BILL PALMINI AND TANYA CHALUPA – AUTHORS OF A ROOKIE COP VS. THE WEST COAST MAFIA: BREAKING UP THE "BEST IN THE WEST" GANG
In this gripping, true crime exposé, Bill Palmini, a rookie detective, hopes to take down the West Coast Mafia by gaining the confidence of notorious mob operative William Ettleman. Set against a backdrop of social turmoil, the book immerses readers in free love, drugs, robbery and murder, orchestrated by organized crime in locations like Sausalito, California. The Trident Restaurant, once a drug Mecca for Hollywood, the music industry and the New York hip, was co-owned by the Kingston Trio and their manager, Frank Werber, a self-proclaimed drug priest. Robin Williams worked as a busboy there and Janis Joplin had her own table. Sally Stanford, the former San Francisco Madam who later became Sausalito’s mayor, was a confidant of the infamous. Ettleman's safecracking gang targets the Trident. Mobsters like Frank “The Bomp” Bompensiero, on whom Sopranos character “Big Pussy” is thought to have been based, become involved. Palmini, utilizing Ettleman, joins the FBI and the Federal Strike Force on Organized Crime to penetrate the crime scene in Sausalito, loaded dice in Las Vegas and Reno, corruption in San Diego and stolen credit cards in Texas. Then he begins to break up one of the most notorious gangs on the West Coast.
ABOUT BILL: William G. Palmini, Jr. stepped into the world of true crime with his coauthor, Tanya Chalupa, when they were both working on a traffic safety grant in Albany, California, and a murder of a local homeless Vet was found to be tied to the Box Car Serial Killer - Robert Silveria, Jr. This led to their first publication by New Horizon Press, titled, Murder on the Rails. Their second project, A Rookie Cop Vs. The West Coast Mafia, is based on Palmini's experience as a young detective when he reeled in a high powered organized crime figure, William Floyd Ettleman. Currently, Palmini is Chief of the Department of Public Safety at UC Hastings College of the Law, San Francisco. He has decades of experience in police work and is a recipient of the J. Stannard Baker Award from the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the 2010 National Elks' Enrique Camarena Drug Awareness Award. His fame as the original Elvis Cop still follows him. His Elvis persona in police work earned him international media coverage and an honorary Gold Record Award from the Recording Industry Association of America.
ABOUT TANYA: Tanya Chalupa moved into the true crime genre when a murder of a homeless vet in the town where she was running a federal grant led to the capture of the Box Car Serial Killer. Accompanied by her research partner, Bill "Elvis the Lawman" Palmini, she steps into dangerous territories to interview killers, gang members, and those that are part of the underworld, to achieve a deeper understanding of the cases she writes about. Born in a DP camp in post-war Germany to Ukrainian parents, Chalupa grew up in the South Bronx. After she graduated from Queens College,City University of New York, she and her husband, Leo, moved to California, where she became the force behind California's Child Seat Restraint Law and other prevention legislation for babies and tiny tots, after her daughter's life was saved by a car safety seat. She piloted national and statewide programs for NHTSA and the California Office of Traffic Safety, OTS, and set up law enforcement task forces.She worked as a publicist and has produced numerous publications, including articles in national professional journals and newsletters.She is recipient of national awards: The Peter O'Rourke Award from the National Association of Governor's Highway Safety Representatives, NAGHSR, and the Public Service Award from NHTSA. She is also President of TKC Communications, Inc. She now resides in Northern Virginia with her husband.
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