Resurrecting the legend of John 'Blackjack' Jerome

How many stories have we heard of human legends? People who did so many different things in life, who gained glory and money, but whose traces were lost with time, at least until the right "excavator" came along? John "Blackjack" Jerome is one such filmic figure, an immigrant from the dirt-poor village of Harakas in the Peloponnese who struck out for the United States in the early 1900s. Today, poet, songwriter and researcher Fontas Ladis is ready to reintroduce him to the public, following a decade of research for a book on the legendary figure.

Sixteen-year-old Yiannis Petrolekas reached San Francisco with a group of fellow countrymen in 1905. His first few years were typical of a Greek immigrant to the US: odd jobs, endless hours scrubbing pots and pans at restaurants, and learning English on the job. Unlike so many others, he did not stop there. After getting a job with a...