American Desperado (36 page)

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Betty Collins is a pseudonym for Jon’s friend, who at the time he met her was a featured nude model in a popular gentlemen’s magazine.

Before Jon was a cocaine cowboy, his mother took this photo (1956) when he was a child obsessed with conventional cowboys. Jon later changed his name to Jon Pernell Roberts after Pernell Roberts, star of Bonanza.
JON ROBERTS

Jon’s mother, Edie, was cursed with a beauty that seemed to attract only bad men. JON ROBERTS

Jon (third from left) at a 1973 wedding in New York. It was his last wiseguy party before he fled to Miami. PETER GALLIONE

Jon with his common-law wife, Phyllis LaTorre Corso, whose colorful family background made her the perfect mate—and a formidable enemy.
JON ROBERTS

Albert San Pedro saw himself as a Cuban Al Capone. He was one of Jon’s earliest Miami coke connections and allegedly helped Jon plan the murder of Meyer Lansky’s stepson in 1977.
LOURDES VALDEZ

Max Mermelstein was the top American in the Medellín Cartel when Jon became his partner. Max’s deal to supply car magnate John DeLorean with cocaine proved to be his undoing. JON ROBERTS

Rafa Cardona-Salazar was Pablo Escobar’s top lieutenant, famous for his coke-fueled rages and who worked with Jon in Miami. JON ROBERTS

Mickey Munday, Jon’s smuggling partner, was a technical wizard who didn’t swear or take drugs. JON ROBERTS

Rafa Cardona-Salazar, Mickey Munday, Rafa’s wife, Odelia, a bodyguard named El Negro, and Max Mermelstein clowning around as old-fashioned gangsters at a county fair photo booth. SHARK BLUE

Fabito Ochoa, whose father ran the Medellín Cartel, recruited Jon to serve as the Cartel’s “American representative.” JON ROBERTS

Don Ochoa, the Godfather of the Medellín Cartel, would entertain Jon in Colombia by showing off his skills as a Paso Fino rider.
JON ROBERTS

Jon called Henry Borelli his brother-in-law even after Borelli tried murdering him in 1979. Borelli is in prison for his role in the “Murder Machine” gang. SHARK BLUE