Book Review: Mr. New Orleans: The Life of a Big Easy Underworld Legend by Frenchy Brouillet and Matthew Randazzo V

Pimp, hustler, mobster and all-around nice guy (to hear him tell it) Frenchy Brouillet jumpstarts the imagination for a glorious joy-ride through a New Orleans that once was, in Mr. New Orleans: The Life of a Big Easy Underworld Legend. Frenchy is aided in this endeavor by Matthew Randazzo V who felt no compunction to edit Mr. Brouillette’s colorful commentary. Although Mr. New Orleans serves up one crime after another, the book makes us nostalgic for a French Quarter we never experienced. While skanks abound, somehow Frenchy convinces us he wasn’t as skanky as the rest of them. He is, however, clearly impressed with his own looks and physique, circa 1953 through 1975. His overwhelming ego is tempered by his acknowledged intellectual, emotional, and social deficits.

Readers can expect a full course of vivid profanity accompanying this aromatic gumbo detailing one man’s life with the New Orleans mob. The story is peppered with tales of political corruption that are well known and can be easily verified. Two of the most interesting characters are Huey Long and Frenchy’s first cousin, Edwin Edwards. Since the antics of both these characters are known nationally, reports of their exploits lend credence to Mr. New Orleans.

Although he was raised in Marksville, Louisiana, by what he describes as a loving, Christian family, don’t expect genteel southern manners; Brouillette addresses the reader as “baby,” labels us “nosy,” and treats us to an expletive-filled narrative which he tells us we’re lucky to read. He starts with his childhood and works his way through his first encounters in the French Quarter in 1953 all the way up to 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. On the way we visit the Kennedy’s, Liberace, Dean Martin, Carlos Marcella, Jim Garrison, and a coterie of memorable mobsters and corrupt politicians. Throughout this implausible tale, we are kept entertained by the easy narrative of a man who went from guilt-ridden, shy, Catholic boy to career criminal extraordinaire.

The only thing better would be to hear Frenchy tell these stories himself; however with his admitted thick Cajun accent, it would be incomprehensible. The loss is the reader’s, for most will miss the music in the names of Louisianan people and places (they cannot be pronounced phonetically) and the enchantment of Cajun storytelling.

Since corruption in the New Orleans police department and government are well documented elsewhere, one might only suspect Frenchy of occasional exaggeration. But when he tells his version of the who’s and what’s of JFK’s assassination, one is dumbstruck. His slant on this controversy would be considered incredible if we weren’t aware of so many other secret (and screwy) operations of which our government is capable, and the importance of both respect and agreements in mob circles.

Article Author: Miss Bob Etier

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