched on the front, daydreaming of how far he'd come and thinking he had a chance of being on the 1980 Olympic team.

He says he awoke to three men getting on the bus loudly at the Vine stop. It was typical of every thug in LA to walk to the back of the bus and that's where this trio was headed when they locked eyes on him. The lead guy was almost on him as one of them was throwing fists in the air and pointing to him, demanding, “Where you from?”

In one second, Joey had to punk out and say, “Nowhere,” or claim his residence and gang, but declining a fight wasn't how Joey was wired. As soon as he claimed his territory, one of the men grabbed the chrome balance bars on the bus and leapt in the air, kicking Joey in the side of the head with such force that his head shattered through the window.

Joey says he started to pass out but managed to reach for the buck knife in his belt while ducking the next kick, then planted the blade deep into his attacker's stomach. Joey stepped over the body, advancing towards his buddies, as they appeared to contemplate whether to fight or run. Joey jumped off the bus on Vine and was arrested a few blocks away.

Joey sat in the police station while the cops waited to see if the stab victim would survive or not.

That evening, after providing a fake name and age to the cops, the call came that the guy would live and Joey would be charged with attempted murder for lacerating his liver. Bail was set and Joey says Ramirez sent his sister to bail him out. Later that week, Joey was arrested at the gym when someone told the cops his real name and identity as a minor. He spent the next few months in juvenile hall and says he thought
about Shondra and Vida. Seventeen years old and living fast, Joey made a deal and was sentenced to 18 months in Camp Glenn Rocky, north of LA, where he had been sent before as a runaway.

In a few weeks he had adjusted to his new surroundings. Joey ran in the morning and lifted weights in the evening. His mother visited with Dolly and her daughter Blanca, but then he remembered he had never learned what his mother's surprise was. Bouncing Blanca on his knee, Joey's mother rubbed Dolly's belly and told him, “You're gonna be a daddy, Son.” Joey looked at Dolly, who smiled and shook her head up and down. His mother grabbed Blanca and gave them an hour alone. Afterward, they laughed, and began writing everyday. She visited every weekend.

In hindsight, Joey claims he grew up a lot during that winter of 1977. Dolly had gotten in contact with his other daughter and made him sell his car and send her money. Joey remained in good shape, excited to return to the ring. He planned to be released to Dolly, as she was an adult.

But first Joey was called to the warden's office for a special visit. Walking into the office, he saw his mom sitting, eyes swollen from crying. Dolly's father stepped between them to hug Joey. He told Joey, crying, that Dolly and Blanca were gone. They had been electrocuted in the bathtub by short-circuited christmas lights.

Joey was released early on a rainy January morning in 1978. He visited the graves of Dolly, Blanca, and his unborn. While Joey developed a lot of frustration towards the people in his life, he had lacked the requisite amount of time to have a falling out with Dolly, so he continues to remember her well.

Joey began gaining weight and eventually expanded out of his weight class, losing his chance of going to the Olympics. He cites the loss of his loved ones as the reason, but admits he continued to use cocaine in the youth authority.

Benny told him that there was something big coming in a few months and he was leaving for Japan to finalize the deal. Japanese fighters were challenging the LA Stars and America's best to a full contact, no holds barred fight and
invited Joey. This was to be his second to last fight and losing seven pounds, the newly-147-pound Joey agreed.

In the meantime, Joey says Ramirez asked him to drive into Lancaster to recruit some youngsters for the Golden Gloves tournament. Joey says Ramirez was pissed off the entire drive—talking about how Joey screwed him over by screwing up his body. Joe claims Ramirez had setup deals that he had been counting on Joey for. Joey said they could still arrange some fights in Mexico, explaining that he was going to be 18 in a few months and wanted a major full contact fight.

At the venue in Lancaster, Joey says he was cornered by the local TV crew, asking why he was not in the Nationals and if he quit boxing. Out of the corner of his eye, Joey saw his brother Luigi talking to a biker and pointing at him as Ramirez is laughing, counting bills, and handing them to the bartender. From the background, Luigi is giving Joey the left, right, signal. Then the biker was on top of him and Joey says he gave him numerous uppercuts while the biker tried to headbutt him. As the biker went on one knee, Joey says he grabbed the man's hair and put a knee to his nose, wondering if they'd add this fight to his record.

Joey says that Luigi was 5'4”, 300 lbs, with a cigar forever planted in his mouth that was bigger than his head. His style was straight out of a 40s gangster movie. In public school, Joey says he was visited by the FBI and shown pictures of his brother Luigi with Jimmy Ratianno, Frank Sica, Bill Bonnano, and Mr. Gambino.

Joey says that one day in the pizza shop, the phone rang. His brother made a face; which normally meant that it was someone important and to be quiet. He answered in Sicilian, tore off the apron, and turned to Joey, “You wanna go for a drive?”

In “the family” there were allegedly two bosses. Frank Sica was from the valley and rumor reported that he ran everything from prostitution to numbers. The big boss supposedly was Jimmy the Weasel and his sidekick, Ray Giarusso, whose operation was located in Hayward, California.

Joey got in the car with his brother and they drove in silence. Luigi was holding the wheel with such force that his knuckles were white. Joey had never seen him like this. They arrived at a gated compound where Joey says Luigi was identified as a friend. Joey says he walked into a room of cigar smoke and old timers smelling like Hai Karate Cologne. He says he recognized Fratianno, who he describes looking like a mouse. Joey says “Uncle” Frank Sica asked him to throw a hook, and the old timers tried to show him the proper way. Uncle Frank gave him a hug and said, “Thanks.” Joey says he wondered why. As they left, he was smacked, kissed, and cheek-pinched all the way out the front door.

On the trip back, he says his brother seemed happier than ever. At the split in the Grapevine, instead of going left, Luigi veered into the Los Angeles lane. Joey remembers Luigi telling him, “It's your time to grow up and become a man,” and “if you're gonna dance in life, you gotta pay the band.” As they drove into the Hollywood area, Joey says Lugi informed him that “some piece of shit” had ripped off Uncle Frank and the family for six figures and needed to be “baptized.”

The man, supposedly, was the owner of Steve's Mufflers in North Hollywood, and Joey says as Luigi was telling him about Steve, he reached under his seat and handed Joey a leather slackjack and instructed him to whack Steve a couple times in the head. “Do not kill him! Make sure he gets the hint and pays his bill.”

Joey says he felt that being in Vietnam had taken away his brother's conscience and that, without a second thought, if the family told his brother to put a bullet in him, that Luigi would make him dig his own grave.

Joey says they stayed at a hotel on Ventura Blvd. drinking wine and falling asleep to Johnny Carson. Later that night, Joey says Luigi was getting nervous as they parked in front of Steve's, telling him what to do, and sweating. Joey says Luigi calmly whispered, “You mess this up, they'll bury us both.”

The mark got out of his car and unlocked the garage. Joey says he stepped inside and hit him a couple shots, instructing him to pay his bills. As Joey turned to leave, he says it felt so good that he turned around and hit Steve a few more times.

Back in Lancaster Joey says they stopped off on the highway to make a call at one of Frank's pizza places. The
brothers looked up as Uncle Frank's caddie supposedly rolled into the parking lot. Joey says he strolled to the back room and palmed the .38. Joey claims that Frank walked in, all smiles, with a phony painted on tan. “I was on my way to Vegas and wanted a good pie,” he reportedly said, with two goons standing behind him.

Joey says Frank gave Luigi a nod to go in the back, leaving him with two broken-nosed men as wide as the booth they sat in. Joey broke the silence, recognizing traits of “boxer's nose.” The one in front also had cauliflower ear. One thug introduced himself, and Joey recognized the name as a contender in the 1940s. Joey says he took his finger off the hammer of the gun he was holding under the table; his body language relaxed. The other thug was at the jukebox, singing along to Dean Martin. Uncle Frank reportedly emerged from the back, looked down on Joey, rolled his eyes, and walked out. Luigi grabbed a bottle of wine, sat next to Joey, and supposedly poured out rolls of bills on the table from a paper bag.

Joey claims that as he was taking off the rubber bands, Luigi noticed the gun and smiled. Joey asked why Uncle Frank rolled his eyes. Luigi puffed on his giant cigar, supposedly responding, “Uncle Frank received a package this afternoon from Steve filled with more than six figures!” Joey says they were counting out the excess.

Frank wanted this guy baptized and you broke the mark's nose, ribs, and eye socket. Frank wanted a baseball bat to the knees.
Joey says he crunched his shoulders and looked at Luigi, “Then why did you give me a five pound blackjack?”