Philly Longshoreman Pissing Away The Dream

How many of you remember the Joey Coyle story? Guy was from South Philly. The movie sucked ass with John Cusack back in the 90's but the true story is one every working stiff who never caught a break can easily relate to.

You're on skid row, a drunk, a bum, a lousy bum, two bit meth head and you ain't gettin no work down the docks. Then the unthinkable happens. Everyone dreams of winning the lotto well for Joey Coyle one day he thought he had when 1.2m literally came flying off the back of a truck. An armored truck when the doors flew open and he was in the vehicle behind.

He hit the jackpot right? Well so he thought but not so. Trouble was he blabbed and couldn't stop handing out $100 bills to the bums and anyone with a hard luck story and he couldn't figure out how to launder the money.

So he stuck with bundles of cabbage and he reaches out to the mob. Maybe they launder it, maybe they don't this part I'm not familiar with. But he's in way over his head and the mob are gonna launder the money for him in Vegas but the Cops get wind of this and he gets pinched on the plane going to Mexico and pleads insanity and walks and they gets $100,000 or so of the stolen loot back.

Summary is this, Joey hits the jackpot but then he blew it, he blew it big time. Eventually he pisses away the dream and tops hiself weeks before the movie of this story hits the screen.

How can it be that somethin you can only dream about turns to shit? Or is this just the dumb luck of a junkie gone sour? How did that happen?

This is a famous story anyone from Philly or anywheres remember it and can fill in the blanks an any mob involvement in this rags to riches back to rags and eventually ashes to dust caper?

http://www.philadelphiaspeaks.com/forum/history/2858-joey-coyle.html

I remember it and read the book which was great. Supposedly, Coyle reached out to Mario Riccobene through a friend to help him with converting the money to smaller bills. I think Coyle claimed that Riccobene cheated him somehow. Coyle was a kind of lovable loser that was capable of messing up a wet dream. I think he hung himself a few years ago. The movie sucked BTW.

Thanks tj yeah even the losers get lucky sometime I guess Tom Petty got it right on that one.

But yeah it ended in tragedy and he topped hiself in the end so it didn't last. Whoever said better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all sure as fuck weren't talkin about pissing over a million bucks down the drain.

Yeah you gotta feel for the guy, that's rough. The movie I haven't seen for years but James Gandolfini is in the trailer I just caught a peek on the Youtube.