American Tabloid - American Tabloid Part 48
Library

American Tabloid Part 48

Carlos Marcello carried one. Sam Gi carried one. Santo Junior handed out dozens to friends and associates.

The Beast craved blood. The Beast craved Castro's beard on a stick.

Training cycles pushed through Blessington. The invasion plan mandated new ordnance. Dougie Frank Lockhart purchased surplus landing craft and "invaded" Alabama once per cycle.

The Gulf Coast simulated Cuba. Trainees hit the beach and scared the shit out of sunbathers.

Dougie Frank trained troops full-time. Pete trained troops parttime. Chuck, Fulo and Wilfredo Delsol ran the cabstand.

Pete led speedboat runs into Cuba. Everybody went along-- except Delsol.

The Obregon kill snipped part of his balls. Pete didn't judge him--losing blood kin in a flash was no picnic.

Everybody sold dope.

The Cadre supplied spook junkies exclusively. The Miami PD implicitly approved. Narco Squad payouts served as disapproval insurance.

A redneck gang tried to crash their turf late in August. One geek shot and killed a Dade County deputy.

Pete found the guy--holed up with seventy grand and a case of Wild Turkey. He took him out with Fulo's machete and donated the cash to the deputy's widow. - Profits zoomed. The % system worked slick as shit--fat stipends went to Blessington and Guy Banister. Lenny Sands ran the Hush-Hush Hush-Hush propaganda war. Purple prose bopped the Beard every week. propaganda war. Purple prose bopped the Beard every week.

Dracula called weekly. He spouted broken-record bullshit: I want to buy up Las Vegas and render it germ-free! Drac was half lucid and half nuts--and only really cagey where coin was concerned. - Boyd called bi-weekly. Boyd was Bad-Back Jack's security boss and head pimp.

Mr. Hoover kept chasing him with phone calls. Kemper kept avoiding them. Hoover wanted him to slip Jack some hot-wired pussy.

Boyd called it a sprint: Avoid The Man until Jack becomes The Man.

Hoover hot-wired Boyd's L.A. hotel suite. Kemper shot him some spicy misinformation: Jack the K is banging Marilyn Monroe!

Hoover bought the lie. An L.A. agent told Boyd that Monroe was now under intense surveillance: bug/taps and six full-time men.

Said agents were baffled. Jack the Haircut and MM have not been in contact.

Pete laughed himself silly. Dracula confirmed the rumor: Marilyn and Jack were one hot item!!!!

Boyd said he skin-searched all Jack's girls.

Boyd said Kennedy and Nixon were running neck-and-neck.

Pete didn't say, I've I've got dirt. I can SELL it to Jimmy Hoffa; I can GIVE it to you to smear Nixon with. got dirt. I can SELL it to Jimmy Hoffa; I can GIVE it to you to smear Nixon with.

Jimmy's a colleague. Boyd's a partner. Who's more proCause--Jack or Nixon?

Tricky Dick was hotly anti-Beard. Jack was vocal but still short of rabid.

John Stanton called Nixon "Mr. Invasion." Kemper said Jack would green-light all invasion plans.

Boyd's key campaign issue was COMPARTMENTALIZATION.

Ike and Dick knew the Agency and the Mob were Cuba-linked. The Kennedys didn't know--and might or might not be told if Jack bags the White House.

Who decides whether to spill?--Kemper Cathcart Boyd himself. The deciding factor: moralist Bobby's perceived influence on Big Brother.

Bobby could scut all Mob/CIA ties. Bobby could scut the Boyd/Bondurant casino incentive deal.

Jack or Dick--one very tough call.

The smart bet: Don't smear seasoned Red-baiter Nixon. Not so smart, but sexy: Smear him and put Jack in the White House.

Vote Boyd. Vote the Beast. Vote Fidel Castro's beard on a stick.

DOCUMENT INSERT: 10/13/60. FBI memorandum: Chicago SAC Charles Leahy to Director J. Edgar Hoover. Marked: CONFIDENTIAL/DIRECTOR'S EYES ONLY CONFIDENTIAL/DIRECTOR'S EYES ONLY.

Sir,The pro-Communist derogatory profile on SA Ward J. Littell is now complete. This memo supplants all previous confidential reports pertaining to Littell, with Itemized evidence documents to follow under separate cover.

To brlefly update you on recent developments: 1 .--Claire Boyd (daughter of SA Kemper C. Boyd and longtime Littell family frlend) was contacted and agreed not to tell her father of the interview. Miss Boyd stated that last Christmas SA Littell made obscenely disparaging anti-Bureau, anti-Hoover remarks and praised the American Communist Party.

2.--There are no leads in the Littell assault investigation. We still do not know what Littell was doing in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

3.--SA Littell's mistress, Helen Agee, was spot-surveffled for a two-week period last month. Several of Miss Agee's University of Chicago Law School professors were quizzed about her political statements. We now have four confirmed reports that Miss Agee has also been publicly critical of the Bureau. One professor (Chicago Office informant #179) stated that Miss Agee railed against the FBI for their failure to solve a "simple assault case up in Wisconsin" and went on to call the Bureau "the American Gestapo that got my father killed and turned my lover into a cripple." (A U of C dean is going to recommend that Miss Agee's graduate school grant funding be rescinded under provisions of a student loyalty statement that all law school enrollees sign.) In conclusion: I think it is now time to approach SA Littell. I await further orders.Respectfully, Charles Leahy Chicago SAC DOCUMENT INSERT: 10/15/60. FBI memorandum: Director J. Edgar Hoover to SAC Charles Leahy.

Mr. Leahy,No approach on SA Littell until I so direct.JEH

51

(Chicago, 10/16/60)

H His hangover was brutal. Bad dreams left him schizy--every man in the diner looked like a cop.

Littell stirred his coffee. His hands shook. Mal Chamales toyed with a sweet roll and shook almost as hard.

"Mal, you're leading up to something."

"I'm in no position to be asking favors."

"If it's an official FBI favor, you should know that I retire exactly three months from today."

Mal laughed. "Like I said, the Party always needs lawyers."

"I'd have to pass the Illinois Bar first. It's either that or move to D.C. and practice Federal law."

"You're not much of a leftist sympathizer."

"Or a Bureau apologist. Mal--"

"I'm up for a teaching job. The word's out that the State Board of Ed's breaking the blacklist. I want to cover my bets, and I was thinking you could edit your reports to show that I quit the Party."

The tall man at the counter looked familiar. The man loitering outside did, too.

"Ward..."

"Sure, Mal. I'll write it up in my next report. I'll say you quit the Party to take a job with the Nixon campaign."

Mal dashed some tears back. Mal almost dumped the table trying to hug him.

Littell said, "Get out of here. I don't like embracing Commies in public."The diner faced his apartment building. Littell hogged a window seat and killed time polling bumper stickers.

Two Nixon cars were parked at the curb. He saw a NixonLodge decal on his landlord's windshield.

Traffic whizzed by. Littell caught glimpses: six Nixons and three Kennedys.

The waitress topped off his coffee. He added two shots from his flask.

Instant straw poll results: Nixon sweeps Chicago!

Sunlight hit the window. Wonderful distortions hit him: his new face and his jagged new hairline.

Helen ran up the steps outside his apartment. She looked harried--no makeup, no overcoat, mismatched skirt and blouse.

She saw his car. She looked across the street and saw him in the window.

She ran over. Notebook paper flew out of her handbag.

Littell walked to the door. Helen shoved shoved it open two-handed. it open two-handed.

He tried to grab her. She pulled his gun out of his holster and hit him with it.

She hit him in the chest. She hit him in the arms. She tried to pull the trigger with the safety on. She hit him with flailing girl punches--too fast to stop.

Eyeliner ran down her cheeks. Her handbag capsized and spilled books. She shouted odd words: "grant fund rescinding" and "loyalty oath" and "FBI" and "YOU YOU YOU."

Heads bobbed their way. Two men at the counter pulled their guns.

Helen stopped hitting him. Helen said, "Goddamnit, this is YOU, I know it is."He drove to the office. He boxed in Leahy's car and ran up to the squadroom.

Leahy's door was shut. Court Meade saw him and turned away.

Two men walked by in shirtsleeves and shoulder holsters. Littell remembered them: the phone guys rigging lines outside his apartment.

Leahy's door swung open. A man stuck his head out. Littell remembered him: that guy at the post office yesterday.

The door closed. Voices seeped through it: "Littell," "the Agee girl."

He kicked the door off its hinges. He framed the scene a la Mal Chamales. - Four gray-flannel fascists in conference. Four parasitic, exploitative, right-wing-- Littell said, "Remember what I know. Remember how I can hurt the Bureau."He bought wire cutters, safety goggles, magnetic shielding strips, a glass cutter, rubber gloves, a 10-gauge shotgun, a hundred rounds of double-aught buckshot, a box of industrial dynamite, three hundred yards of acoustical baffling, a hammer, nails and two large duffel bags.

He stored his car in a service garage.

He rented a '57 Ford Victoria--with fake Cointelpro ID.

He bought three quarts of scotch--just enough to wean himself thy.

He drove south to Sioux City, Iowa.

He turned in his rental car and caught a train north to Milwaukee.

DOCUMENT INSERT: 10/17/60. Confidential memorandum: John Stanton to Kemper Boyd.

Kemper,I got a disquieting phone call from Guy Banister, so I thought I'd pass the information along to you. You're hard to reach these days, so I hope this gets to you within a reasonable length of time.

Guy's friends with the Miami SAC, who's tight with the CO of the Miami PD Intelligence Squad. The Squad keeps suspected pro-Castro Cubans under loose surveillance, with routine license plate checks on all the male Latins they are spotted with. Our man Wilfredo Olmos Delsol was seen on two occasions with Gaspar Ramon Blanco Gaspar Ramon Blanco, age 37, a known pro-Communist member of the Committee for Cuban Understanding Committee for Cuban Understanding, a Raul Castrofinanced propaganda front. This troubles me, chiefly because of PB's set-to with Delsol's cousin Tomas Obregon. Have PB check this out, would you? Our compartmentalization procedures preclude my contacting him directly.All best, John

52

(Miami, 10/20/60)

T The pilot announced a late arrival. Kemper checked his watch-- Pete's allotted time just evaporated.

Pete caught up with him in Omaha this morning. He said, I've got something for you--something you'll want to see see.

He promised that the stopover would take no more than twenty minutes. He said, I'll put you on the next plane back to Jack.

Miami twinkled below. He had crucial work in Omaha-- postponed by this six-hour detour.

The race was too close to call. Nixon might might have a slight edge--with eighteen days left to go. have a slight edge--with eighteen days left to go.

He called Laura from the departure lounge. She lit into his Kennedy ties. Claire kept saying that Laura ached for a Nixon victory.