OPINION:
Although I disagreed with Jimmy Breslin’s politics, I always read his newspaper columns, magazine pieces and books. I always found his work unique and interesting. I particularly liked his crime novel, “The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight.”
I enjoyed reading about him in Richard Esposito’s “Jimmy Breslin: The Man Who Told the Truth.” I contacted him and asked why he wrote the book.
“Jimmy Breslin was one of the most influential journalists of the second half of the 20th century and right through the first decade of the 21st. His contribution to millions of readers and their understanding of politics, crime, government was enormous, his contribution to hundreds of young reporters as a mentor and as a role model for great, precise reporting was also enormous, and his reinvention, in the early 1960s, of journalistic storytelling with his “new journalism” colleagues, changed the nature of narrative story-telling,” Mr. Esposito replied.
How would you describe him as a man, newspaper reporter, and columnist?
“There was no hardworking, more exhaustive reporter than Jimmy, and there was no one more exhausting to work with. Period. I did it as a copy boy - one of many to buy him coffee, run his column across the newsroom, get him money, always broke, always in need of money. And I did it as a city editor. And in the course of writing the book, I learned even more about just how exhausting he was with hours on the phone, cajoling, reporting, yelling and prying. He was relentless. And he was, as I said, simply exhausting because his world revolved completely around himself.”
Who were his major influences?
“Jimmy was influenced, in many ways, by the great sports writers who came before him. Depending on the day, he credited any number of journalists with being his most important influences. But through it all there was Damon Runyon. For Jimmy, Runyon was a role model.”
How did his newspaper column differ from other columns from his era? Why did he move his column from newspaper to newspaper?
“Jimmy acted more like a journeyman than a star. He was constantly searching for a better home. If you looked at it in light of a childhood where he, his mother and his sister were abandoned to penury by his father, you could see it as a pattern of his life. Love, then anger and betrayal. He quit, in a sense, before he thought you were going to abandon him. This was all inside him of course. But the emotions were there in his writing. Rage, anger, the defense of the helpless. All of this was Jimmy in his columns. He differed from the other columnists in many ways. In his columns, in essence, he wrote poetry for a cab driver, his simple sentences were the bricks of his story telling, his sense of humor lifted the entire paper, giving it a life it otherwise might not have had. These are just a few of the ways he differed. No one worked harder than Jimmy Breslin.”
What was his relationship with New York cops?
“Jimmy respected honest cops. He grew up with cops in his household. He deplored cops who came into New York City from the suburbs, like an invading army he would say, learning nothing about the people they were supposed to serve or the city they were supposed to serve in. Conversely, any number of cops loved to hate Jimmy. But the smartest among them were his confidants and his friends, and the smartest among them were open to reading him, even when they disagreed with him.”
What was Breslin’s relationship with New York organized crime figures?
“He had solid relationships, if not friendships, with some key members of organized crime. He also had nothing but distain for the selling of drugs which by the 1970s was becoming the way the mob made much of its money.”
Did Breslin report his beating from “Jimmy the Gent” Burke to the police?
“Breslin reported his beating by Burke to no one. And Burke, of course, reported it to no one. It was business. In a bar. Between two guys who had a life-long relationship. Both of them had volatile personalities. Burke’s was sociopathic. Breslin’s egomaniacal.”
Why did Burke offer Breslin money for his wife’s illness, and why did Breslin refuse?
“Burke’s offer came from knowing Rosemary, or “Rose” as he called her, since they were young. He wanted her cured, and in his world, a bag of cash could buy the best of anything. So he tried to give it to Jimmy so he could buy Rosemary the best care. Jimmy didn’t take the money. But he never forgot the offer, and many years later, he wrote about Burke’s generosity.”
What do you believe will be Jimmy Breslin’s legacy?
“Breslin’s legacy is reminding us all, tell the truth, tell the stories, and then let the readers figure it out. In other words, give them what they need to make up their minds. Don’t preach to a choir that already knows what you are going to say and believes it.”
• Paul Davis’ On Crime column covers true crime, crime fiction and thrillers.
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Jimmy Breslin: The Man Who Told the Truth
Richard Esposito
Crime Ink/Penzler, $30, 360 pages
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