<DIV><DIV>The names of infamous crooks such as the Richardsons, Frankie Frazer, and the Krays are synonomous with the London gangland scene of the 1950s and 1960s. One man who stayed under the radar during that time, however, was "Scouse" Norman Johnson, whose fearless approach to any problem that came his way earned him the respect of his criminal contemporaries. In his action-packed autobiography, Johnson documents the many strange twists and turns that his life has taken, including his foray into London Gangland folklore after spending his formative years in Liverpool; his acceptance into the fold of one of the New York Mafia crime families in the 1970s; and his intense affair with an Omani princess in the early 1980s, possibly the only time that the heavily protected sanctuary of a Middle Eastern Royal has been infiltrated by a Westerner. Arguably the most unique gangster book ever written, <I>Black Eyes and Blue Blood</I> combines the violence and humor of the true-crime genre with an exotic romantic twist. It also offers a fascinating insight into the crime underworld on both sides of the Atlantic and beyond over the four decades that Johnson ducked and dived, along the way mixing with some of the world's best-known gangsters, sportsmen, and showbiz personalities, including Henry Cooper, Jake LaMotta, Frank Sinatra, and Burt Lancaster.</DIV></DIV>