Following up on the Philly thread, I got a hold of a used
copy of Police Special, the title of a collection of three
novels by William P. McGivern (Rogue Cop, The Seven File, and
The Darkest Hour). Rogue Cop takes place in a slightly
revised and unnamed Philadelphia, with references to Market
Street, Broad Street, Fairmount Park, Center City, the
Northeast, City Hall, and even the Phillies. There were a few
street names I wasn't familiar with, and Arch Street seems to
have become Archer Street. Also, the addresses near 'the
River' were off (he has 4800 block at the unnamed river,
which couldn't be either the Delaware or the Schuykill, could
it? The numbered streets start at the Delaware, so should be
the 100 block, and my Pop was from Gray's Ferry--around 30th
and Wharton--so I can't see any way that the 4800 block of
anything could be near the Schuykill?). Anyway, I'm looking
forward to reading the next two in the collection. Rogue Cop
dealt with corrupt police and politicians with ties to
organized crime. It would be great to have a hard-boiled take
on the Rizzo years--I remember eating in the Famous 4th
Street Deli around the time that either Wilson Goode was
first running against Rizzo or the vote on the Charter to see
if Rizzo could run again was imminent, and Rizzo's buddies
Marty Weinberg and Hilly Levinson were in there planning
their strategy over bagels and lox and those wonderful
cookies--the classic waitresses were still there, they would
scream at you and each other--all good material for a book.
Of course, the Move incident(s) could be part of the
back-drop as well. mat
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 19 Feb 2002 EST