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The road bisected two fenced-off pastures. Clouds covered the moon-visibility was close to nil.

Littell pulled over and stuffed his money in a grocery bag. It was 10:06-Ruby was late.

Littell turned off his headlights. Clouds skittered by. The moon lit up a huge shape walking toward the car.

The windshield exploded. The dashboard fell on his lap. A steel bar cracked the steering wheel and ripped the gearshift out.

Hands jerked him across the hood. Glass ripped through his cheeks and lodged in his mouth.

Hands dumped him in a ditch.

Hands picked him up and pinioned him against a barbed-wire fence.

He was dangling. Steel barbs pierced his clothes and held him upright.

The monster ripped his holster off. The monster hit him and hit him and hit him.

The fence shook. Twisty metal gouged his backside down to the bone. He coughed up blood and chunks of glass and a big piece of a Chevy hood ornament.

He smelled gasoline. His car exploded. A heat blast singed his hair.

The fence collapsed. He looked up and saw clouds ignite.

DOCUMENT INSERT: 5/19/60. FBI Memorandum: Milwaukee Special Agent-in-Charge John Campion to Director J. Edgar Hoover.

Sir:

Our investigation into the near-fatal assault on SA Ward Littell is proceeding but making scant headway, primarily due to SA Littell’s poor attitude and lack of cooperation.

Agents from both the Milwaukee and Chicago Offices canvassed Lake Geneva for eyewitnesses to the assault and for witnesses to Littell’s general presence In the area and were unable to locate any. Chicago SAC Leahy informed me that Littell was under loose su.rvefflance for matters pertaining to internal Bureau security and that on two recent occasions (May 10th and May 14th) the agents mobile-tailing Littell lost him on roadways leading north to the Wisconsin border. The nature of Littell’s business in the Lake Geneva area is thus far unknown.

Per investigatory specifics:

1)-The assault occurred on a rural access road four miles southeast of Lake Geneva. 2)-Brush marks in the dirt near the remains of Littell’s car indicate that the assailant obliterated all traces of his tire tracks, rendering forensic casting impossible. 3)-Littell’s car was burned with a highly-flammable nitrous gas compound of the type used in the manufacture of military explosives. Such compounds burn themselves out very quickly and are used because they minimize the risk of decimating the area surrounding the target. The assailant obviously has military experience and/or access to military ordnance. 4)-Forensic analysis revealed the presence of charred U.S. currency laced with paper bag fragments. The aggregate weight of the fragments indicates that Littell was carrying a large amount of money in a grocery sack. 5)-Farmers rescued Littell, who was pinned to a downed section of barbed-wire fence. He was taken to Overlander Hospital near Lake Geneva and treated for a massive series of posterior cuts and lacerations, broken ribs, contusions, a broken nose, broken collarbone, internal hemorrhaging and facial gouges caused by contact with windshield glass. Littell checked out against medical advice fourteen hours later and engaged a taxi cab to drive him to Chicago. Chicago Office agents assigned to loose-tail Litteil saw him entering his apartment building. He collapsed in the entry hail, and the agents interceded on their own authority and drove him to Saint Catherine’s Hospital. 6)-Littell remains at the hospital. He is listed in “good condition” and will most likely be released within a week. A supervising physician told agents that the scarring on his face and backside will be permanent and that he should slowly recover from his other injuries. 7)-Agents have repeatedly queried Littell on three topics: his presence in Lake Geneva, the presence of the burned money and enemies who might want to hurt him. Litteil stated that he was in Lake Geneva scouting retirement property and denied the presence of the money. He said that he had no enemies and considered the assault a case of mistaken identity. When asked about CPUSA members who might be seeking vengeance on him for his Bureau Red Squad work, Litteil replied, “Are you kidding? Those Commies are all nice guys.” 8)-Agents have surmised that Litteil has made at least two trips to Lake Geneva. His name has not appeared on any hotel or motel ledgers, so we are assuming he either registered under assumed names or stayed with friends or acquaintances. Littell’s response-that he took catnaps in his oar-was not convincing.

The investigation continues. I respectfully await orders.

John Campion

Special Agent-in-Charge, Milwaukee Office

DOCUMENT INSERT: 6/3/60. FBI Memorandum: Chicago SAC Charles Leahy to Director J. Edgar Hoover.

Sir,

Per SA Ward J. Littell, please be informed.

SA Littell is now back on light duty and has been assigned to review Federal deportation briefs in conjunction with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, work which utilizes the writ-analysis expertise he developed in law school. He refuses to discuss the assault with other agents, and as SAC Campion may have told you, we have yet to find witnesses to his Lake Geneva visits. Helen Agee told agents that Littell has not discussed the assault with her. I personally questioned BA Court Meade, Littell’s only friend in the Chicago Office, and have the following to report.

A)-Meade states that in late 1958 and early 1959, following his expulsion from the Top Hoodlum Program, Littell “loitered” near the TEP listening post and expressed interest in the squad’s work. That interest dissipated, Meade stated, and he further surmised that it is extremely unlikely that Littell engaged in anti-Mob actions on his own. Meade scoffed at the notion that the Chicago Mob was responsible for the assault or that left-wingers surveffied by Littell were seeking vengeance for his Red Squad efforts. Meade thinks that Littell’s “marked bent” for young women, as evinced by his continuing affair with Helen Agee, was the motive for the assault. Meade colorfully stated, “Go back up to Wisconsin and look for some idealistically-inclined girl with nasty brothers who didn’t take kindly to sis consorting with a forty-seven-year-old boozehound, G-man or no G-man.” I find this theory plausible.

B)-Littell’s Bureau arrest record going back to 1950 was checked with an eye toward uncovering recently paroled felons perhaps inclined toward vengeance. A list of twelve men was compiled, and all twelve were alibi-cleared. I recalled Litteil’s 1952 arrest of one Pierre “Pete” Bondurant, and how the man taunted Littell during detainment procedures. Agents checked Bondurant’s whereabouts during the assault time frame and confirmed that he was in Florida.

The pro-Communist profile of Littell continues to develop. Litteli remains a confirmed friend of long-term subversive Mal Chamales and phone tap logs now pinpoint a total of nine Littell/Chamales telephone conversations, all of which contain lengthy expressions of Littell’s sympathy for left-wing causes and expressions of his disdain for FBI “witch hunting.” On May 10th I called Littell and ordered him to implement immediate lockstep surveillance on Mal Chamales. Five minutes later Litteil called Chamales and warned him. Chamales addressed a Socialist Labor Party meeting that afternoon. Littell and a trusted Bureau informant attended, unknown to each other. The informant presented me with a verbatim transcript of Chamales’ seditious, virulently anti-Bureau, antiHoover remarks. Littell’s May 10th report on the meeting called these remarks noninflammatory. The report was filled with numerous other outright lies and distortions of a treasonous nature.

Sir, I believe it is now time to confront Littell on both his lack of cooperation in the assault matter and more pertinently on his recent seditious actions. Will you please respond? I think this demands immediate action.

Respectfully,

Charles Leahy

DOCUMENT INSERT: 6/11/60. FBI Memorandum: Director J. Edgar Hoover to Chicago SAC Charles Leahy.

Mr. Leahy,

Per Ward Littell: do nothing yet. Put Littell back on CPUSA surveillance duties, relax the surveillance on him and keep me informed of the assault investigation.