So I’m writing this novel, a 1969 true noir, and do you know you live at 858 Prospect Place, Benny Spano, a connected man who ran The Blue Banner Club out of the double garage in the back of the two-family home. The Buffalo and NYS police raided the naughty pine-lined gambling den. They discovered some of Buffalo’s most prominent organized-crime figures, including Andrew Sciandra, who lived at 852 Prospect. Sciandra was accused of being one of the biggest loan sharks in the area.
And do you know who lived at 854 Prospect right in the middle of this criminal enterprise, my Grandmother, the pimp, I mean, a Madame.