Bamboozled Read Online Free PDF

almost severed in half. Joey wasn’t doing much better with both eyes nearly shut.
    By the 7 th round Joey was out of gas. After training aggressive forward motion, it was exhausting to be backing up for six rounds instead. Joey had Shig in the corner and leaned down for a body shot, but Shig grabbed the back of his head, connecting his knee to Joey’s face five times. Joey heard his nose crack and felt the swelling begin.
    In the 8 th round Joey says he caught his second wind, got up on his toes, and started hitting with left, right, left, right combinations as blood sprayed back on his face. Joey remembers returning to his corner and not being able to see. Shot and surrendering, Rueben woke him up with ice.
    Through two slits, Joey says he saw the referee checking him out. He felt confident the ref would stop the fight, but instead, the ref grabbed Joey’s arm and marched him to the middle of the ring, raising his hand in victory! Shig’s corner had tossed in the towel. Joey felt the audience throwing things at him that hit him in the face. After Rueben stepped in to hold a towel over his head, Joey realized the crowd was throwing money. Joey says he hugged Shig as he lost his last sliver of vision.

    Joey turned 18 and bought a 1978 Harley Sportster. Riding on Manchester Blvd. on his way to take his newest girlfriend to a baseball game, Joey claims he turned left on 43 rd and saw someone punching a little girl in the face. He says there was a crowd beginning to surround them but no one was stopping it. Joey says he ran at the attacker and kicked him against a store front. Turning to check on the girl, Joey says he saw a bullet coming at him from the downed man. The first bullet tore through his thigh, throwing him back. The second bullet caught him an inch below the knee cap. The shooter took off running.
    Joey says he crawled over to his bike, slid his bad leg over, and rode off to the General Hospital, as his blood boiled on the engine head. Joey woke up days later with his leg in an open cast with bullet holes and puss.
    Joey thought he’d never fight again. The bullets crushed his tibia and shattered the fibula. He still wears a leg brace to this day and “walks like a duck” as he puts it. Word on the street was that Joey was shot by some guy named Red, from Grape St., Watts. Joey was released from the hospital on a Friday morning.
    The cast was supposed to be on for six months before his knee would be reconstructed, but he grew impatient. Joey claims he was owed money by Ramirez for the tough guyfights and money in trust from the Steve’s Muffler baptism, though it’s hard to believe even a young Joey trusting his fortune to anyone when he could be spending it on prostitutes and cocaine.
    Joey could walk with a cane as long as he locked his thigh, giving him control of his knee. Joey walked slowly, downstairs to the café, to the payphone and found Ramirez was in Yuma, Arizona with Joey’s brother, Luigi! According to Joey, Luigi and Ramirez were business partners.
    A few weeks later Joey walked into the Main St. gym with two prostitutes, Sonya and Emma, looking for Ramirez and his money. Joey needed help up the flight of one hundred stairs. Joey says he felt like damaged goods in the gym and that no one even wanted to say “hello.” Carlos saw Joey’s cane and walked over, shaking his head, giving him a hug. Joey informed him, “Never stop to help anyone!”
    Carlos supposedly informed Joey, “Ramirez was living at the track and lost everything; going from a Benz to the bus.” Carlos offered to float Joey some money, then went back to his workout.
    After they left, a gang unit police car cut them off in the crosswalk and put Sonya and Emma in the back seat, on the grounds that they were prostitutes. Joey claims one cop walked him down the alley behind 4 th St. and proceeded to beat him with his nightstick. He claims the officer called another car