Eric Fleming was born Edward Heddy Jr. on July 4th 1925 in Santa Paula, California, an area renowned for its oil refineries. His father, an oil worker, mercilessly beat his only child, so severely on one occasion that he was unable to get up for two days. In 1934 aged eight, Eric held a revolver to his sleeping father's head, in an attempt to kill him. The revolver misfired, and Eric ran away from home. He made his way to Chicago, where he lived rough, begging for food and running errands for gangsters. He committed petty thefts and delivered liquor...