Sammy Davis, Jr. lived a storied life. Adored by millions over a six-decade career, he was considered an entertainment icon and a national treasure. But despite lifetime earnings that topped $50 million, Sammy died in 1990 near bankruptcy. His estate was declared insolvent, and his home and possessions were later sold at auction. Because of the debt, particularly more than $7 million owed to the IRS, there was no possibility ever using Sammy's name or likeness again. It was as if Sammy never existed. Years later his widow Altovise lived on the grounds of the Hillside Inn in Pennsylvania- the oldest black-owned resort in the nation.This once vivacious woman and heir to one of the greatest entertainment legacies of the 20th Century lived in poverty and was abandoned by Hollywood. With nowhere else to go, she turned to the Hillside's co-owner and a former federal prosecutor, Albert "Sonny" Murray, to make one last attempt to resolve Sammy's debts and clear his name. For seven years Sonny probed Sammy's life, digging deeper and deeper to understand how someone of great notoriety, wealth and celebrity could have lost everything. What he eventually discovered shook him to the core.
Matt Birkbeck is an award-winning investigative journalist who has written for the New York Times, Reader's Digest, Rolling Stone, People Magazine, Boston Magazine, and the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Birkbeck's latest book is the critically acclaimed Deconstructing Sammy: Music, Money, Madness, and the Mob (Amistad), which tells the riveting story of Sammy Davis Jr. and the efforts to resolve his millions in debts and restore his legacy following his death in 1990. The New York Times Book Review called Deconstructing Sammy "Gripping" and "Sensational," and the Los Angeles Times called it "Epic."
Birkbeck also authored A Beautiful Child (Berkley/Putnam 2004), the international best seller which tells the remarkable, tragic story of Sharon Marshall, a brilliant young woman who was kidnapped as a toddler by Franklin Delano Floyd, a convicted felon, fugitive, and pedophile who raised her as his daughter while traveling the country using stolen identities. Birkbeck spent six hours in a Florida prison in 2003 interviewing Floyd, who had just been sentenced to death for torturing and murdering a Tampa woman.
Birkbeck also authored A Deadley Secret (Berkley/Putnam 2002), which explores the investigation into Robert Durst, the heir to a New York real estate fortune accused of killing his wife and two others. Birkbeck is also the coauthor of Till Death Do Us Part (Atria/Simon & Schuster) in 2006 with Dr. Robi Ludwig, a noted psychologist who appears regularly on The Today Show and Larry King Live.
