The Outcasts

I went back to the area of the city where the Sad Lady Cafe was located and I talked to some 25 people...To my surprise...Most of them was willing to talk to me as long as I kept them anonymous...

They said that little than a year ago...Eddie Coker came out of West Philadelphia and began buying up properties and businesses...He had made his money being a major narcotics trafficker in parts of West and Southwest Philadelphia...Something that didn't go over well with Fathead Newton...

It never resulted in violence...Eddie Coker simply packed up his operation and moved into new territory..He had made enough money to go semi-legitimate..He bought a few apartment complexes and a club...but behind the scenes he had loan Sharking, gambling and extortion going on......

12 of the local players had dared to voice their displeasure at his operation moving in on their territory....and all twelve men were put down....The work of his enforcer, Larry ''Baby" Santana...himself , a one time player in the drug game who had been run out of his area of birth by The Diaz Brothers and the now imprisoned Minolo Sentterro...There just wasn't going to be room for three powers in that section...

Somehow these two outcasts had hooked up and formed an unholy alliance and had taken over this area in record time...

Acting as muscle...Baby Santana, a pyschopathic killer and another thug known as Ludwick 'Ludi' Nelson out of Brooklyn..had moved all of Eddie Coker's adversaries off the street and out of this life!

But my question was ...Why had they killed a guy like Tyrone "Buddy" Dwyer...who from what I was able to find out about him...wasn't in the drug game or any kind of game at all!

He had been born and raised in South Philadelphia..went to Philadelphia Public schools, did three years at West Chester State College, dropped out and did a four year stint in the Marine Corps... Upon leaving the Marines...He entered Temple University and finished his bachelors degree... He worked in a civil service job in center city Philadelphia...No criminal record at all...Not even  a traffic ticket!  I didn't get it...What did he do to warrant a contract killing?

II-

While I was in that part of town researching Eddie Coker and Larry "Baby" Santana...
Larry boy was in my part of town looking for me... He and Ludi went to Josies, Ciros, The Mermaid Club,Mulberry Street and Aqua Bar searching for me, asking about my whereabouts....They even went to the Bottom of the C.  Gus, Honey Brown, Joe Neptune, Sam Mother,Mabel Jenkins, Dollar Bill and Ralph Scallion all told me that Ludi and Baby had paid their establishments a visit..

I had to laugh....They had even stopped by my office from what Sean Jackson and Harry Charles told me...Twice!... I suppose "Baby" Santana probably thought that I was hiding from him...Wasn't the case at all..I was busy gathering information...We were just missing each other.

Eddie Coker was from my old neighborhood...but he was a few years older... We had never actually met...I knew him by reputation and sight only... He didn't have a police record of any type...Surprising for the type of business he was allegedly in...Not one arrest....Not even as a juvenile...I used to see him with his nice suits and nice cars riding around with all of the girls I wished I could have that wouldn't give me the time of day when I was a teenager.

Larry "Baby"Santana had several arrests and all for violent crimes...Assault, Simple Assault...Battery et al...He did a five year stretch for manslaughter in New Jersey....He was arrested and charged with a 1997 murder in Atlantic City....but the charges were dropped when two witnesses against him suddenly vanished....never to be seen again.. Allegedly helped by the local underworld ,with the promise that once freed, he'd leave AC and never return.. Baby was too violent and unpredictable even for them!!

Baby Santana was truly a nasty piece of business...but he was not my main concern...He was at best, just muscle... Eddie Coker was the man...He was who I needed to study further.

Except for the basic facts I'd dug up there wasn't much to talk about...He was rarely seen on the streets...Nothing flamboyant or flashy about him...I didn't even have an address for him...I had checked several places listed as having been his address, but they were all dead ends...He owned the club, but was never seen in it... His face on the streets was Larry "Baby"Santana...He was the enforcer and the one who handled all of the man's business.

III-

I got the break I needed one night in Josies....It came from none other than so called "Blind" Keyboardist, Chazz Gillison...

He sat down with me and Sepia...I ordered beers for all three of us..

"Hey Kev...I hear you been askin around about the principles in that murder the other night...Shame about what happened to that girl's fiance." he said.

''Yeah, he seemed like a nice guy.."I said.

"He was..Just with the wrong girl that's all." said Chazz..

"What do you mean wrong girl? She's my friend." said my wife Sepia...

"I don't mean nothin against her...She is a nice girl...but she's Coker's girl." said Chazz.

''Huh? Come again? How is she Coker's girl and she was engaged to Dwyer?" I asked.

"Look man,I don't know nothin from nothin....but Eddie Coker met her in New York...the way I hear it...They dated for a minute..He told everybody that would listen that that was the best sex he had ever had in his life...Sorry Sepia..but that's what he said..Man he raved about her......The things she did to him in bed just blew his mind..He was sprung like a spring chicken!!

Every week he was runnin up to New York...To see her...Runnin up there so much that his business slipped...That's how Fathead got a foothold on him and took over his territory and run him out of West and Southwest Philly...He was pre-occupied.Pre-occupied with her and the good lovin she was whippin on him."

"Anyway...She moved here....bout a year ago...but for her, the romance was over...She was never as gaga over him as he was her...but Coker couldn't let her go...He was obsessed over her...Whipped...Hooked...When she moved in that apartment complex...He bought it from under the owner...When she started giggin at that club..He bought that and refurbished it and brought in the young crowds..."

"He did all that for her...but she didn't want him...She stopped taking his calls, she avoided him at all costs...  She met a nice guy who ironically was also from Philly...Buddy Dwyer and they got engaged...She was gettin ready to move out of that spot...and she was playin her last gig at the Sad Lady this week."
said Chazz.

"This explains a lot...I imagine around this time...Buddy Dwyer got a visit from "Baby" Santana telling him to beat it." I said.

"Yeah...Only he stood up to Baby and paid him no mind...and uh ,well, you see what happens to people who pay that guy no mind...Speaking of which...I heard you beat the piss out of Baby a few days ago....Heard he's been lookin for you..Aren't you worried?"asked Chazz.

"I worry about people like him,like I worry if the sun is going to come up the next morning." I said.

Chazz laughed...

"Dutch told me his eye was closed and it looked like his nose was broke....If somebody busted me up like that...I wouldn't be lookin for em..I'd be looking to go the opposite way." he laughed..

Sepia and I laughed...

We were getting ready to leave when Gus pulled me to the side...

"Hey Kid...a nice looking broad came in here looking for you yesterday." he said.

I smiled...

"Oh yeah?" I said.

''Yeah...You're gettin to be real popular around these parts..Baby Santana and Ludi came lookin for you too and they didn't look too happy." said Gus..

"I heard Baby didn't look too good at all."I joked..

"You put that shiner on him and broke his nose?" asked Gus.

"You might say I did." I said...Gus shook his head and laughed....

"Yeah, well you might want to make yourself scarce for awhile....He's a nasty piece of business..."said Gus.

" So I hear. Now about the good lookin girl?" I asked.

"Her name was uh er...Lynette Dubois...said she's a singer...She gave me this number..
She said for you to call her and to meet her at this tea room in Chinatown tomorrow." said Gus..

"Yeah???, She came in here?" I asked.

"Yeah...She looked scared to death...If she's mixed up with Larry "Baby" Santana, I don't blame her.." said Gus..

I patted Gus on the back...

"Thanks Gus." I said.

"You aint worried?" he said.

''Nah...You should worry about Baby." I said and walked outside where Sepia was waiting for me..

"What did Gus want?" asked Sepia as we drove home..

"Your girl came in here looking for me today....She left a phone number and an address for me to meet her to talk." I said.

"What is she mixed up in Kevin?" asked Sepia...

"Nothing...She just has an obsessive and powerful admirer who will stop at nothing to have her." I said.

"Who is this "Baby Santana" person they say you beat up?" she asked.

"He works for the guy who's obsessed with her.." I said.

"And you beat him up?" she asked.

"A few days ago...I guess not good enough."I laughed.

"Lover, I'm worried...You know what? Forget what I asked you to do...Lynette is on her own..." she said.

"Nah...I gotta see this through...After all you did give me a down payment." I said and looked at Sepia slyly...

I was still thinking about the good loving Sepia had put on me just a few nights before and she knew it!

She shook her head....

"You are sooo nasty." she laughed.

(TO BE CONTINUED..)