Brownsville is a small community next to the Monongahela River about 40 miles south of Pittsburgh, PA.
Settled as a trading post in 1785, the town is known for its old buildings, some of them dating back 100 years or more. The population consists of Russians, Germans, Italians, Hungarians and other ethnic mixes that originated in Europe. They came to America with a suitcase and a dream after hearing the streets of this country were paved with gold.
It's a scenic community with bridges, old frame houses that need a paint job, and white picket fences that remind visitors of a Norman Rockwell painting. I moved to Brownsville, which is just 20 miles from where I was born, in 1986 after leaving the Phoenix Gazette to become editor of the Brownsville Daily Telegraph. My publisher Chad McKinney was a cigar-smoking community leader. He didn't pay much, but he expected and got a full day's labor from his hard-working employees.
My staff consisted of two female reporters and a hippie photographer named Jack. He wore a beard, a headband and loved shooting pictures and seeing his byline in print. He was also fearless when it came to covering situations that could turn violent. During a teacher's strike, I assigned him to cover a demonstration by the striking teachers. They were reluctant to have their picture in our newspaper and a brick sailed out of the teachers. Jack had his camera aimed in the right direction at the right time and snapped a photo of the high school football coach with his arm poised in a hail Mary pass as the brick slipped through his fingers. The brick missed Jack's head by inches.
I decided to run the photo on page one with an arrow and circle pointing out the thrower. When the newspaper hit the streets, our editorial office was flooded with phone calls, including several death threats. One male caller warned me 'We know where you live. You had better have fire insurance.' Then he hung up.
My response? I ran the photo again along with an editorial demanding that the football coach be arrested on charges of assault with a deadly weapon.
Sam Nicola was the Brownsville Police Chief. Nicknamed Dapper Sam because of his impeccable suits, well trimmed silver hair, and movie star good looks, Nicola liked to boast that he was the only police chief in North America who didn't carry a gun. He and his Sicilian wife Fannie played poker at our weekly poker games. We held them at the Elks Lodge and at a private residence in West Brownsville owned by John and Mugsy Belvis.
After a week-long investigation, Sam responded to my editorial by having his men arrest the coach. There were more death threats but the protests simmered down. Within a month, the strike ended and the teachers went back to work.
The major event of the year happened when Robert Mitchum, Natasha Kinski and John Savage came to Brownsville to film a movie called 'Maria's Lovers.' Several police officers, including the police chief, went out of their way to provide security to the actors. Sam made it his business to escort the beautiful and talented actress from her trailer to the set while Fannie seethed with thinly veiled Italian jealousy.
Our poker players included coal miners, steel workers, a widow named Betty and an accused murderer who had been released from jail on bail after killing a man who had given drugs to his daughter. He eventually beat the charges -- nearly everybody in town was on his side, including Chief Nicola who told me 'He was a scumbag and deserved what he got'. But while he was awaiting his trial, he played a lot of poker and drank a lot of alcohol at the Elks Lodge where he was a member.
I stayed with the Telegraph about a year and left when McKinney announced he was selling the newspaper to a another publisher. After shopping around for a job, I found one in Marco Island, FL. I hated leaving Brownsville. The poker games were easy to beat and the town had the kind of charm that made you want to stay there. But Florida had white sand beaches, deep sea fishing and coconut palm trees -- just the right ingredients to draw the wanderlust of a roving journalist.
Author: Geno Lawrenzi Jr.
(Geno Lawrenzi Jr. is an international journalist, magazine author and ghostwriter and poker player who lives in Phoenx, AZ. He has published 2,000 articles in 50 magazines and 125 newspapers. If you want to share a gambling story or book idea with him, send an email to glawrenzi@gmail.com ).
