188 From Jazz Drummer to Police Chief: Rick Porrello on Music, Mob History, and Bestselling Books and Movies.

Cops and Writers Podcast

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On today’s episode of the Cops and Writers Podcast, we are going to the greater Cleveland area to chat with Bestselling Author, Drummer, and former Police Chief Rick Porrello.

Rick’s first career was as a jazz drummer. At the age of 18, he got his first big break when he started touring internationally with Sammy Davis, Jr. Despite a skyrocketing music career, Rick traded his sticks for a badge. What followed was a 33-year career as a police officer in Greater Cleveland, with the last ten of those years as chief of police.

As an organized crime historian, Rick Porrello’s perspective is an intriguing one. He began writing his first book during family research into the murders of his grandfather and three uncles, all of whom, he learned, were mob leaders killed in Prohibition-era violence. The Rise and Fall of the Cleveland Mafia quickly became a regional favorite.

His second book caught Hollywood’s eye before it was published. Hollywood snapped up To Kill the Irishman—the War that Crippled the Mafia and turned it into the movie Kill the Irishman, starring Ray Stevenson, Vincent D’Onofrio, Christopher Walken, and Val Kilmer.

Please enjoy this wide-ranging conversation where we talk about everything from being on tour with Sammy Davis Jr, becoming a police officer and eventually becoming the chief of police, researching his family’s organized crime roots, to writing bestselling books that become movies.

In today’s episode, we discuss:

· Playing the drums for Sammy Davis Jr.

· Why Rick became a police officer and his career trajectory.

· How and why, he became a police chief.

· Why are we, as a culture, so fascinated with organized crime?

· Omerta. What it is and what it means in mob culture.

· His father’s pushback when writing the book, “The Rise and Fall of the Cleveland Mafia Corn Sugar and Blood.”.

· Elliot Ness and The Untouchables cleaning up police corruption in Cleveland.

· The book, “Kill the Irishman.” The story of Cleveland Mob Boss Danny Greene. Why he wrote this book and how it became a major motion picture.
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