Hooligans

WILLIAM DIEHL

HOOLIGANS

BALLANTINE BOOKS • NEW YORK

Copyright © 1984 by Hooligans, Inc.

All rights reserved under International and Pan—American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, a division of

Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 83-50862

ISBN Q-345-31201-5

This edition published by arrangement with Villard Books

Manufactured in the United States of America

First Ballantine Books Edition: May 1985

Map by David Lindroth

This book is dedicated to Virginia, who is the love of my life;

To Michael Parver, for his support and friendship through the tough times,

and for Stick;

And to my father, the most gentle and loving man I have ever known, who died before it was completed.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My thanks and gratitude to my family and friends for their constant encouragement and support: to my mother,

Temple, Cathy, John and Kate, Bill, Melissa arid David, Stan arid Yvonne, Bobby Byrd, Carole Jackowitz,

Marilyn Parver, Michael Rothschild, Billy Wallace, Frank Mazolla, the Harrisons of Lookout Mountain, Mark

Vaughn, Barbara Thomas, jack and Jim.

To a true and trusting friend, Don Smith, whose wit and wisdom always help.

To my good friend, C.H. “Buddy” Harris, of the Treasury Department, for his selfless assistance and attention to

detail, and to his wife, Joan, and daughter, Robin.

To Director Charles F. Rinkevich, Deputy Director David McKinley, Kent Williams, Charles E. Nester, Morris

Grodsky, and the other officers of the Treasury Department‟s Federal Law Enforcement Training Center,

Brunswick, Ga., for their invaluable technical assistance.

To George Gentry and the many other men who served in Vietnam and shared their experiences and feelings

with me.

To George, Bill, Bear, B.L., Nancy aid Slavko, Sandy, Jim, Frankie and Jingle, Larry, Averett, Ted, Mike, Kurt,

Richard, Ruth, Dayton, and all my friends and associates of the late, great Higdon‟s on St. Simons Island, Ga.,

for sharing their names, friendship, time, and experiences with me.

To my editor, Peter Gethers, a man of awesome insights, and to Susan and Audrey, and the rest of his sterling

staff.

To Marc Jaffe, for his continued faith.

To Irene Webb, my favorite wonder woman.

And to a treasured and lasting friend, Owen Laster, at once and always, a gentleman of the realm.

SPECIAL OPERATIONS BRANCH

The fish trusts the water, And it is in the water that it is cooked.

_HAITIAN PROVERB

PREFACE