Money For Nothing

If you were living or working in Philadelphia 1981 the name Joey Coyle should ring a bell. He was an unemployed longshoreman who found a bag of money laying in the street. That bag had somehow fallen out of the back of Purolator armored truck and it contained $1.2-million – that’s right $1.2-million smackeroos.

He decided to play “Finders Keepers” but wasn’t smart enough to pull it off. He started handing out $100 bills to his friends and neighbors, acting the fool, and turning up the heat on himself. When the cops started closing in on him he decided to flea to Mexico – no extradition policy between Mexico and the U.S.

So he went to JFK Airport in New York and tried to board a flight to Acapulco – but the cops were one step of him. They arrested him and found $105,000 in cash inside envelopes that he’d taped to his ankles. He was tried but found not guilty due to temporary insanity.

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Mark Bowden wrote Finders Keepers and Hollywood produced the movie Money for Nothing. John Cusak, Debra Mazar, and Michael Madsen starred in the movie. But there were some real up-and-comers on the under card: Benicio Del Toro . . . Michael Rappaport . . . Maury Chaykin . . . James Gandolfini – one picture before True Romance . . . and Elizabeth Bracco.

Here’s the trailer I put together.

There was no happy ending for Joey Coyle. Two months before the movie was released he hanged himself in his basement.

 I’m America’s Best Crime Writer – Barry Bowe – & I approve this message.

My first book – Born to Be Wild – was published in 1992 and is still selling on Amazon & Kindle. it’s a true story about certain members of the Warlocks motorcycle gang.

The story took 21 years to play out with many twists & turns. It’s an amalgam of Sons of Anarchy and Breaking Bad – but these outlaw bikers make the Sons look like Cub Scouts.