Posted on 04/06/2007 9:46:03 AM PDT by narses
Next to that clown Harry Potter, the most anticipated book this summer here in New York City is reporter Wayne Barrett's blockbuster biography of Rudolph Giuliani, the Big Apple's badass mayor. Giuliani, as you might have heard, was recently running for U.S. Senate against Hillary Clinton, but withdrew from that race following a prostate cancer diagnosis and some serious girl troubles. But TSG thinks poor Rudy was also dreading the July 11 release of Barrett's detailed examination of the controversial Republican.
While Barrett's book--"Rudy!: An Investigative Biography of Rudolph Giuliani"--is a reporting tour de force filled with revelations about Giuliani, TSG will focus here on explosive details about the politician's father (currently the subject of a riveting book excerpt in The Village Voice). Giuliani has long described papa Harold as a hard-working Brooklyn tavern owner, a "complete man" who taught him the "lesson of being honest."
However, in examining Rudy's family tree, Barrett discovered that Giuliani the Elder wasn't such a sweetheart. In fact, Harold was a convicted felon, an armed stickup man who once spent time in Sing Sing after pleading guilty to robbing a milkman. Sentenced to 2-5 years, Harold spent 18 months in the stir before being paroled (Rudy, ironically, is a leading proponent of abolishing parole). Barrett also learned that Harold, whose rap sheet included a couple of other busts, worked as an enforcer for a relative's loan sharking operation, using a baseball bat as his enforcement tool of choice.
Combining interviews with a staggering array of primary source documents, Barrett has recreated a period that the law and order mayor would surely prefer remain shrouded. What follows are some of the Harold Giuliani documents Barrett discovered in archives and dusty court files (when arrested for the milkman job, Giuliani used the alias Joseph Starrett). While TSG is not exactly objective about Barrett's work (he's a good friend at whose knee we learned how to chase documents), we still suggest you visit Amazon right now, credit card in hand (preferably yours, of course). And now, the paper:
The Mugged Milkman Speaks (4 pages)
Psychiatric Report: Like Father, Like Son? (2 pages)
Sing Sing Prison Receiving Blotter (1 page)
Paroled From The Big House (1 page)
Uncle Sam Doesn't Want You (1 page)
UPDATE: In addition to the travails of Papa Harold, Barrett's book is filled with scores of other Giuliani bombshells. For instance, Rudy's cousin Lewis D'Avanzo was a stone cold gangster who was shot to death in 1977 by FBI agents when he tried to run them down with his car. According to these FBI records obtained by Barrett, D'Avanzo was a suspect in several homicides and racked up quite a rap sheet.
On the political front, Barrett obtained a voluminous "vulnerability study" commissioned by the Giuliani campaign during the 1993 New York mayoral race. The report's purpose was to identify--and help address--Giuliani weaknesses that might be seized on by the opposition. Rudy, of course, freaked when he saw the detailed (and quite prescient, as it turned out) report, ordering it destroyed. One copy survived, though, and landed in Barrett's hands. Here's the section on the "weirdness factor" inherent in Rudy's rather bizarre personal life.
Ping.
So...without spending all day reading this, is it mostly about his relatives, or mostly about Rudy? Rudy’s not my pick in the primaries, but it seems a bit cheap to be going after his dad, cousin, etc.; people he has no control over.
Yeah, and I would also like to know what is in Rudy’s mayoral records he dosen’t want people to see, hiding them away, illegally of course, so the public couldn’t have access to them. He should have been compelled to return them to the public domain as is required by law, but we know Rudy doesn’t think the law pertains to him, don’t we?
Given Rudy’s cronyism and footsie with the corruption, his family ties to mobsters is an issue.
Angry archivists and historians denounced the unprecedented hijacking of public property to private hands. Tom Connors, of the Society of American Archivists, said the transfer seemed part of a movement to "create barriers to the American citizen's right to know what their governments are doing."
The families of the police and fire rescuers who died in the attack balked at Giuliani's plan to take up to a year to dole out the money, with his new organization billing $2.2 million in anticipated administrative expenses (including six-figure salaries for friends he appointed as officers). The families argued that the fire union had far more quickly distributed $111 million with an estimated administrative cost of just $30,000.
Under embarrassing pressure from the victims' families, unions and state Attorney General Elliot Spitzer, Giuliani backed down. He promised to distribute the money within 60 days and fund his overhead from new donations. The families of the deceased rescuers, the real heroes of the September 11 attacks, received a one-time benefit of about $230,000 each from the Giuliani-privatized fund in 2002. That year, the former mayor earned some $8 million in speaking fees alone, more than $650,000 per month.
New York conveniently forgot the 1996 federal ban on sanctuary laws until a gang of five Mexicans—four of them illegal—abducted and brutally raped a 42-year-old mother of two near some railroad tracks in Queens. The NYPD had already arrested three of the illegal aliens numerous times for such crimes as assault, attempted robbery, criminal trespass, illegal gun possession, and drug offenses. The department had never notified the INS.
On the issues: Liberal Party endorsement of Giuliani
National Review: Rockefeller quote
New York Observer: Reagan Republican quote
New York Observer: Republican convention quote
New York Observer: Goldwater quote
Rudy is fully capable of disqualifying himself for the GOP nomination without the help of any of his relatives.
What a stupid comment! He put away the MOB. What's not to understand about that? Let me guess, he did that BECAUSE his family had Mob connections.
However, in examining Rudy's family tree, Barrett discovered that Giuliani the Elder wasn't such a sweetheart. In fact, Harold was a convicted felon, an armed stickup man who once spent time in Sing Sing after pleading guilty to robbing a milkman. Sentenced to 2-5 years, Harold spent 18 months in the stir before being paroled (Rudy, ironically, is a leading proponent of abolishing parole). Barrett also learned that Harold, whose rap sheet included a couple of other busts, worked as an enforcer for a relative's loan sharking operation, using a baseball bat as his enforcement tool of choice.
************
No wonder he felt comfortable with Kerik.
Explain Kerik and the six figure bribe he is dealing with today. Cronyism is a way of life for Rudy. Where did he learn that?
Given Rudy’s cronyism and footsie with the corruption, his family ties to mobsters is an issue.
Excellent. Perhaps he can do the same for America. I'm not declaring for or against him. Despite the rhetoric on both sides about Rudy, I'll wait and see.
Indeed. But Rudy has held up his father as a hard-working Brooklyn tavern owner, a “complete man” who taught him the “lesson of being honest.” If Rudy brags about the lessons he learned from his father then finding out his father was a felon and a leg-breaker for a loanshark, well that is relevant. At least imho. YMMV.
Did he put away the mob his family was connected to, or their competition? Either way something smells here.
Rudy was highly successful in turning NYC around dramatically, despite some liberal credentials.Yeah, by being willing to be a thug.
I do agree that if Rudy has clearly and knowingly lied about his father’s past, then that is in play.
Apparently he did. What really troubles me is the footsie he plays with the mob via Kerik and how close Kerik came to be Homeland Security czar. That coupled with Rudy’s propensity for illegal actions while in office scares the cr*p out of me.
Yep, keep on squeezing that one, single, 7-year-old hit book on Rudy by Village Voice hack Wayne Barrett, and try to pass it off as new info.
Guess that’s all you got on Rudy being a crook. Bummer.
Yeah...that's the extreme rhetoric I'm talking about which I'm ignoring.
Rudy's no "thug". I may not decide to vote for him in the end but it won't be because I believe he's a "thug".
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.