Street Soldier Book

The letter shown below, is the letter I wrote to Street Forth Press back in 2003 when the book Street Soldier My Life As An Enforcer For Whitey Bulger and The Boston Irish Mob was published by one of my students, Mr. Edward J. Mackenzie Jr. I want to state that I was only concerned with a chapter titled TIGER CRANE. I read the book, I do not know if the other chapters in this book are fact or fiction. I can tell you that the chapter that I was mentioned in, as well as my school, Lee Yat Ming Students Club., Inc. Changed to Boston Chinese American Athletic Assoc., Inc. my Sifu (instructor) Lee Yat Ming and a way of life I have lived since I was fourteen years old, is a different story.

I do not have a problem with Mr. Mackenzie writing a book and making a living to support his family. I do have a problem when you are using the good name of my late Sifu and my school in which to do it. I worked with both Eddie Mackenzie and Paul Blair who was also mentioned in the book Street Soldier and at that time Eddie's best friend. I can state first hand that Eddie and Paul did not have an easy life growing up. Both were two tough Southie ( South Boston ) street kids, they had to be growing up during that time period.

I was Sifu's disciple not Mr. Mackenzie. I took the oath with Philip to to care for Sifu in both life and death. Something Mr. Mackenzie would never understand. This book has caused Paul Blair and his family a great deal of heartache. Paul Blair has a good heart and has stayed in contact with me since he was training in my school over twenty years ago. Paul is a general contractor and has lost a great deal of business because of this book, something Paul and his family did not deserve.





To: Street Forth Press
Phyllis Karas
Rose Muscato

My name is Anthony J. Iantosca, I am writing you today to inform you that the Chapter of your book Street Soldier, labeled Tiger Crane in which my name is mentioned as well as my late Sifu Lee Yat Ming and the name of my school Boston Chinese American Athletic Assoc.,Inc. This chapter is filled with factual inaccuracies, inconsistencies, and outright deception.

As a Board Certified Forensic Examiner, I find it incomprehensible that that this chapter was written without a full investigation of the facts prior to publication and distribution.

Some of the factual errors in this chapter include but are not limited to the following:

1) The name of our school is incorrect. Mr. Mackenzie named a school in Boston's Chinatown which never existed. The name in his book bears some resemblance to the late Sifu Kwon Tit Fu's school, the Academy of Chinese Martial Arts, Which Mr. Mackenzie never attended.

2) The name of my school was originally Lee Yat Ming Students Club., Inc. which became Boston Chinese American Athletic Assoc., Inc. The school opened as a Martial Arts School and became a non profit organization (501-C) operated by myself and Philip Ng. Mr. Mackenzie attended my school from late 1979-1983. I trained Mr. Mackenzie, not my late Sifu Lee Yat Ming. Mr. Mackenzie was guilty of this over-elaborative stunt on February 9, 1981 when he was interviewed in a Boston Globe article.
I confronted Mr. Mackenzie in his school in South Boston about his fabrication and this caused publication of a retraction in the Boston Globe, I have the original Globe retraction and a letter of apology to me from Mr. Mackenzie.

3) Sifu Lee Yat Ming was in poor health and died of a massive heart attack. He was not killed by a member of Ghost Shadow organization or anyone else. The Ghost Shadow's had no control of Boston's Chinatown during that time period. Boston's Chinatown from 1977-1991, was controlled by Steven Tse (Hing Lung) and his Ping On organization. Some of these ex-members are now very good friends of mine. They found this chapter quite amusing, in particular, the part describing underground fights held in Gung Fu schools. This never happened within Boston's Chinatown, which again, was controlled by Ping on.

4) My school, my late Sifu and I were never involved with drugs, be it at the Lincoln street school or the Beach street school. I have letters of recommendation from many of Chinatown's community service organizations commending me and my school for the outreach work we did with many of the young teens living within Boston's Asian community. I worked closely with the Boston Police Asian Gang Task force, Officers John Bean and Ben Leung. I also worked very closely with Boston Juvenile Court ( C.H.I.N.S. ) as well as the High Schools that our students attended. All students had to maintain a B average or better to remain at the B.C.A.A.A. We taught English classes, exercise classes and martial arts classes. All of the students were required to finish their homework before taking class.

5) My Sifu was in the Royal Navy in WWII he spoke the Kings English. I have letters from him dating back to 1976 in which he corrected my grammar in letters that I sent to him. He spoke with a slight British accent and not the sing song accent as was mentioned in your book.

6) At no time did my Sifu ever put his hands on any girl at my school or the Beach St. school. Philip Ng and I would have never, ever tolerated such behavior from anyone including my Sifu.
Sifu Lee Yat Ming has long since passed away and cannot defend himself. Unfortunately for Mr. Mackenzie I am still alive and well and still very active within Boston's Asian Community, I will defend my Sifu's name, my name, and the good name of my Martial Arts School. Boston Chinese American Athletic Assoc, Inc., with my last breath.

I would strongly suggest that you or your Co-Authors contact me as soon as possible to avoid any future problems regarding this chapter labeled Tiger Crane.

I can be reached at 1-781-986-6124, my e-mail address is iafei@msn.com

Sincerely

Anthony J. Iantosca


Mr. Mackenzie response to my letter to Street Forth Press is shown below,

From: EMacke3548@aol.com
To: IAFEI@msn.com
Sent: Sunday, August 10, 2003 9:09 PM
Subject: Re: Tiger Crane Tony Iantosca
Tony, I apologize for the misinformation in the Tiger Crane chapter. I'm not
sure if you know this, but when you write a book, not only are you dealing
with many editors who constantly change things the way you write it, but In my
case I had two co-authors. I did not write, or would never even know about Si Fu
and drugs, that is just wrong! As for SiFu as a man, I got to know him, not
as good as you, but I did hang out in his new club after he left yours. He was
humorous, very well read, and down to earth, I had many conversations with
him. It was never my intention to dishonor him in any way! I would be more than
willing to speak or write to anyone you wish and express this!
As for my statement to Paul, it was out of anger and deep down inside not
meant . You have always been caring and respectful of me, and I appreciate that.
I know I'm a bit of a fuck up, but then again, who's perfect in this world we
live in anyway?
They even wrote Paul ran away when I was getting a well deserved beating in
the back bay, which wasn't true!
It got to a point that they rewrote the book so many times, I didn't even
bother to read the final print! If I did, I would have taken out the mistakes!
The book itself it true to it's writer (Me) that's just the way it was for me
growing up, I make no excuses for myself, matter of fact when I went on 60
minutes, I told Ed Bradley and the nation that I was a scumbag back in the day! I
could go on and on, but will end by saying that I am truly sorry for any
misstatements and will gladly atone for them if you show me how. You take care Tony,
and I will never forget you, you have my respect! Eddie Mac


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