#1095 - T.J. English & Joey Diaz

Thomas Joseph “T. J.” English is an American author and journalist renowned for his non-fiction chronicles of organized crime, particularly the Irish and Cuban underworlds in twentieth-century America. English, who hails from a large Irish Catholic family of ten siblings, launched his writing career as a freelance journalist contributing to outlets including Esquire , Playboy , New York magazine, The Village Voice , and Los Angeles Times Magazine , while supplementing income by driving a taxi in New York City. His debut book, The Westies (1990), detailed the brutal Irish gang dominating Hell's Kitchen and achieved national bestseller status, establishing his narrative style blending rigorous journalism with vivid storytelling of criminal enterprises. Subsequent works expanded into acclaimed trilogies: the Irish Mob series with Paddy Whacked (2005), a sweeping history of Irish-American gangsters that became a New York Times bestseller, and the Cuban Crime series beginning with Havana Nocturne (2008), which reached #7 on the New York Times list by examining American mob infiltration of pre-revolutionary Havana . Other notable titles include The Savage City (2011), another New York Times bestseller intertwining racial strife and crime in 1960s–1970s New York; Where the Bodies Were Buried (2015), dissecting the Whitey Bulger scandal; The Corporation (2018), tracing Cuban mob evolution in the U.S.; Dangerous Rhythms (2022); and The Last Kilo (2024). English's contributions to crime journalism earned him the New York Press Club Award for Best Crime Reporting, and in 2021, Lehman College conferred upon him an honorary Doctorate of Letters for his scholarly approach to underworld history . His oeuvre emphasizes empirical accounts drawn from primary sources, interviews, and archival research , offering causal insights into how ethnic gangs shaped urban power dynamics without romanticizing or sanitizing their violence. Thomas Joseph English was born on October 6, 1957, in Tacoma, Washington. He grew up in the city as the eighth of ten children in a large Irish Catholic family. English's early years were spent in Tacoma, a port city with a history of industrial activity including shipping and manufacturing, amid a household shaped by Irish American traditions. He attended Catholic schools from elementary through high school, immersing him in a religious and communal environment typical of many Irish Catholic families in mid-20th-century America. Family life emphasized storytelling and cultural heritage, drawing from ancestral immigrant experiences, though specific anecdotes from his childhood remain undocumented in public records. This upbringing provided a foundational exposure to narratives of resilience and community dynamics that echoed broader ethnic histories in the United States. English earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles in 1980. The institution, a private Jesuit and Marymount university , offered a liberal arts curriculum rooted in Catholic intellectual traditions, aligning with English's continuous parochial schooling from childhood. This academic environment fostered foundational skills in critical analysis and historical inquiry, which underpinned his subsequent pursuits in investigative journalism and true crime narrative. Following his college graduation, T. J. English relocated to New York City in 1981 with the ambition of establishing himself as a writer. To sustain himself amid the competitive landscape of freelance journalism, he took on a series of low-wage manual jobs, including bartender , janitor, and taxi driver—a role he held for three years, often working nights after pitching and writing during the day. This dual existence underscored the financial precarity of entry-level freelancing, where initial assignments typically offered minimal compensation and required persistent hustling for opportunities.

Joey "CoCo" Diaz (born José Antonio Díaz; February 19, 1963) is a Cuban-American stand-up comedian, actor , podcaster, and author renowned for his raw, autobiographical storytelling style that draws from his tumultuous life experiences. Born in Havana , Cuba , he immigrated to the United States at age three and was raised in North Bergen, New Jersey, where he navigated a challenging upbringing marked by family loss and legal troubles, including a period of incarceration in the late 1980s . Diaz began his comedy career in 1988 while serving time in a Denver correctional facility, where he performed stand-up routines during movie breaks to entertain fellow inmates, eventually transitioning to professional stages after his release. His breakthrough in acting came with supporting roles in major films, including Spider-Man 2 (2004), The Longest Yard (2005), Taxi (2004), Grudge Match (2013) alongside Sylvester Stallone and Robert De Niro, and The Many Saints of Newark (2021) as Buddha Bonpensiero in the Sopranos prequel. On television, he has appeared in series such as My Name Is Earl , The Mentalist , Eastbound & Down , Children's Hospital , and General Hospital , often playing characters that leverage his distinctive gravelly voice and intense persona. Diaz released his first one-hour stand-up special, Sociably Unacceptable , in 2016, and his comedy has been featured on platforms like This Is Not Happening . As a podcaster, Diaz has built a massive following through unfiltered discussions of personal anecdotes, addiction recovery, and life lessons; he co-hosted The Church of What's Happening Now from 2012 to 2016, revived it as The New Testament in 2024, and currently hosts Uncle Joey's Joint and The Check-In with co-host Lee Syatt. He is a frequent guest on The Joe Rogan Experience , appearing over 40 times since 2009, which has amplified his cult status in comedy circles. In 2022, Diaz published his memoir Tremendous: The Life of a Comedy Savage , a New York Times bestseller that chronicles his path from street crime and substance abuse to sobriety and stardom. Married to Terrie Clark since 2007, he is a father and continues touring with shows like his 2026 performance 62 & Still Slinging at Seminole Hard Rock Tampa. José Antonio Díaz was born on February 19, 1963, in Havana , Cuba , to a Cuban father and a mother of Spanish descent. His father died when he was three years old, leaving the family in difficult circumstances under the early years of the Castro regime. At the age of three, in 1966, Díaz immigrated to the United States with his mother, initially settling on the Upper West Side of Manhattan , New York City . The family later relocated to North Bergen, New Jersey , where Díaz spent much of his formative years. Díaz was raised in a strict Catholic household by his single mother, who worked as a hairdresser and later owned and operated a bar along with a numbers racket to support the family. His upbringing was marked by a blend of Cuban cultural traditions and the challenges of adapting to American life in a working-class neighborhood. He attended McKinley School and North Bergen High School , where he began navigating the cultural shifts of his new environment, including exposure to diverse influences from school peers and the local community. Early on, Díaz took on odd jobs such as working as a dishwasher and a delivery boy to contribute to the household . In 1979, when Díaz was 16, his mother died of a heart attack, an event that plunged him into profound emotional turmoil. Following her death, he lived with relatives while grappling with the loss and the instability it brought to his life. This period of grief and upheaval profoundly shaped his early worldview, highlighting the hardships of his immigrant roots and family dynamics. Following the death of his mother at age 16, Diaz dropped out of high school and descended into a period of escalating personal troubles in New Jersey.