Jimmy Breslin has written a biography of Branch Rickey. Rickey was the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball club. He is the man who brought the first black ball player into the major leagues. That man was Jackie Robinson.
This is the story of how Rickey made that fateful decision to break what was then known as the color line in baseball. It was a decision that changed America forever.
Jimmy Breslin is now in his 80's. He's the most famous living New York City tabloid journailist. In this interview he talks about how he became involved with this writing project for the Penguin Lives biography series.
He also describes what it was like to have the serial killer David Berkowitz aka the Son of Sam, sending Breslin disturbing letters during that Son of Sam summer when Berkowitz was murdering young women in New York City. Berkowitz was "receiving" his instructions to kill from an imaginary dog.
