BY KAREN BOSSICK
In 1941 a momentous trial was underway in an executioner Abe Reles was prepared to rat out Bugsy Siegel and other members of a mob network known as the Commission.
But, before he could testify, his shattered body was discovered on a Coney Island rooftop outside his heavily guarded hotel room. And the world was left to wonder whether it was a botched escape or punishment for betraying the country’s most powerful mobsters.
Michael Cannell has traced the history of Murder, Inc. through Reles’ rise from street punk to murder chieftain to stool pigeon in his book “A Brotherhood Betrayed: The Man Behind the Rise and Fall of Murder, Inc.”
And he will discuss his book during a livestream conversation with The Community Library at 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 19.
Cannell, a former editor for The New York Times, has also written such books as “Incendiary: The Psychiatrist, the Mad Bomber and the Invention of Criminal Profiling,” “The Limit: Life and Death on the 1961 Grand Prix Circuit” and “I.M. Pei: Mandarin of Modernism.”
To tune in, visit https://www.comlib.org.
- Also on Thursday is the Sun Valley Museum of Art film screening “180 Degrees South,”
The film, will be shown at 4 and 7 p.m. at the Magic Lantern Cinemas.
The historic and inspiring film documents the adventures of surfer and climber Jeff Johnson as he retraces the epic 1968 journey of his heroes--Yvon Chouinard, rock climbing legend and founder of Patagonia, and Doug Tompkins, founder of North Face--as they climbed and surfed their way to Chilean Patagonia.
Johnson encounters big surf, a dangerous ocean crossing, cowboys and dams on his way to climb Cerro Corcovado. And—whoa—he even meets up in a rainy hut with Chouinard and Tompkins, who have returned to Patagonia to use their influence to help protect it.
Tickets are $10 for Museum members and $12 for nonmembers.
To purchase visit https://svmoa.org/events/film/2020-11-19/film-180-degrees-south-first-showing. Or, call 208-726-9491.