Rob Tillitz

THE SMUGGLE
Rob Tillitz, born November 21, 1952, brought enough Pakistani hashish into Willipa Bay to "eclipse the value of Pacific Counry's annual oyster output," reported The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, on March 15, 1994, in the article: Of deceit and hashish . PI Reporters Dick Clever and Paul Shukovsky chronicle the smuggle, and describe the relationship Tillitz had with famous Bay Area drug attorney Mike "Mad Dog" Metzger. Metzgar, who committed suicide amidst the hoopla of the Tillitz smuggle , was a hard-hitting New York DA turned dog-tough Federal drug lawyer. The 1971 Rolling Stone Issue #77 respected Mad Dog Metzger enough to include the bad-ass brawler within the same pages as Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney and Little Richard ("Michael Henry Metzger (dope attorney)" follows Little Richard in this issue #77 memorabilia advertisement) .
Rob Tillitz, salmon fisherman , smuggler , writer,
actor, inn keeper, began hooking trout on the banks of Pescadero Creek at age eight, then at 18 graduated to Commercial fishing out of Princeton-by-the-Sea, California. Smuggling hashish followed, and when indicted Rob fled to Mexico. He lived there for a number of years, but was eventually apprehended and extradited back to the United States. A conviction on multiple federal drug counts, a 30-year sentence , a miraculous appeal , all part of an interesting life, and an example of what men won’t do in order to continue a life on the ocean, a life as a commercial salmon fisherman.
Historian and blogger June Morrall, has posted many articles about Rob Tillitz in her Half Moon Bay, Pescadero, and Princeton by the Sea Memoriesblogs, reprinted several stories and book excerpts as well. Before June passed in January 2010, she did an in-depth interview with Rob Tillitz, narrowing questions to salmon fishing, fishing in general, and of course bootlegging and it's latter-day form, smuggling. Rob Tillitz's marijuana smuggling used the same cove, Bootlegger's Cove, that legendary Half Moon Bay and Pescadero (California) bootleggers used during the Roaring 20s.
The story is chronicled in Rob’s memoir, [http://www.amazon.com/Bootleggers-Cove-Rob-Tillitz/dp/1439224552/refsr_1_1?ieUTF8&sbooks&qid1264736566&sr=1-1/ Bootlegger’s Cove], which is soon to become a movie. Moviemaker/screenwriter, Ryan McKinneyworks now adapting the novel for film through his production company, ItFactorStudios.
Eyes Like Half Dollars is the murder-thriller (albeit fiction) sequel to Bootlegger's Cove. These books were written (by Rob Tillitz) in prison. Rob wrote the two novels in addition to 90 short stories while doing federal time. One of the 15 magazine stories Rob Tillitz published while inside is Lynn Martin, featured in the Palo Alto Review,a medium-circulation college magazine that selects only two short stories a year for publication.
The Movie
The movie script based on Rob Tillitz novel Bootlegger's Cove is in rewrites with screenwriter Ryan McKinney.
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