Photo Courtesy of MSNBC

The Beginning of Jesse James Hollywood

It seemed like a movie….the beautiful beach, the surf, the wind. He raised his head for a moment, smelling the air, feeling the sand. South America had definitely put the sands of California to shame. Beautiful women, exotic food, rich drinks. He certainly had a taste for those. A young man who had acquired a great deal of money early in life, anyone passing by might have thought he was an American tourist, enjoying life away in another country. But he was far from that, and as he slid the hood of his sweatshirt over his head, touching his sunglasses, he knew he had probably seen the last of California and everything in his home in the United States.

His parents had named him Jesse James. It was noted later that anyone naming their child after a Western outlaw known for murder and theft might be asking for trouble, practically begging for it. Not so, the parents have said, he was named after an uncle. The last name Hollywood he came by as a birthright, the name his father used made him sound like a like a movie star: Jesse James Hollywood was born into the world with a big name to live up to. Everything started off fairly normal for Jesse. His parents, John [Jack] and Laurie gave him a good start. Good education, Little League baseball, where his father Jack was the coach on their team and where he first met Ben Markowitz. The two became fast friends and in their upper class suburban neighborhood, it was common to have barbeques, all the kids in the swimming pool, and eating watermelon on the curb after a hot day of or riding their bikes everywhere. They had no idea that years later at least three of them would be doing time, and one would have his brother murdered over drug dealings they had together.

Living the American dream in sunny California, Jesse and Ben grew up together. At one point, the Hollywood family moved to Colorado to try and open a restaurant but it was not a success, and back to California it was. Jesse was happy to be home and he and Ben were playing baseball on the same varsity team at El Camino Real High School. Working out sometimes twice a day, taking muscle enhancing supplements and lifting weights regularly made Jesse a formidable presence, even though he stood only 5’5 and weighed 140 pounds of solid muscle. Ben and Jesse worked out at the same gym together for a while but at just about the same time Jesse’s academic career came  to an end for exploding violently at a teacher, Ben’s did as well, after he hit a girl for throwing a milk carton at him. Both were expelled.