Reno’s homeboy, and equal opportunity annoyance to government, Jack Cafferty has written his first book, It’s Getting Ugly Out There: The Frauds, Bunglers, Liars, and Losers Who Are Hurting America.

Tom Cafferty had come to Reno in the 1930s. At 6′ 2′, 175 pounds, Tom started out in Reno racking chips around the roulette wheel at the Palace Club. He left, got married, had two sons and returned to Reno in about 1950.

Tom Cafferty soon had his own hugely popular four-hour show at Reno’s KOH radio that reached all of northwestern Nevada and parts of Eastern California. He acquired a ranch south of Reno, a convertible, and sparkly custom made Western suits by the Hollywood tailor Nudie. The crankier he got the more people loved him, a formula his son later employed. Tom Cafferty was “off-the-cuff, a cracker-barrel muse, philosopher, and gadfly with a fierce temper,” his son later described him in his first book, It’s Getting Ugly Out There. Jack was raised Catholic and grew up in the Eisenhower 1950’s in Reno, Nevada where he learned the code of the west; a person was in charge of taking care of themselves.

In Jack’s senior year at Reno High School, he got a part-time job at Reno’s radio station KBET. He was later promoted to DJ for a new nighttime radio show. Upon graduation from Reno High School, Jack enrolled at University of Nevada, Reno and then started at KOLO TV as Ranger Jack. The draft then called up Jack, and he enlisted in the Nevada Air National Guard

In 1963, Jack was at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas for 12 weeks of boot camp for six years with the Air National Guard. Upon returning home to Reno, Jack worked at KCRL-TV, anchoring newscast and directing. Jack emceed the annual Miss Reno Pageant that his Reno High School classmate, Judy Walker, had entered. Judy worked at the Reno Press Club in the Riverside Hotel. They married, and two children, Julie, then Jill, later were born

In 1968, Jack, Judy and their two daughters were pulled out of Reno by the United States Air Force’s orders for active duty when the North Koreans captured the USS Pueblo. Jack wrote for the then Reno Evening Gazette.

Jack Cafferty grew up to be Lutheran and have his daily “Cafferty File” which was a segment on CNN’s The Situation Room. There, Reno’s homeboy equal opportunity enemy combatant came into his own pushing people’s buttons, and sticking pins into things that needed pricking. As Jack wrote, “I don’t need a bumper sticker to let fellow citizens