Mike Stanton

"Brings to life the fight world of that era. Mr. Mitchell's account is full of memorably drawn scenes, and the stories we haven't heard before make Jacobs Beach a cigar-chomping read."--Wall Street Journal "The value of Mitchell's book lies not only in bringing back to life a lost era. He also shows us how the blood, sweat, and toil of the ring has been distilled into hard-won wisdom passed down through the generations--the connective tissue of the sweet science."--From the Foreword by Mike Stanton, author of the award-winning Unbeaten: Rocky Marciano's Fight for Perfection in a Crooked World Gangsters have always infected fight game. At the end of the First World War, through Prohibition, and into the 1930s, the Mob emerged as a poisonous force, threatening to ravage the sport. But it was only when cutthroat Madison Square Garden promoter Mike Jacobs, chieftain of a notorious patch of Manhattan pavement called Jacobs Beach, stepped aside that the real devil appeared former Murder, Inc. killer and underworld power broker Frankie Carbo, a man known to many simply as Mr. Gray. And Carbo wasn't alone. Along with a crooked cast of characters that included a rich playboy and an urbane lawyer, he controlled boxing through most of the 1950s, with the help of a diabolical deputy, Francis Blinky Palermo, who did much of Mr. Gray's dirty work, reportedly drugging fighters and robbing them blind. Not until 1961, when Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy shipped Carbo and Palermo to jail for twenty-five years, did it all come crashing down. Enriched by the recollections of some of the men who were there, Kevin Mitchell's Jacobs Beach offers a gripping, noirish look at boxing and organized crime in postwar New York City and reveals the fading glamour of both.

'Unbeaten is one of the best sports books I’ve read in years.' – Jonathan Eig, author of Ali: A Life. Rocky Marciano accomplished a feat that eluded legendary champions like Joe Louis, Jack Dempsey, Muhammad Ali, and Mike Tyson: he never lost a professional fight. When he retired in 1956, his record was a perfect 49-0. Unbeaten is the revelatory biography of one of the greatest heavyweights of all time. Marciano rose from abject poverty and a life of petty crime to become heavyweight champion and one of the most famous faces of his era. He dominated boxing in the decade following the Second World War with a devastating punch, which he nicknamed the ‘Suzie Q’. But perfection came at a price. Pulitzer Prize-winner Mike Stanton tells the story of Marciano’s pursuit of greatness through the era of guys and dolls, hustlers and gamblers, glamorous celebrities and notorious mobsters. But boxing had its dark side, particularly at a time when Mafia mob bosses like Blinky Palermo and Frankie Carbo wielded immense power behind the scenes. Marciano retired while still in his prime, weighed down by the mob’s influence in the sport he loved. For the last decade of his life, he wandered America, disillusioned, untrusting, hiding his money, cheating on his wife, consorting with the mobsters he had loathed for corrupting his sport, until his death in a plane crash in 1969, the night before his 46th birthday. Unbeaten by Mike Stanton is the story of a remarkable champion, a sport that was rotten to its core, and a country that may have expected too much from its heroes.

From the bestselling author of The Prince of Providence, a revelatory biography of Rocky Marciano, the greatest heavyweight champion of all time. The son of poor Italian immigrants, with short arms and stubby legs, Rocky Marciano accomplished a feat that eluded legendary heavyweight champions like Joe Louis, Jack Dempsey, Muhammad Ali, and Mike Tyson: He never lost a professional fight. His record was a perfect 49-0. Unbeaten is the story of this remarkable champion who overcame injury, doubt, and the schemes of corrupt promoters to win the title in a bloody and epic battle with Jersey Joe Walcott in 1952. Rocky packed a devastating punch with an innocent nickname, "Suzie Q," against which there was no defense. As the champ, he came to know presidents and movie stars - and the organized crime figures who dominated the sport, much to his growing disgust. He may have "stood out in boxing like a rose in a garbage dump," as one sportswriter said, but he also fought his own private demons. In the hands of the award-winning journalist and biographer Mike Stanton, Unbeaten is more than just a boxing story. It's a classic American tale of immigrant dreams, exceptional talent wedded to exceptional ambitions, compromises in the service of a greater good, astounding success, disillusionment, and a quest to discover what it all meant. Like Suzie Q, it will knock you off your feet.

The biography of Rocky Marciano, the only undefeated heavyweight champion of the world, and inspiration behind Sylvester Stallones Rocky Balboa.

COP: "Buddy, I think this is a whorehouse." BUDDY CIANCI: "Now I know why they made you a detective." Welcome to Providence, Rhode Island, where corruption is entertainment and Mayor Buddy Cianci presided over the longest-running lounge act in American politics. In The Prince of Providence, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mike Stanton tells a classic story of wiseguys, feds, and politicians on a carousel of crime and redemption. Buddy Cianci was part urban visionary, part Tony Soprano--a flawed political genius in the mold of Huey Long and James Michael Curley. His lust for power cost him his marriage, his family, and close friendships. Yet he also revitalized the city of Providence, where ethnic factions jostle with old-moneyed New Englanders and black-clad artists from the Rhode Island School of Design rub shoulders with scam artists from City Hall. For nearly a quarter of a century, Cianci dominated this uneasy melting pot. During his first administration, twenty-two political insiders were convicted of corruption. In 1984, Cianci resigned after pleading guilty to felony assault, for torturing a man he suspected of sleeping with his estranged wife. In 1990, in a remarkable comeback, Cianci was elected mayor once again; he went on to win national acclaim for transforming a dying industrial city into a trendy arts and tourism mecca. But in 2001, a federal corruption probe dubbed Operation Plunder Dome threatened to bring the curtain down on Cianci once and for all. Mike Stanton takes readers on a remarkable journey through the underside of city life, into the bizarre world of the mayor and his supporting cast, including: - "Buckles" Melise, the city official in charge of vermin control, who bought Providence twice as much rat poison as the city of Cleveland, which was at the time four times as large, and wound up increasing Providence's rat population. During a garbage strike, Buckles sledgehammered one city employee and stuck his thumb in another's eye. Cianci would later describe this as "great public policy." - Anthony "the Saint" St. Laurent, a major Rhode Island bookmaker and loan shark, who tried to avoid prison by citing his medical need for forty bowel irrigations a day, thus earning himself the nickname "Public Enema Number One." - Dennis Aiken, a celebrated FBI agent and public corruption expert, who asked to be sent to "the Louisiana of the North," where he enlisted an undercover businessman to expose the corrupt secrets of Cianci's City Hall. The Prince of Providence is a colorful and engrossing account of one of the most tragicomic figures in modern American life--and the city he transformed.

When his son, Matthew, was finally diagnosed with autism at 12 years old, Mike Stanton thought the diagnosis marked the end of their troubles. In fact, despite the increase in reported levels of autism, appropriate support and clear information were hard to find. Mike had to teach himself and then attempt to pass on his knowledge and understanding to those who worked with his son. But because Matthew has high functioning autism his obvious abilities helped to disguise his more fundamental autistic spectrum disorder. As a consequence, Mike found that his efforts were not always appreciated. Like many parents, who ought to be a valuable source of information and help to busy professionals, he was sometimes made to feel as though it was him and not his son's autism that was the problem. So he wrote this accessible, informative book which provides a clear explanation of the autistic spectrum and dissects and dispels some of the myths about autistic behaviour and the various types of autism. Intended for the professionals who work with autistic people and their families and friends, Learning to Live with High Functioning Autism draws on the Stanton family's experience, and compares it with the experiences of others, to offer an honest portrayal of what living with autism is actually like for all of those involved. It offers an insight into the world of autistic children and the problems that they and their families face. It provides support and encouragement for families of children with autism, as well as being an invaluable source of information and advice for professionals working with autistic children and their families. Most important of all, it argues convincingly that learning to live with autism is a two-way process. We have to reject all models of intervention based upon coercion and compliance in order to work in partnership with young people with autism.