Family is a complicated thing. Just ask best-selling biographer and former candidate for the governorship of New York, Jerry Tuccille.
In the early '70s, Tuccille was called home to his father's hospital bed in New York, away from his hard-won average, middle-class life.
With Salvatore Tuccille seemingly on the verge of death, there was no option but to smack his only son right between the eyes with the Big Family Secret - eight priceless paintings stashed behind a false wall in the cellar of the family home.
The paintings were the product of the 1969 Stephan Hahn Gallery art heist. Impressionist works by the likes of Matisse, Renoir, Cassatt, and Monet shoved behind a plaster facade in the Bronx for safe keeping. They had been apprehended by Tuccille's cousin, an oily operator with mob ties and a way with the ladies, known to the family as Georgie.
Unable to contain his curiosity, Jerry and his wife tear down the faux wall and retrieve the works to see for themselves that Salvatore's story is true. Unfortunately, once the wall is gone, the Tuccilles are now the proud owners of eight red-hot pieces of art and all the crime-infused responsibility that comes with them. Like any average American couple, the only place they have to hide the merchandise is in the station wagon and the only means of protection they have access to is Salvatore's antique pistol from World War II.
Gallery of Fools is one of those memoirs that would be laughed off of fiction shelves for its outlandishness. A deliciously dysfunctional cream puff of a read, the book flies through all the mafia intrigue, FBI tails, and meddlesome aunts you can handle.
To make matters even more hilariously complicated, Salvatore Tuccille pulls through his illness and has to be shipped off to Florida to hide from the law, an illegal porn shop takes over the basement where the paintings were originally hidden, and, believe it or not, Tuccille is unexpectedly tapped as the Libertarian candidate for governor.
It's a quick read, perfect for the beach or a rainy night in. I spoke with Jerry about the new edition hitting shelves in November, what it was like to come face to face with the paintings, and how his family eventually came out on the other side. After the break, Tuccille opens up about the experience and the toll it took on his life:
