The Life Crimes and Hard Times of Ricky Atkinson, Leader of the Dirty Tricks Gang

“Crime is terrible, traumatizing, terrifying. But True Crime is mesmerizing. That’s likely why the wily straight-shooter Joe Fiorito has teamed up with the Africadian/Afro-MÉtis once-upon-a-time risk-and-reward trickster Ricky Atkinson: No way to turn away from this irresistible saga, sprightly as a slot-machine cascade and as irrepressible as a dude sprung from Sing-Sing or Kingston Pen. Look back to books like Dorothy Mills-Proctor’s Chameleon (1995) if you want to find a comparison to what Atkinson and Fiorito offer here: The low-down on the low-down, the up-and-up on the down-and-dirty, but never-ending up down-and-out.” —George Elliott Clarke, 7th Parliamentary Poet Laureate of Canada (2016-17)

“Loved the book – a fantastic tale! This painfully honest, breezily written memoir takes us on a roller coaster ride that is the life story of the notorious Dirty Tricks Gang leader, Ricky Atkinson. His criminal capers are imaginatively told, with a cast of memorable, colorful characters including the hard-nosed kids he grew up with as an 'Afro-MÉtis gangster in the projects,' to Toronto mobsters, eccentric criminal rounders, hard-core lifelong professional thieves, and shady, often racist cops. The chapters brim with amusing accounts, like accidentally robbing a big mob card game, or deliberately holding up a large Toronto-area black gangster gathering, or the absurd situation that led to unintentionally shooting his friend while taking back-alley potshots at street lights. But the story also contains a stark realism that exposes the social and cultural context of systemic racism in the 1960s through to this day. The Life Crimes and Hard Times of Ricky Atkinson is a gripping and frank take on criminal life in Toronto’s underworld. A very entertaining and edifying read.” —James Dubro, lifelong organized crime specialist; author, Mob Rule and Dragons of Crime; former President of the Crime Writers of Canada