It was a hot Detroit Thursday July 31 afternoon and all the world was looking for Jimmy Hoffa. That’s when my uncle Sal called and asked if I wanted to make $500 transporting a car to New York. He said he needed it delivered as soon as possible and I had to leave Friday morning. I was on Summer break and $500 was 3 months GM Employee Discount payments on the new Cosworth Vega that I lusted for. So I said sure.
I grabbed some clothes and hopped the bus to Sal’s. Sal had a nice house out by the Detroit airport. It had a two car attached garage and a second shop in the back of the lot where he kept a lot of the shovels for is contracting business. In the shop I found Sal and the Lincoln Continental that he wanted me to deliver. He handed me a roll of $20's. Sal insisted that I not speed, I was to stop only for gas and I was to not ever let that car out of my sight until it was delivered.
The car was spotless and my uncle insisted I drive the car wearing gloves, I was not to leave even a fingerprint in it. He said that there was no key to the trunk and should the car have any problem, I should walk away and call a number he gave me. They would send people to take care of it. He insisted that if I had to leave the car, I should not return to it. And that I should never tell anybody about this trip.
I left first thing Friday morning and per his directions I arrived at an Atlantic City casino construction site about 10 o’clock at night. As I rolled into the half completed parking garage and some men waved me forward. I noticed a Cadillac with Michigan plates pulling in behind me. The men just sat in the car.
A dapper man walked to the car. He asked me to get out, grab my gear but to leave the maps, toll tickets and anything else behind. He had a penetrating stare and was of few words. He did ask me what I did and I told him I was a sophomore at General Motors Institute. He asked me for my drivers license and when I gave it to him, he put it in his pocket. He said I looked like a smart kid that could be trusted. He handed me an envelope which I later found had a $1000 cash.
He said the men in the other car were supposed to drive me back to Detroit but that he had made other arrangements. He was taking me directly to the airport for a chartered flight. He said nothing during the trip to the airport and by 3:00 am I was curbside hailing a taxi in Detroit.
I never saw uncle Sal again. But years later I recognized the man I met as Roy Cohn. I looked him on Wikipedia and discovered interestingly that Roy in 1975 was lawyer, fixer, and mentor for a powerful New York developer we all know of. I think about Roy and how he probably saved my life.
I was planning to lay this all out in a story including the surprising story why Jimmy disappeared and where he rests today. But because I will be no-longer on Opposite Lock, I guess the details of this story will never be told......