The Price of Experience:

Power, Money, Image and
Murder in Los Angeles

By Randall Sullivan
Grove Press/Atlantic Monthly,$25

ISBN 0-87113-521-4

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Review by Steve Eng

What can be more inspiring than convivial Los Angeles college boys, dedicated to good women and good business deals? This thrilling biography of Joe Gamsky may instill a certain awe among ambitious young folks who are unaware of how crafty business shenanigans can leave blood all over one's hands-from murder. His father had changed his last name, and Joe emulated him, becoming Joe Hunt. His business gang called itself BBC-Billionaire Boys' Club. Stock exchange was their specialty until Hunt's assault and battery conviction when he was 22. He was expelled from Chicago's Mercantile Exchange where he had held a seat, and he was half-a-million dollars in debt. Undaunted, he rallied his troops.

One of his colleagues, Ronnie Levine, was especially crooked and was indicted for grand theft (12 counts), and since he failed to give Joe the $300,000 he promised, he was calmly set up for a corporate killing. Joe educated himself with murder manuals from underground publishers, made a 14-point list of instructions to get the job done, and finished by informing the rest of the business boys, so they would be implicated. Money lust seems to be an unbeatable media sensation. This true-crime narrative ought to be read by some movie director . . . like Steven Spielberg or Oliver Stone.

Steve Eng is a freelance writer in Nashville, Tennessee.

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