Friday, May 13, 2011

Open Studio Event May 28-29

Now's your first chance to visit me in my studio and see LOOKING FOR LEPKE in progress....

LOWER MANHATTAN CULTURAL COUNCIL PRESENTS
WORKS-IN-PROGRESS: OPEN STUDIOS
AT BUILDING 110: LMCC'S ARTS CENTER AT GOVERNORS ISLAND
SATURDAY, MAY 28 & SUNDAY, M
AY 29 12-5PM


Ferries to Governors Island are free and depart regularly from Manhattan and Brooklyn. Visit www.govisland.org for ferry schedules and directions to the pier.
And for more information about me and my fellow artists, please visit www.lmcc.net

Monday, May 2, 2011

I'm Getting The Band Back Together

About a year ago, after knowing my friend and fellow filmmaker JW for a while, the conversation came around to my plans to make a film about Lepke. So it turns out that JW's father's great uncle was Charlie "The Bug" Workman, one of Lepke's hitmen - in fact, the one who rubbed out Dutch Schultz at the Palace Chop House in Newark. JW's been trying to find a relative of his that'll talk to me about it ever since - same same.

So then over the weekend, I get an email from SS, the great nephew of Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro. Lepke and Shapiro met as teenagers doing petty street crimes together, and only prison separated them. 

 
It was Gurrah who pushed Lepke to kill Dewey when he had the chance.And when Dewey got Lepke's racketeering charges upped to murder, it was Gurrah who sent Lepke a note from his own Atlanta jail cell with the age-old words "I told you so."

Looks like the band is getting back together. What have I started here?