james.doherty@gsa.gov
20 Jul 99 15:32:00 -0400
Re Jane's recent post:
"Just a thought apropos of a
throwaway line in my last message about
costume dramas,which started
one of those 3am train of thoughts, is
there any truly hardboiled
historical fiction, by which I mean written
contemporarily, about pre 20th
century. I know HB usually pertains to
a modern,urban -generally-
situation, but if you think about it
previous centuries were just
as, if not more, violent and grim, than
our own, which could provide
numerous nasty, dark and lovely scenarios
for the right author."
A British writer named
Frederick Nolan wrote two cop novels
fictionalizing the career of
real-life NYC police detective Giusseppe
Petrosino, *No Place To Be a
Cop* and *Kill Petrosino!*. I haven't
read them, and can't comment on
their quality, but the subject matter
is certainly hard-boiled.
Petrosino, who worked in the NYPD in the
late 19th and early 20th
century, was the first American policeman to
see a connection between the
"Black Hand" extortion groups preying on
Italian immigrants and the
Sicilian Mafia back in the old country.
Petrosino was also the first
Italian-American policeman to be killed
in the line of duty, dying in a
Sicilian alley while on a secret
mission to establish the ties
between the criminal organization he was
sure existed. He is also the
subject of a non-fiction biography,
originally published in Italy,
called *Joe Petrosino* (the name of the
author escapes me), and a
pretty dandy little flick called *Pay or
Die* (circa 1960) starring
Ernest Borgnine as Petrosino. - Jim Doherty
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