Torn: Between Good and Evil...

By Brett Siciliano

TORN… is a fifty-year journey of my life's tragedies, miracles, and struggles. I had to learn from the streets and within myself to endure life on life's terms, while always keeping the faith to survive. The world can be a beautiful and dangerous planet, but I had to continue to conquer and overcome what life continued to throw my way. My adventures and afflictions consisted of finding my family dead on Christmas, drug overdoses, sexual immorality, toxic relationships, going to jail, college, law school, making and spending millions of dollars, bankruptcy, surviving the Twin Towers attacks on 9-11-2001, acting in feature movies in Hollywood, undercover with the FBI, losing everything, starting over, sobriety, love, marriage, and God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Oct 19, 2020
• ISBN: 9781645847212

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Torn

Between Good and Evil...

Brett Siciliano

Copyright © 2020 Brett Siciliano

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2020

ISBN 978-1-64584-720-5 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-64584-721-2 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

My Historic Family Background

The Smell of Death

Burying My Dad in Israel

My Virgin Mary

For the Love of Money

Twin Towers Attacks September 11, 2001

Arrested for Kidnapping and Elder Abuse

Party’s Over, Time for Sobriety

Merry Christmas! Love, Satan

Big Brother and the FBI

Go Straight to Jail, Dr. Death

Hollywood to the Trailer Park

Introduction

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth… I strongly believe to this day that the devil (tempter of humankind) works harder on those who believe in God. Good and godly people make the most eternal difference and help change people’s lives on this planet for the better. Satan knows he loses in the end, so he works on destroying mankind while he has a chance. How much better can you get back at God then by destroying the lives and souls of humans that were all created in God’s image? God gives us all free will, and because of this gift, we will always be torn between good and evil .

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone he can devour (1 Peter 5:8).

And know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him (Romans 2:28).

As far back as I can remember, God was always a part of my life. I almost died at birth, when both my lungs collapsed as soon as I was born. This was one of the first times God showed up to save my little, pathetic, sinful life, and He still continues to be there every day for me personally. This book was written as therapy for me and maybe to inspire, encourage, or at least, motivate anyone that can relate with the many twists and turns of my fifty years on this planet. I unfortunately, will probably not have any kids of my own, so this book will be my little baby and gift to mankind.

I don’t intend to make this book preachy and full of Bible verses, but I will definitely include a few of the important verses that have helped me get through some very tough times. I believe that the entire Bible (Old and New Testament) is the inspired Word of God. This book will be an honest voyage through my life and the trials and tribulations that I’ve gone through. I tried to write this book when I was in my twenties and found the journals that I had written. I was so messed up on drugs at that time, so I decided to start this book over from scratch. I did use a lot of the memories and some writings from those journals. I tried to keep the profanity in this book down to a minimum. I also tried to be as raw and honest as possible.

I hope you enjoy this exciting little journey I call my life.

Chapter 1

My Historic Family Background

My grandmother (Gertrude Greenbaum, 1917–2010) and grandfather (Isadore Greenbaum, 1912–1997) always took care of my twin sister and me when my mom wasn’t around, or my drunk dad was nowhere to be found. My grandparents moved out to California from New York when I was born in 1969 to be closer to us kids and the rest of the family. Grandma was a virgin when my grandfather met her at seventeen, and she was never with another man. They dated for only three weeks before he proposed. They were happily married for over sixty-one years.

My grandfather Isadore was an amazing man and somewhat of a historic figure growing up. He was an orphan. His mother died giving birth to him after having eight other kids. My grandfather was born and raised in New York City in 1912 (the same year the Titanic set sail). He was in and out of orphanages as a kid. My grandfather was of Jewish heritage and very proud of it. His parents came over from Europe to Ellis Island in New York. Growing up on the streets of New York back then wasn’t so easy, my grandpa had to be very street-smart and tough to hold his own. He was a blue-collar worker where money was minimal. He worked as a plumber, waiter, and taxicab driver and sold food on the streets in wooden carts to passersby. He held many odd jobs growing up to make ends meet for him and his young new family of four.

In 1939, World War II was starting in Europe, and the United States was not involved in the war at that time. Following Hitler’s rise to power in 1933 in Germany, Hitler was trying to spread his anti-Semitic, hateful rhetoric and fascist beliefs around the world. Anti-Semitic groups were popping up around the world, including one of the largest groups who called themselves the German American Bund. My grandfather was twenty-six at the time in 1939 and heard that a big rally was going to take place at Madison Square Garden in New York City and that this anti-Semitic Nazi group called the German American Bund, or the German American Federation, was having a hard time getting a permit to speak at The Garden. There were going to be over twenty thousand people attending this rally, and it was advertised all over the streets of New York. It was the talk of the city (my grandfather told me the story many times). He told me that the flyers posted around the city contained anti-Semitic verbiage and fueled with hate toward the Jews and other minorities. The leader’s name was Fritz Julius Kuhn. My grandfather told me that a cop friend of his told him that the group was told that if they were granted a permit at The Garden to speak, there were to be no swastikas visible anywhere in their flyers, or anywhere inside of Madison Square Garden and absolutely no hate speech of any kind would be allowed. The anti-Semitic group reluctantly agreed. The city then granted them their permit for the rally based on the protection of free speech under the First Amendment of our Constitution.

Even in 1936, New York congressman, Nathan Perlman asked Jewish mobster boss Meyer Lansky for help against the rise of Nazi sympathizer groups like the Bund. Lansky even enlisted gangster Bugsy Siegel and Mickey Cohen to take their gangster men to these rallies where Nazis would speak and have their gangsters beat up the Nazis with their fists, bats, and metal bars. They were told by the congressman not to kill the Nazis but just to scare them and to spread the word that NYC and the USA would not tolerate this anti-American, Nazi rhetoric. In exchange, the congressman promised protection to them in the courts and even gave cash to these mob bosses. All this buildup really sparked my grandfather’s interest, and he wanted to attend this upcoming rally at The Garden. My grandfather couldn’t believe what he heard around the city, and he wanted to see this for himself. My grandfather told me many times that he was never part of any organized crime syndicate.

The night of the rally (also celebrating George Washington’s birthday, February 20, 1939), my grandfather told me that he saw everyone walking into The Garden using the salute to Hitler and raising their arms high in the air. It was the biggest gathering of police security ever at the time outside Madison Square Garden until the 9-11-2001 terrorists attacks. My grandfather was scared and thought the Nazis would find out he was Jewish (because of the size of his nose; he always told me this as he told me the story and smiled), so he covered his nose and did the Hitler salute to the Nazi guards and walked right into the event at The Garden. He told me that there was a giant forty-foot picture of George Washington on the stage, American flags all around, and two big swastikas on both sides of the stage. The Nazi group slowly walked into the arena and introduced more swastika paraphernalia all around the building as they marched up and down the aisle, getting the crowd more and more excited. Grandpa told me it was like the Nazis were trying to camouflage themselves and blend in with all the American iconic symbols.

My grandfather started in the back and slowly worked his way to the front of the arena and watched as Fritz Julius Kuhn finally walked on stage near the end of the event. Almost every one of the twenty thousand in the audience did the Hitler salute as Kuhn walked out on the stage. My grandfather was in shock! When Kuhn started his speech, it was full of fascist and anti-Semitic hate against the American Jewish people and minorities. My grandfather listened for about ten minutes and then couldn’t take it anymore. My grandfather told me that he went there with good intentions and strictly out of curiosity, but as Kuhn continued speaking, he lost his cool and immediately wanted to shut this man up from speaking anymore. So my grandfather gathered the courage and rushed the stage, grabbed Kuhn’s microphone wires on the ground, and began to make his way to Fritz Julius Kuhn. When he got within ten feet from Kuhn, about seven of his Nazi guards jumped my grandfather and began to beat him up badly. The whole Garden erupted and cheered in disbelief and excitement while they watched my grandfather get badly beaten up!

After about thirty seconds, the NYPD ran across the stage, jumped in, and helped pull the Nazis off my grandfather (one Nazis at a time), before the intense beating would’ve ended his life. The police could tell that the Nazis had bad intentions to hurt my grandfather. In the struggle, some Nazis grabbed Grandpa and pulled down his pants (to humiliate him), as they proceeded to throw him off the stage. He told me he was never more scared for his life and that the NYPD helped save his life from the German Nazis that night. My grandpa was immediately arrested and taken to the police station. He faced ten days in jail unless he paid the twenty-five-dollar fine for disorderly conduct. He told me that he didn’t have any money and he lost his wallet in the fight, so all the police chipped in and paid the fine for his courageous effort that night. When my grandmother picked him up from the police department, she was furious because he told her that he was just going out with some friends.

The next morning, Grandpa had to go in front of the judge. The New York Times described his interaction with the judge as follows:

My grandpa said to the judge, "I went down to the garden without any intentions of interrupting, but since they talked so much against my religion and there was so much persecution, I lost my head and I felt it was my duty to speak out as I screamed, ‘Down with Hitler!’ as I rushed the stage!"

Don’t you realize that many innocent people could’ve been killed? the judge asked.

Do you realize that plenty of Jewish people might be killed with their persecution up there? Grandpa replied.

The judge asked, Why did you do it?

Gee, what would you have done if you were in my place listening to that son of a bitch hollering against the government and publicly kissing Adolf Hitler’s ass while thousands cheered? Well, I did it.

The judge finally let him go, and the rest was history. Grandpa told me another interesting and sadistic story of the night. He told me the police had taken him to the hospital that night for cuts, a broken nose, and bruises. The German medical doctor in charge of the hospital just heard what my grandfather had done at the rally from the police. This German doctor made my grandfather lie down on the medical table in the hospital, as he proceeded to look him over. The doctor then proceeded to stick a three-inch-long hypodermic needle into the nerve in his lower back. My grandfather immediately jumped up in extreme pain, bleeding all over the hospital floor! He remembered the doctor’s evil smile of satisfaction as he held his back in severe discomfort, staring back at the doctor in disbelief. He told me the German doctor did it to him on purpose (for no medical reason), to try and hurt him for what he had just done at the rally. Grandpa told me it was the most painful thing he had ever felt. The pain of that sadistic needle incident continued to hurt my grandfather every day (for almost sixty years) until the day he died.

Approximately two years after the rally, the United States went to war with Nazi Germany, and my grandfather signed up in