Nikki and I became friendly when she asked to be a guest on her highly acclaimed radio show... We admired each others drive and I eventually joined her radio show 'Dazed' on a monthly basis interviewing some stellar guests... While Nikki also joined forces with Punk Globe. doing a series of interviews and articles with various high profile notables...Nikki, went on to produce an award winning short film DAZED based on her highly praised series of books Dazed and Still Dazed... Her latest non fiction venture has her writing a crime action thriller based on the life of Steven Kalish entitled 'The Last Gentleman Smuggler', I was able to sit down with her to get more details. I hope you enjoy our interview...
Punk Globe: After finishing writing your acclaimed book Still Dazed... You went in a new genre of writing with The Last Gentleman Smuggler. Tell the readers how that happened?
Nikki: If a story is good then the genre results from the events the character discovers himself in. I've written everything from crime to horror to erotica to rock journalism and film. There's a symbiotic connection between the protagonist in DAZED and Steven Kalish's memoir. Both young men struggle within the constraints of an establishment that despises difference. While DAZED is a novelized work from the ramblings of Kurt Cobain, Steven and I are creating his true crime story that spans 15 years and backed with facts. The characters are as colorful as if they were made up. Writing "The Last Gentleman Smugger" with Steven is like walking into a carnival tent without knowing what is waiting and walking out with your head in your hands forever changed.
Punk Globe: I have heard that you actually knew Steven Kalish the actual Gentleman Smuggler.. Is that true?
Nikki: Steven and I grew up in areas of a very small Houston, Texas before the 80's boom. My sister dated an older guy who lived in Braeburn Valley, where many of Steven's smuggling crew lived, and Polly and I lived in Bellaire. My sister knew many of the same guys Steven knew and ran across him more. I didn't know Steven. I was into the music, writing and art world. But as most smaller towns, people could run into anyone of any age.
Punk Globe: The era in which you are writing about for the book is the 70's correct?
Nikki: The time span started in 1970 when selling grass in high school to mid-1980's owning a Ferrari, multiple Mercedes, a stretch limo, Lear Jet and more money than he could handle. Steven Kalish's organization used high-end money-counting machines but could not keep up with the volume. The Banks in the Cayman Islands that Steven Kalish AKA Frank Brown's organization had used to launder their cash finally refused to accept any deposits due to U.S. pressure demanding access to off-shore accounts. That led Steven to find another source for banking and a safer place other than Tampa to run his organization. A fugitive from a smuggling conviction in Texas, he was introduced to a more receptive country. In Panama City, Panama, he carried 2.4 million dollars to deposit and promised another 100 million to two banks. That night he met his future silent partner Manuel Noriega. There was no talk of drugs, just money. What began as a way to smuggle jungle pot over the border for college kids with cash to burn became a deadly business in the 80's on both sides of the law. No one knew what they were getting into.
Punk Globe: How did Steven and you connect for this project?
Nikki: My sister lived in L.A. for awhile, and we started Palomino Productions and continued when she moved to Houston. Our first film was based on a noir crime story "Baby" I had written and was shot in Texas. Second award-winning film we shot in L.A. about two aging mafia hitmen trying to figure what to do when they are unable to handle their hits and chopping up bodies in the bathtub.
One afternoon, my sister called me in L.A. from Houston. A friend of hers, Peggy, called and told her about a mutual friend from the Braeburn Valley Boys who had passed away. She had searched for Steven on the internet, and when she found him, Peggy was shocked at what she discovered. My sister immediately called me and told me what little Peggy had uncovered. Of course we knew the story was a winner, but we had no idea if Steven was alive or dead or in the Witness Protection Program or living under an alias. So we decided we'd compose a synopsis, create a logo based on the "Bulldog" tug and barge that successfully brought in 300,000 pounds of pot and posted the info June 27,2008. Our email was on the website.
Then we started getting emails, first example of what would follow: August 23, 2009 a smuggler who thought he might have shared a cell with Steven in California. It read: "This may seem strange, but back in 90-91 I was locked up in San Diego MCC and befriended a drug smuggler I knew as Jerry (Alias). One day he showed me paperwork from the Library of Congress talking about his known smuggling organization, DC 9s, airstrips in Kentucky, shrimpers iced down with weed, and this story about the "BULLDOG". It was my understanding this was his venture...plus there was word of him testifying against Noriega and Pablo Escobar......is this guy one and the same?.....Plus my story was at the time I was under arrest, I was 20 I had given the feds an alias. I told them my parents were non-conformist radicals from the sixties that I had no ID and my name was (Alias)...I did 20 months under the assumed name.....at which point I ran, was a fugitive for three years....our case over-turned the weight factor in LSD laws....please let me know if this is the same guy or what his role was, and how can I watch this film?" Steven Kalish had become a legend, with stories like his kidnpping upon release from prision by a Mexican Cartel and held in an asylum for ransom.
Then finally, Feburary 12, 2011, the legenday Steven Kalish emailed. And it all began but not without obstacles. I started the DAZED series and radio show and finally, Steven said he'd decided to write his own book. That news stabbed like a stake through my heart, but I offered any help I could give. Then time went on, and I forgot about Steven until my friend Flora told me about the Netflix Series Narcos. I remembered Steven Kalish. I messaged him October 6, 2015 to see how things were going. And from there our partnership grew slowly. The one thing I learned as I dealt with Steven was how he only spoke about matters relevant at that moment. He limited what we talked about dealing with the book. When asked, I read the book proposal and sample chapters he'd sent for my thoughts. Steven and I emailed back and forth for a while. Finally, I had no choice but to take a risk. I knew the chapters I read required more of a right-brain approach to make him the legend he'd become. All Steven could do was say no. I rewrote a portion of the operation "Mr. Jake" at a marina on the Gulf Coast and sent the rewritten work to him. I said "This is how it should be written." So December 2015 we agreed. Little did I know what I was getting into. He sent the crates, and when I got the courage to open them, I truly had walked into the carnival tent with no idea any one person could have lived through the biggest clusterf--k in U.S. history.
Punk Globe: Did he use a different identity?
Nikki: Steven used many aliases starting at 16 years of age after a warning from an ACLU lawyer he was on the radar in Texas. Steven had led a march on the Texas State Capitol in Austin for the decriminalization of marijuana after a black man received thirty-years for possession of one joint. While Steven led the group, unbeknownst to him, the Department of Public Safety was photographing him from an upstairs window of the Capital building. The next day, the ACLU lawyer slipped Steven a note that read, "He needed to leave Texas. He would either be busted or if he was clean, they'd plant pot on him." Steven and a buddy hitchhiked to Los Angeles where Kalish became "Steve Jennings" after visiting a social security office, He flew twice a week to San Francisco to smuggle Stanley Owsley's LSD back to the Strip. Owsley was an underground chemist and early Grateful Dead soundman. Busted on his 17th birthday, Steven was flown back to Texas. Later, he would use the name Skip, an easy name for his crew, offloaders and business partners to remember.
Punk Globe: For those who are now aware of the story can you give the readers a summary about his case?
Nikki: Steven Kalish AKA Frank Brown was key in bringing down what would become the biggest bank fraud scandal in history, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, Panama's leader Manuel Noriega and the money-laundering scheme he, Frank Brown, personally created. At its heart, his kingpin tale of agony and ecstacy and unseen costs born from fufilling a surreptitous destiny bought him everything except the priceless items he chose to foresake; freedom, a family and true love.
A drop-out at 15 years old in Houston, Texas, Kalish would become head of the largest pot smuggling operation ever discovered in U.S. history without violence or the use of guns. From smuggling with a high school buddy a 60-buck pound of pot across the Rio Grande River to arranging "Operation Heartland" which would import 1 million pounds of top Colombian weed in a tug and barge named "Master Blaster" up the Mississipi to the Missouri River to offload at a turkey farm and 400,000 pounds in containers on the "Carrie Cargo" into a NYC commercial port, his 15-year career ended when he was busted on his final trip back to the U.S. from Panama. A federal fugitive having lost an appeal for the "El Cobre" and "Mr. Jake" importations of 160,000 pounds in 1980 (covered by High Times Magazine) Kalish was arrested July 1984 in Tampa, Florida. During the two-years he waited for a decision on his appeal, he smuggled over 1 million pounds of pot. Described by Defense Attorney Dick DeGuerin, having represented David Koresh, Tom Delay and other high-profile clients, Judges, FBI, DEA, and U.S. Customs as articulate, intelligent and unlike any other criminal who came before them, they tagged him the Gentleman Smuggler. During his eight-and-a-half years incarcerated, he became a government pawn in the War On Drugs which led to the Invasion of Panama. Turning down multiple offers for news coverage, Kalish never talked about what really happened until now. Coming 2018-2019.
Punk Globe: Doing this project you have had to do all sorts of background checking and researching articles from that era I imagine.
Nikki: The ratio of facts to the fact chosen for the project is 500:1. It is not enough to tell a non-fiction story without the understanding of the history for "The Last Gentleman Smuggler" to happen. For a rogue American white boy to rise to the top of a tribe not his own is unheard of, we have the sources and facts to back our claim. As Author, Screenwriter, Dan Madigan, quoting from Director John Huston, "Never let the details get in the way of a good story." But the authors are responsible to have 1-3 facts to verify any detail. The era of the 70's and 80's led to the growth of the cartels like the early 20th Centuary led to the growth of the mafia. The U.S. government and many other countries fueled what would become the bloodiest war in history and the most profitable. I had to look beneath the layers starting with John F. Kennedy and the death of Marilyn Monroe. The attitude of a nation, the poverty that exists in South America and around the world, the unlimited power of government agencies and the addiction of power and greed change men to demons.
Instead of hitting with a heavy, journalistic approach, we followed my love of Truman Capote and his novelization of the senseless 1959 murder of the Clutter family in Kansas. The suspence is real. The Medillen Cartel is real. The billions of dollars laundered through the Federal Reserve is real. Manuel Noriega on the CIA's payroll since 1976 is real. If you are a friend of the U.S. beware. When your time is done, they discard you. From the minute Steven was arrested in July 1984, the special divisions of governmental agencies and the Reagan administration under control of V.P. Bush knew this drop-out from Texas was their ticket to removing Manuel Noriga from power and leading to the Invasion of Panama. The research comes from FBI, CIA, U.S. Customs, original indictments, newspaper and magazine articles, letters, various agencies like GAO and IRS not cooperating with Bush's plans, Senate hearings,1989 Report on terrorism, drug-trafficking, money-laundering and sources within the government and former military special ops who have served this nation. The truth is told now by the man who lived though the Wild, Wild West of crime.
Punk Globe: Has the award-winning series Narcos helped you?
Nikki: By focusing on the TV outlets available and hunger for original programing, we found a good place to showcase a story like "The Last Gentleman Smuggler."
Punk Globe: Was it hard for you to get your mindset into writing and doing research for the subject matter of the Last Gentleman Smuggler opposed to The Dazed series?
Nikki: The only part of writing that differed from any work I'd done was the enormity of an era I knew little about. I love history and have picked time periods I found fascinating like the depression leading into World War II and the Mafia. So I knew that the veins run deep when you start looking beyond the surface. What I learned as I began to investigate is no one man, no one country, no one idea goes without roots so deeply imbedded, you can no longer see through rose-colored glasses. Once the knowledge exists, you can follow its path to the present with a certain amount of reason. I learned what I used for DAZED from touring and covering shows and what others said until I saw beyond the obvious. The complexity of how a person becomes what he is can be summed up as a guess. For who can know for sure what's inside another, individually or collectively? And hearing the smuggling life from Steven's mouth and his crew buddies, and best friends, all believing in his intelligence and fairness, is in itself, a true testament of a leader.
Punk Globe: Dazed and Still Dazed had quite an impact with many... Do you see yourself doing a follow up? Talk about the adulation of the DAZED film? How long did the film take to shoot?
Nikki: The characters impact the DAZED reader even if he doesn't care for the drug use and sexuality. The protagonist speaks to our vunerability to fail, to lose love, and fear of not recognizing our last chance. I had started the last in the trilogy, but put off finishing until after "The Last Gentleman Smuggler" is done. The award-winning book DAZED has been used in LAUSD for teens, in the Cambridge, Oxford, British, Dublin and Whales Libraries. DAZED The Film was shot in January of 2016 originally as a book trailer but evolved into a short film. The idea is to later turn the film into a documentary for recovering teens. We filmed in a weekend non-stop in two locations, an L.A. loft and Hollywood streets. We had no idea the actors would visually create something very special. We did not expect the film to play around the world winning awards. What the success tells us is the kids in need must be addressed if we are to call ourselves humanitarian.
Punk Globe: How far along is the Gentleman Smuggler? Do you see a light at the end of the tunnel?
We do see the end of "The Last Gentleman Smuggler." The average time to write non-fiction is 5 years. We are covering over two decades, the War On Drugs, how Kalish rose to be Noriega's right-hand man, and how Kalish redeemed his actions at great costs and danger. The coming of age started with hippie youth in flip-flops pushing an innocuous plant, but quickly, morphed into a multibillion dollar bloodbath run by cartels. Kalish was quoted as saying, "Had he known what was coming..."
Punk Globe: Has your agent gotten alot of interest for the book from publishing companies? Film or the small screen?
Nikki: The interest has always existed for Steven Kalish's story. I have letters from major journalists he corresponded with while incarcerated. He held back for safety reasons. There have been talks with major companies about a film. Once all deals are confirmed, we will make public.
Punk Globe: We asked you this a few years back.. Describe yourself in three words?
Nikki: I would say both Steven and I are "ON THE EDGE".
Punk Globe: Any last words for the readers of Punk Globe?
Nikki: "You've had the Cocaine Cowboys, George Jung, Barry Seal, the Hippie Mafia and the Biggest Pot Dealer in New York City's History, now you've got Skip, the fulcrum between Panama, Colombia, the U.S. War On Drugs, and Rock 'n Roll. "
