'Rico' Gotta Die...Another 'True' NYC Crime Story by AngryMan (Pt #1 of 2)

New York City had a small and sudden boom begin to take place in the Billiard business during the late 1980’s…Those old dark, grimy and musty smelling pool rooms sprinkled around poor, working class neighborhoods seemed to be growing in popularity.

Instead of mostly bent nosed type characters hunched over the green felt covered slate, hoping they’ve hooked a fish with some easy money to loose, a more diverse type of people began to frequent these places.

The nine-ball, one pocket and ‘straight’ pool pros, had begun to rub elbows with predominately eight-ball slamming amateurs of every description. Most of the new Friday and Saturday night crowd was composed of young people…college kids, junior executives, club hoppers etc. with a handful of new dropouts and misfits of every kind to blend in with the 'resident' shady characters.

My favorite Billiard Room to hang out in Queens, also began to get a lot more action on the few Three Cushion tables as well. Middle aged Korean guys preferred that game…it was ‘big’ where they came from, and the growing, prosperous Korean community was beginning to have a lot of disposable income to wager with.

Sang Chun Lee, a Korean billiard champ even began playing there, after coming to America from Seoul. He eventually opened a pool room of his own on Roosevelt Ave. in Jackson Heights, and most of the Korean players followed him there; after all…Sang Chun was their world renowned star player.

I remember Sang Chun Lee as being so smooth with his stroke. It seemed as if he just tapped the ball…it would go round thee cushions and ‘tap’ the red ball ever so lightly…Amazing to watch.

We had a lot of world famous pro players visiting on a regular basis, like Earl Strickland, Allen Hopkins and others. Efren Reyes even stopped by once or twice. Women billiard players in the ‘pro’ ranks began growing and showing up too. A couple of females who turned pro, and visited were Allison Fisher and Billy Billings.

Fran Crimi

Pro player Fran Crimi was a regular and a ‘then’ young Jeanette Lee (The Black Widow) became a regular; both of whom I had the pleasure of playing with. We practiced together, and the loser…‘me’…only needed to pay for the time. It was well worth it because they were both very attractive ladies…Good personalities, great players and fun too.

Fran went on to open the ‘Pool School’ in Manhattan, teaching players of every level how to play and improve on their skills. She also became a sought after commentator for televised events, had guest shots on talk shows like ‘Charlie Rose’ and was contracted as a professional consultant for Hollywood movie production companies.

One of the most famous movies that she was associated with was “Carlito’s Way” in which she coached Al Pacino for that important scene where he was playing pool in a back room when he heard thugs coming to get him. Pacino then grabs a pool cue and holding it like a baseball bat yells through the door…”come and get the pain”…

Jeanette Lee

Jeanette Lee went on to become one of the most celebrated and successful female billiard players to date. She became known as the ‘Black Widow’ and would usually be seen in tournaments wearing sexy, black outfits with a hint of spider webbing. Jeanette was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame in 2013.

It was kind of nice to see…I was enjoying the change a lot back then.

Along with these new arrivals, we still had plenty of old school, low-life scumbags, some connected to the mob, most not. Some were just independent low-life type, and of course we still had the ever ‘battling for turf’ Chinese gangsters composed mostly of teenage gang members looking to prove themselves…

Violence was not uncommon in the pool room, even though the rooms were becoming more upscale. Fist fights that often turned into cue stick swinging, pool ball throwing battles often ensued. You either ducked or helped break the fight up if you knew the guys…You ‘definitely’ ducked when the shooting started…

Revenge of the Green Dragons

One night I saw a kid get shot ten times for looking at, or saying something to another guy’s girlfriend. The girl “belonged” to a member of the Flying Dragon’s gang. Her boyfriend argued with the culprit, left the room, then came back a short while later with a gun; emptying it into the other kid lying on the floor.

Quite a few shootings happened there, even though Buddy ‘the Cop’ came in every night. All Buddy wanted to do, was play a little Nine-Ball for ‘time’ to keep in practice after getting off duty…not chase after bad guys.

One night Buddy and I were talking, up front at the snack bar. Suddenly a big commotion started by where the Flying Dragons were playing…They tussled and tugged through the front doors and as soon as they got outside Buddy and I heard a gunshot.

Half the gang scrambled back inside the pool room, others scattered in different directions. A car came barreling ass up on the sidewalk, stopped…a bunch of guys jumped in, then the car careened off down Queens Blvd.

Seeing two young teens outside, with one leaning against a parked car holding his hands against his stomach, I went outside to check on them; one had been shot.  I told the other kid to help me get his friend back inside the pool room; the injured kid could barely walk and collapsed half way into the foyer. I dragged him the rest of the way, laid him on the floor and began to administer aid…he was bleeding out.

Buddy was standing over me, and the now smaller group of Flying Dragons were watching from nearby…Buddy asked me, “ _____ what are you doing?” I think he was worried about me getting involved, but I didn’t care…I said, “I’m trying to help the kid…” The ambulance took the teen away, and I later learned that he didn’t make it; he died. He was only fifteen years old…

When the cops came, Buddy identified himself as being ‘on the job’: I decided to let Buddy do most of the talking…cop-to-cop…especially with the Gang members eye-balling me. They knew ‘me’, and I knew ‘them’…It was not a very comfortable situation.

From what I heard, the kid who died was a member of a rival Asian gang; I think it was Ghost Shadows. The GS sent these two new recruits into the billiard room to spy on the other gang. I guess the thought was, that they wouldn’t be recognized as adversaries…but, they were wrong.

Part #1 of Two

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Authored by @AngryMan on www.Steemit.com Nov. 3, 2018

Non-Annotated Photos Compliments of Pixabay