Prohibition. Mobsters, murder, and mayhem. FBI agents. Cops, robbers, and worse. Sound like the background for a Hollywood epic? It’s Ernest Marquez’s latest very true story of the renowned gambling ships that anchored in Santa Monica Bay in the 1920s and 1930s. It’s the story of Tony Cornero, the cockiest gangster who ever bootlegged a bottle of scotch, the man who helped found Las Vegas, and the smooth operator of the most glamorous gambling ship in the Pacific, the Rex. Cornero’s story is filled with every tantalizing tidbit of the era. The law’s conquest of Cornero and the gambling ships helped to jump-start the career of Earl Warren from California attorney general to governor to Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Glitz, gangsters, and under-the-table politics -- it’s all here in the book that represents thirty years of research by best-selling Southern California author Ernest Marquez, whose unparalleled collection of images and memorabilia is showcased in Noir Afloat. Ernest Marquez was born and grew up in Santa Monica Canyon on what remains of Rancho Boca de Santa Monica, the Mexican land grant awarded to his great-grandfathers in 1839. His research for Noir Afloat was an extension of his groundbreaking work for his bestselling book, Santa Monica Beach. While exhaustively researching primary sources, he began collecting original photographs, stereoviews and memorabilia, which have since become respected as the Ernest Marquez Collection. Tony Cornero's story is filled with every tantalizing tidbit of the mid-twentieth century era. The law's conquest of Cornero and the gambling ships helped to jump-start the career of Earl Warren from California attorney general to governor to Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Glitz, gangsters, and under-the-table politics -- it's all here in the book that represents thirty years of research by best-selling Southern California author Ernest Marquez, whose unparalleled collection of images and memorabilia is showcased in Noir Afloat. Ernest Marquez grew up in Santa Monica Canyon on what remained of Rancho Boca de Santa Monica, the Mexican land grant given to his great-grandfathers in 1839. He graduated from Santa Monica High School in 1942, served in the United States Navy during World War II, and eventually became a successful freelance cartoonist in New York during the 1950s. When he returned to California as a commercial artist in the aerospace industry, he grew concerned about the many inaccurate and conflicting stories of his family’s role in early California history. Thus began his study of primary sources rather than published accounts of his family’s involvement in early California, which began in 1771 when his great-great grandfather Francisco Reyes came to California as a Spanish soldier, serving in the Monterey Garrison with Father Junipero Serra. In addition to exhaustively researching written records, Ernest Marquez began collecting original photographs and stereoviews which have since become respected as the Ernest Marquez Collection. He and his children continue to protect and preserve the Pascual Marquez Family Cemetery in Santa Monica Canyon, where family members were buried from 1848 to 1916. It is now registered as a cultural-historic landmark. Ernest Marquez resides in the San Fernando Valley, separated from his birthplace only by the magnificent Santa Monica Mountains.