Here's a little reading on it. Everyone calling the writer full of shit. There is a Westies mention part way down but even the mention seems like conjecture. I've read TJs book several times and I don't see it.
Still a great movie and nobody is going to convince me there wasn't extreme brutality in NY boys homes back then. Maybe not exactly as depicted, but let's be realistic.
https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/20420/is-the-novel-sleepers-a-true-accountThere are tons of articles on this.
The only one who claimed it was based on a true story was the author with little to substantiate his assertion but clearly Tommy Moresco and Richie Ryan were the inspiration for the characters in Sleepers.
Yes, the author that's what I'm saying. It's kind of a big deal when the author can't back his true story up.
I remember the name Richie Ryan from the Westies book. Other than being two Hells Kitchen bad guys is there anything at all in their life histories that parallels the plot of Sleepers though?
If not, I mean that's like me writing some story that takes place in 1968 Cincinnand having a famous baseball player character and drawing the conclusion that it's obviously based on Pete Rose.
