![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/home\/yiddis6\/public_html\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/charlies-broeckel-7_7_74-PD-drawing-by-DIck-Dugan.jpg\" "\\"charlies")
<\/a>Charlie Broeckel, Plain Dealer drawing by Dick Dugan, 7\/7\/74<\/p><\/div>\n
I\u2019m not sure where Broeckel is now. Maybe he\u2019s dead. Or maybe he’s in a safe house in Ada, Oklahoma. For a while he was “John Bradford” (federally protected) in the Pacific Northwest.<\/p>\n
Broeckel and Phil Christopher — another Collinwood burglar — did a bank heist at Laguna Niguel, California, in 1972. It was supposedly the biggest bank burglary of all time. Charlie and Phil flew to California from Cleveland for the job. California didn\u2019t have quality bank burglars back then, I guess. Collinwood did.<\/p>\n
Collinwood was \u201cthink ethnic\u201d-to-the-10th<\/sup> power. There were four distinct neighborhoods in Collinwood: Slovenian (St. Mary\u2019s parish), Italian (Holy Redeemer), black (west of the E. 152nd Street, aka the DMZ) and Lithuanian (Our Lady of Perpetual Help). Broeckel\u2019s ethnicity was indeterminate. Maybe German, maybe Slovenian. Christopher was Italian.<\/p>\n Broeckel and his fellow burglars stored nitroglycerin — used for blowing up safes — on a Lake Erie beach. In 1983 a Cleveland policeman operated a backhoe at the local beach, searching for old, very unstable nitro. Traffic cops kept reporters and passersby at a distance. Charlie was supposedly in bad health and wanted brownie points for helping the cops find old explosives.<\/p>\n The chief<\/strong><\/span> cop in the neighborhood — Capt. Ed Kovacic — had a warm spot for highly skilled crooks. These thieves would drill out safes and jump burglar alarms. They weren\u2019t entirely stupid. Kovacic often said, \u201cIf there was a hall of fame for burglars and safecrackers, it would be in Collinwood.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2006, Lyndhurst police chief Rick Porrello wrote a book, Superthief, <\/em>about Christopher. Then Tommy Reid, a Hollywood entrepreneur, made a documentary movie \u2013- also Superthief<\/em> — which came out in March. The movie is mostly talking heads: old cops and old thieves sitting in living rooms, reminiscing about old days.<\/p>\n The documentary ran exclusively in theaters in Euclid and Lake County — where many former Collinwood residents moved to. There were three people in the Lakeshore Cinema.\u00a0 One elderly man, with a walker, said on his way out, \u201cPhil is a thief!” His wife said, \u201cI like Phil!\u201d<\/p>\n Christopher,<\/strong><\/span> 66, is out of jail. He has spent nearly half his life in prison. What if Broeckel — the creep, the silver fox, the rat<\/em> — comes out of hiding and puts Christopher back in prison?<\/p>\n Just like old times.<\/p>\n — —-<\/p>\n SIDE B<\/strong><\/big><\/span><\/p>\n Here is the annual “inside baseball” post.\u00a0 Your name might be in here . . . NAMING NAMES<\/strong><\/big><\/big><\/p>\n We interrupt<\/strong><\/span> this blog<\/span> to tell you this blog is three years old.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve read every word of your blog!\u201d a musician told me.<\/p>\n Hooray for him.\u00a0 I wrote<\/em> every word.<\/p>\n A blog reader<\/strong><\/span> said, \u201cYou found your subject — your father, Toby.\u201d<\/p>\n No, you<\/em> did.\u00a0 I\u2019ve had Toby on the brain for decades.<\/p>\n A woman said, \u201cI look forward to your posts every Wednesday morning . . . I don\u2019t do comments.\u201d<\/p>\n Here\u2019s my<\/strong><\/span> comment: Nine-tenths of Klezmer Guy readers don\u2019t do comments.\u00a0 They want to protect their animosity.\u00a0 Listen, you are not above comments; you are not paying for this; chip in the occasional enlightening, humorous or really stupid comment.<\/p>\n Several other readers claim to have read every word of the blog.<\/p>\n What was the first word?<\/p>\n Special thanks<\/strong><\/span> to our major donors (commenters).\u00a0 I could have done it without you, but it wouldn’t have been as much fun.<\/p>\n David, Margie, Irwin Weinberger<\/a>, Jane Lassar<\/a>, Zach Kurtz, Alice Stratton, Alan Douglass, Steve, Jack<\/a>, Don Friedman, Kenny G, Steven Greenman<\/a> . . .<\/p>\n Charlie B, Don Edwards, Garry Kanter, Jack V, Ari Davidow<\/a>, Emilie, B Katz and Richard Grayson<\/a>.<\/p>\n Get your name on<\/strong><\/span> this list next year by contributing at least $2,500 or writing comments.<\/p>\n I met Ralph about 21 years ago when he designed Yiddishe Cup\u2019s logo.\u00a0 That\u2019s still your best logo, Ralph.<\/p>\n Sometimes I send my stories to the media before posting here.\u00a0 This past year Klezmer Guy articles were published throughout the planet: the International Herald Tribune, <\/em>New York Times<\/em>, City Journal, <\/em>Ann Arbor<\/em> Observer<\/em>, Cleveland Plain Dealer<\/em>, Jerusalem Post<\/em>.\u00a0 Did I miss any continent?\u00a0 I’ve started to link to some of the newspaper articles.\u00a0 Please see the right side of this blog,<\/em> under “Articles.”\u00a0 Also, check out “Categories” there.\u00a0 “Categories” is particularly useful if you want to read 68 posts in a row about real estate.\u00a0 Google Analytics<\/strong><\/span> — a spy op — says there are Klezmer Guy readers in every state and many foreign countries. \u00a0Ohio has the most Klezmer Guy readers, followed by New York, California, Michigan and Massachusetts.\u00a0 The top foreign countries are Canada, United Kingdom, Israel, Germany and Australia.<\/p>\n Google Analytics, for your information, zeroes in on readers by their hometowns, not their names.\u00a0 For instance, somebody in Chico, California, reads this blog.<\/p>\n The bell rings, round four.<\/p>\n —-<\/p>\n<\/a>I saw<\/strong><\/span> Broeckel and Christopher at trials in Cleveland. They would periodically come in from their federal prison cells or witness protection program locations. One trial was for murder: Christopher and accomplices took a pimp, Arnie Prunella, out on a boat, shot him and drown him.<\/p>\n
\nI was a police reporter in Collinwood for<\/em> Sun Newspapers <\/em><\/small>in the 1980s. (Last time I’m going to mention this factoid for a while. So please remember.)
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\n<\/small><\/em><\/p>\n<\/a>In no particular order, thanks to Marc Adler, Jessica Schreiber, Gerald Ross<\/a>, Seth Marks, Ted, Adrianne Greenbaum<\/a>, Bill Jones, Mark Schilling<\/a>, Harvey Kugelman, Ellen, Susan Greene . . .<\/p>\n<\/a>Special thanks to Ralph Solonitz<\/a>, the blog\u2019s illustrator.\u00a0 He adds a lot.\u00a0 I encourage him to throw in as many pics as possible.\u00a0 Works out well.\u00a0 Ralph had a Klezmer Guy illustration<\/a> in The Forward<\/em> recently.<\/p>\n
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