The year was 1962, and Joe Biden, a swimming pool security guard in his early 20s, had a problem. A tough guy by the name of CornPop, leader of a Delaware gang called “the Romans”, was waiting for him outside the pool. In Biden’s telling, CornPop was a “bad dude” who “ran a bunch of bad boys”, was armed with a straight-razor and backed by other gang members. And he was threatening to “cut” the future vice-president.