The Salad Oil King. Rip-off #13.
How to Always Win Yo-Yo Contests.

Alfonso “Fonso” Gravenese, AKA The Salad Oil King, loved to gamble….on sure things. Growing up, Yo-Yo contests were held daily in Little Italy. The entry fee was 5 cents per play.

Fonso knew his opponents were bigger and older, but he had a streak of larceny in his ice water veins. Minutes before the competition, he would apply olive oil to the yo-yo strings to make his yo-yo go faster, higher. Fonse “earned” so many nickels he eventually bought a shiny new Schwinn bike.

He was also smart enough to lose once in a while so that nobody could claim foul.

The Salad Oil King is the remarkable story—based on a true story—of how a streetwise, unscrupulous high school dropout eventually bilked the American government out of $13 billion before anyone even noticed. It is a classic American crime story of greed gone mad.

“A classic American crime story spun by a master storyteller.”
– San Francisco Book Review

“An intriguing book based on a true story that is both intimate and epic.”
– Manhattan Book Review

“Mesmerizing and enlightening. Great character development. Epic crime story. You’ll want to read it twice.”
– OnlineBookClub.org