Fortunately Abe Raskin, the Times labor expert, took pity on a kid who a week ago was running for coffee and let me read his story.” It was a night to remember, but I knew from nothing. “Jimmy Hoffa and the mob,” he relates, “were moving in to take over with a lot of paper or fake locals run by racketeers like Johnny Dio. His first break came covering a Teamsters union election. Some were nuts, some brilliant, but for the most part they were talented, generous people.” Upon graduation, he jumped at the surprise offer of a reporter’s job from city editor Joe Nicholson, “who only communicated in growls.” I found a really fascinating collection of characters. “I ran copy for the city desk, went for coffee and delivered paychecks to reporters working the beats at City Hall, the courts and police headquarters. In his sophomore year at Long Island University, he got a night job at the Associated Press. In homage to his father, who “came from Calabria far down in the boot of Italy and spoke with an accent,” Pileggi set out to do the family proud by becoming an English professor.
But unlike Henry Hill, his eponymous “Wiseguy,” he showed no inclination toward a mob career. gangster flicks starring Bogey, Cagney and Edward G. Growing up in the mean Brooklyn streets fought over by the Profaci and Colombo crime families, Pileggi identified with those Warner Bros.
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