Sandi’s adventurous spirit encouraged her to pursue alcohol which led to drugs and eventually a life in the fast lane: partying with Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison of The Doors, Tommy James and the Shondells, to name a few, a life many young women envied. She thought she had it made, days filled with drugs, staying high, and going from one party to the next. Smokin and Jokin is an adventure filled read with lots of love, passion, sex, violence, travel, crime, sadness, darkness, pain, and ultimate joy that keeps you on the edge of your seat wondering if Sandi will even survive.
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Excerpt from the Book:
Sandi Fatow, a high energy party gal, attractive and bubbly, danced through the ’60’s and into the ’70’s as if the party would never end. She wore miniskirts or chic, long flowing multi-colored dresses with arm bands, and hats with scarfs that Jimi Hendrix brought her from England. Silver rings flashed on her fingers, large hoop earrings dangled from her ears.
During this time America was experiencing great cultural upheaval. It was a time of rebellion fueled by drugs and racism, the Viet Nam War, college riots, draft card and American flag burnings, the Black Panthers, the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Violence and change swept across the nation.
Rock-n-roll music lyrics challenged the government and were laced with drug themes. While the Beatles sang Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Mick Jagger with the Rolling Stones sang Street Fightin’ Man. Jimi Hendrix sang Wild Thing, pioneered heavy metal and reshaped rock-n-roll when he lit his guitar on fire at the Monterey Pop Festival. Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Hendrix all put concerts into a new stratosphere, mesmerizing their audiences with psychedelic light shows, smoke and fire. Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco produced bands like Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead, and artists like Janis Joplin singing Cheap Thrills.
In the middle of all the violence, the Age of Aquarius birthed a new generation of hippies talking of peace and love. Bob Dylan, the prophi of rock, sang The Times They Are A-changing, warning about nuclear war. Jim Morrison and The Doors sang Light My Fire.
During all of this, the hippy lifestyle of Greenwich Village, and the Woodstock Festival, Sandi stayed high and partied in the inner circles of musicians and gangsters. She partied with Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and The Doors, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Tiny Tim, Tommy James and the Shondells, Pete Lucia, known for Crimson & Clover and Crystal Blue Persuasion, and many others. She just wanted to have fun.
Through the nightclub crowd in Miami she fell into relationships with flamboyant dangerous men, professional killers, drug smugglers and jewel thieves, who were connected to the underworld and involved in organized crime and major drug smuggling operations. Sandi was accepted in the inner circle of the crew because they knew that if the heat came down, she would keep her mouth shut. The crowd she hung with was considered responsible for bringing in over a million tons of marijuana per year and thousands of pounds of cocaine. Miami was hot and she lived on the edge of all this activity, but it never fully registered in her mind that these men were killers, smugglers, armed robbers. She just loved the excitement, the continuous parties, the nightlife, gambling, and meeting famous people.
She hung out on the strip, the 79th Street Causeway. The nightclubs, restaurants, and hangouts of the stars and gangsters stretched along this island chain in Biscayne Bay that linked Miami to Miami Beach. It was a swingers paradise. At ‘The Barn,’ Wayne Cochran and the C.C. Riders rock and rolled with famous soul stars like Otis Redding,
James Brown, Sammy Davis, Jr. and other recording celebrities who would frequently stop by to jam.
When underworld wise guys came to Miami to gamble and party, the Strip was their main meeting place. It was where Big Tony Esperti killed the mob enforcer, Tommy Altamora, in the Harbour Lounge. It was where Johnny Irish Matera and Dominic Bretti took off the Harbour Island Spa for $3 million in jewels and cash. It was where Murf the Surf was accused of robbing Eva Gabor at The Racquet Club. This is where the fast lane crew came to play, and Sandi Fatow moved to the midnight rhythm night after night, year in, year out.
The drama and intrigue of the underworld scene, sitting in on murder, robbery and drug trials, feeling like she lived in the middle of an espionage movie, all appealed to Sandi. She had no idea that one of the gangsters she dated for a while was a contract killer for the mob. When the guys told her she was ‘one tough chick,’ she felt like she belonged. One of her boyfriends ended up at the top of the F.B.I. “Ten Most Wanted” list, another died in the electric chair for killing two law enforcement officers, and a third was sentenced to life and 45 years for a gangland killing and smuggling.
Sandi just wanted to dance and party and hang out. But like many others, she got caught up in a lifestyle of drugs and alcohol, progressing from marijuana to barbiturates and amphetamines, to L.S.D., peyote, to cocaine, and finally to heroin. She looked for love in all the wrong places. What she got was a baby boy given up for adoption, an illegal abortion, the police and the F.B.I. knocking on her door, a heroin habit that couldn’t be satisfied, and a broken heart. From the United States Marine
Corps, to the Jimi Hendrix Experience, to the Miami underworld of gangsters and smugglers, to a Harlem junkie…It wasn’t supposed to happen that way. But it did. This is Sandi Fatow’s incredible story.