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Classic Moment: Dave Wedge · Billy & Lisa in the Morning

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We've got authored Dave Wedge in studio and this is
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: strange the way that's happened.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Okay, So your buddy who is the chef and recently
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: and said you need to connect with a Boston author
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  Speaker 2: named Dave Wedge, and you got you write about true crime,
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: and we love true crime. Here we just came off
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: the heels of the Karen Reid trial. And I know
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  Speaker 2: that you're working on a Karen Reid book. But people
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: if they don't know Dave Wedge. Dave Wedge wrote Boston
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Strong with Casey Sherman, which was turned into Patriots Day
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  Speaker 2: starring Mark Wahlberg.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Casey and I wrote that book back in
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  Speaker 3: twenty fourteen. I was a reporter at the Boston Herald
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  Speaker 3: for fourteen years and led the Herald's coverage when that
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  Speaker 3: all happened. I was out there in Watertown that night,
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: in the middle of the.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Night, and you were there when they were searching for
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  Speaker 1: the guy on the boat.
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  Speaker 3: I got sent out as soon as Sean Collier got shot,
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  Speaker 3: and over at MIT, I get sent out, and as
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  Speaker 3: I was on my way there, I get diverted from
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  Speaker 3: there to Watertown because we heard on the scanner of
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  Speaker 3: the bombs wow in the shootout, so I was stuck
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  Speaker 3: out there. Actually was actually trapped in the crime scene
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: and I got stuck out there through the nine.
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  Speaker 1: You were that close.
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  Speaker 3: I was in the crimes so what was going down?
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: That must have been a crazy time because they were
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  Speaker 1: looking for the guy, right, They were everywhere. And then
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  Speaker 1: all of a sudden, the story popped from Mit and
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  Speaker 1: the MIT cop was shot, and then you hear it,
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  Speaker 1: you're running out.
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  Speaker 3: It was it was not sign. My son, who's now twelve,
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: was two weeks old and my wife, Jessica has had
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: the baby on maternity leave, and I came home after
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: covering the bombings all day and then we heard the
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  Speaker 3: shooting of Sean Collier on the TV. When I finally
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  Speaker 3: sat down, I was trying to help with the baby finally,
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  Speaker 3: and I said, you know, this doesn't happen. Something's wrong,
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  Speaker 3: and I kind of knew right away it had to
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  Speaker 3: be connected. Then I got sent out.
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  Speaker 1: So God, I've seen the movie five or sixteens. So
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  Speaker 1: they get to the scene at the boat, Like I'm
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  Speaker 1: getting hills now just thinking about it.
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  Speaker 3: It's amazing that more police officers weren't killed in that
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  Speaker 3: it was. It was really an incredibly intense moment. Wow,
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  Speaker 3: what made you write the book? Well, as I said,
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  Speaker 3: I've been a reporter for fourteen years. I was always
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: wanted to do a book. I was a report of
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: twenty years. Actually. I had a few opportunities with a
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  Speaker 3: couple other stories over the years, but nothing that really
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  Speaker 3: jumped out at me and made me say, you know what,
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  Speaker 3: I want to dedicate a year or two of my
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  Speaker 3: life to this. But when the bombings happened, I knew
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  Speaker 3: someone was going to do it. I knew there'd probably
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: be a bunch of books, and I was like, you
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  Speaker 3: know what, I'm in the middle of it. I have
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  Speaker 3: access to all these people. I know I can do
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  Speaker 3: a good job on it. In Casey's an amazing writer,
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  Speaker 3: he had just come off The Finest Hours, which is
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  Speaker 3: a beautiful booking movie, and he's a friend, so I
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  Speaker 3: knew we would do a great job together. So it
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  Speaker 3: was kind of a no brainer for me to jump.
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  Speaker 1: In now, at least a couple of seconds ago, mention,
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  Speaker 1: Karen Reid is your Karen read book, the one they're
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  Speaker 1: talking about the big film.
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  Speaker 3: Unfortunately, No, that's Karen Reid herself with her attorney Alan Jackson.
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  Speaker 3: But this is another one. I was thinking about doing
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  Speaker 3: a book on the Karen Read case way back before
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  Speaker 3: the first trial when it all first started happening, and
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: I kind of tabled it to write this book that
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  Speaker 3: just came out about marvelous Marvin Hagler. When the second
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  Speaker 3: trial came up, I jumped back in after I finished
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  Speaker 3: this one, and I've been working on my can reybook
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  Speaker 3: for the past six months, seven months.
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  Speaker 2: It seems like in Boston we have a lot of
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  Speaker 2: true crime stories.
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  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, it's you know, it's there's so many great
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  Speaker 3: stories in the world where a culture of storytellers just
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  Speaker 3: humans in general. But in Boston we're really good at
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  Speaker 3: telling stories and a lot of really incredible stories come
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  Speaker 3: out of it. And the bombing is a great example.
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  Speaker 3: You know, there was books about the terrorist. You know,
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  Speaker 3: there's books about different people in Wahburn, But we wrote
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  Speaker 3: the story about the survivors and how they overcame and
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  Speaker 3: that redemption moment and some of the survivors that lost
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  Speaker 3: limbs and then ran the marathon the next year. You know,
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  Speaker 3: that's that's what they Patten Strong is and that's why
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: we wrote it, you.
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  Speaker 1: Know, were you happy with the way the movie came out.
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  Speaker 3: I think it's a great movie. You know, it's they
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  Speaker 3: did they did. When it first came out, it was raw,
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  Speaker 3: so it was a little like, you know, I wasn't sure,
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  Speaker 3: but I watched it for the ten year anniversary last year,
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  Speaker 3: and I think it's held up well. I think it
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  Speaker 3: captured the spirit of what happened. I think Mark Wahlberg
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  Speaker 3: did a great job, and Peteburg's.
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  Speaker 2: A great filming Did they have you on the set?
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  Speaker 3: We were on set a good amount. Yeah, And you know,
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  Speaker 3: we didn't write the script, but you know, they kept
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  Speaker 3: us in the loop and we worked with them to
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  Speaker 3: make sure things were write and accurate. And you know,
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  Speaker 3: I couldn't say better things about Pete Burg and Mark Wahlberg,
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  Speaker 3: the wonderful d with is amazingly talented, very talented. And
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  Speaker 3: that was a difficult story at a difficult time. Remember
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  Speaker 3: the FBI. There was things the FBI didn't want out,
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  Speaker 3: like there was moments where Pete had to actually meet
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  Speaker 3: with the FBI to clear stuff. It was a it
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  Speaker 3: was a difficult, difficult movie to make, and we were
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  Speaker 3: in a time where again it was very raw.
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  Speaker 1: Now with the Karen Read book. Will you have talks
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  Speaker 1: with Karen Read?
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  Speaker 3: I have met with Karen a couple of times before
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  Speaker 3: the first trial. I've talked to Alan Jackson many times.
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  Speaker 3: But you know, they're going to do their own book.
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  Speaker 3: So I'm going to skate my lane and write my book,
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  Speaker 3: and my book will be the definitive story of what
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  Speaker 3: happened in the case from all sides.
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  Speaker 2: So Dave has a new book out. It's called Blood
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  Speaker 2: and Hate, the marvelous Marvin Hagler story about the boxer.
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  Speaker 2: But the biggest thing is is that it's been optioned
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  Speaker 2: by actor Sam Rockwell, who was just in The White Lotus.
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  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So this book is kind of my labor of love.
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  Speaker 3: It's my love letter to the city I grew up in, Brockton.
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  Speaker 3: It's my eighth book, and again it's one that I
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  Speaker 3: kind of thought about doing for a few years, and
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  Speaker 3: then I finally did it after I finished my last book,
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  Speaker 3: which was about bikers and cops and stuff, a true
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  Speaker 3: crime book called Writing with Evil. I wanted to write
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  Speaker 3: this book with Marvin when he was alive, but after
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  Speaker 3: he passed away, I was like, you know what, this
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  Speaker 3: guy's legacy has never really been secured. A lot of
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  Speaker 3: people think of Marvin Hagler, they think, oh, he lost
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  Speaker 3: to sugar Y Len and then disappeared. But to me,
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  Speaker 3: Marvin's story is this story, which is him escaping Newark
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  Speaker 3: as a little boy, fighting the corruption in the seventies
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  Speaker 3: and eighties in the box and they're winning this fight
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  Speaker 3: in London in nineteen eighty against a guy that was
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  Speaker 3: backed by a white power group and he was pelted
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  Speaker 3: with bottles after he won the fight. And that's what
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  Speaker 3: the story is about.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, at least it was telling me that in the
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  Speaker 1: Marvin story. I wasn't to realize this because we would
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  Speaker 1: have Marvin on the show a lot. You don't write
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  Speaker 1: out of Brockton. Yeah, world Chap. But he dealt with
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  Speaker 1: a lot of racism.
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  Speaker 3: He did in that fight specifically, And it was nineteen
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  Speaker 3: eighty and the guy he fought was a guy named
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  Speaker 3: Alan Minter, and he was from London and he was
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  Speaker 3: the great White Hope and there was a white power
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  Speaker 3: group that loved the guy. They backed him was called
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  Speaker 3: the National Front. Before the fight, Marvin and Alan had
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  Speaker 3: a press conference and Alan said at that press conference
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  Speaker 3: that no black man will ever take my title, no
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  Speaker 3: imagine saying that today, Oh, viral doesn't even describe it.
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  Speaker 3: There was no viral back then, but it stuck. It
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  Speaker 3: caused a wound, and Alan Miner paid for that comment.
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  Speaker 1: Now, Dave a little bit earlier on the show, I
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  Speaker 1: told Marvin Hagler story that I had from an old
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  Speaker 1: Kiss concert and I'm not sure you'll find it in
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  Speaker 1: the book though.
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  Speaker 2: When he was back, you missed that start. Yeah, he was.
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  Speaker 3: He was a man about town. You know a lot
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  Speaker 3: of people. The beautiful thing about this book is I'm
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  Speaker 3: out doing events all the time now and book signings,
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  Speaker 3: and it's wonderful to hear people like you come up from,
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  Speaker 3: you know, from people in their you know, forties and
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  Speaker 3: fifties at New Marvin sieties. Even they spent time with them.
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  Speaker 3: They hung out with him and went to his fights.
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  Speaker 3: And we call him the fifth Franchise in Brockton because
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  Speaker 3: he was as big as the Patriots.
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  Speaker 2: Red Sox back in the day.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I loved him in this region, justin you had
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  Speaker 1: your hand in there.
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  Speaker 2: Joe Rogan, you know, one of the biggest podcasters in
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  Speaker 2: the world, grew up in Boston.
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  Speaker 3: He was a big Marvin.
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  Speaker 4: Fan when I was a kid growing up in Boston.
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  Speaker 4: Hagler was the middleweight champion of the world and I
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  Speaker 4: used to see they used to have video of him running.
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  Speaker 4: They played it on the news. He was running on
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  Speaker 4: the There was the dunes, sand dunes and kate Cot
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  Speaker 4: in the winter, freezing cold with a hoodie on, running
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  Speaker 4: screaming war. It's amazing. Marvin Hagler made you want to
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  Speaker 4: just get out of your house and go running in
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  Speaker 4: the snow.
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  Speaker 3: He has the picture.
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  Speaker 1: In the snow.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know Rogan. Rogan loves Hagler because he knows
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  Speaker 3: great great it's when he says it, you know.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, And he was.
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  Speaker 3: The thing about Marvin again was you know, to me,
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  Speaker 3: he embodies the spirit of where I grew up. You know, Brockton,
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  Speaker 3: It's resilience, it's overcoming adversity. He wasn't an insider in
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  Speaker 3: the boxing game. He wasn't with Dawn King of Outside.
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  Speaker 3: And so were his trainers, the local trainers, and they
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  Speaker 3: fought against that very corrupt machine. And there's there's some
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  Speaker 3: great stuff in the book. I could talk about it
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  Speaker 3: all day, but suffice to say, Ted Kennedy and Tip
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  Speaker 3: O'Neil had to step in to help Marvin while his
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  Speaker 3: title shot. That's how corrupt it was.
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  Speaker 1: And the most ripped person I've ever seen in my life.
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  Speaker 1: And that's before all the crazy stuff that people are.
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  Speaker 2: You know, this is going to be another great movie.
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  Speaker 3: I think so, you know. And Sam Rockwell optioned the
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  Speaker 3: rights to it, as you said, and I've been working
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: with him and we've actually brought on Rosie Perez as
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: a and uh, Sam wants to play Goodie Petronelli and
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  Speaker 3: hit me great at it because Goody was such a
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: quirky yeah, you know, wearing headbands and yeah, see dressed
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  Speaker 3: up in the seventies, garb. You know, I'm so happy
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  Speaker 3: you guys have me in. I love the show. Fellow
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  Speaker 3: Milton night Lee, Billy, I love your work.
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  Speaker 1: Been following you for years, so thank you, thank you
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  Speaker 1: very much. And you could be one of the best
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  Speaker 1: dressed writers. I mean that with the greatest.
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  Speaker 2: Respect I got.
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  Speaker 3: Thank my wife for them.
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  Speaker 1: Who are you wearing? By the way, never mind forget
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  Speaker 1: I have