Spanish Market

The Twice-told Tale of Pepe Ramos

De: Francis Mulligan

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

When it happened the first time, a blind-sided Pepe Ramos sold his Harlem market to Mafia Boss Benny Marino. His former employers in Havana, the Gold Brothers recommended he relocate to Glenside in Wilson County, Pennsylvania—a mob-free, midsized city in southeastern Pennsylvania. It worked for close to ten years. In mid-October 1980 two well-dressed strangers parked their black limo, entered Pepe’s Spanish Market, looked around, bought cigarettes, and left. Convinced that the Philadelphia Mafia had sent the two strangers on a recon mission, he determined not to let it happen twice. With only the limo’s license plate, Pepe Ramos determined to save his market. Pepe’s sense of urgency stirs memories from pre-Castro Havana, the Bay of Pigs, and the Isle of Pines. Cubans now living in Miami and New Jersey ransomed from Castro’s island prison through Pepe Ramos’ fund-raising efforts owed him. A coal town police chief friend points him in a different direction. Why Tall Joey Carlucci, interim Capo of the Anthracite Mafia, wants the Glenside market and what his fellow Cubans will do to stop the forced sale takes the reader from Glenside to Westfield, New Jersey, Miami, and Key West, Florida, St. Paul, Minnesota, Brooklyn, New York, West Pittsfield, Pittsfield, and Hazel Grove, Slate County, and Shackamaxim, Coal County, Pennsylvania. It’s three weeks of intense drama for the secret Brigade 2506 Committee in Miami. The Committee formulates the plan and Cubans and contractors hired by the Committee carry it out. Hoping the playing field will be leveled by those ransomed from the Isle of Pines prison, Pepe Ramos arranges a final meeting with Tall Joey Carlucci. This time he intends to say what he should have said to Bennie Marino.