Mad Dog Coll ─ An Irish Gangster

What was so fascinating about this Prohibition-era gangster? After all, dozens of such hoods roamed the streets of New York City in those desperate and violent years.

But Vincent Coll took street violence to another level. He was a fearless soldier who became a leader. He forced Dutch Schultz, one of the toughest gang leaders of the era, into hiding. Coll and his crew revolutionized the art of the drive-by shooting, which is still used today by modern street gangs. His kidnapping schemes targeted other gangsters, who couldn’t go to the cops. He systematically cut down his opposition, even though he was outnumbered by more than ten to one.

Then there was the real brains behind the Coll ganga woman. Known by the name Lottie Kreisberger, she was the quintessential gun moll and, when teamed with Vincent Coll, set their destiny for either greatness or disaster.

In 1931, the year of the bloodiest gang war in New York City up until that time, Coll emerged as front-page news, with the roughest and toughest gangsters in the five boroughs running for cover from this ruthless and fearless killer and as the New York City Police Department hunting him as Public Enemy Number One. Coll’s arrest, trial, and acquittal, and his murder in a drugstore phone booth at the tender age of 23, all served as inspiration to writers of gangster films that followed.

The authors combine the meticulous research of investigative journalism with a novelist’s flair for plot, character, setting, and style to makeMad Dog Coll as entertaining as it is informative.

Rick Blaine is a career executive with a Fortune 500 company whose hobby for the past 25 years has been beating the casinos at blackjack. Well-versed in all aspects of winning blackjack play, Blaine has excelled both solo and as a blackjack-team player and leader. Blaine has earned a significant (mid-seven-figure) second income and traveled the world playing blackjack. He is particularly well-known in blackjack circles for his ability to teach new players how to beat the game. He lives in New York.

Breandan Delap is an award-winning author and journalist born in Bunbeg, County Donegal, a half-mile from Vincent Coll's birthplace. He’s a news editor with RTE, Ireland's national broadcaster, and the producer of ?Seacht La,” a weekly current affairs program on TG4, the Irish language station. He is the author of two books in Gaelic about the Irish media. Breandan was named Oireachtas Journalist of the Year in 1998 and again in 2010. In 2003, he won the ESB Journalist of the Year award for an expose of a sex-abuse scandal in an Irish summer college over a 30-year period. Most recently, Breandan received a WITBN (World Indigenous Television Broadcasters Network) award for investigative journalism in 2014.

Rich Gold is an author and award-winning documentary filmmaker. Rich’s first documentary project as producer/director, In the Footsteps of Willie Sutton, was released in 2011 and won Best Documentary in the Golden Door Film Festival. Fueled by a fascination for true-crime films, Rich wrote his first screenplay, Gallo, based on the true story of mobster Joey Gallo. Rich is currently developing In the Footsteps of Mad Dog Coll as the second in what is shaping up to be a series of true-crime documentaries.