Welcome
Freddy "the Beard" Bentivegna grew up in Chicago, where he first took to pool in a neighborhood bowling alley that had a few well-worn pool tables. Later, he started to make trips to the shark-infested environs of Bensinger's downtown poolroom. At first repeatedly sent home broke, Freddy eventually developed into one of the key players that ruled the roost in the ultra-tough action town of Chicago.
Freddy built a successful career putting a hurt on visiting players, and taking his game on the road; sometimes in stealth, but often in an open challenge to the best the country had to offer. After 50 years of competing against the best bankers and one pocket players in the world, Freddy "the Beard" Bentivegna has plenty of knowledge and stories and instructional materials to share so surf around and get in on the action.
The Last "Westie"
August 5 2010
For all the venerable pool historians, I have a report on the legendary Brooklyn Jimmy Cassas, of 711 fame. I just spent the weekend with him up at Saratoga Race Track. Jimmy was a fixture of the old 711 NY poolroom in the days of Boston Shorty Johnson, Jersey Red Breit, and Brooklyn Johnny Irvolino. Often considered the smartest hustler of those smart hustlers, Jimmy was a terrific player himself, playing maybe the 8 ball under Shorty, when Shorty was Shorty; but Jimmy's true love was horse racing.
He went on to become one of the best handicappers in the country, and of course won big money along the way. As good as he played pool, pool was just a means to drum up money to get to the track. For our short stint at the track, Jimmy came through again, winning about $3500 for the two days. He also treated all of us to about $1200 worth of fancy meals.
I was with my room mate, John Bosnak, and Jimmy brought along an old friend of his who had just been released from a 25 to life prison sentence up in Comstock NY. (He did the whole 25 years.) His name was Warren "Chief" Schurman, and he is the last of the "Westies." For those who don't know about the "Westies," they were a wild, violent Irish gang from Hell's Kitchen on the West Side of Manhattan. Some of their most famous (or infamous), adventures included kidnapping Carlo Gambino's nephew, and the murder of Big Jim McBratney by John Gotti. Some other "Westie" notables include, Richie C (Chaisson), Mickey Featherstone, Jimmy Coonan, and Big Jim McBratney. All the old "Westies" are bye-bye, mostly murdered, except for the Chief. I guess that long 25 year stretch is a big reason why he is the last living "Westie."
Chief turned out to be a personable, intelligent, fun-loving sort, and the weekend went by rapidly. For the pool connection to this story, Chief and Richie C spent a lot of time hanging out in Ames and 711 poolrooms, and Chief was good friends with Brooklyn Jimmy way back then.
Below is a letter the Chief composed and sent to the famous NY Post syndicated columnist, Cindy Adams in 2005. I read a copy of the letter and the Chief gave me permission to publish it on my site for posterity, and also for some false, "Westie" psuedo-history clarification.
October 18, 2005
Dear Ms. Adams,
My name is Warren "Chief" Schurman. I'm in the twenty-first year of a twenty-five to life prison sentence in the New York State Correctional System. Since you have a reputation for accuracy, integrity and fairness, I beg your indulgence with this letter. An old friend of mine recently sent me an excerpt from one of your columns (August 24, 2005), my misspelled name was mentioned by some kid named Joseph McBratney trying to hustle a buck by dishonoring his father, James McBratney; dead 32 years. Big Jim McBratney was never called "Mad Dog" when he was alive. This vaguely disrespectful posthumous appellation aside, I'm sure this is just the beginning of a fictive characterization of a man who was tough, close-mouthed and honorable -- rare qualities now and in the past. Abasing his memory doesn't serve a higher purpose.
With the resurgence of interest in the doings of West Side hoodlums of the 60s, 70s and 80s, there will come a spate of half-truths, untruths and outright fantasies. In the half-truth-bordering-on-fantasy category falls the "Westie" legend. In point of fact the "Westies" was a moniker made up by a NYPD detective named "Publicity Joe" Coffey and his partner, Frank McDarby. "Publicity Joe" was very media friendly and the media of the late 70s was hungry for underworld tidbits, so they ran with this nickname...really ran with it. It was a joke to everyone on the West Side who knew better. It sounded like a bunch of cattle rustlers from Wyoming. A name made up by a couple of NY cops over drinks entered the American crime lexicon. As a half-serious joke, our little crew tried to name ourselves. We were torn between, "The Tuna-Fish Mob," which I favored, and, "The Egg-Salad Gang." We figured you are what you eat, sandwich-wise, thus the name choice. It seemed perfectly logical and ridiculous at the same time. Fortunately nobody bit, not even Screw Magazine. We were probably too low key to be good copy. The cops didn't have us targeted, didn't know we existed probably, so they couldn't pimp us to the media. A small group of crooks and hustlers hanging out in a few nefarious Times Square bars weren't sexy enough to attract such attention from the law or the press. No underworld fame for us back then.
As you undoubtedly know, a sizable segment of the American public has a voracious appetite for bogus revelation. With the TV and movie world about to embark on a questionable foray into the West Side Kingdom-of-long-ago-criminality, we're in for a tsunami of aberrant nonsense. Every self-promoting nitwit with a vaguely plausible story about a dead relative who may have walked down a street on the West Side will be coming forward; not necessarily with anything of historical veracity. Movies and TV shows attract hucksters like light attracts insects.
In the 60s, Tommy the Hat, the night houseman at Ames Poolroom on West 44th St., said this to me: "Kid, from 6th Ave. west to the Hudson river, every avenue is Gaff Avenue, every street is Swindle Street. After midnight any warm body roaming this neighborhood is working some kind of hustle, vice or scam. Know this and you will know the West Side."
The letter excerpted in you August, 2005 column referred to me as an "Infamous Irish Gangster." It seems the usual path to infamy was rerouted in my particular case. Up to this point one had to be famous before becoming infamous, i.e., O.J. Simpson. I went directly to infamous, skipping over famous ... Missing out on the good stuff ... Going straight to the crap. This road to infamy began with the publication of the book, "Tough Guy" in 1995 by William Hoffman and Edward Maloney. Maloney is a former associate who rat-rolled to become an all-purpose stool-pigeon in 1982. He squealed for the FBI, NYPD, and whomever else wanted to use him. His rat fees were quite substantial for the times: $30,000 plus, in People vs. Schurman, from the 1986 trial transcript, p.137, 138 and 139. FBI agent Woods confirming upon cross-examination. $62,890 for squealing on John Gotti, NY Daily News, December 21 1986, p. 3.
Maloney also got unspecified amounts from the state and federal authorities for maintenance and undoubtedly a wink and a nod to earn some side income, possibly illicit. The other cases Maloney snitched on concluded with pleas or other resolutions, so an exact dollar amount for his rattery would be hard to report.
The book in question, soon to be a movie, "Tough Guy," is a putative autobiography of Eddie Maloney. However, since Maloney was incapable of stringing together two coherent sentences, a writer had to be hired. William Hoffman created Maloney's book by interviewing him extensively... Boswell to Maloney's Johnson. The finished product is actually a hagiography, characterizing Maloney as the baddest, coolest, slickest denizen of the West Side since Arnold Rothstein. I'm portrayed as a homicidal half-wit' a foil to Maloney's criminal genius... Abbot and Costello in the Underworld.
Fortunately, "Tough Guy" was not a big seller, so only a few avid crime book readers know I'm a malevolent moron. The old "Chief" was still happily in the shadows. Apparently that's about to change since the cool, slick Matt Damon is about to make the cool, slick, Eddie Maloney a movie hero... and I a movie villain of course... the mind boggles!
I disavow any references to me or my friends. Any characterization of us in this upcoming "work of art" will come from the wet dreams of addle-witted fools. Who knew Hollywood hotshots could be so gulled and gaffed by a nickel and dime huckster and stoolie with an interesting life story. Henry Hill, another notorious rat, comes to mind.
If this movie is indeed made, it will be indicative of mister Maloney's preternatural resilience. A man in high shame, shot and shunned as a rat by his former associates will now be remade into a counterculture star. This type of historical revisionism should give intelligent people pause for thought not cause for cheers.
Art and life are related. If a betrayer is elevated in a work of dramatic art then all who do not engage in betrayal are demeaned by this work. Christians don't revere or respect Judas Iscariot do they? For if they did it would degrade the honorable apostles.
Notwithstanding the unwanted bad publicity coming my way, you're probably wondering what caused me to write this letter...a mean cranky convict rattling his chains? Maybe. A rare chance to practice Socratic irony? Doubtful but possible. More likely it's the philosophical incongruity of this moment...a guy with my pedigree and background able to make a logical claim to ethical and moral high ground. It's scarily sweet and at some level, funny. Such irony is tasty but not very filling. Teaching moments never last. A chance to let a few self-important fools pause and look at themselves is nice but probably meaningless. No one contemplates their own ugliness for too long. Some not at all.
Respectfully yours, Warren "Chief" Schurman 86-A-1764 Great Meadows Correctional Facility Box 51 Comstock, NY 12821-0051
PS Sorry for the bad punctuation. I've been out of school for a long time. PPS I apologize for my long windedness. I usually don't speak at all, availing myself of my Fifth Amendment rights to non-self-incrimination and silence. In fact, as I type these words, I feel myself falling into another long silence.....
(So far the movie "Tough Guy" is still in limbo, with no future date for filming set as yet. The Beard)
Latest Product Addition
North Shore Billiards, Hustlin’ Lion Poster
13″ x 19″
Origin of the Hustlin’ Lion Logo
When we were about to open the legendary North Shore Billiard Club on Chicago’s North Broadway in 1979, one of our charter members, Jack Gunne from Queens, NY., a television commercial producer, offered us a little help. He had a friend in Texas, a top cartoonist named Dave Bartel who was also a pool aficionado. Dave had previously been awarded Cartoonist of the Year a few years earlier. Jack asked him to draw up a logo for the club. So as a favor, and for a lifetime membership in the club, Dave drew up this unique lion logo. As a sidebar to the story, Dave never stepped foot into the club.
Poster comes autographed by one of the original owners, Freddy the Beard Bentivegna.