On busy Sunday mornings, I always try to read but often have to put aside the great New York Sunday papers. If I get a second or two, I might glance at the Internet and check some of my usual favorites, such as CNN.com, ESPN.com and Boston.com.
As the day slows down, there's nothing better than settling-in on the couch with a cold "Diet Coke" and a game or PGA tourney on TV, and take some quality time to read a nice pile of papers.
On Sunday January 27th, I did just that .. a real busy day, but at about 5:00pm it was clear sailing. As I was was flipping through the New York's hometown paper, often read from back to front I must admit, I made my way to the front "news" section. A full page story, complete with terrific photos from COVERT and a cover photo of the book itself met my eyes, along with a real "teaser" headline, blaring: "Ref and the Mob." The subhead told the whole story: "In new book, ex-undercover tells of blowing whistle on hoods."
As Law and Order says... Here are their stories:
Former undercover cop tells mob story
BY CORKY SIEMASZKO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Sunday, January 27th 2008, 4:00 AM
Thirty years ago, Bobby Covert died and an NBA referee was born.
Now the true story of Bob Delaney, the New Jersey state trooper who helped cripple the mob by going undercover as corrupt trucking firm owner Bobby Covert, is being told.
Fittingly, Delaney's memoir of risk, redemption and professional refereeing is called "Covert," a name filched from Newark's death rolls.
"It took me a while to shed the persona of Bobby Covert," said Delaney, 56. "I guess I had to live it before I could write it."
What a story it is.
Delaney recounts his basketball-filled childhood in Paterson, N.J., and how he had to shed his past to "enter the dark side" and infiltrate the Mafia.
"I was about to get a lesson in the ways of the mob," he writes.
His uncanny ability to blend in - and play the Bobby Covert role while swimming with sharks for three years - enabled him and two other wired undercovers to gather enough evidence to indict 30 members of the Genovese and Bruno crime families.
Delaney, with help from St. Petersburg Times writer Dave Scheiber, describes a world like a "Sopranos" episode.
Killers laugh about breaking the legs of a man with a baseball bat. Mob chiefs test underlings by pretending to shoot other hoods in front of them.
In this world, mob bigs get misty-eyed listening to "The Godfather" theme song but shed no tears for the businessmen they ruin by forcing them to pay protection money and give hoods no-show jobs.
Delaney admits he took a liking to some of the made men he busted and found himself feeling torn up inside when one of the handcuffed hoods turned to him and said, "How could you do this to me?"
Later, Delaney discovered he was suffering post-traumatic stress disorder and that the ordeal of having to live a lie - or die - sapped his hormone levels. Talking it through with a therapist helped, Delaney writes, but he found real relief on the hardwood floors.
"The game of basketball is therapy for me," he told the Daily News in a telephone interview from Chicago, just before the Bulls played the Charlotte Hornets. "I'm on an island and all I have to worry about is the game at hand."
Out there, Delaney added, the "concentration level is so high you're aware of the fans, but during the course of the game you tune them out."
One voice he couldn't tune out was that of Pat Kelly, the mob informant who helped Delaney bag the bad guys.
Kelly got Delaney's attention at a Phoenix Suns game by yelling "Alamo Trucking" - the name of a fictitious firm Delaney ran in Jersey City.
"My mind was still spinning," Delaney writes. "I mean, this guy was in the Witness Relocation program and here he was sitting courtside."
It was a happy reunion for Delaney, who had watched his back for many years.
"I have been living a 9/11 lifestyle since 1978," he said. "Realistically, these events took place 30 years ago and many of the people we put away have either been in prison or have died."
Delaney said his exploits have given him serious cred with some NBA players.
"I called a foul on Kobe Bryant," he said. "He came over to me and I thought he was going to talk about it. Instead, he said to me, 'That must have been wild to wear a wire.'"
by: csiemaszko@nydailynews.com
Also, see this trailer:
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