“Thieving Bastards” Book Update
Nothing focusses the mind and pushes you to reassess your priorities more than barely escaping death.
A couple of years ago, the cosmos slapped me in the face when I survived a major automobile accident. The car I was driving was completely written off, crumpled up like a squeezebox. I had to push away airbags, slide through shards of atomized windshield, clamber over the console, and drag my ass out the passenger window — not even realizing at the time that the impact had fractured my sternum.
Luckily I was the only person injured, but those injuries weren’t obvious. Adrenalin had lent me wings and it wasn't until a day of tests that we understood how close I’d come to severing my heart. Then the pain set in and I could barely move. I spent every minute scared of a sneeze, a cough or a laugh. If you’ve had a chest fracture or serious rib injury you know exactly what I’m talking about.
The other thing that set in was the stark realization that, if I hadn’t made it, no one would know what was sitting on my laptop, or in old tapes and CDs scattered in boxes in my garage: over thirty years of candid interviews with professional cheats.
Conversations with dice mechanics and bust out dealers, slot thieves and three-card monte springers, holdout artists and guys who “played a tractor” — many of them now long gone but a few still kicking around. All of these recordings would have simply disappeared.
And so that’s why things suddenly accelerated a few years ago, bringing me to this point. I had to write this book and pass along a unique slice of American criminal history. I was writing the book that I had always wanted to read.
As insiders became aware of this book, a few friends prodded me to hurry things up over the years. But I was always chasing that new connection, that guy who I had heard about who was considered “double George” by people in the know.
In fact every week now I receive emails, texts and social media messages asking when the book will become a reality. And I really appreciate your patience. Thirty years is a hell of a long time to be scribbling away at a “PhD in wickedness”, as one friend once called it.
But, finally, I can tell you that we are fast approaching a firm print date. At this stage, we are looking to do the first run in February 2026.
We’ve had technical meetings with the printer (one of the leading firms in Australia) and have decided on materials to match a fine academic hardcover. The cover design by Hollie Piper is close to finalization, and the typesetting by Bookhouse is done, bar the final industry-standard proofread. The book is looking GREAT.
To give you a taste, and to kind of prove that this isn’t all just talk, I thought I’d share a few pages from the index. The Index is truly impressive — I am sure it will be very useful for serious researchers — and it’s taken months of work to build it, with many emails going back and forth between myself and the book designer, Simon Paterson.
So, a few snapshots for you to enjoy. It’ll give you a brief peek behind the curtain, and I can’t wait until you’ve got this weighty tome in your hands.
Andrew
