SonnyBlackstein wrote:Chris Christie wrote: I think you'll find Sonny's the most offensive and I would too.
Dear god.
Seriously?
Care to explain?
Yeah, seriously. It's obvious you don't fully trust the guy to be honest in his intentions to be truthful, as is your right. Now there's no beef between us, I like you, I like your posts and what you contribute. There's certain posters I skim over when they make a post, you are not one of them. I find you very informative and I've learned or gained new perspectives from your posts on certain topics. There are are areas that you blow me out of the water on, all things being equal. But speaking as someone published, if you made that post to me in response over an article I put blood, sweat, tears and cytoplasm into, I wouldn't even bother with responding, I'd be thinking "fuck this guy!" Everyone can be a critic. But to actually take the time and put something together, to invest the time and (loss of) money into writing, editing and essentially blogging semi-professional articles, from someone who's gone through the process, that's deserving of respect dammit! And I contributed only to ONE article as a co-author, that's my claim to to fame. Scott on the other hand releases periodical articles. And he's well placed to do so. He:
A) has law enforcement connections. (The info and photos on the 2000 Chicago chart I made, you can thank Scott for that 100% which was provided to him by the CCC (Has anyone ever called the CCC asking for info?- I have- I was told the current info is classified and to go read one of the many books that have been published.) Without the info he provided for that chart, I'd be a monkey with photoshop.)
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B) has underworld connections (was invited to Detroit LCN captain Frank Bommarito's birthdays but declined out of professional objectivity and how his law enforcement sources/friends would perceive it (would others do the same?).
C)
has been endorsed by both Capeci and Anastasia and has collaborated on projects with them or at their behalf. Email them and ask them their honest thoughts on Mr. Burnstein. Everyone flocks to Thursdays With Capeci and if he said so-and-so was the new boss of whatever family, 8 out of 10 here would take it as fact. So I challenge anyone to contact Capeci and ask his honest assertion regarding Burnstein. Go ahead!
D) published with Sam Giancana (IE- wrote the fucking book and Giancana took a co-author credit with a larger font size listing his name mentioning "& Scott Burnstein." Since he's Jewish you know he knows he took a loss. I can only surmise he did it out of love for the topic that we all equally love but what the fuck do I know?
E) He's related to the Burnstein bootlegging brothers of the 1930's and their descendants who remained distinct but in the same worldly orbit as some Detroit syndicate members, enough for him to get his foot in the door and get people talking with him. (He didn't take up an Italian surname and start a website full of adware installments upon visiting filled with gossip and the occasional deleting of a blog here and there because it sparked chatter on a subject that couldn't be backed up with a straight face.)
& F) he has more connections/links/padding on his resume than ANYONE here. And he doesn't expect or want to be placed on a pedestal, but he would appreciate some appreciation for his time and effort? Who else writes/blogs about Detroit, St. Louis (with our own BobbyBats confirming that Scott's SL info was more or less QUITE accurate) or Philly (with the obvious exception of Dave Schratwesier the journalistic ambulance chaser or the great Anastasia himself, who has all but admitted he has grown bored of Italo-American OC and thus passed the Leonetti project onto Burnstein, a project George had hoped to do in the 1990's until Gravano published Underboss and that stole that thunder.
What the fuck does Scott need to do-- sacrifice a goat?
We as mob historians/researchers/affictionados disagree, that's what we do. But we can learn from eachother and inspire conversation. Scott's calling LaMare a "rat for the feds" is misleading, I know because I alone discovered the information in which he based that article on, I provided it to him and Rick who shared it with JimmyB. But outside of the 3 Detroit-orientied posters how many people ever fucking heard of LaMare? It took Scott to get the ball rolling and get a discussion on it. Had I come out a year ago and said LeMare was this or that who but 3 people would give a shit or even know who the fuck that is? We can disagree, but let's respect those who have established themselves and build on that.
I'd like to get Scott more involved in this board, where we can argue/debate with him. That's not going to happen if the conversation starts with: "I think you're a lying fraud but if you prove me wrong I may change my mind." That's how he is treated here. And it's misplaced. He has good intentions and he's not going to write a book with Jack Tocco's cousins' brothers' former roommate and put him on the cover next to Capone and Gotti mugshots.
And if I can quote decent etiquette I can follow it: despite my low opinion of Dave C. If anyone asked me what's one of the best books written on early Mafia history it'd be biased not to suggest that book, and that pains me to say but the truth is bigger than my own ego.
