The reason I took the Mafia to court in Boston in 1971, was due to a real estate deal the Mob made with a respectable gentleman who owned four properties on Beacon Hill near where the Kennedys lived. The property I lived in was run down and full of undesirables that needed to forced to move before the deal could be concluded. We tenants, were not worth anything. The manager was hired to get us out of there. One night he went crazy and began to smash down our doors with a baseball bat. I got two female guests out on the fire escape as the manager stuck his head in the hole he made in my door. This was before the movie ‘The Shinning’.
Then our heat was cut off in February. The tenants held a meeting, and before you know it this socialist dude is handing over the lawsuit he started – and getting out of Dodge. I picked up the gauntlet. Apparently this Trotskyite was threatened. I was now doing sherif in the movie High Noon. Many tenants fled. Whe we got threats my attorney bid us to move to the top floor in order to be safe. We were under siege by the real Mafia who would send two goons after me.
Clint Eastwood decided to run for the mayor of Carmel after he got into a real estate deal and rand into civic red tape. Clint grew up in Oakland and Piedmont, which makes me wonder why he said this:
“The Monterey Peninsula gets in your blood,” he says. “There’s something about the atmosphere here that seems much nicer than even the Bay Area, where I grew up. It seems like the combination of the beauty of the countryside, and the like-minded people who live here [makes it possible to] enjoy a life that is more simple than in other major metropolis areas of California.”
Piedmont is a very wealthy neighborhood. The Eastwoods had several residences here. It is 99% white. Oakland is about 40% black. Is Clint suggesting these “like-minded people” in Carmel are white people? Hmmm! There’s something about the atmosphere here. What could it be?
Lawrence Chazen is Clint’s neighbor. He is a Trustee of the Big Sur Land Trust. Chazen was my father’s private lender. Vic Presco was convicted of loan sharking in 1994. My father worked out of his home. He turned down an offer by his Oakland High School chum, Tom Kinney, the president of Transamerica Title. Tom wanted Vic to joi him, and their buddy Skip Sutter atop the pyramid building in San Francisco. Skip was my godfather and was a retired lieutenant in the Oakland Police force. Tom, Vic, and Skip were a gang. I suspect they tried to draw in the Jensen brothers. but they had enough trouble.
Chazen and a real estate associated were accused of predatory loan practices by Andrew Cuoma who President Clinton made the head of HUD. Chazen is helping his buddy take away the home of Mattie Aikens and black grandmother who owns a home in Oakland. My brother, Mark Presco, played football with Mattie’s grandson.
Chazen was a partner of my late sister, the world famous artist, Christine Rosamond Benton. He invested in the first Rosamond Gallery located at the Crossroads in Carmel. Chazen was a financial advisors for J.Paul Getty and was is a partner in PlumpJack resruatn and winery that the Nancy Pelosi family invested in, along with Gavin Newsom who was the Mayor of San Francisco. Garth Benton was a friend of Chazen and Gordon. Chazen was the number one creditor in Rosamond’s Probate.
In December of 2005, I sent an e-mail to the Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, asking him to champion my cause. Mitt Romney was the Governor of Masshechetts and sat in his office on Beacon Hill. Mitt has declared War on the Poor who are bindg blamed for the mortgage meltdown. He and his party are going to foreclose on Americas Social Safety Net, and transfer billions of dollars over to folks who own real estate, so they cane invest in more real estate. The bankers will become more generous when they see all that gold in Fort Knox become available to them – after the Food Stamp program is destroyed. Then there is Social Security. America needs another Real estate Boom. The Poor are going to pay for it. What else is new? Is it any wonder the Republican hate anything that looks like socialism. Socialist hate unscrupulous landlords. So did Jesus.
When I heard the door being kicked in, I rand down five flights to the old managers appartment where squatters had moved in, ayoung couple with a puppy whose horrible cries I heard on every floot of this buildig built in 1779. The cries stopped. There was silence. My heat racing I shouted;
“Come out of there!”
“Are you the manager?” a voice asked.
“Yes! Come out of there!” I demanded.
You come in here!” another voice said, with a snigger. “We got something for you!”
Clint Eastwood ran away from Oakland. He is a wimp who could not face his own prejudices.
Above is a photo of Oakland Victor ‘Bad Ass’ and his mother, Melba, walking in downtown Oakland. Vic boxed on the deck of the cargo vessels he sailored as a Merchant Marine, and could kick clint’s ass – with ease!
However, I found an article in the Oakland Tribune that says my father played in the Junior Orchestra. Vic told me he was a bad-ass carrying a violen. Consider the Beatles.
Jon Presco
Copyright 2012
http://www.bigsurlandtrust.org/about/vision
For 30 years, the Big Sur Land Trust has worked passionately to protect the natural, recreational, and scenic values of Monterey County. Our mission is clear: To conserve the significant lands and waters of California’s Central Coast for all generations.
Trustee: Lawrence Chazen
Larry Chazen grew up in Iowa. He was educated at the University of Colorado where he earned a B.A. in Accounting and Law degree. His career focus has been as an investment manager and advisor. Larry is both a CPA and a member of the California Bar and, since 1994, has served on the Board of Noble Corporation – a Fortune 500 company. He is an owner of the Carmel Restaurant Group, which includes Grasing’s and Kurt’s Carmel Chop House restaurants. Larry and his wife Cece (who grew up in Pacific Grove) live in Carmel and have three children and two grandchildren. Larry enjoys hiking and travel.
Our Values
The Big Sur Land Trust’s work is guided by our new vision and the following set of values that flow from it:
1. Ecological Well-Being: Ensuring our land and water is conserved for wildlife habitat and sustainable human economic and recreational uses.
2. Community Vitality: Promoting community vitality by promoting local economic development and partnerships that support conservation of significant lands and waters; recognizing the role of food production as an essential ingredient of community; keeping options open for those who make a living from the land and water.
3. Stewardship: Inspiring land and water conservation in all local citizens, especially in children; establishing learning opportunities that will motivate a new generation of people who desire to seek a living in direct connection with the land and its resources (e.g. farming, ranching, stewardship, etc.).
4. Inspiring Stories: Taking the time to learn about and communicate the history and story of the places we are conserving; letting these stories inspire and inform our work.
5. Healthy People: Providing all Monterey County citizens opportunities to experience lands and waters through healthy recreation, hands on stewardship, and farming and conservation education.
6. Service: Finding opportunities to serve the many through our conservation work, especially landowners, partners and communities where powerful collaborations will lead to advancement of mutual goals and objectives.
7. Fairness: Engaging with people/members of the community whose interests have been ignored or not served by the land conservation movement.
8. Community Resilience/Viability: Accomplishing land and water conservation while preserving opportunities for a community to meet its housing and other infrastructure needs; maintaining economic viability in concert with land and water conservation.
Here is Arnold Schwarzenegger, who did not come to my rescue;
“Nuñez urged Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to call a special session of
the Legislature to quickly deal with the expanding sub-prime mortgage
crisis in California and joined Democratic lawmakers in proposing a
package of new consumer protections.In Washington, the focus was on
national solutions. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. met with
banking regulators and lenders to find a way to keep interest rates
affordable for at-risk homeowners.”
In December of 2005 I sent Arnold Schwarzenegger a e-mail and then
posted this question on my yahoogroup;
“Will Arnold Schwarzenegger Champion my Family? In a e-mail I just
asked ‘The Terminator’ to come champion my families cause, and help
get back our families Artistic Legacy that is about to be sold to
Stacey Pierrot – for a song!”
To quote from testimony of proceedings of June 3,1994; “Ms. Beare
again expressed her opinion to me that Ms. Winterhalter was not
qualified or bondable and that San Francisco Attorney Lawrence J.
Chazen should serve. Mr.Chazen had appeared before Judge Silver with
Ms.Beare at the June 3 1994 hearing and attempted to be appointed.
Over the specific argument of Ms. Beare, Judge Silver refused to
appoint Mr. Chazen. Neither Ms. Beare nor Mr.Chazen disclosed to the
court the very critical fact that Mr.Chazen has the largest single
creditor’s claim against the estate and is a former business partner
and business associate of Garth Benton who the court had removed as
Special Administrator just moments before.”.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said that predatory lending
practices have been unconscionable and that major lenders should step
up their outreach to at-risk homeowners.
The number of foreclosures in San Francisco makes up just 2 percent
of foreclosures in the Bay Area, city leaders estimate, and Newsom
said city residents have “been fortunate to date.”
But, he warned, “It could hit here, and if it does it’s going to hit
very acutely and very immediately and that’s why we want to be
prepared.”
Newsom and Assessor Recorder Phil Ting, Supervisor Sophie Maxwell,
who represents the Bayview District, and Supervisor Tom Ammiano, who
represents the Mission District, gathered at a City Hall news
conference Thursday and asked nine leading financial institutions to
sign an agreement aimed at curbing mortgage defaults and
foreclosures. “We want to keep people in their homes and that’s the
most important thing,” Ting said.
Officials asked institutions such as Bank of America, Wells Fargo,
Citigroup and Washington Mutual to agree by today to:
— Stop administering stated-income or no-documentation loans, in
which borrowers are not required to provide proof of income or assets
in order to qualify.
— Contact borrowers at risk of default, or who have already
defaulted on their loans, at least six months before their interest
rates are scheduled to go up.
— Provide funding to counseling agencies and legal services working
with delinquent borrowers in an amount comparable to the profit
earned on subprime loans made to San Francisco borrowers.
— Modify loan terms for homeowners making timely payments.
Dustin Hobbs, a spokesman for the California Mortgage Bankers
Association, said today’s deadline isn’t realistic. City leaders
mailed letters to banks outlining the requests last week.
“It’s an unreasonable demand. Anything this extensive and far
reaching would require a lot of deliberation by any company,” he
said, but also noted that many lenders have already instituted such
programs.
Bill Broderick helped Vic with this case, he a Attorney.My mother had
been an executive secretary for Caldwell Bankers, and knowing she was
brilliant, and loved a intriguing tale, I lay this one on her. “Do
you recall the Movie ‘Paint Your Wagon’ where Clint Eastwood is
underneath the saloons and gambling houses scooping up the gold dust
that has fallen between the cracks during a Gold Boom. Suppose you
found a way of doing this in the California Real-estate Boom, that
is, as the price of real-estate went through the roof, and thus the
number of defaults, if you could manipulate these defaults, then you
would be a rich man. Mother, I think Vic invented the Savings and
Loan Rip-off scam – by default!” I went on to explain my theory. “If
a lender approached free-lance real-estate guys that were popping up
all over the Golden State, and set them up to make default loans for
you, then, if you had enough of these guys, the Feds would not know
who much real-estate was involved. When these default loans failed,
they go up for auction. If you knew when this was going to happen,
like gold dust falling through the cracks, and you bought these
houses you held a secret mortgage on through small-timers you made
privte loans to, then this is Big Time loan sharking – involving
millions of dollars! One is in affect, acquiring much valuable real-
estate, for a song.” After I gave same names of Vic’s business
associates, and told her one of them was known to haunt default real-
estate auctions, my mother gagged on her Vodka. “Jesus Christ Greg.
These are bad men. Stay away from them they will kill you. Your own
father will kill you! Bob Woodard took our house in Concord.” Tom
McKinny, was dismissed for inproprieties, he the President of
TransAmerican Title, a Savings and Loan business headquartered in the
TransAmerican pyramid building in San Francisco. He was a member of
Vic’s gang when they attended Oakland high school together. In April
of 97, my Detective friend sent me an article from the San Francisco
Examiner (4-20-97) he found on page three. It reads; “Broker defends
loan to widow, by Anastasia Hendrix. The lender and loan broker
embroiled in controversy over the threatened eviction of a 78 year-
old Oakland widow denounced unscrupulous lending practices, but
insisted there was none in this case. In seperate interviews, broker
Charles H. Oliver Jr. and San Francisco investor Lawrence Chazen,
angrily objected to the cross-fire of publicity and politics.” This
article went on to say; “The Olivers are outraged that the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development officials publicly said,
before investigating, that they believed Aiken’s case was an example
of predeotry lending practices.” Mark and I attended Oakland High
School with Mattie Aiken’s grandchildren. Before I lost touch with
Shannon over eight years ago, she said this to me at then end of our
phone call, after I and my detective friend assured her we were on
her side; “Be careful Greg. My friends think my life is in danger.
The first thing they’re going to do is make you out to be insane.”
.”Our message is that lenders are willing to work with
borrowers on finding a solution. But right now we are seeing
homeowners who are afraid to even talk with lenders,” Schwarzenegger
said. “In fact, loan officials have not been able to reach borrowers
in more than half of all foreclosures. Some of these homes would have
been saved, so seek out a solution before it is too late.”The wave of
foreclosures has hit California hard, Schwarzenegger said.
Will Arnold Schwarzenegger Champion my Family?
Subject:
Will Arnold Schwarzenegger Champion my Family?
Will Arnold Schwarzenegger Champion my Family? In a e-mail I just
asked ‘The Terminator’ to come champion my families cause, and help
get back our families Artistic Legacy that is about to be sold to
Stacey Pierrot – for a song! The executor is poised to sell half the
family partnership prints which goes against the partnership
agreement. These prints were dealt with in my late father’s Trust,
which ended in November of this year. When Pierrot and Snyder tried
to get me to contribute to their biography, Stacey lied to me when I
asked if she had anything to do with the family prints. A month later
she sends a Rosamond gallery brochure to my newfound daughter,
Heather, with at least one of these prints within, it Heather’s
favorite. To defraud the father of a child you are luring into your
camp and rival biography, after threatening this child’s father with
legal harassment, is about as low as you can go – after not being
told your father is dead for three years, you writing the executor
and telling him your Dad has disapeared. I got no reply, but, this
executor was going to put my dead father in a movie in order to make
money so he could pay off the number one creditor, Lawrence Chazen,
who is in the camp of Arnold’s enemies! I think Justice is about to
be served! Here is a genealogy for John Witherspoon, a signer of the
Constitution, and John Knox, a leader of the Reformation, and hater
of Mary Guise who murdered the Huguenots. I lived with a descendant
of both. Dottie Witherspoon may be the mother of my other child. This
is a genealogy of famous Bankers, including the founder of Welles
Fargo. My niece, Drew, sits atop this regal family tree. She is kin
to the artist, Philip Boilleau, whose beautiful women preceed those
of her mother. How profound. That the Rougemonts are famous bankers,
makes the blood that flows through my niece, the most richest in
human history! That she at nine years of age was subjected to the
advertisement of the Lesbian novel ‘Love Match’ on her website, is an
outrage Arnold will surely take note of, as John Fremont, the first
Republican candidate for the Presidency, is also here, under Jane
Preston. What you are looking at here, Folks, is not only a Artisitic
Dynasty, but a Democratic Dynasty. When I post my long letter to the
Eighteen-year-old daughter Francesca agrees. “My dad is so kind,” she says. “He loves all creatures. He is the type of guy who saves bees from drowning in the swimming pool.” She adds that she and her sister are appreciative of their father’s demeanor around their male friends.
“People assume that our dad greets our boyfriends at the front door with a big gun drawn. We see how it could be intimidating for them, but he is always really nice. He is sweet to everyone.”
Eastwood discovered the charms of Carmel more than six decades ago. Drafted into the US Army in 1951, and based at Ford Ord, he spent his rare off-duty evenings having a beer or two at the Mission Ranch saloon. He swore if he ever made any real money, he’d live in the area.
“The people who were there were interested in arts and music,” he recalls. “They weren’t that into politics, except regarding their own city politics. I liked the simplicity of it all.”
Eight years later, after stints in Los Angeles as an apartment complex manager, a pool digger, and a struggling actor, Eastwood ended up starring in a top-rated television show, playing cowboy Rowdy Yates in “Rawhide.” Realizing a dream, he and his first wife, Maggie Johnson, purchased a small, furnished house in Pebble Beach, just down the road from the Monterey Peninsula Country Club. Sound investments around the Peninsula followed. Soon he was able to buy a home in Carmel, and it was Carmel, not Los Angeles, that became home for this rising star television and film star. Eastwood’s mother and sister followed him to town. Roots were firmly planted.
By the mid ’80s, Eastwood was fed up with some of Carmel’s rules. He had gone before the City Council to get approval to build a structure on a vacant lot on San Carlos Street. The council voted against it, and Eastwood didn’t feel they had any reason to do so.
“I sat through my first city council meeting in the audience, as an applicant,” he recalls. “I watched an amazing amount of disinterest being exhibited by the council members. I felt that if this was an example, then the people of Carmel were not being served as well as they should be. Very few council members looked up, commented, or gave any information during the meeting. The mayor at that time was knitting during the meeting. I had never seen anything like it before, and haven’t since.”
Eastwood mentioned to some friends around town that he felt the council was not paying attention to its constituents. A casual meeting was called at a local restaurant. Eastwood laughs as he recalls the onversation.
“Former Carmel resident Bud Allen said, ‘Clint, why don’t you run for council? We could bust this town right open!’ I then thought, ‘Maybe we’ve had one too many Chardonnays.’”
But Eastwood did run for mayor, and won by a landslide, after campaigning door-to-door around town. During his two-year tenure, he never missed a council meeting, despite making two movies during his term.
Eastwood’s roots spread even further when he purchased the famed Mission Ranch more than 25 years ago. The property was slated to be developed into more than 60 condominium units. Eastwood couldn’t stand to see its splendor wasted. He bought the property in 1985, and made it the local gem it is today.
Mission Ranch General Manager Sue Carota says Eastwood has kept the site appealing to tourists and locals alike.
“He’s great,” she says. “He’s a hands-on owner who truly cares about not only the Ranch, but also the guest experience. Most of all, he takes care of his staff. He empowers us to be to the best we can be.”
Eastwood has shared his good fortune with countless local nonprofits. Besides giving his time and money, he’s donated large amounts of property to the Big Sur Land Trust and to the Del Mesa Carmel retirement community. Conservation minded, he has served as a California State Parks commissioner. Eastwood’s name fronts a local drug and alcohol recovery center for teenagers, and he has been the lead fundraiser on too many projects to list. He is the chairman of the Monterey Peninsula Foundation board, which hosts the world-famous AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am golf tournament. He serves on the boards of the Monterey Jazz Festival and the Pebble Beach Company. He recently participated in a commercial, sponsored by Chrysler and televised during the Super Bowl, to raise the American spirit. One hundred percent of what he was paid was donated to charity. Eastwood is now turning his attention to helping newly returned wounded veterans from conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Being a successful philanthropist, businessman, actor and director are just a few of the things Eastwood has mastered. He is a family man, an accomplished pianist, and a pretty good golfer, who can shoot close to his age on occasion. This multi-faceted talent is humbled by the fact that it’s easier to list what he doesn’t do well than what he does do well.
“I always work hard to keep sharp,” he says. “I think it’s very important, as one ages, to learn new things. That’s why I have no ambition to retire.” Eastwood, looking decades younger than his age, is a product of good genes, extensive knowledge about nutrition and science, and a lot of hard work. His diet includes fruit smoothies, wild salmon, kale, and other veggies. He has never smoked (except in movies) or used caffeine. He is a regular in the gym.
“I like to rotate between cardio and resistance exercises,” he says. “Lifting weights is important to maintain bone density. Plus it’s a great endorphin lift, and it relieves a lot of mental stress as well.”
Eastwood is also still a regular on screen. When we got married 16 years ago, making one movie every year-and-a-half was the norm. It’s now accelerated to making one or two movies a year. My thoughts on this? I am in awe of his energy and dedication. I notice that Clint is taking more chances with his work. I was a little scared for him to make the movie “Gran Torino.” I thought it was a bit racy, considering we had two young daughters at home. But boy, that film put him back on the map with the teens! I literally don’t go a few days without hearing how great it is, and how it changed people’s lives.
Eastwood’s future has no boundaries. He has plans to direct singer Beyoncé in a remake of “A Star is Born” before the year is out. He reads scripts constantly, looking for that next challenge, that next exceptional character, that next off-the-wall project that interests him. As only Clint can say, “At my age, what can they do to me?”
Reliance Group To Buy Transamerica Title Unit
January 03, 1990
Reliance Group Holdings Inc. reached a definitive agreement to buy Transamerica Corp.`s title insurance subsidiary, Transamerica Title Insurance Co. for about $65 million. The acquisition, with estimated 1989 title revenue of about $185 million, would add significantly to Reliance`s title insurance operations, particularly in the West and Midwest.
IMPROPER MARKETING is just one of the things that got two California men into trouble. Next March, Curtis D. Somoza and Robert A. Coberly are scheduled to go on trial in federal court in Los Angeles on charges that they bilked dozens of investors out of tens of millions of dollars in a scheme involving an African American church group in Los Angeles called the Personal Involvement Center. The men, whose lawyers declined to comment, raised $69 million for an investment trust called Persistence Capital, which arranged to buy policies from Transamerica Corp. on the lives of some 2,000 members of the inner-city church. The deal was structured so that Persistence would pay for the premiums, while the $275,000 death benefit on each policy would be split three ways: $15,000 to the deceased person’s family to cover burial costs, $20,000 to the church group, and the remaining $240,000 to the trust. The trust’s haul would go toward paying the premiums on the remaining policies and providing payouts to investors.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_31/b4044001.htm
Rosamond Press 
Reblogged this on Rosamond Press and commented:
After I told my mother I met a man who met Chazen at an aution buying houses in DEFAULT, and, that he was Vic’s Private Lender, I presented a theory based upon ‘Paint Your Wagon’ where the gold dust that fell through the floor is – retrieved. Rosemary feared for my life. One of these lenders took her home Concord.