Big Willie was Larger Than Life

This is the Statt Mann Baby. Time to Scatt a little bit.

Between workouts, walks and bike rides I’ve become a pretty good consumer of podcasts.

The Los Angeles Times, in fact, did a great series called Dirty John. I understand it’s even becoming a television show. Now the LA Times Studios have a series made for The Freak Nation. It’s called Larger Than Life and that’s the only way to describe Big Willie Robinson, the founder and president of the Los Angeles County Street Racers.

Long before TV’s Street Outlaws in the 405, there were street racers ON the 405 in Southern California.

I discovered Big Willie one night in 1968, standing in a pickup bed screaming to the assembled throng in a shopping center at Crenshaw and Slauson at 3 AM. If a large muscled black man in a black derby hat screaming at that time in the morning with the LAPD watching and doing nothing didn’t get your attention you needed to move along and wake up later.

The Larger Than Life podcast describes how Big Willie saved LA streets from illegal racing and rioting at a time when everyone wanted nothing more.

It’s a Larger than Life story about a Larger Than Life man at a time when LA streets were making Larger Than Life headlines. Listen and learn.

Peace.